Book Review 2010

My grand total of books read in 2010 was 45. A few of these were associated with my schooling, but most of them weren't. Instead of giving a rundown on every single book, I think I'll carry on with tradition and list the standouts.

Without my planning it, this became the year of the series. I read the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray, the first two Dragon Girl books by Stieg Larsson and the last two Fablehaven books by Brandon Mull. My award for best series read, however, goes to the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. These books had a SciFi/Fantasy flair, and by the time I closed the last page of the last book I was astounded. It was such a cleverly constructed, character-driven, awe-inspiring EPIC story. It blew me away. If speculative fiction is not your thing, then you may have trouble getting into it, but I found the whole series fascinating from start to finish.

My award for best YA fiction, which I read a fair amount of, goes to the Skinjacker series by Neal Shusterman. I only read the first two books because they are all that is currently available, but I found the premise intriguing, the plot engaging and I anxiously await the next book.

My favorite non-fiction book of the year was Columbine by Dave Cullen. My esteem of the author grew further when he actually left a comment on my blog to thank me for including his book in my reading list for the year. Very cool! (If you'd like to see it look at my November 22 post.) This book revealed all the details, including extensive biography on the two teenage shooters, of the school shooting at Columbine High School. Though the topic was somewhat macabre, I was truly fascinated with the background info and appreciated the greater understanding of psychopathy Cullen presented.

The oldest book I read was Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe, which is supposedly the oldest English novel in existence. Standards as to what constitutes good fiction have changed over the last few centuries. It was pretty "meh."

My favorite classic of the year was A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. So many 'Aha' moments delivered from such a keen mind. I should add as a side note in this category the fact that I also read quite a bit of Shakespeare, which I adored, but Shakespeare is kind of in a class all his own and no one else can really be expected to compare. Plus, plays and novels are difficult to judge against each other.

A runner up in my Overall Favorites category was The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. Told in the future from the perspective of an autistic young man, this book was at once enlightening and entertaining.

My favorite Stand-Alone book of the year was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This book is a memoir that reads like fiction. I was immediately drawn in and could not put it down. Walls' life experiences are, to me, jaw-dropping and completely fascinating.

And now we begin a new year. I will probably not have as much time for leisurely reading this year, but we'll see where we end up. Clean slate. Bring it on. Watch for an update on how I did on last year's resolutions.