Books of 2010

[brigdh]

I did not manage to post this back in the approximately three days of internet access I had in January. So now, super late: Books I Read In 2010!

I read 118 books, which is a bit less than usual, but then I had a pretty busy year, including comprehensive exams, which lead to me reading a lot more articles and fewer books. I failed at 50books_poc, reading only 34 books by people of color. I also failed at my goal to read 50 books about archaeology, ending at 22. I did read 56 books by women, so, uh, that's good. In general, I've been reading a lot more non-fiction than I used to, and when I do read fiction, there's a lot of historical stuff and less fantasy/sci-fi (though not entirely!). I also read a lot of really weird, random shit last year, due to getting a Nook and reading whatever ebooks I could find easily. Feel free to ask me for my opinion on any title! I love talking about books.


(books marked with a * are by POC; books marked with a A are archaeology)
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind - V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee 1/4*
Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe that Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign - Stephen Talty 1/6
Wide Saragasso Sea - Jean Rhys 1/8
Lucy - Jamaica Kincaid 1/9*
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz 1/12*
Spice: The History of a Temptation - Jack Turner 1/15
Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique - Eds. Matthew Liebmann and Uzma Z. Rizvi 1/19* A
The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society - Rita Wright 1/23 A
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 1/24*
Feminista - Erica Kennedy 1/27*
Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body - Armand Marie Leroi 1/29
Understanding Early Civilizations - Bruce Trigger 1/31 A
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett 2/4
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Charles Mann 2/12 A
From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet - Vikram Seth 2/14*
The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2/15*
Inda - Sherwood Smith 2/18
Are All Warriors Male? Gender Roles on the Ancient Eurasian Steppe - Eds. Katheryn Linduff and Karen Rubinson 2/18 A
Liar - Justine Larbalestier 2/19
The New Archaeology and Aftermath: A View From Outside the Anglo-American World - K. Paddayya 2/22* A
The Fox - Sherwood Smith 2/25
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemisin 2/27*
The Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective - Eds. Marcello Canuto and Jason Yaeger 3/2 A
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World - Eric Weiner 3/10
Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian 3/11
The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History - Jan Bondeson 3/14
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson 3/24
Envy - Anna Godbersen 3/26
Spineless Wonders: Strange Tales from the Invertebrate World - Richard Conniff 3/29
Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And Other Unusual Natural Histories - Marty Crump 4/7
Under the Big Top: A Season with the Circus - Bruce Feiler 4/17
Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science - Richard Preston 4/20
Splendor - Anna Godbersen 4/21
Talking Dirty to the Gods - Yusef Komunyakaa 4/25*
Martin's Hundred - Ivor Noel Hume 4/26 A
King's Shield - Sherwood Smith 4/30
Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior - Kate Fox 5/7
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them - Elif Batuman 5/9*
Enquiries into the Political Organization of Harappan Society - Shereen Ratnagar 5/11* A
Good Enough - Paula Yoo 5/12*
Wench - Dolen Perkins-Valdez 5/16*
What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life - Avery Gilbert 5/18
A Coalition of Lions - Elizabeth E. Wein 5/21
God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World - and Why Their Differences Matter - Stephen Prothero 5/25
The Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe - Nancy Goldstone 5/27
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady - L.A. Meyer 6/4
Socialising Complexity: Approachs to Power and Interaction in the Archaeological Record - Eds. Shelia Kohring and Stephanie Wynne-Jones 6/6 A
The External Trade of the Indus Civilization - Dilip K. Chakrabarti 6/13* A
Alcestis - Katharine Beutner 6/21
The Mahabharata: a Modern Rendering - Trad. Vyasa (also a character), really, unknown and probably multiple, trans. Ramesh Menon 6/30*
Frederica - Georgette Heyer 6/28 (reread, audiobook)
Bitten: True Medical Stories of Bites and Stings - Pamela Nagami 7/2
The Archaeology of Power - John M. Steane 7/2 A
Treason's Shore - Sherwood Smith 7/5
In Great Waters - Kit Whitfield 7/7
The Elephant, The Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, The Emerging 21st Century Power - Shashi Tharoor 7/10*
A History of Wales - John Davies 7/15
Speaks the Nightbird - Robert McCammon 7/20
These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer 7/23 (reread)
Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong - James W. Loewen 7/26
Buffy Season 8 Comics: The Long Way Home 7/27
Buffy Season 8 Comics: The Chain 7/27
Slyvester - Georgette Heyer 7/29 (reread, audiobook)
The Farming of Bones - Edwidge Danticat 7/30*
The Marrige Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama 7/30*
The State in India: Past and Present - Eds. Masaaki Kimura and Akio Tanabe 8/1* A
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language - Katherine Russell Rich 8/2
Sacred Games - Vikram Chandra 8/22*
Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India - Gita Mehta 8/23*
Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective - Ed. Gregory Possehl 8/24 A
A Good Indian Wife - Anne Cherian 8/26*
Annie on My Mind - Nancy Garden 9/2
Midnight Never Come - Marie Brennan 9/8
Blonde Roots - Bernardine Evaristo 9/9*
Magic of Twilight - S.L. Farrell 9/19
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Volume 1) - Bryan Lee O'Malley 9/20*
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Volume 2) - Bryan Lee O'Malley 9/20*
Cold Magic - Kate Elliott 9/24
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris 9/25 (audiobook)
Wildthorn - Jane Eagland 9/27
Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World - Marlene Zuk 9/29
Asian Dining Rules: Essential Strategies for Eating Out at Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Indian Restaurants - Steven A. Shaw 9/30
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex - Mary Roach 10/4
Salem's Lot - Stephen King 10/8 (reread)
The Red Tree - Caitlin R. Kiernan 10/10
Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill 10/14
Pottery in the Making: World Ceramic Traditions - Eds. Ian Freestone and David Gaimster 10/14 A
The Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett 10/15
Fledgling - Octavia Butler 10/17*
The Politics of the Past - P. Gathercole and D. Lowenthal 10/19 A
Devil's Kiss - Sarwat Chadda 10/20*
Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives: Sex, Gender, and Archaeology - R.A. Joyce 10/25 A
Drood - Dan Simmons 10/26
The Observations - Jane Harris 10/29
Archaeological Chemistry, 2nd ed. - A. Mark Pollard and C. Heron 10/30 A
Hunger - Jackie Morse Kessler 11/1
Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 4th ed. - Kenneth Feder 11/3 A
Liquor - Poppy Z. Brite 11/3
Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food - Jeff Potter 11/4
Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work - Tim Gunn 11/6
The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Context - S. Kane 11/8 A
Analytical Chemistry in Archaeology - A.M. Pollard, C.M. Batt, B. Stern, S.M.M. Young 11/9 A
Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner 11/11 (reread)
Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East - Pico Iyer 11/16*
The Mistress of Spices - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 11/16*
Brick Lane - Monica Ali 11/23*
Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen 11/30
When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris 12/4 (reread, audiobook)
A Sorcerer and a Gentleman - Elizabeth Willey 12/6
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom - bell hooks 12/7*
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris 12/9 (reread, audiobook)
Beyond Art: Upper Paleolithic Symbolism - Ed. D. Stratmann, M. Conkey, and O. Soffer 12/9 A
H.M.S. Surprise - Patrick O'Brian 12/11
The Painter of Signs - R.K. Narayan 12/14*
Bright Young Things - Anna Godbersen 12/14
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them - Francine Prose 12/21
Flesh and Spirit - Carol Berg 12/24
Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race - John Stewart 12/26


Bests and Worsts, in order of awesomeness (or horribleness):
5 Worst Books of the Year:
1. A History of Wales - John Davies. It's kind of hard for a non-fiction book to be particularly terrible, especially when it's a straightforward history. But this book, JFC SO BAD. It is every worst stereotype of history as "just names and dates" taken to a ridiculous extreme, and then with graphs of coal production added. The author literally seems to go out of his way to avoid anything interesting; my particular favorite was when he mentioned a mine strike due to 'inhuman' practices of the owners, and then DOES NOT TELL YOU WHAT THOSE PRACTICES WERE. ;SIF9UP9UASD8U!?7?!?1 This book is 900 pages of that.
2. Speaks the Nightbird - Robert McCammon. The premise of this book is not so bad: detective solves a mystery in early colonial America involving accusations of witchcraft! Except that the main character is the worst example of Marty Sue/author wish-fulfillment/special snowflake that I could imagine. It's just constant scenes of "of couuuuurse every female in love with him!" "of couuuuurse he wittily outsmarts every other character!" "of couuuuurse he can outfight everyone!" etc etc etc. And then there was the special scene where he encounters a Native American chief who speaks fluent French because his grandfather met a French trader (yeah, whatever) and the language has been passed done through the generations because it is the language of kings (SIGH, ALSO PRETTY SURE THAT'S NOT HOW LANGUAGE LEARNING WORKS) and yet he doesn't know the word for mercy (YES THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK OMGWTFBBQ).
3. Drood - Dan Simmons. Interesting premise (Charles Dickens was secretly a serial killer!) that gets progressivly dumber as it proceeds. The first hundred pages or so were actually good, but then the author gets too caught up in his 'is this really happening or is it an opium dream of the narrator!?!?!' game to make sense or be enjoyable.
4. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris. I've only been reading the Sookie Stackhouse books after watching the corresponding True Blood season. Generally I've preferred the show to the books, but this one really won for an appalling rape scene that is instantly forgiven because the rapist (a vampire) was suffering blood loss and so 'couldn't help himself', plus endless discussion of how werewolves are "real men".
5. Magic of Twilight - S.L. Farrell. Look, I read a lot of fantasy. You want to make up new names for your countries or gods? Totally justifiable. Want to make up weird personal names for your characters? Annoying, but fine. Making up new names for concepts such as 'mother' and 'father'? Now you've gone too far.


5 Best Books of the Year:
1. Inda series - Sherwood Smith. Amazing world-building! Culture clash! Interesting female characters! Politics that are actually complex and difficult, as opposed to just being told that they are! MOST IMPORTANTLY: BISEXUAL POLY PIRATES OMG YES.
2. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth. I wrote a whole review of this book here, and continue to love it to pieces. I've sought out some other stuff by the author, and he is just a fantastic writer.
3. In Great Waters - Kit Whitfield. ELIZABETHAN MERMAIDS. Man, I read a lot of id-tastic books last year. But this one was great: really, really interesting world-building, and she really follows through on the consequences of her original premise.
4. The Red Tree- Caitlin R. Kiernan. I adore horror novels, and this is the first one I've read in a long time that actually scared me. Bonus points for a lesbian main character.
5. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz. Funny and smart and sad and perfect. Basically everything everyone else has already said about this book. Excellent.


For 2011, I've kind of vaguely been continuing to attempt the 50books_poc challenge, although I'm clearly way behind in posting reviews. I also decided to try and read fifty books about India, more specifically, which I'm making more progress on. Finally, I'm still trying to read a good amount of archaeology books, though there is no way I'll manage to get to fifty this year.

Comments

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

I very much want to read "The Red Tree" now! I've heard so much about it, but whenever a book is really, really hyped there's like a fifty-fifty chance I will be disappointed because the book that forms in my head is not the book that I end up readin, if that makes sense?

I am ashamed that I really, really loved Speaks the Nightbird...because now that you mention it, Matthew isn't that great of a character.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've had that same problem with too much anticipation. Luckily for me, I hadn't heard anything about it before I read it, so I got to come to it with fresh eyes.

I really liked the premise! And the beginning was pretty good! But overall, it just did not work for me.

Now you've gone too far.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

That is so fracking annoying! I smurf that! It totally spooges me!

Re: Now you've gone too far.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Club Dead looks like the only member of the worst five that I'm in any danger of reading.

All the top five books are books I'm in grave peril of reading.

Also, I would like to formally ask you for your bookshelf's hand in marriage...

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I've liked the other Sookie Stackhouse books. Not as much as I like True Blood, but they weren't terrible. But Club Dead, ugh.

I recommend all of my top five! And hee, my bookcases are taking over the apartment. I really need to stop buying so many books and take more advantage of the library.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Best public library on the planet, part of best library system in known Universe. Yes, that's quite an advantage to be taking.(To coin a phrase-I Love New York!)

In an ideal Universe, every writer would be rich, but books would all be free! In this world, books are EXPENSIVE, and writers are poor. So wrong!(It's like farming, except you can't sell off your land and move to town.)

[dipping_sauce]

5. THAT ANNOYS ME SO MUCH. URRRRGH.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!

[firebirdgrrl.livejournal.com]

"IMPORTANTLY: BISEXUAL POLY PIRATES OMG YES."

Oh yes, break me off some of that!:)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

You should totally read the Inda series! It is so good, omg.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this?
http://betterbooktitles.com/archive

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I had not seen that! Hee, it's awesome.