Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia, and a couple of blogs that I had read--including 100 Memoirs (100memoirs.com) and Read All Day (www.readallday.org) – I decided that in 2010 I would read a book a week in four genres, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Spiritual, and Memoir and blog about them. It was an exercise in self-discipline at the beginning. I realized that I felt guilty when I spent time reading; I should be doing something more productive. If I had a purpose for my reading, I could read more, and if I had people who read my blog, then I would be productive. Well, I began reading, and by June, I noticed that I was reading automatically every day, that I loved every minute of it, and that people were beginning to read my blog. Now, I can’t quit; I have too many readers, and I am addicted.
Next year, I am planning to continue reading and blogging. I will migrate to a website in February; one that will be easier for friends to join, make suggestions about their favorite books, and comment on my blog entries. Right now I have a huge stack of books to read, many of them given to me by friends or book agents. I will be very busy reading in 2011.
Here are the guidelines that I have operated under and will continue to utilize:
• All books must have favorable reviews. I read BookMarks monthly, and New York Review of Books and The New Yorker weekly. I try to also read the New York Times Sunday book reviews and the review magazine from the library.
• I try to get as many books as possible from the library.
• I try to accommodate book agents and friends as best I can.
• At least one book a month must be one from the church library, or have been bought for the church library.
• The books must be challenging intellectually; in other words, no romances (which has never been a genre I liked anyway) or other fluffy-type books.
If I think up any other rules, I will post them.
So, here is my year in review. I read 21 fiction books and 12 each of non-fiction, spiritual, and memoir—57 books in all.
Books Read in 2010
Fiction
1) Shantaram 1/8 Gregory David Roberts
2) American Salvage 1/23 Bonnie Jo Campbell
3) Snow Falling on Cedars 2/5 David Guterson
4) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet 2/26 Jamie Ford
5) Shutter Island 3/26 Dennis LeHane
6) Tea Time for the Traditionally Built 4/15 Alexander McCall Smith
7) The Information Officer 5/1 Mark Mills
8) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5/22 Stieg Larsson
9) The Girl who Played with Fire 5/22 Stieg Larsson
10) The Help 6/4 Kathryn Stockett
11) The Lincoln Lawyer 6/15 Michael Connelly
12) Portuguese Irregular Verbs 6/15 Alexander McCall Smith
13) The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest 6/26 Stieg Larsson
14) I See You Everywhere 7/25 Julia Glass
15) The Elegance of the Hedgehog 8/14 Muriel Barbery
16) The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott 9/15 Kelly O’Connor McNees
17) A Visit from the Goon Squad 9/21 Jennifer Egan
18) My Name is Mary Sutter 10/14 Robin Oliveira
19) Love and Summer 11/12 William Trevor
20) Case Histories 11/14 Kate Atkinson
21) Lord of Misrule 12/17 Jaimy Gordon
Spiritual
1) Things Seen and Unseen 1/15 Nora Gallagher
2) A Year of Living Biblically 2/12 A.J. Jacobs
3) If the Church were Christian 3/5 Philip Gulley
4) Holy Stuff of Life 3/30 Heather Murray Elkins
5) Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith 4/2 Anne Lamott
6) Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community 4/26 Henri Nouwen
7) The Cloister Walk 6/11 Kathleen Norris
8) Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential 7/16 Caroline Myss
9) Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything 8/20 Geneen Roth
10) Gilead 9/3 Marilynne Robinson
11) Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal 10/28 Rachel Naomi Remen
12) America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story 12/5 Bruce Feiler
Non-Fiction
1) The Sisters of Sinal 1/22 Janet Soskice
2) The City of Falling Angels 2/15 John Berendt
3) Three Cups of Tea 2/22 Greg Mortenson
4) I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon) 3/12 Richard Polsky
5) Bright Sided 4/8 Barbara Ehrenreich
6) In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto 5/14 Michael Pollan
7) This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians can Save US All 7/1 Marilyn Johnson
8) The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature 7/31 Daniel Levitin
9) Cradle of Gold: The Story of Hiram Bingham 8/26 Christopher Heaney
10) The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 10/1 Harvey Sachs
11) Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park 10/21 Marie Winn
12) The Harvard Psychedelic Club 11/27 Don Lattin
Memoirs
1) The Complete Persepolis 1/29 Marjane Satrapi
2) An Unquiet Mind 2/22 Kay Redford Jamison
3) Hiding in the Spotlight 3/22 Greg Dawson
4) The Liar’s Club 4/22 Mary Karr
5) The Happiness Project 5/30 Gretchen Rubin
6) The Summer of the Great-Grandmother 7/7 Madeleine L’Engle
7) Mennonite in a Little Black Dress 7/29 Rhoda Janzen
8) Jesus Freak: Feeding, Healing, Raising the Dead 9/17 Sara Miles
9) Losing Mum and Pup 10/8 Christopher Buckley
10) Stitches: A Memoir 11/9 David Small
11) Finding Oz: How L Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story 12/11 Evan I. Schwartz
12) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 12/24 Jean-Dominique Bauby
The Best books of 2010
Fiction
1) The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
2) A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
3) Love and Summer, William Trevor
4) “The Girl” Trilogy, Stieg Larsson
Spiritual
1) America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story, Bruce Feiler
2) Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne LaMott
3) If the Church were Christian, Philip Gulley
Non-Fiction
1 The Sisters of Sinai, Janet Soskice
2) Bright Sided, Barbara Ehrenreich
3) In Defense of Food, Michael Pollen
Memoirs
1) Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen
2) Jesus Freak, Sarah Miles
3) Complete Persepolis (Santrape)/ Stitches (Small)
Three Books I didn’t particularly like
1) Sacred Contracts (The only book I didn’t finish), Caroline Myss
2) I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon), Richard Polsky
3) Shutter Island, Dennis LeHane
Top number of blog views
1) A Visit from the Goon Squad
2) Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal
3) Jesus Freak: Feeding, Healing, Raising the Dead
4) This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians will Save Us All
5) Cradle of Gold: The Story of Hiram Bingham
6) The Harvard Psychedelic Club
7) Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Novel
8) The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824
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