In case it’s not obvious, clicking on the book titles will bring you to my post mentioning or responding to the book, except in the case of the unblogged titles at the end of the list.
If you’ve spent any time thinking about your reading for 2010 or planning for 2011 reading, I’ll love your feedback. Comments always welcome!
1. Margaret Atwood, Year of the Flood
2. Carol O’Connell. Bone by Bone
3. Penelope Lively, Family Album
4. Carol Matthews & Liza Potvin, Dog Days
5. Toni Morrison, A Mercy
6. David Adams Richards, The Lost Highway
7. Ian Rankin, The Complaints
8. Richard Wagamese, A Ragged Company — re-read
9. Alan Bradley, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
10. Jeffrey Deaver, Roadside Crosses
11. Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites
12. Clyde Ford, Precious Cargo
13. Seamus Heaney ed. and trans. Beowulf
14. Lee Child, Gone Tomorrow
15. Kim Goldberg, Red Zone
16. Muriel Barbery, Gourmet Rhapsody
17. Karen Solie, Pigeon
18. Reginald Hill, A Cure for all Diseases
19. Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah’s Key
20. Nancy Huston, Fault Lines
21. Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire
22. Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
23. Eva Hoffman, Appassionata
24. Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
25. Bill Gaston, Sointula — re-read
26. Charles Dickens, ATale of Two Cities
27. Lee Child, Echo Burning
28. Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow
29. Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
30. Nicci French, Complicit
31. Jonathan Kellerman, Evidence
32. Anna Gavalda, Je l’Aimais
33. Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina
34. William Boyd,Restless
35. Philip Graham, The Moon Come to Earth
36. Michael Connelly, 9 Dragons
37. Andrew Davidson, Gargoyle
38. Diane Athill, Somewhere Towards the End
39. W.H. Collison, In the Wake of the War Canoe
30. Betty Lowman Carey,Bijaboji: North to Alaska by Oar
31. Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado
32. Elizabeth George, This Body of Death
33. Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo
34. Ethel Wilson, Love and Salt Water
35. Lise Genova, Still Alice
36. Quentin Jardine, Famous Last Words
37. Doug Saunders, Arrival City
38. Robert Hough, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark
39. Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown
40. Lorrie Moore, The Gate at the Stairs
41. Lee Child, Running Blind, unblogged
42. Alan Bradley, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, unblogged
43. Peter Robinson, Bad Boy, unblogged
44. David Bergen, The Matter with Morris, unblogged
45. Ilene Beckerman, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, unblogged
46. The 2010 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology, unblogged
47. David Crystal, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, unblogged
48. Thomas King, A Short History of Indians in Canada, unblogged
49. Academic Monograph on Canadian Elegy, blind-peer-reviewed for university press, unblogged
50 Louise Gluck, Village Life, unblogged
Had to work a bit to squeak up to 50 this year, which surprised me somewhat as I made up this list — it’s been a busier year, even, than I realized. And I decided that rather than work frantically and guiltily to catch up the book-blogging for the last couple of weeks, I’d just list, as above. Bergen’s The Matter with Morris really did deserve its own post, but we’re packing for a week away and when we get back we’ll be well into January and I’ll have 3 or 4 2011 books to blog. Accepting limitations seems like a reasonable New Year’s resolution, and I’m starting NOW.
I managed to lose track of my reading, but my incomplete list has 40 books on it, so I'm pleased I managed to squeeze at least that many in – and of course that doesn't include my regular reading of yoga texts and cookbooks (which I read like novels …). I haven't even thought about reading for the year ahead, but maybe I will fill some gaps. And I will be referring back to this blog for ideas for what to read also!
Nice list. Several books on your list must go on my list for the new year. Such a trendsetter, you.
Tiffany: I realize that I've given over a bit more time than I should to DVD-viewing, mostly because I can easily knit and watch . . . not sure if I'm going to try to change that or not. Reading the latest Kate Atkinson right now — Got Up Early . . . I seem to remember it was you who alerted me to its release. Not quite as captivated by any single character as I was in When Will There Be, but enjoying it nonetheless.
Mardel: You just as often alert me to books I should read and trends I should know about . . . one day, an IRL book discussion, you, me, and Tiffany, okay??