A Slightly Late Book List

So I really enjoyed reading everyone’s year-ending/year-beginning posts:  favorite books of 2010, picture recaps, favorite recipes or new goals. I want to do some of these posts…it’s not too late, right?

Top Ten Books of 2010:

…in no particular order.  These are books that either made me want to read all day, or change myself in some way or caused me to think long after I was done.  I don’t give synopses, because I like to be completely surprised when I read a book but I’ll give a little review for each.

1. Room by Emma Donoghue (adult fiction)

--genius writing about a horrible situation.  Don’t be put off by the situation or the child’s-viewpoint writing…it’s well-done and is worth every nail you bite.

2. Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (self-help non-fiction)

--aw, Faith.  How would we be surviving without the wisdom of this book??

3.  The Giver by Lois Lowry (children’s fiction)

--this is my 4th reading of this fabulous book.  This time I read it to my kids and it was instructional, interesting, chilling, thought-provoking.

4.  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (non-fiction)

--Probably my most quoted book of the year.  It’s the book I bring up on dates with Ryan, in conversations at the dinner table, on runs with friends.  Ryan says the author’s extrapolation with statistics was a little much…whatever, Mr. Engineer—I’m a believer.

5.  The whole Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (Young Adult Fiction)

--addicting, cannot-put-it-down fiction (with a good moral, too.)

6.  Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott (memoir non-fiction)

--laugh out loud funny.  It was refreshing to see myself and true goodness in someone completely unlike me. 

7.  Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (classic fiction)

--So fun to lose myself in a long, wordy tale of another time and culture.  Very Dickensian.

8.  The China Study by Thomas Campbell (educational non-fiction)

--I didn’t want to be convinced.  I was.

9.  Still Alice by Lisa Genova(adult fiction)

--The author knows her stuff.  The emotions were true to life, the situation felt real.  I actually cried during this one.  It’s a book that makes you cherish your life.

10.  In the Woods by Tana French (mystery fiction)

--Ireland+good writing+murder mystery+good characters.  Really…what’s not to like?