Monday, January 17, 2011

20 Books Read in 2010

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 was to read 20 books.

1. The Luxe This is the first of four books in a young adult series. It's about New York high society at the turn of the century. Interesting take on friendship and dating/marriage withing the confines of the world of the very well to do. Quick read. Great for a vacation.

2. Rumors This is the second book in the Luxe series. Still interesting, more scandal, a little shock. Entertaining.

3. Fables: Legends in Exile This was my first graphic novel. Cool story. Not sure that I'm sold on the graphic novel format though. I like it, but I think I'll only read it on occasion. Although, maybe I'll pick up the next few in the series to read during school.
4. Chasing Harry Winston Great vacation read again. Classic chick lit by the author of Devil Wears Prada. Love the differences between the three main characters. Such different worlds, but such good friends. I think that happens. It's hard not to grow apart, but good friends are worth it.
5. A Lion Among Men This is the third book in the Wicked series (Wicked, Son of a Witch). Pretty good story of the Cowardly Lion. I like the cowardly lion as a character and the details of Oz from a different perspective. I enjoyed the first two books in the series, so this was an easy choice to pick up.
6. Miracle at St. Anna This one wasn't really what I expected. Not nearly as heavy into the war details as it could have been.

7. The Automatic Millionaire Good approach to finances and saving. More of what we should be doing for sure.

8. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner I'm one of those people who are totally caught up in the Twilight craze. I'm not embarrassed to admit it, well not too embarrassed anyway. I liked the short format of the story, and the more in-depth look at one of the side characters. What I'd really like to see is a novella for each of the main vampire characters. Let's read more about Emmet or Alice or Esme. Stephenie Meyer if you're reading this, it'd be a great idea.
9. Envy This is the third book of the Luxe series. More characters are being brought in, and there's a twist I didn't see coming. Love it when books surprise me- even books for teenagers.

10. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Totally entertaining. What if slavery was really about vampires? Crazy take on a volatile subject. But a funny look at a sequence of events that actually happened. Not quite as good as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but a similarly fun read.

11. The Colorado Kid Interesting book. Not at all what I'm used to from Stephen King. Not scary at all. Very much a crime/mystery novel. Not sure that I'm a huge fan of the ending, but that happens every now and again.

12. Winter Garden This book was awesome. One of my VPs at work lent it to me. Amazing story about family and the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories that no one tells. Wonderful look at the mother/child relationship. I cried, several times. It was such a good book.

13. The Link There's no link to this book. It's an antique, and really it was awful. Even if there was a link I wouldn't share it. About 5 pages in I decided that the main character was a sociopath. That made the remaining 200-plus pages very difficult to get through. Not a good read.

14. Swan Lake Love this story. It's beautifully written, and the illustrations in this version are striking. I'd already been gearing up for Black Swan, so this was a natural choice to pick up off the shelf. es it's a kid's book, but in the middle of reading for econ I needed something a little less intense.

15. A Little Princess Again, some beautiful illustrations. Tasha Tudor has a great style to compliment classic British children's literature. My parents bought me this version of the book when I was little. We were on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells and we'd gone to a theme park called Story Book Gardens. It was all fairy tale themed. I loved it, and yes, Mom, I remember that. :-) I also have the copy of The Secret Garden with the same illustrator. 

16. The Old Man and the Sea It's a classic, and I totally have a thing for Hemingway. I'm impressed by the respect the old man has for the fish, and for the fight.

17. Blink Whether or not you agree with anything Malcom Gladwell says in his books, he's an entertaining author. I don't know how much credence I really put into the theories, but I like to think that I've got some good intuition. Maybe I could benefit from listening to my gut more often than I do.

If you don't count the reading I had to do for school, I only hit 17 books. Still, not too shabby considering that I started grad school. But if you count the books I actually read all of for school, that gets me to 20. I'd rather have been reading something else, but it does get me to the full 20 of the goal. What's disappointing are the four other books that I only got through half of for school. They weren't any more exciting than the titles finishing up the list, but it was a lot of reading and I'd like to have something more to show for it.

18. How to Read a Financial Report
19. Economics of Strategy
20. Financial Economics

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