Top Ten Books for 2010

"Reading gives us someplace to go
when we have to stay where we are."
Mason Cooley

I am always curious what the top books of the year are so I checked out several lists to see what were listed. Based on what books were on the lists, and what I have read over the year, here is my favorite top ten of 2010.

Top Ten Books of 2010~~~

Fiction~~

1) Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

2) Room by Emma Donoghue **

3) A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan***

4) The Help by Cathryn Stockett*

5) Faithful Place by Tana French***

6) Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre***

7) The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann*

8) The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall*

9) Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes***

10) Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson***

Non-Fiction~~


1) Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

2) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand**

3) Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain***


4) Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff*


5) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot***

6) The Last Boy: Mantle Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy**


7) Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee


8) Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol I by Mark Twain*


9) Just Kids by Patti Smith

10) Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre***

Mystery/Crime~~

1) Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane***


2) Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny***


3) Man from Beijing by Henning Mankill*

4) The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke***


5) The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo***


6) Midnight House by Alex Berenson***


7) The Red Door by Charles Todd*


8) Stieg Larsson Trilogy:
A) The Girl With  Tattoo**                                                            
B) The Girl Who Played With Fire**

C) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest*

9) Still Missing by Chevy Stevens*

10) The Scent of Rain and Lightening by Nancy Pickard***



Romance/Paranormal Romance~~



1) Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas


2) Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

3) Summer Hideaway by Susan Wiggs**


4) Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie**


5) Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts


6) Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole***

7) Lover Mine: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J. R. Ward

8) Shadowfever (Fever Series #5) by Karen Marie Moning***

9) Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse series #10) by Charlaine Harris***


10) The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter***




The ones I read have an ***; I put a * by the ones that I want to read; and the ones I am not sure about, I put nothing.

I must say, I surprised myself with my taste for romance...I never realized how much I seem to enjoy the paranormal. Hey, a walk on the wild side every so often is never a bad thing...

Any of these on your top ten list for 2010? Which ones have you read? Do you agree with the books on the top ten? Which ones would you read?

Happy Reading!

Dead and Gone

"I have never met a vampire personally,

but I don't know what might happen tomorrow."
Bela Lugosi

Dead and Gone
by Charlaine Harris

I just finished the latest book in one of my favorite series and loved it. I have mentioned this series before, the Sookie Stakehouse series by Charlaine Harris. This is one I always look forward to and can count on enjoying.

The vampires have been "out" to the public for a few years. There is nothing for humans to fear, because the Japanese invented a special drink, True Blood, which after 30 seconds in the microwave is almost like the real thing and this way the vamps don't need to "feed" on humans. Since the vamps have matriculated pretty well, other supernatural beings have decided to come "out." The weres and the shifters have decided it's time for the world to know they exist too. Sookie is working at Merlotte's Bar when it appears that time is now. There, on live television, everyone watches as a young girl changes into a werewolf, then in the bar, people watch as some of their bar buddies change into, well, their animal shape. Shifters can change into dogs, cats, horses...who knew that besides werewolves, there were wereseals?

Wereeagles?Werepanthers? Werepigs...the list goes on and on! It seems that weres can be just about any animal. Some are born this way, others are "bitten" into it. Only the eldest child of a pure blood shifter couple will be a shifter. Unlike with vampires, you can't be born a vampire, you have to be bitten to become one. After the initial shock of who has been living next door to them starts to wear off, it appears that while most people can live with strange beings, not everyone is okay with it...one husband shoots his wife when she changes in front of him-since he had no idea he was married to someone who could change into a dog-it came as a big shock to him. When a female werepanther is found dead, the hope for a understanding and being able to all just get along seems to be slim.
Besides dealing with trying to stop the weres from going to war over the death of one of their own, telepathic Sookie has the FBI interested in her abilities, there is a rebel uprising among the fairies, the vampires are in the mist of a political overhaul and Sookie has to grapple with her feelings for Eric, the viking vampire.
Vampires, shifters, weres, fairies, alcoholics, murder, sex, the FBI, and oh yeah...a little romance. What more can you ask for? Take a visit on the supernatural side.
So much going on in Bon Temps, Louisiana with one person involved in the midst of it all: Sookie Stackhouse. The life of our favorite waitress is never dull!