A Year in Books

I always love the end-of-year "Best Of" lists printed in many newspapers and magazines. I like to gauge if I'm up on the various sectors of popular culture or if there are music, movies, authors, or other artists that I missed and need to explore. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm not usually up on the most cutting edge music. That's what happens when your audio diet consists mostly of NPR or kids' books on tape and your computer with iTunes loaded on it dies.

For some reason this year was feast or famine as far as books go, alternating between long dry spells or so many books at one time from my library reserve list that I couldn't finish them all. These were my favorites of 2010, in no particular order.

Loved the unique epistolary format of the book, with the protagonist's life examined in letters. I really identified with the main character - her desire for home and family, but still yearning for adventure and self-actualization through travel and other experiences unique to women of her time. This book made for one of the most interesting discussions of my book club to date, with widely varying opinions of Bess and her choices.

Somehow I made it to age 30 without hearing about this YA and high school literature class standard. The author's stream of consciousness writing style and her spot-on channeling of teenage concerns and jadedness "spoke" to me. The heroine's emotional inner turmoil and its eventual resolution could have been depressing, but emerged hopeful.

Richard Russo is one of the masters of a class of authors who artfully examine the themes of adult life and relationships. Other such writers I've enjoyed include Elizabeth Strout and Wallace Stegner. While some readers might be turned off by the frank "realities" of marriage, aging, loss, childrearing, and expectations (met and unmet), the beauty of the writing and vivid characters provide a satisfying redemption. Caveat: His books do contain a fair amount of profanity. Judge me as you will that I like them anyway.

A veritable tome that is worth every page. The story of twin Ethiopian brothers, their absent doctor father, nurse/nun mother who died in childbirth, and their love/hate relationship traverses miles, literally, emotionally, and figuratively. Because of the characters and storyline, the book includes medical diction and themes, but my dad was a doc so I found it interesting, not exhausting.

Loved it from start to finish and evangelized it to everyone I knew. See my earlier review here.

Thanks to various Top Ten lists I now have a few more books to add to my reading list for the new year. I'd love to hear about the highlights of your year in books and happy reading in 2011!