2010 - 40 Books.

According to my accounting, although there are still a few days left in the year, in which I might finish up a book or two, to date I have read 40 books this year.  That is both good, very few people read that many, and actually not that many at all.  I try to shoot for more like one a week, although it has been several years since I got there.  Here is the list:

They are from every genre, every style, from a quick mystery read, to serious non-fiction.  I also have three books still in progress, probably only one of which will be finished this year.  What can I say about these books....

Only a few would I actively push into someone else's hands. 

  

I love Allende's writing, and this was a lovely book, although not her best overall.  I would still recommend it.  I feel the same way about Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna.  It is not her best book, but still quite an interesting read.

With everyone else on the planet, I read Stieg Larsson's books this year.

These I did really like.  I ran across the first one summer 2009 when we were down at the beach and I finished my book.  Somehow, at Seascape there is no place to buy a book (someone should remedy that - they should at least carry a dozen or so titles in the grocery store!) and I ended up two exits up the freeway at another grocery looking for something, anything to amuse me for the next couple of days while we were there.  Snob that I am, after dissing the James Pattersons and the Danielle Steeles on the grocery store display, I noted that this one had been translated from the Swedish, so I figured it must be better than the other books on the shelf.  I was pleasantly surprised and devoured The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over the next couple of days.  The next two I read practically back to back this spring.  I found them a thriller well worth sinking a few days into, and thats all they really need.

Cutting for Stone is an interesting book.  It gets rave reviews and yet for the first 2/3 or the book or so, I wondered what the big deal was.  Then things changed, the pace picked up, and the last 1/3 of the book makes the whole thing worthwhile.

  

Everyone, it seems, has read The Help.  It spent forever on the NYTimes best seller list.   It seemed for a long time that it NEVER was going to be released in paperback (has it even yet?).  It is actually a surprisingly good read for something that has spent forever on the NYTimes best seller list, without even being an Oprah pick.    Read this one if you are one of the few who hasn't.  It deserves it.

This is the fourth, I think, in the series, starting with The Spellman Files.  These are fluff, but fun fluff, about an odd family of PIs in San Francisco.  None of them will take you very long, but they are a quite fun diversion.

Finally, I'll recommend The Lost City of Z.  A non-fictional tale of an ancient civilization in the Amazon, that no one thought one did or could exist, and the men (yes, all men) who over the past two centuries went looking for it.   Fascinating story of explorers, adventurers, treasure seekers, and archaeology. 

And finally, here is what is currently on my bookshelf - in some state of progress: