Here's what I read in 2010:
Lots of Gaskell. I also re-read all the Austens and several other books I claim as "favorites" that I haven't read in decades. The newest thing to me was graphic novels. I'd read Marvel's Wizard of Oz at the end of '09 so I read two more graphic novels this year and really loved them.
I'm very proud to be one of the few people on earth who have actually read all 9 novels and various interludes of Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga. The original trilogy with the interludes is wonderful but I'm glad I took the time to read the later books too. My favorite books are still 19th century classics, but I'm learning that there are authors aside from Austen -- I love Gaskell, Trollope and Collins too. I also read my first Dickens recently and my challenge for next year is to read another. I tried reading Pickwick Papers a few years ago and just couldn't do it. I'd also like to read some Barbara Pym this year.
Top Reads of the Year, not in any particular order (no re-reads):
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Likeness by Tana French
Imagined London by Anna Quindlen
Swan Song by John Galsworthy
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Most fun book of the year:
Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff
Best reading experience of the year: reading P&P with my dear friends DeeDee, Amy, Melissa and Jill :-)
Most disappointing of the year: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor - I've read about this novel for so long, I expected Gone-With-The-Wind-ish greatness but it's just a big ugly mess.
Worst read of the year: A Reliable Wife by Goolrich - complete trash. "There was an almost sexual pleasure in the boundless sorrow..." A writer who equates misery and tragedy with sex is really not my cuppa. Icky, icky book. This is a bodice ripper dressed up to appear literary. I was not fooled.
1. Pride & Prejudice the graphic novel, adapted by Nancy Butler
2. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
3. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
4. Swan Song by John Galsworthy
5. Maid in Waiting by Galsworthy
6. Flowering Wilderness by Galsworthy
7. Over the River by Galsworthy
8. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. A Reliable Wife by Goolrich
10. Gustave Caillebotte: Parisian Impressionist with a Passion for Water
11. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
12. Imagined London by Anna Quindlen
13. I'm Fine with God...It's Christians I Can't Stand: Getting Past the Religious Garbage in the Search for Spiritual Truth by Bickel and Jantz
14. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
15. Emma by Jane Austen -- re-read. I want to re-read all the Austen I can this year. :-)
16. Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
17. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - reread
18. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
19. Persuasion by Jane Austen - continuing my goal to re-read all Austen this year. 3 down!
20. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - my joy in re-reading Jane continues. This novel is so laugh-out-loud funny. Love, love, love it!
21. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - it gets even better every time.
22. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
23. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (re-read)
24. Percy Jackson and the Olympians 2: Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
25. Lady Susan by Jane Austen - An Austen novel I had never read before!
26. Small Island by Andrea Levy
27. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
28. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
29. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Ringler
30. Wuthering Heights (reread) - by Emily Bronte
31. Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
32. A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 34 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen
33. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
34. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
35. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
36. Jane Austens Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders by Josephine Ross
37. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
38. The Warden by Anthony Trollope
39. The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James
40. Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff
41. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
42. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
43. Romeo and Juliet the graphic novel
44. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (re-read)
45. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
46. The Likeness by Tana French
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