My goal for 2010 was to read 100 books. I joined the Goodreads.com group "100 books + in 2010". I didn't meet my goal, but did read 86 books last year. Here's a run-down of the best and worst:
Best
Non-fiction
Portrait of a Killer by Cornwell
Spook by Roach
Killer Colt by Schechter
The Turk by Standage
Pulitzer by Morris
The first three listed are all about death and murder--fascinating subjects. Cornwell and Schechter explore murderers of the distant past and not only dig up new facts, but place before the reader a complete picture of the time and place in which the crimes were committed. Roach's work is a search for proof of the afterlife. She travels across the world to speak to the family of a reincarnated boy and then to my own North Carolina to see the descendants of a man whose ghost informed his heirs of a hidden will. But it's not Roach's experiences and research that provide most of the entertainment; it's her own sharp and hilarious wit. Nearly every page seems to have an outrageous footnote of what she was thinking while researching or writing that particular chapter.
The Turk is the story of a chess playing machine built long before he days of robots and computers. But everything is not as it seems.
Pulitzer is an excellent biography of--you guessed it--Joseph Pulitzer, the man who changed America with his manipulation of the press.
Fiction
Hypothermia by Indridason
Water for Elephants by Gruen
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Grant
Ethan Frome by Wharton
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Chevalier
White Oleander by Fitch
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Clarke
Other than Ethan Frome, the best fiction I read this year was all modern. Gruen, Grant, Chevalier and Fitch are all female writers who create worlds full of mystery and vivid characters. Hypothermia is a dark, chilly Nordic crime book. Arsonist's Guide is an ironic, strange work about a man who just can't get a break.
Worst
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by le Carre
The Murder of King Tut by Patterson
The Brief History of the Dead by Brockmeier
The "Dark Side" of American Politics by Half-Lady Lisa
The Gods of Newport by Jakes
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is, of course, THE spy novel. That must mean that spy novels make you want to tear your hair out with boredom. There was not a single character I cared about or wanted to understand more deeply, which is good because they were all one-dimensional and there simply wasn't anything under the surface for me to delve into.
The other four books on the Worst list don't even merit an individual description. They are simply either badly written or very badly written.
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