2010 Reading List

(Most of these reviews were originally written over on my Goodreads account. I'm not including books I read for the second time, such as Oryx and Crake, or books I read for the millionth time, like Heart of Darkness.)

The Plague of Doves -- Louise Erdrich
This is pretty much Louise Erdrich at her finest. That's all.

Too Much Happiness -- Alice Munro
I don't think Alice Munro could write a bad story if she tried. And this collection is exactly why I think she's one of the best writers writing today.

Terrorist -- John Updike
John Updike's writing pretty much always deserves five stars, I think. I'm giving this book four because, unlike the Rabbit novels, I don't think I'll return to it again and again -- and I'm not totally sure how I feel about the ending yet.

I have yet to meet an Updike character I really like, but I think I have yet to find one I hate, too. The truth in his novels is uncomfortable and it's almost easy to hate them for it; they're not uplifting by any means, but there's something so undeniably familiar in all of them. And God, could this man write perfect sentences.

Anyway, Terrorist is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking and it's clear to me that Updike stretched himself a bit for this one, which is commendable near the end of such a long and laudable writing career. It's one I'd love to actually talk about with people.

Winslow in Love -- Kevin Canty
I'm not sure whether I was drawn to this because of the protagonist's obviously awesome name (hah!) or the Montana setting...actually, it was a gift and it looked like a quick read. Since I just finished rereading Oryx and Crake before I read The Year of the Flood and that did NOT go quickly (although I still really enjoy it) I really wanted something I could blow through quickly. And this book was definitely quick. To be honest, I liked it more than I thought I would. It wasn't the most original story in the world (depressed college professor who drinks too much, ends up falling for angsty twenty-year-old, they talk a lot about LIFE and TRUTH and what is REAL and share a lot of scotch) but Richard Winslow somehow still seems real to me. And Canty gets some things right -- some of his descriptions about fishing, and about writing, for instance. This book didn't change my life, but it was a more satisfying read than I thought it would be. (I also think Canty wrote himself into a better story than he started with; the writing was definitely better near the end than it was at the beginning.)

The Girl Who Played With Fire -- Stieg Larsson
Okay, I loved this book. I loved it more than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, although I wonder if I'd like that one more if I went back and read it again (or read it at a time other than when I was about to give birth? I don't know).

I read this on a whirlwind road trip to Montana, and it was perfect road trip reading. (I think it would also be perfect plane reading, especially if you're like me and desperately need such distractions to drown out the ANXIETY.) I could not put it down, except that I have a preschooler and a baby so I HAD TO PUT IT DOWN quite often, and that drove me insane. (My husband took the wheel for a few hours so that I could read the last 150 pages or so, probably sensing that I was just not going to be great company until I finished it.) It was perfectly plotted, and while there were plenty of references to Dragon Tattoo, they're explained well enough so that this book stands on its own just fine.

I don't really want to say anything more about it, because it's one of those books that wouldn't be improved by a plot summary. I'll just say this: God, I love Lisbeth Salander.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson -- John Green and David Levithan
I really enjoy John Green, and I thought both writers did a great job of integrating their stories and characters. (I loved the characters, even though John Green pretty much always writes the same character.) I laughed out loud a lot. Other parts made my heart hurt.

But the end is what really made me love this book. That and the fact that every now and then, both Green and Levithan would write something that just went straight to my core with how true it was.

Love this book. It is completely, completely fabulous.

The Lacuna -- Barbara Kingsolver
I think this could actually be a 5-star book for me. Kingsolver can write. My biggest problem with her is one many people have, and it's that sometimes her Message (with a capital M) gets in the way of her storytelling. I didn't enjoy The Prodigal Summer for this reason, and even The Poisonwood Bible, which I love, got a bit heavy-handed at the end -- as though she doesn't quite trust the reader to get it unless she uses a big, unsubtle bat to DRIVE IT HOME.

That said, this book doesn't do so much of that (although some reviewers disagree with me). I think this is more ambitious than Poisonwood, and it works. I'm not generally a huge fan of stories told exclusively through diaries and letters, which might account for my four-star rating right now, but Kingsolver writes well enough for me to be okay with it here.

I love that Frida Kahlo is a central character in the novel, which is one of the reasons I wanted to read this in the first place. I think there are obviously risks and limitations in using "real" people as characters in a work of fiction, but Kingsolver has done her research, and I think she pulled it off pretty brilliantly.

I did a lot of underlining and jotting notes in the margins -- this is a book that will stick with me for quite some time. I taught The Poisonwood Bible one year, but I think I'd like to teach this one even more at some point.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest -- Stieg Larsson
I AM SO PISSED THAT STIEG LARSSON DIED.

Thankfully, there is a sense of closure after TGWKTHN; if he'd left it with a huge cliff-hanger (like at the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire) and then died...WELL. Still, I'm definitely left with the feeling that there are more stories to tell about Lisbeth Salander and the rest of the characters, and NOW I WILL NEVER GET TO READ THOSE STORIES.

Still, maybe it's okay that the series ended with this trilogy -- it's still really, really good. Would the stories be so awesome after ten books? WE WILL NEVER KNOW. Waaahhh.

Anyway, okay, no spoilers -- it was just awesome. Lisbeth Salander continues to be very, very badass. There was a little less hardcore action (I mean, our heroine was stuck in a hospital room for almost the entire book), but still, lots of suspense, lots of surprises. I read this almost straight through (as much as that's possible with two small children) with the same breathlessness as TGWPWF, and it was just about as satisfying.

Now that I've read all three books, I think I have a lot more appreciation for the first one. Also, while I didn't give any of them five stars by themselves (they're not, like, life-changing books, or ones I underlined compulsively, or ones that I'd take to a desert island) the trilogy as a whole might be worth five stars to me. If that even makes any sense. I think Larsson was an incredible storyteller, and these are possibly the most well-plotted mysteries -- with the best characters -- that I've ever read.

Shadow Tag -- Louise Erdrich
I would probably have enjoyed this more if I hadn't read several of her other books. It is well-written, no doubt, but it lacked the storytelling power of her others. It was dark and spare and seemed totally different from anything else she's written, which isn't necessarily a criticism, but I'm looking forward to picking up The Beet Queen next and returning to everything I love about Louise Erdrich.

The Angel's Game -- Carlos Ruis Zafón
I really, really struggled with giving this book three stars, because sometimes I LOVED it. And I still think that anyone who loved The Shadow of the Wind will enjoy this. I loved the storytelling, as over-the-top as the story actually was. I'm a sucker for shadows and dark rainy streets and fog and any story in which a.) a creepy old house and b.) a bookshop actually function as characters as much as the humans. And I loved some of the characters. The dialogue is fan-freaking-tastic. In short, it was a great vacation read, and I couldn't put it down. When I had to put it down, I felt kind of grumpy about it.

That said, I couldn't give this one five stars. I almost gave it four, but the problems in this book frustrated me because I really loved SOTW. I don't want to give anything away, because I'm glad I didn't know anything about either this or SOTW before I began reading them, so I'll just say this: There are a lot of loose ends in this story. Sometimes that works; I'm not one who needs her stories all perfectly resolved at the end. However, in this case, I'm not sure it worked all that well. There are still things in the story that I don't really get -- and I think a lot of that is intentional on the part of the author, but some of it just seemed like clutter. Some of the secondary characters seemed important for awhile, but then we never really understood why and their roles were never really made clear. I'm still confused and a little frustrated by the ending. I think it'd be fun to hash it out with other people who've read the book, though.

I'm conflicted, though. I don't feel like a mere three-star rating conveys how much I actually enjoyed the reading experience, but when I think about this book in comparison to SOTW, I'm not sure I can quite give it four.

The Little Stranger -- Sarah Waters
I loved this book. Reading it, I wasn't always sure I would, but reflecting on it now as a whole I can easily see how well-crafted it is. It's so subtle; it's certainly not horror or suspense in the conventional sense, I suppose, but Sarah Waters is a master of atmosphere and characterization. And on the heels of The Angel's Game, another novel in which a house functions as a character, I really enjoyed this. (Of course, Sarah Waters is subtle and Carlos Ruiz Zafón is over-the-top -- both have their place.)

Anyway, Waters writes novels that I really think one should read without preconceptions, so I won't spoil anything. I will say that I found myself chilled at several points, and I thought the ending was perfect (even though it apparently frustrated others, from the looks of the reviews).

I kind of think I should have waited until October to read this for maximum enjoyment -- it's the kind of book that would go well with dark, rainy nights -- but I've already waited over a year, so.

The Hunger Games -- Suzanne Collins
This book took over my life until I finished it, so it's a good thing it's a short, fast, intense, one-day read. I loved it. I would love to teach it, actually -- there's so much in this book that I would love to talk about with a class of fifteen-year-olds.

There are some parts that left me wanting more, though, and I wish I knew more about the history of Panem and more about the Games and the Gamemakers. I've heard the second book fleshes this out a bit, so that's good. I admit that the "love triangle" aspect of the second book already makes me nervous, though -- perhaps I'm just a bit too burned out on all the TEAM EDWARD! and TEAM JACOB! nonsense spattered all over my Facebook friends list. (It won't be anything like that, right?)

Let the Great World Spin -- Colum McCann
I LOVED this book. It captures everything I believe about why we read and write at all -- it's one of those books that reminds us of our humanity. I love the sentences. I love the structure. I love the way Colum McCann took one event -- Phillipe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the twin towers -- and uses that thread to pull together the lives of several people in New York City. Their lives collide in ways they don't even necessarily see -- but WE do, and we see that this IS the world in all its beauty and eccentricity and grit and love and ugliness and motion.

I think what I love about it is that it doesn't ever really end. Because, of course, people don't. Our stories continue; the end of the page, the end of a chapter -- stories don't stop there. ("The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.")

It's as close to perfect as a novel can get, I think.

Catching Fire -- Suzanne Collins
I read this in one day while I battled a sinus infection. Maybe it's just that I kept myself mostly confined to the couch all day anyway, but I found this book just as compelling as the first one (after expecting to find it disappointing, since some reviewers did). I might have even enjoyed it more, since I learned a little more about the Gamemakers and the "behind-the-scenes" stuff -- things I really wanted to know as I read the first book.

Little Bee -- Chris Cleave
The premise: two women meet on a beach in Nigeria on a single, fateful day with unimaginable and far-reaching consequences. Two years later, they meet again -- which is where the book begins.

This really is an incredible book. I didn't give it five stars because a.) the gimmick kind of annoyed me and b.) there were a few places and one section in particular where I didn't feel that Chris Cleave did justice to Sarah's character -- there were scenes between her and her lover that just fell a little flat.

That said:

On the whole, despite the gimmicks, despite my skepticism that a man could write in the voices of two different women, the book was -- well, pretty shattering. And I think the book is shattering in a way that the world needs; sometimes we need to be violently shaken from our comfort zones. And yet we're reminded we're privileged enough to be able to close the book on the horror in the world, when so many people don't have that option; they can't leave the movie theater or put down the book. Cleave doesn't shy away from the unspeakable things human beings do to each other or the choices we have to make, and there were things that were tough for me to read -- but ultimately, he laces the stories with enough redemption -- and even humor (although the book is not "funny" like some reviewers claim) -- that we're left with more hope than despair.

Also: lots of just plain gorgeous writing, which makes up for the sections I found problematic.

Ethan Frome -- Edith Wharton
This is well-written, but a really bleak little book. I had to teach it this year, so I read it only for that. It's a nice way to teach literary devices to high school students, I guess, because it's the least subtle book in the world. Nothing life-changing, although I actually enjoyed it more than this review would suggest, and now I think I should maybe read The House of Mirth, which has been sitting on my shelf for about a decade now.

In the Woods -- Tana French
I don't even know how to rate this book.

I LOVED IT.

AND I HATED IT.

The characterization was fantastic; the writing was solid; there was just -- lots of good stuff in this book. I shouldn't have chosen the first week of school to read it, because I couldn't give it as much undivided attention as I wanted to.

The ending made me CRAZY. CAH-RAZY. I'm definitely NOT one who needs all of her books tied up with a big pretty bow at the end because life isn't like that, but I cared so, SO much more about the mystery that doesn't get solved than the one that does. I loved the experience of reading this book, but that made me want to throw it across the room.

WHHHYYYYYYY.

(I am definitely reading her other books, though. She's good.)

Mockingjay -- Suzanne Collins
While there was some good stuff in this book, the reading experience was nowhere near what it was for the first two books -- the writing was clunky, I had issues with the plot, and I thought Collins was a bit too heavy-handed with both her exposition and her MESSAGE. Surprisingly, though, I didn't have issues with the way she ended the novel (well, and the trilogy); that actually worked for me (though I didn't necessarily like it).

The Year of the Flood -- Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood has no interest in keeping her readers comfortable, that's for sure.

My liking of the book swung between 3 and 5 stars throughout the entire thing. Generally, this isn't my favorite genre. However, I'd also happily read Atwood's grocery lists. ANYWAY, this is horrifying and disturbing and laced with dark humor, and, as always, not completely devoid of hope no matter how bleak things seem.

At first I didn't think I'd like it as well as I liked Oryx and Crake (which is solid but not my favorite Atwood). However, by the time I reached the end, I decided it's actually the superior of the two. It's not really a sequel; both novels stand alone just fine. However, I think I appreciated this one more deeply having read Oryx and Crake (and reread it fairly recently).

And now I want to go and reread The Blind Assassin...

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University -- Kevin Roose
This is the author's account of the semester he went undercover as a student at Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell. Going from Brown University to one of the nation's most conservative schools proved to be an interesting educational experience, to say the least, and I found it fascinating. I was impressed that the author was only nineteen when he embarked on this journey; he writes with grace and maturity. So many parts of this book had me cringing -- not because of the book itself, but because of what he writes about -- but at the same time, I appreciated his depth and his honesty. No one in this book is one-dimensional, and he finds some rather surprising common ground with the friends he ended up making there. It would be so easy merely to mock the religious right, but had Roose resorted to that, the book would have fallen flat.

Freedom -- Jonathan Franzen
Sometimes I wasn't sure this would live up to The Corrections, which is one of my favorite books, and sometimes I thought it would end up being a little too much like it -- but in the end, it's better. It really is that good.

My Reading Life -- Pat Conroy
Loved it. It was the perfect book to read before I go back to school after a two-week break, simply because Pat Conroy reveres English teachers and reminds me why I love teaching English. And any time I read anything by Pat Conroy, I just want to write him a love letter and thank him for existing.

As always, Conroy had me laughing out loud and fighting back tears, often within the span of a few paragraphs. Also, this is the second time I've read his praise for War and Peace and I think I might have to read it now -- maybe this summer.