YOUR TOP READS OF 2010-

[Robin]

No I haven't. Is it worth reading?

[[deleted user]]

Yes very worth it. Peace Like A River is one of my favorite books of 2010. Really very good.

[Robin]

Sounds like a nice book worth reading. Who is the author of this book.

[[deleted user]]

Leif Enger.

[Suza]

There are quite a few, but I think the series that has impressed me the most and has me waiting eagerly for the next book is the Elemental Assassins Series by Jennifer Estep. She single-handedly changed my mind about 1st person POV!

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Suza wrote: "There are quite a few, but I think the series that has impressed me the most and has me waiting eagerly for the next book is the Elemental Assassins Series by Jennifer Estep. She single-handedly ch..."

new one on me! need to look up that series- thanks!

[Michele]

too many to list but I found several new to me authors that I "ran through" thanks to my library among them Dael Brown, Linda Lael Miller. I loved "Shalador's Lady" by Anne Bishop. I read the "Fever Books" by Karen Marie Moning and the Merry Gentry series by Laurell Hamilton.

[Jotale]

Here are a few:

Hater, David Moody
The Fall, Guiliermo Del Torro and Chuck Hogan
Little Bee, Chris Cleave
The Morningstar Strain, ZA, Reicht
Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race, Jon Stewart

[Michele]

I discovered Dale Brown thrillers and Laurell Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. Plus "Bullet" by Laurell and "Shalador's Lady" by Ann Bishop. Also discovered Catherine Asaro.

[RYCJ]

...some of my faves (read in 2010)

[William]

Here are my 5 favorite novels that I read in 2010:
1. The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis
2. The Gates of Rome
3. Sharpe's Trafalgar
4. The Boys from Brazil
5. A Quiet Flame

[Garlan ✌]

Michelle wrote: "My favorite novels of 2010:

1. Matterhorn
2. Freedom
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
4. The Help
5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog "

I hear that Matterhorn was great, and I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

[Michelle]

My favorite novels of 2010 are:
1. Matterhorn
2. Freedom
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
4. The Help
5. The Passage

[Bernadette]

Rycj wrote: "...some of my faves (read in 2010)

is one I would add to my best of 2010 as well. What this poor kid had to live through...resilience is the word that comes to mind.

[Robin]

1. Little Dorrit
2. Bleak House
There seems to be a recurring theme in my reading, but once I read Dickens I need to read lighter fare afterwards.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Robin wrote: "1. Little Dorrit
2. Bleak House
There seems to be a recurring theme in my reading, but once I read Dickens I need to read lighter fare afterwards."

wow- those are two pretty long books!

[Robin]

I know, so is the current book I am reading Wives and Daughters.

[Bernadette]

Robin wrote: "I know, so is the current book I am reading Wives and Daughters."

Robin, maybe we should start a group called Tome Readers (get it, tomb raiders reference). Some of my favs of 2010 were The Count of Monte Cristo, Little Dorritt, David Copperfield... I've got Bleak House sitting here on my stack

[Robin]

I know, there is something so satisfying like reading a huge book. I am put off by small paperbacks, I guess these are just some of the books that I like. Like Tomb Raiders reference btw. Have not read The Count of Monte Cristo, or David Copperfield, yet. I am roughly 200 pages away from ending Wives and Daughters.

[Bernadette]

Robin wrote: "I know, there is something so satisfying like reading a huge book. I am put off by small paperbacks, I guess these are just some of the books that I like. Like Tomb Raiders reference btw. Have not..."

I'm reading two "medium" books right now, Name of the Rose (500 pgs) and Portrait of a Lady (570). I know what you mean about shorter books, I just don't care for them anymore...I recently acquired a beautiful hardcover of Les Miserables and can't wait to get time to read that. Have you read that yet?

[Robin]

Yes, Les Miserables is a good book. I tried reading Name of the Rose, but it is too historical for me. I like Henry James but haven't read Portrait of a Lady. I think Nicole Kidman starred in the movie, the latest Portrait that is. It just seems that I have picked up huge books, not so much for the quantity but the quality of writing.

[Bernadette]

Robin wrote: "Yes, Les Miserables is a good book. I tried reading Name of the Rose, but it is too historical for me. I like Henry James but haven't read Portrait of a Lady. I think Nicole Kidman starred in the ..."

I agree with the quality of writing. It takes a lot of talent just to write a story that keeps you reading for 1000 pages. Hmmmm, a Nicole Kidman version of James? Can't say I see her as Isabel but I'll check it out on netflix. thanks

[Robin]

no prob. I have wanted to see that particular movie, so I may rent it while I am on spring break.

[Brian]

Ohhhh man, I hate to be such a cliche but my favorite book of 2010 had to be The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo!! lol, I couldn't put it down.

[Judy]

My very best of 2010:
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson
Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
and
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

[Martha]

Some of my top reads
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Dead Secret another Collins' that I might never have found without my good friends on GR
Solitaria by Genni Gunn (won this one)
The Innocent by Vincent Zandri - great book!
The Attenbury Emeralds: The New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery by Jill Paton Walsh (another win, enjoyed this one so much)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (why did I wait so long to read this???)
and the last 2 of the Larsson trilogy - love these books!!
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
It was a great year for reading and 2011 has been great so far. I really need to retire so I can just read more! :-)

[[deleted user]]

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Amazing!

[Michele]

reread "The Woman in White" and "Silas Marner" and Great Expectations last summer.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Michele wrote: "reread "The Woman in White" and "Silas Marner" and Great Expectations last summer."

Sonia wrote: "The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Amazing!"

Martha wrote: "Some of my top reads
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Dead Secret another Collins' that I might never have found without my good friends on GR
[book:Solitaria|..."

I can read The Woman in White over and over and it is like taking some magical syrum- I am transported back to Victorian England- fog, moors and all!

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Sonia wrote: "The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Amazing!"

Dreiser was HL Mencken's favorite writer

[[deleted user]]

And Mencken was a genius who did not like women very much unfortunately. :)

[Jan C]

Sonia wrote: "And Mencken was a genius who did not like women very much unfortunately. :)"

Until he got married.

[Michele]

believe me, regarding Mencken, lots of misogynists get married and continue hating women. If you want children, you need a female.

[Pamela]

Hands down favorite: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyesby Tamim Ansary. My copy is filled with notes and I gave away lots of copies to friends.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Jan C wrote: "Sonia wrote: "And Mencken was a genius who did not like women very much unfortunately. :)"

Until he got married."

He did get married late in life- anf there is a wonderful volume of letters between him and his wife- Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters : The Private Correspondence of H.L. Mencken and Sara Haardt

[Michele]

I found 2 great series in 2010: Dale Brown's action/adventure series "Dreamland" and Laurell Hamilton's "Merry Gentry" series.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Michele wrote: "I found 2 great series in 2010: Dale Brown's action/adventure series "Dreamland" and Laurell Hamilton's "Merry Gentry" series."

I enjoy Dale Brown- have not read his Dreamland Series yet-

[Kendall]

Bernadette wrote: "Robin wrote: "Yes, Les Miserables is a good book. I tried reading Name of the Rose, but it is too historical for me. I like Henry James but haven't read Portrait of a Lady. I think Nicole Kidman s..."

I saw it. James Campion (directer) didn't see Kidman as Isabel Archer either.

[Kendall]

Limiting this to 2010 eases the task a bit. ('Best ever' lists drive me crazy.) Among several candidates I read last year, I'll pick two catchup books: Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson, and Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.

[Garlan ✌]

I really liked but its been mnay years since I've read it.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

Garlan wrote: "I really liked but its been mnay years since I've read it."

Kendall wrote: "Limiting this to 2010 eases the task a bit. ('Best ever' lists drive me crazy.) Among several candidates I read last year, I'll pick two catchup books: Cryptonomicon by [author:Neil S..."

have to be honest- I found Cryptonomicon very difficult to get into

[Ellen]

by Cormac McCarthy
by Philip Roth
by Henry Green
by Mikhail Bulgakov

And every book I've read so far in M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series-

[KOMET]

Among my fav books I read during 2010 ---

1) Coco Chanel: A Biography by Axel Madsen

2) In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak

Mak, a Dutch journalist, made a trek through Europe in 1999, interviewing scores of people who experienced many of the century's most pivotal events in Europe --- including a French Army veteran of the First World War, a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, a former high-ranking member of the Polish Communist Party who helped make Poland a Soviet satellite in the immediate aftermath of WWII, and a woman from Imperial Russia's lesser nobility, who, as a young girl, saw Czar Nicholas II.

3) Wings Over the Somme, 1916-1918 by Gwilym Lewis

The author, who died in 1996, was one of Britain's surviving fighter aces from the First World War, earning his pilot's license in 1915.

4) A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist by Edward Robb Ellis

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is is an abridged version of Edward Robb Ellis' diary (begun as a bet among friends when he was 16 in 1927).

Ellis began work as a journalist in the 1930s in New Orleans, "covering Huey Long, Louis Armstrong, as well as the city's hungry workers, and the colorful French Quarter."

Later in the decade, Ellis moved on to Oklahoma City, where he covered stories on "the Depression, dust storms, and [First Lady] Eleanor Roosevelt." Then, he went to work for a newspaper in Peoria at the beginning of the Second World War.

Ever the journeyman journalist, Ellis moved on to Chicago, where he worked as a features writer for the United Press.

Following service in the Navy, Ellis eventually wound up in New York, where he would live and work from 1947 until his death 51 years later.

The best part about this diary is that the reader is not only given entree to Ellis' quest for greater understanding of self and environment, as well as his encounters with some of the notable figures of the last century. But also the reader becomes a witness to the profound changes that took place in American social and cultural norms throughout Ellis' long and remarkable life.

At turns poignant, passionate, and insightful, "A DIARY OF THE CENTURY" is a delight to read.

5) Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

My first Donna Leon Venetian detective mystery novel. Enjoyed it much.

6) My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City (As Remembered by Actors, Artists, Athletes, Chefs, Comedians, Filmmakers, Mayors, Models, Moguls, Porn Stars, Rockers, Writers, and Others by New York Magazine

This was the quickest, most enjoyable, and easiest books that I read in 2010.

My first experience of New York came in August 1971, which I remember only in fragments, as I was rather young at the time. So, it is my second experience of NYC (on April 10th, 1982 as a high school senior) that carries the greater resonance.

7) Lasting Valor by Vernon J. Baker

This book affected me very deeply. Mr. Baker is the only living African American veteran of the Second World War to receive the Medal of Honor (belatedly). He served as a junior officer in Italy during 1944-45 with the 370th Regimental Combat Team of the 92nd Infantry Division. (My uncle was also a junior officer with the same unit as Mr. Baker during the same period in Italy.)

[Ellen]

A couple more of my favorites:
When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

[C.C.]

1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
3. Biography of the young Napoleon
4. No Country for Old Men ( that may not have been 2011)

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

KOMET wrote: "Among my fav books I read during 2010 ---

1) Coco Chanel: A Biography by Axel Madsen

2) [book:In Europe: Travels Thr..."

facinating list!

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

C.C. wrote: "1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
3. Biography of the young Napoleon
4. No Country for Old Men ( that may not have been 2011)"

have to ask- did you see film? just watched it- never read book- but ending was so sudden and confusing!!!

[C.C.]

The film "No Country for Old Men" follows the novella (written like a screeplay...only Cormac McCarthy can get away with no quotation marks). But the book is mostly dialogue, so you get a better feel about Chigurh's point of view. The Cohen brothers translated his dialogue into a silent killer, which I believe strengthened the film.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

C.C. wrote: "The film "No Country for Old Men" follows the novella (written like a screeplay...only Cormac McCarthy can get away with no quotation marks). But the book is mostly dialogue, so you get a better f..."

as someone who read the book and saw the film- can you explain Tommy Lee Jones "dream" about his father- and the film ending right after he tells it???

[C.C.]

No, I admit I can't explain it, but my friends who've read more of McCarthy's work say the endings "just end." I'd like to read more of his stories; he seems to be a dark, complex but interesting writer. Which probably explains why he is considered an American literary treasure.