Books Read in 2010

This is the list of the 114 books I read in 2010, in the order that I read them. For an explanation of my rating system, see here.

There is not much rhyme or reason to whether I review a book or not.  Some of my favorite books go without a review, like both the Kate Atkinson books I read in 2010. 

If you have reviewed any of the book I reviewed, and you would like your review listed on mine, please leave a comment on my review post for that book with a link to your review and I will add it.

2010 BOOKS

The New Confessions by William Boyd (reviewed here; 4/5)

36 Yalta Boulevard by Olen Steingard (3.5/5)

One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here; 4/5) 

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (reviewed here; 4/5)

A Very Private Plot by William F. Buckley, Jr. (3/5)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (3.5/5)

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White (reviewed here; 4/5)

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (4/5)

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (4/5)

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here; 4/5)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (3.5/5)

Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke (reviewed here; 3/5)

Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire by Mireille Guiliano (3/5)

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (2.5/5)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (4.5/5)

My Life in France by Julia Child (reviewed here) (4.5/5)

Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow (reviewed here) (2.5/5)

New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith (3/5)

Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (3/5)

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster (reviewed here; 4/5)

An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (reviewed here; 4/5)

Trading Up by Candace Bushnell (3/5)

Three Loves by A. J. Cronin (reviewed here; 3/5)

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (reviewed here; 4/5)

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (reviewed here; 4/5)

City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary by David Oates (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (reviewed here; 5/5)

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Second Wind by Dick Francis (reviewed here; 3/5)

Leaving Brooklyn by Lynn Sharon Schwartz (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Marmot Drive by John Hersey (reviewed here; 3/5)

Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake (reviewed here; 4/5)

A Year in the World by Frances Mayes (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

A Small Fortune by Audrey Braun (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain, published by Words Without Borders Anthologies (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

L'Affaire by Diane Johnson (3/5)

Whose Body? by Dorthy L. Sayers (3.5/5)

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney (5/5)

The Farmer's Daughter  by Jim Harrison (reviewed here; 3.5/5)


Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Red Tent  by Anita Diamant (2.5/5)

Corked by Kathryn Borel (reviewed here; 3/5)

The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (3.5/5)

Indian Summer by John Knowles (reviewed here; 3/5)

Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oats (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

On Drink by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here; 3.5/5) 

Every Day Drinking by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here; 3/5)

How's Your Glass? by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here; 2.5/5)

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here; 4/5)

Clown Girl by Monica Drake (reviewed here; 3/5)

Under Orders by Dick Francis (3/5)

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks (reviewed here; 4/5)

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Cover Her Face by P. D. James (3.5/5)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (5/5)

Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (reviewed here; 3/5)

McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon by Joseph Mitchell (reviewed here; 4.5/5)*

Old Mr. Flood by Joseph Mitchell (reviewed here; 4/5)*

The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell (reviewed here; 4.5/5)*

Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell (reviewed here; 4/5)*

A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher (3/5)

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (reviewed here; 4/5)

Small Island by Andrea Levy (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Down River by John Hart (3.5/5)

Invitation to Provence by Elizabeth Adler (3/5)

Valley of the Dolls  by Jacqueline Susann (reviewed here; 2/5)

This is Water by David Foster Wallace (3/5)

The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (reviewed here; 4/5)

The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt by Rulke Langer (reviewed here; 4/5)

Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories by Scott Nadelson (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Every Bitter Thing by Leighton Gage (reviewed here; 3/5)

Venusberg by Anthony Powell (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby (3.5/5)

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (4/5)

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Letham (reviewed here; 3/5)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (reviewed here; 4/5)

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham (reviewed here; 4/5)

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child (3.5/5)

Peaceful Places, New York City by Evelyn Kanter (reviewed here) (3.5/5)

Burmese Lessons: A True Love Story by Karen Connelly (reviewed here; 3/5)

The Truth About Obamacare by Sally pipes (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (3.5/5)

Food Lover's Guide to Portland by Liz Crain (reviewed here; 4/5)

Echoes by Maeve Binchy (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Proof by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux (4.5/5)

The Case Has Altered by Martha Grimes (3/5)

The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (3.5/5)

Enquiry by Dick Francis (3/5)

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming (3.5/5)

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber (reviewed here; 4/5)

Olive Kitteridge is Elizabeth Strout (reviewed here; 3/5)

Another Way the River Has by Robin Cody (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss (reviewed here; 3/5)

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Return of the King  by J. R. R. Tolkien (4/5)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (4/5)

Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake (reviewed here; 2/5)

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (reviewed here; 4.5/5)

The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken (reviewed here; 4/5)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (3/5)

The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos (notes here; 2.5/5)

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (3.5/5)

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (3.5/5)

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (3.5/5)

The Palace Council by Stephen Carter (3.5/5)


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  by Mary Ann Shaffer (reviewed here; 4/5)

NOTES

* Published in their entirety in a collection called Up in the Old Hotel, which also included five additional essays and two more short stories.