Saturday, January 22, 2011

Best of 2010 Book List

So, the great recap of the year. No particular order...




The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious--and Perplexing -- City by David Lebovitz (This was a fun little foodie's biography as a Paris transplant. Great for getting great gritty daily city details & the otherness of being a cultural transplant.)




Ooku: The Inner Chambers. by Fumi Yoshinaga.(series. manga. fantastic alter-history. Good enough that I got her entire early series, Antique Bakery, through ILL. Looking forward to anything she does in the future.)



Portable Childhoods: Stories by Ellen Klages (Wonderful fantasy short stories of a similar vein as Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, only found because Gaiman did the introduction. She should be better known.)




The Anxiety of Everyday Objects by Aurelie Sheehan (Wonderfully written. The adventures of whimsical dreamer in an office job. You can relate? Excellent.)



The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault (A fun little mystery in a dictionary office. A treat for etymology geeks. Found by using that Amazon Recommends thing at the bottom of the page for Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie.)



The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: a Flavia De Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley (Flavia has definately joined Witch Baby & Lisbeth Salander on my list of Fictional Rolemodels. She may be eleven but she's a chemistry genius with a knack for poisons, oh but she's the good guy/gal. I don't read a ton of mysteries but I can imagine resisting any bit of snooping Flavia might let me tag along for. Waiting for the third Flavia book in Feb 2011.)




The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson (The original title in Swedish translates to "Men Who Hate Women," and although fitting in many ways I would probably not have read this if that had been the title in english. I love this book and the main female character even if she is only sparsely characterized early in the book. She was instantly added to my fictional rolemodels. Not for the faint of heart; well worth the time.)




The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger (This is a picture book look graphic novel. Very different style graphicly from Three Incestous Sisters and the Adventuress, and not as thematically difficult as the former & Her Fearful Symmetry. This is a the perfect bedtime story for bibliophiles in general, bibliophiles who work in libraries in particular.)



The Magicians by Lev Grossman (If Harry Potter were written for adults then it would be The Magicians. Excellent, also the mechanism of the magic system were way more likely than in the Potter-verse. Followed this up with Grossman's Codex, same main character for all purposes so is prbably standing in for Grossman himself, but I kind of like him so I didn't mind. Feel free to hit Codex instead if you'd rather paly with old books than magic.)




A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse' (I love this book! I made pages of notes on things to read, and there's some really lovely quotes on the importance of good books. It's a book about books, a mystery, a love story. Little bit of a slow start but well worth it. Sort of want to mail this to almost everyone I know.)

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