Farewell to 2010

While 2010 hasn't shaped up to be as wonderful for the blog, it has been a great year for me personally. My reading and this blog have suffered during the last four months as my husband and I lived in my brother's basement, waiting out the construction of our new home. But, I now sit in my new office, in our new home, to type and reflect on this year. Totally worth it!

I'm going to save my "what I'll do for 2011"'s for tomorrow, so for today I'll share with you my "best of's" for 2010.

Top Five Reads from 2010:

Cutting for Stone: I have yet to meet anyone who hasn't loved this book. My book club read it, and I attended a book discussion with a group of female physicians who also loved it. It was interesting to be a part of their discussion - and they were interested in if "non-physicians" appreciated it. Among some of the interesting tidbits I learned from the physicians were characters who were named after notable clinicians related to the medical story. 

The Outcast and Fingersmith: Everything that I love about the dark and weird. These were both "new to me authors" that I'll be reading more of.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog: I loved the characters, and I love when I feel challenged by a book; the vocabulary of this one certainly did that. 

The Handmaid's Tale and A Prayer for Owen Meany: (ok, top 6!) These are author's I've read before, but who demonstrated why I return to them in very moving narratives. 

Top Five ARC's for 2010

While I definitely have more ARC's on my shelves than I can handle, I enjoyed some really good new releases this year. My top picks for what were for me ARC's:

Fireworks over Toccoa: This is one of my favorites of the year, as much for the experience as the story. I've really enjoyed my interactions with Jeffrey Stepakoff, and his wife. I look forward to reading more of both!

My Name is Memory and Captivity: Both encourage their readers to suspend disbelief, but in wonderfully entertaining ways.  

The Distant Hours: A classic gothic tale that had me mentally reviewing my notes from my literature class on the genre. 

The Wife's Tale: My first read of the year and still the main character stays with me. 

Top Five Audio Books for 2010:

People of the Book

Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy

The Graveyard Book

On Chisel Beach

The Hour I First Believed

Book Review :: Fingersmith

You know that feel of wanting to devour a book? Of wanting to put off everything – work, sleep, food – in order to just have a few more minutes to read a few more pages? This was what Sarah Water’s Fingersmith was to me.

It is edgy Victorian. A darker version of a British Annie. A novel for a female Dickins. And, it is delightful.

Seventeen year old Susan Trinder has been raised in a house of thieves by Mrs. Sucksby, who often takes in orphans. Unlike other orphans, Sue has been doted on her whole life. When Mr. Rivers, or the Gentleman as Sue knows the frequent visitor, arrives at the house late one evening, the story begins – or so Sue says.

Mr. Rivers has met a young girl in the country (Maud Lilly) who lives with her bachelor uncle and is heir to a fortune if only she can catch a husband. For a mere three thousand pounds, Sue agrees to pass herself off as a potential maid to the young girl in order to help Mr. Rivers win her heart. Once the marriage has been consummated, Sue will further help Mr. Rivers have Maud committed to an asylum so that he is free to live with his lavish wealth. Sue can return home in time for her eighteenth birthday.

Once Mr. Rivers' plot is in action, the narrative twists begin. There are several major turns and many minor ones; so many that perhaps one criticism might be that the reader is at times unsure of what to trust. However, this didn’t both me. The primary characters – Sue and Maud, who each have a turn as narrator – are so well developed, such round creatures, that the twists only served to create more facets for them. 

Short listed for both the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize, Fingersmith has made me a fan of Sarah Waters.

Book Review :: A Prayer for Owen Meany

This year I've been contemplating my approach to reading as a means of getting better as a writer. There are a few novelists who have risen to the top in my personal opinion poll, and I'm thinking about setting goals around reading everything that they've written. If he wasn't so prolific, John Irving would be one of them, and A Prayer for Owen Meany is a prime example of his quality as a writer.

A Prayer for Owen Meany has been around for a while. It is the story of John Wheelwright and his friend, Owen Meany, who believes he is an instrument of God. The story is told alternating between present day and non sequential narratives of their childhood growing up. For those who may have seen the movie Simon Birch, that is based on the first part of this book.

I would venture to guess that of those who have read this book, Owen Meany would make a top 10 list of memorable characters. If his physical description isn't enough (extremely petite with translucent skin), the ALL CAPS representation of his voice to illustrate a abnormally loud, high-pitch squeal is. (Initially, I thought this would be annoying and disruptive, but I adjusted, and it wasn't.)

Owen lives life focused on his death - an event he has had visions of and actually writes about in a journal that the narrator, John, reads after Owen dies. This permeates a theme of fate versus free will throughout, which is furthered by other religious topics of Christ-figures and virgin births.

While this may sound heavy - and at times it is - John Irving is funny. Laugh out loud funny. In a story where a stuffed armadillo and a human size mannequin play significant parts in their symbolism, how could a reader not smile? But, there is also much that is sweet and tender in these two boys as they strive to grow up, learn where they came from and where they are going, and what they mean to one another.

Secret Santa Loot!

Thanksgiving hadn't even come & gone when a referb'd Amazon box arrived addressed to me. The return address was unfamiliar, but bore the auspicious "SS" of a Secret Santa.

Under some circumstances, I might be tempted to say "I'm going to wait to open this until December 25." However, this year with the impending move, who knows if I could even keep up with the box until then, so I opened immediately!

I was DELIGHTED to find Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light inside. This has been on my TBR list for awhile, and a recent review made me accelerate it's status to MAS ("must acquire soon.") Also included was a beautiful journal. I've been a journalist (as in, carries one with me most everywhere I go) most of my life, and I love the look and feel of a fresh new one! The cover on this one portends fantasy/dreams, so perhaps I will use this as a dream journal.

So many, many thanks to my anonymous Secret Santa! I'll be mailing my package out in a day or so, and I hope my giftee enjoys her package as much as I did mine!