Saturday, January 1, 2011

Book recap of 2010

I like to look back on books I read each year and see what stands out as the good, the bad and the ugly. it was a quiet year on all fronts for there doesn't seem to be many that were good, bad or ugly. There was piles of books I read that were just... there.

The best first. The best books I read this year are as follows:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

3. Beachcombing for a Ship Wrecked God by Joe Coomer

4. The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel

5. One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

6. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn

7. South of Broad by Pat Conroy

8. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

9. Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
Of these, I would say South of Broad was the best of the best. I had a love affair with this book, with the characters, with the writing style, with the words. I loved everything about Conroy's novel. i loved it so much that I own a copy! I loved it so much that I participated in "food For Thought" one time this entire year and it was this book. I love everything about South of Broad.

The bad:
1. The Lake Shore Limited
2. Jane Austin Ruined My Life
3. The House at the End of the Road
4. True Colors
5. Cleaving
6. Eat, Pray Love

The ugly:
1. The Last Will of Moira Leahy
2. Little Bee
3. Irreplaceable
4. Love in Mid Air
5. Love in the Time of Cholera
6. On Mystic Lake

So that wraps up the best and the worst for me for 2010.

I had several books on my list at the beginning of the year of things I wanted to read in 2010. Okay, when I started 2010 there were 27 books I wanted to read. The ones I didn't are: Dirty Job, Motion of the Ocean, Last Night in Twisted River, The Book Thief, The Life of Flannery O Connor, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Half Broke Horses, The Poisonwood Bible, and A Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt. These are back on the list for 2011. And who knows what else will pop up, too!

I can't wait to start my 2011 reads!

Maggie

4 Comments:

a quiet life said...

read 3 on your best, just picked up elsewhere today, still need to read my bees and mist.

i read eat pray love when it first came out, way before any hype and enjoyed it then.

oy on your ugly... i loved love in the time of cholera, but i read it 20 years ago. i found little bee powerful and gave it 5 stars, i have last will still to read, hope i like it :(

Maggie said...

Jain- I can't say enough about how much I liked "Bees and Mist" and "elsewhere." Both were great!

I hope you like "Last Will..." too.

Karen @ Mignardise said...

Read Last Night in Twisted River! It's John Irving at his finest - with all his usual symbols and characters. Loved it.

Maggie said...

Karen- it sounds wonderful! I am certainly going to read it this year and probably sooner rather than later!