What I read in 2010
It's time for my annual post listing the books I read last year. Total number is up a bit from last year, because I count plays, and I had a number of those since I've been doing recording for http://librivox.org/ . I also read a bunch of new comics each week; I don't list those, or graphic novel collections, just because I don't. And I have subscriptions to The Bridge World, the ACBL Bridge Bulletin, and Asimov's Science Fiction.
January:
"Isabel Glass" (Lisa Goldstein), Daughter of Exile.
Diana Wynne Jones, The Game
Cory Doctorow, Makers
The serialization on tor.com -- I don't think I'd have read it without that.
Steven Brust, Iorich
Terence Reese, Master Play at Contract Bridge
Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road
February:
Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo's Dream
Another one for the subgenre of "our history is the result of meddling time travelers". Robinson can really write, and I enjoyed his portrait of Renaissance Italy.
Larry Cohen and Linda Lee, My Favorite 52
Sophocles, Ajax
Sophocles, Sir Richard Jebb tr., Ajax
As I've done before, this is the Greek play and a translation used as a pony. It's probably cheating to count the original play and the translation separately, but they did take separate reading.
Mike Lawrence, Play a Swiss Team of Four With Mike Lawrence
S.J. Simon, Cut for Partners
Robert L. Wolke, What Einstein Told His Barber
Science popularization that I'd gotten as a gift.
March:
David Bird and Ron Klinger, Kosher Bridge 2
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
I enjoyed this much more than I did Anathem; Stephenson's invention and interest in detail seemed to work much better when playing off a backdrop of the real world than of one he had to invent -- the real world is so much more varied than anything that one man can possibly create.
Charles Stross, The Merchants' War
Re-read, to rev up for a first read of the last two volumes in the series:
April:
Charles Stross, The Revolution Business
Charles Stross, The Trade of Queens
in which Stross kicks over all his blocks quite gleefully. With a solemn tone, but it's hard to miss the glee underneath.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Escape From Hell
Probably theologically suspect, but entertaining and page-turning, which is all I ask for. One or two scenes annoyed me with right-wing politics, but they got points back for putting the Iraq warmongers in the Pit of Evil Counselors.
Neal Stephenson, Zodiac
N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare, Henry V
Katie and I went to see a double-bill of these two, and I wanted to see how much had been cut (answer: quite a lot).
Robert Charles Wilson, Julian Comstock
May:
Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey
This was self-consciously influenced by Borges and Calvino, but was at least mildly interesting. I do have to fault the people who packaged the book and called it a novel, which it most certainly isn't.
Diane Duane, The Wizard's Dilemma
William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost
My first LibriVox play.
Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone
Diane Duane, Wizard's Holiday
Diane Duane, Wizards at War
Diane Duane, A Wizard of Mars
David Gemmell, Legend
William Shakespeare, Henry IV part 1
June:
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
Ryk E. Spoor, Grand Central Arena
Charles Stross, Rule 34
William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
July:
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Sarah Monette, Melusine
Re-reading in order to get to the last in the series.
Sarah Monette, The Virtu
George Eliot, Romola
Another one for LibriVox.
Megan Whalen Turner, The Thief
August:
Janet Kagan, Mirabile
Gerard Hill, G.G. Smorodinova, and B.L. Ulyanova, Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths
From the title it might be a children's book of some kind, mightn't it? But actually it's a coffee table book, which the Houston Museum of Natural Science was selling in connection with their Fabergé exhibition. I bought it discounted when the exhibition was about to close.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Another LibriVox, which I'm rather sad hasn't been completed and catalogued yet.
Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven
John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly, eds., The Secret History of Science Fiction
N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Jemisin re-read, the two preceding, and the Kagan were all for the "Good Reads" panel at this year's Farthing Party. I was shocked at how little I remembered of the Jemisin after only a short time. I hope my mind isn't going.
Sarah Monette, The Mirador
Frank Vine, North of the Master Solvers Club
Sarah Monette, Corambis
September:
Mary Renault, The Mask of Apollo
William Shakespeare, Henry VI part I
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
William Shakespeare, Henry VI part II
More LibriVox. My character was killed off in act I of part III, so I didn't read the whole of that play.
Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen of Attolia
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
China Miéville, The City & The City
I have read all the Hugo-winning novels not written by C.J. Cherryh, so I read this and the Bacigalupi to keep my record intact. I had trouble with the Miéville; it seems to me that the premise would support a two-pager by Borges, but not an entire novel. I couldn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief. Miéville rescued it for a while by indicating that his setup was supported by an outside power -- but then towards the end we learn more about that power, and discover that it really doesn't have any good reason to do what it does.
October:
Jane Lindskold, Five Odd Honors
Zia Mahmood, Bridge My Way
I'd read this years ago, and come to regret not buying a copy. This year when I chanced across one, I picked it up. And it led me into...
Terence Reese, Play Bridge With Reese
Friedrich Schiller, Joseph Mellish tr., Mary Stuart
Another LibriVox play. The coordinator private-messaged me offering me a role, which was a nice bit of egoboo.
Lois McMaster Bujold, CryoBurn
Euripides, Medea
Euripides, David Kovacs tr., Medea
Elizabeth Ann Hull, ed., Gateways
Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia
People online seemed to think that this was much the best of this series. I agree.
November:
Walter Jon Williams, This Is Not a Game
Megan Whalen Turner, A Conspiracy of Kings
William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
Tim Bourke, Maastricht Challenge Bridge Quiz
Charles Stross, The Fuller Memorandum
Stephen King, Just After Sunset
December:
William Shakespeare, Henry VIII
Not a LibriVox play (though people on LibriVox did do it recently) but following on seeing it at the Folger Shakespeare Library at Thanksgiving. The acting, staging, direction, music, and costumes were all top-notch; the play is minor Shakespeare and I can see why it's little performed.
William Buck, Ramayana
A novelistic retelling rather than a straight translation of the epic. An interesting look at an epic of another culture than the Greek.
William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona
John M. Ford, The Dragon Waiting
Finally got around to reading this with Andrew Plotkin's Draco Concordans handy. He didn't tell me much that I didn't already know, but the things that he did were valuable.
Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson, Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
I'd read Water some years ago, and only now found that at some point Fire came out.
January:
"Isabel Glass" (Lisa Goldstein), Daughter of Exile.
Diana Wynne Jones, The Game
Cory Doctorow, Makers
The serialization on tor.com -- I don't think I'd have read it without that.
Steven Brust, Iorich
Terence Reese, Master Play at Contract Bridge
Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road
February:
Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo's Dream
Another one for the subgenre of "our history is the result of meddling time travelers". Robinson can really write, and I enjoyed his portrait of Renaissance Italy.
Larry Cohen and Linda Lee, My Favorite 52
Sophocles, Ajax
Sophocles, Sir Richard Jebb tr., Ajax
As I've done before, this is the Greek play and a translation used as a pony. It's probably cheating to count the original play and the translation separately, but they did take separate reading.
Mike Lawrence, Play a Swiss Team of Four With Mike Lawrence
S.J. Simon, Cut for Partners
Robert L. Wolke, What Einstein Told His Barber
Science popularization that I'd gotten as a gift.
March:
David Bird and Ron Klinger, Kosher Bridge 2
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
I enjoyed this much more than I did Anathem; Stephenson's invention and interest in detail seemed to work much better when playing off a backdrop of the real world than of one he had to invent -- the real world is so much more varied than anything that one man can possibly create.
Charles Stross, The Merchants' War
Re-read, to rev up for a first read of the last two volumes in the series:
April:
Charles Stross, The Revolution Business
Charles Stross, The Trade of Queens
in which Stross kicks over all his blocks quite gleefully. With a solemn tone, but it's hard to miss the glee underneath.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Escape From Hell
Probably theologically suspect, but entertaining and page-turning, which is all I ask for. One or two scenes annoyed me with right-wing politics, but they got points back for putting the Iraq warmongers in the Pit of Evil Counselors.
Neal Stephenson, Zodiac
N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare, Henry V
Katie and I went to see a double-bill of these two, and I wanted to see how much had been cut (answer: quite a lot).
Robert Charles Wilson, Julian Comstock
May:
Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey
This was self-consciously influenced by Borges and Calvino, but was at least mildly interesting. I do have to fault the people who packaged the book and called it a novel, which it most certainly isn't.
Diane Duane, The Wizard's Dilemma
William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost
My first LibriVox play.
Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone
Diane Duane, Wizard's Holiday
Diane Duane, Wizards at War
Diane Duane, A Wizard of Mars
David Gemmell, Legend
William Shakespeare, Henry IV part 1
June:
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
Ryk E. Spoor, Grand Central Arena
Charles Stross, Rule 34
William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
July:
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Sarah Monette, Melusine
Re-reading in order to get to the last in the series.
Sarah Monette, The Virtu
George Eliot, Romola
Another one for LibriVox.
Megan Whalen Turner, The Thief
August:
Janet Kagan, Mirabile
Gerard Hill, G.G. Smorodinova, and B.L. Ulyanova, Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths
From the title it might be a children's book of some kind, mightn't it? But actually it's a coffee table book, which the Houston Museum of Natural Science was selling in connection with their Fabergé exhibition. I bought it discounted when the exhibition was about to close.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Another LibriVox, which I'm rather sad hasn't been completed and catalogued yet.
Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven
John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly, eds., The Secret History of Science Fiction
N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Jemisin re-read, the two preceding, and the Kagan were all for the "Good Reads" panel at this year's Farthing Party. I was shocked at how little I remembered of the Jemisin after only a short time. I hope my mind isn't going.
Sarah Monette, The Mirador
Frank Vine, North of the Master Solvers Club
Sarah Monette, Corambis
September:
Mary Renault, The Mask of Apollo
William Shakespeare, Henry VI part I
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
William Shakespeare, Henry VI part II
More LibriVox. My character was killed off in act I of part III, so I didn't read the whole of that play.
Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen of Attolia
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
China Miéville, The City & The City
I have read all the Hugo-winning novels not written by C.J. Cherryh, so I read this and the Bacigalupi to keep my record intact. I had trouble with the Miéville; it seems to me that the premise would support a two-pager by Borges, but not an entire novel. I couldn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief. Miéville rescued it for a while by indicating that his setup was supported by an outside power -- but then towards the end we learn more about that power, and discover that it really doesn't have any good reason to do what it does.
October:
Jane Lindskold, Five Odd Honors
Zia Mahmood, Bridge My Way
I'd read this years ago, and come to regret not buying a copy. This year when I chanced across one, I picked it up. And it led me into...
Terence Reese, Play Bridge With Reese
Friedrich Schiller, Joseph Mellish tr., Mary Stuart
Another LibriVox play. The coordinator private-messaged me offering me a role, which was a nice bit of egoboo.
Lois McMaster Bujold, CryoBurn
Euripides, Medea
Euripides, David Kovacs tr., Medea
Elizabeth Ann Hull, ed., Gateways
Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia
People online seemed to think that this was much the best of this series. I agree.
November:
Walter Jon Williams, This Is Not a Game
Megan Whalen Turner, A Conspiracy of Kings
William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
Tim Bourke, Maastricht Challenge Bridge Quiz
Charles Stross, The Fuller Memorandum
Stephen King, Just After Sunset
December:
William Shakespeare, Henry VIII
Not a LibriVox play (though people on LibriVox did do it recently) but following on seeing it at the Folger Shakespeare Library at Thanksgiving. The acting, staging, direction, music, and costumes were all top-notch; the play is minor Shakespeare and I can see why it's little performed.
William Buck, Ramayana
A novelistic retelling rather than a straight translation of the epic. An interesting look at an epic of another culture than the Greek.
William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona
John M. Ford, The Dragon Waiting
Finally got around to reading this with Andrew Plotkin's Draco Concordans handy. He didn't tell me much that I didn't already know, but the things that he did were valuable.
Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson, Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
I'd read Water some years ago, and only now found that at some point Fire came out.