2010

2010 in Books

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed /

Let’s see how I did this year:

229 books (I read 163 books last year)

31 were Non-Fiction

80 were YA

20 were Graphic Novels

Only 8 were audio books, that seems pretty low.

8 were short stories (and those short stories almost killed me.)

Only 6 were poetry (and most of those were Cybils… hmmm)

I dropped 114 in the “Favorites” category (which feels like a lot – except that some were Nancy Drews and several were from the Cybils shortlist and those are all really great books, every year.)

I put 10 in the “Don’t Read This” category and I couldn’t finish 3 books that I tried to read.

20 were for the Nancy Drew Challenge

9 Were for the From the Stacks by Color Challenge

71 Were from the Cybils Shortlist – I didn’t quite finish the short list this year, I’ve been waiting for one book to come in for six months. I may never read it because I can’t bring myself to buy it.

3 Were for the 1930’s Mini Challenge

So what should I do about reading challenges in 2011? I’ll let you know tomorrow – after I sleep on this…

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The Girl with the Mermaid Hair

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

I’m not sure this was the best book to finish up the 2010 reading year. It was… kind of depressing. The Girl with the Mermaid Hair was about a screwed up family – a “perfect daughter” who wasn’t starving but she was seriously sabotaging herself. And, there was an evil magic mirror involved too. It all ended well. Or pretty well. But it was rough going for awhile.

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The Beef Princess of Practical County

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

I think I picked up The Beef Princess of Practical County because I liked the title and the cover. I can’t remember seeing it blogged anywhere or recommended by anyone. It’s a nice little book about a girl whose family has a cattle ranch in Indiana. She’s 12 and this will be the first year she raises her own calves and takes one to the fair – which means the heartbreak of sending her calves to slaughter… sniff, sniff.

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My Red Blood

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Queer, Women /

At the beginning of the book, Dobkins makes a point of saying that My Red Blood is NOT about her being a lesbian and boy was she right. It’s barely about her being a feminist. I could be disappointed about that but I’m not because what came before was just as interesting as what came after. And for what came after, well that’s pretty easy to put together even if Alix doesn’t write part two of her memoirs.

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The Neighbors are Watching

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

Thank you @Firemom for posting about Debra Ginsberg’s newest book, The Neighbors are Watching. I’m a big fan of Ginsberg but had completely missed the launch of this one. After reading it – I’m still a Ginsberg fan.

This is what happens when you don’t know your neighbors. Or your own kids. Or your spouse or partner. This is what happens when you aren’t paying attention.

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The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

I was worried about The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay – too many glowing reviews, too many big authors praising the book, the author died before it was published – I was afraid it wasn’t going to live up to its hype, ya know?

Thank goodness, it wasn’t a letdown. I really liked Idella and Avis. I think I’d have probably liked Emma, too, if I’d gotten to know her. And Maddie, what happened to Maddie? That’s a story all in itself and I’m sad that we’ll not find out what happened.

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Front and Center

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

When my library re-opened, I spent awhile reserving books that were on my Amazon wishlist – books that were coming out but not available for reserve and sequels to series we’ve started but fallen behind on. Front and Center was from the series we’d fallen behind on – and I remember why we fell behind, I don’t really love DJ. I really liked her in the first book and liked her very little in book two. In book three… I barely liked her at all.  I am glad she made the decision that she did (finally) make about where to go to college.  I liked that storyline – I just wished I liked DJ better. 😉

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The Lonely Hearts Club

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Remember awhile back when I was bemoaning the lack of lesbian lit available at the library only to discover several books with serious lesbian themes were already on my library cart? Well one of the books that WAS available at the library was The Lonely Hearts Club and I did reserve it. How could I not – it’s been a long time since I read a steamy lesbian love story, and Radclyffe DOES write a GREAT steamy lesbian love story.

Something interesting to note… back in the day, lesbian lit was all about coming out. Or all about the OUT lesbian falling for the not yet out lesbian. Now, everything I read is about lesbians who are totally OUT and they all seem to be having babies or thinking about having babies.  Interesting, right?

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The Splendor Falls

2010, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m a fan of Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Maggie Quinn series and only discovered The Splendor Falls by accident, when I was looking to see if there’s a new Maggie book… I knew this wasn’t related to Maggie in any way but I don’t think I expected it to contain anything paranormal or supernatural. I thought maybe it was a straight YA romance or something… my library copy has a purple rose on the cover and it really looks romance-y. And it is a romance but it’s got some freaky ghost things going on, too.

I liked it but it was long – a little too long, maybe. I just wanted the story to move a long a little bit and then when it did move along, it rushed the ending. Can I get just a wee little rewrite? Heh.

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Up From the Blue

2010, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I really liked this book but I didn’t enjoy reading it. DEPRESSING – from page one it was depressing. But then again, it was about depression and dysfunctional families and plain ole dysfunction. The only problem was that I never felt like anyone EVER came “Up from the Blue” and I kept hoping someone would. Preferably the mother before she killed herself but anyone really would have been fine. Alas… no. It was a very unsatisfying ending and just left me blue.

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