Sunday 17 January 2010

2010 Booklist

What I read in 2010:
  1. The Silver Road, Grace Dugan (underdone)
  2. Logghorea, ed. John Klima (excellent!)
  3. Altered Carbon, Richard Morgan (entertaining sf)
  4. Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (elegant and innovative)
  5. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (excellent, excellent, excellent)
  6. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys (lush)
  7. March, Geraldine Brooks (added depth to Little Women)
  8. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (heartwarming)
  9. Basket Case, Carl Hiaason (entertaining)
  10. The Colour, Rose Tremain (thoughtful, interesting)
  11. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka (quite, quite gripping)
  12. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris (a bit formulaic but absorbing)
  13. Undead and Unpopular, Mary Janice Davidson (thankfully short)
  14. Newton's Wake, Ken Macleod (science fiction with culture~)
  15. Echoes of Earth, Sean Williams and Shane Dix ('sober' space opera)
  16. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything, Elizabeth Gilbert (neither loved, nor hated)
  17. Temeraire (Book 1), Naomi Novik (slow start but warmed up in the end)
  18. Temeraire: Throne of Jade (Book 2), Naomi Novik (had to read book 2 straight away - and satisfying it was!)
  19. Black Powder War (Temeraire Book 3), Naomi Novik (can we see a pattern here?)
  20. Empire of Ivory (Temeraire Book 4), Naomi Novik (a little bit WTF, but I would read next one)
  21. Scary Kisses, Ed. Liz Grzyb (great to see paranormal romance in small press)
  22. The Hours, Michael Cunningham (beautiful companion to Mrs D)
  23. Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey(local! worthwhile in the end)
  24. The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby (brief, beautiful, remarkable)
  25. Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts (crunchy and excting)
  26. The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai (i tried, i finished, i was underwhelmed...)
  27. High Society, Ben Elton (one of Elton's better)
  28. The Resurrectionists, Kim Wilkins (original but a bit flat at the end)
  29. The Children's Book, A.S. Byatt (absorbing, challenging, long, lovely)
  30. Book of Endings, Deborah Biancotti (Ed. Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne) (thoughtful, atmospheric and extremely consistent anthol)
  31. Year's Best SF 14, Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (great selection of 'year's best')
  32. The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Yann Martel (more great shorts)
  33. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood (most excellent and def SF)
  34. Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories, Annie Proulx (good but alien)
  35. Made in America, Bill Bryson (terribly good fun and terribly infomrative)
  36. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks (i feel soiled now)
  37. Sprawl, Ed. Alisa Krasnostein ()
  38. Rare Unsigned Copy, Simon Petrie ()
  39. Belong, Ed. Russell B. Farr ()
  40. Glitter Rose, Marianne de Pierres, Ed. Alisa Krasnostein ()
  41. Gallileo's Dream, Kym Stanley Robinson (ambitious, admirable, but a bit boring...)
  42. Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ed. Russell B. Farr ()
  43. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (ultimately quite moving)
  44. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Bradley (fascinating history)
  45. Kings in Grass Castles, Mary Durack (fascinating history)
  46. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk (felt derivative)
  47. On Chesil Beach, Iam McEwan (lovely writing, not so much plot)
  48. Angels and Insects, A. S. Byatt (satisfying, complementary novellas)
  49. Wizard at Large, Terry Brooks (quick read, but nothing more)
  50. The Strange Files of Fremont Jones, Dianne Day (secret santa pres, wasn't *awful*)

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