Not Actually the 2010 Book Year in Review Post

[cynic51]

For a change I think I did a pretty good job in summarizing as the year went along, so I don't feel a pressing need to break it down farther in a full fledged summary of my year's reading habits. I've included the full list under the cut for the curious.

* = Graphic Novels
+ = Great Novels?
Re-reads not counted.

*Anne Elizabeth Moore, editor - The Best American Comics, 2006 - S 1/02
+Alexis De Tocqueville - Democracy in America - W 1/06
*Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Jimmy Palmiotti - The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank - W 1/13
Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - T 1/19
+Jack Kerouac - On the Road - R 1/21
*Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark & David Aja - Daredevil: Return of the King - S 1/23
*Darwin Cooke, J. Bone & Dave Stewart - The Spirit, v.2 - S 1/24
Simon R. Green - Daemons are Forever - S 1/24
Simon R. Green - The Spy Who Haunted Me - Su 1/25
Tabitha King - Small World - F 1/29
Dave Pollock - Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas - W 2/03
*Brian Michael Bendis - 10 Years at Marvel S 2/05
David Barber & Dave Donald - Bach, Beethoven and the Boys: Music History As It Ought To Be Taught - Su 2/06
David Pogues & Scott Speck - Classical Music for Dummies - M 2/07
+Cormac McCarthy - The Road - R 2/11
*Mike Mignola, Johsua Dysart, Paul Azaceta - B.P.R.D. v.9: 1946 S - 2/13
*Mike Mingola, Duncan Fegredo - Hellboy: Darkness Calls - S 2/13
*Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams - Batman: Hush - S 2/13
+William Shakespeare - Venus and Adonis - Su 2/14
+John Hersey - The Wall - T 2/23
*Grant Morrison & Tony S. Daniel - Batman R.I.P. - S 2/28
Christopher Golden (editor) - The New Dead - Su 3/07
David Weber & Eric Flint - Torch of Freedom - M 3/08
Terry Brooks - A Princess of Landover - T 3/09
+William Shakespeare - The Rape of Lucrece - S 3/13
+Dalton Trumbo - Johnny Got His Gun - Su 3/14
Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood - T 3/16
Jasper Fforde - Shades of Grey 1: The Road to High Saffron - R 3/18
G.J. Meyer - The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty - T 3/30
Luc Jacquet & Jerome Maison - March of the Penguins - S 4/03
Witold Rybczynski - One Good Turn - Su 4/04
Mark Perry - Partners in Command: George Marshall & Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace - S 4/10
Michael Beschloss - Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 - S 4/17
Dean Koontz - Strange Highways - S 4/24
Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - S 5/01
*Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert - Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? - S 5/01
*Milligan, Camuncoli, Landini, Sudzuka - Hellblazer: Scab - Su 5/02
*Jamie Delano & Jock - Hellblazer: Pandemonium - Su 5/02
Naomi Novik - Victory of Eagles - Su 5/02
Sharon Waxman - Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World - T 5/11
Simon Winchester - The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary - F 5/14
Kumiko Kakehashio - So Sad to Fall in Battle - F 5/15
Joe Posnanski - The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America - S 6/05
Spencer Quinn - Dog On It - M 6/14
+Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls - W 6/16
Charlaine Harris - Dead in the Family - R 6/17
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - R 6/24
Steve Ettlinger - Twinkie, Deconstructed - R 7/01
David Weber - Storm From the Shadows - Su 7/04
Rod Englebert - Blood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist - M 7/05
+William Shakespeare - The Comedy of Errors - T 7/06
Will Leitch - Are We Winning?: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball - T 7/06
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - R 7/08
Martha Sherrill - Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain - Su 7/11
Howard Megdal - The Baseball Talmud - Su 7/11
Ron Hira & Anil Hira - Outsourcing America - S 7/17
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness - W 7/21
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together - W 7/21
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe - W 7/21
Mark Schatzker - Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef - W 7/28
*Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour - W 7/28
Jordan Raphael & Tom Spurgeon - Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book - S 7/31
Nathan Hodge & Sharon Weinberger - A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry - Su 8/01
*Various - B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs - S 8/07
*Brian Wood & Various Artists - Northlanders v.3: Blood in the Snow - S 8/07
*Various - Marvel 70th Anniversary Collection - Su 8/08
Robert Coles - Bruce Springsteen's America - W 8/11
Peter Golenbock - 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel - W 8/11
+Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End - F 8/13
Terry Pratchett - Night Watch - S 8/14
+Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray - M 8/23
+Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - M 8/30
+Jane Austen - Sense & Sensibility - W 9/07
Daniel Okrent - Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition - S 9/18
Brock Yates - Cannonball! World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race - R 9/23
Clive Cussler w/Jack Du Brul - Plague Ship - S 9/25
+Jim Bouton - Ball Four: The Final Pitch - W 9/29
David Weber - Mission of Honor - F 10/1
Michael Flynn - Eifelheim - M 10/04
Tracy Kidder - My Detachment - R 10/07
David Smethurst - Tripoli: The United States' First War on Terror - Su 10/10
*Carl Potts & Alan Zelenetz - Alien Legion: Footsloggers - R 10/14
Naomi Novik - Tongues of Serpents - S 10/16
*Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano - Gotham Cental, book 3: On the Freak Beat - S 10/16
Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman - First, Break All the Rules - Su 10/24
Stephen King - Blaze - T 11/02
*Brian Michael Bendis - Daredevil v.5: Out - F 11/05
Stephen King - Blockade Billy - Su 11/07
*Robin Furth, Peter David, Jae Lee, Richard Isanove - The Dark Tower: Treachery - Su 11/07
*Robin Furth, Peter David, Jae Lee, Richard Isanove - The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill - Su 11/07
Lois McMaster Bujold - Cryoburn - Su 11/14
Stephen King - Under the Dome - R 11/25
Tom Robbins - Skinny Legs and All - F 11/26
Bill Fagan - The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 - S 11/27
Simon Green - Beyond the Blue Moon - W 12/22

Otherwise though, I'll just summarize some of the highlights since my last summary, which was on September 23.

There were recent releases in not one, not two, but three of my favorite series. Hurray! I read the newest Honorverse novel, Mission of Honor. My only complaint is that things are getting very, very bad for the good guys, but in reasonably a believable manner. And the ending worked for me. Unfortunately, the next one isn't due out until 2012.

Sadly, the newest Temeraire novel, Tongue of Serpents, was another step downward in quality for the series. Some interesting things happened, but I wish they'd hurry up and recall our heroes back to England where the real action is taking place.

As far as I'm concerned, the publishing event of the year was the release of the first new Vorkosigan book since 2002, Cryoburn. Unfortunately, it was the weakest entry in the series since Cetaganda in 1995, but since Bujold is so much better than any other science fiction author currently working, this means that it was merely very good, not sublime. I can't complain too much though; when I hit the last page of the book (excluding the epilogue) I found that I was crying my eyes out when a long expected event finally happened. I hope the next one doesn't take eight years, and side note to Bujold: my mother still wants a book about Ivan; get to it :-)

It's hardly a new book, but I finally got around to reading Beyond the Blue Moon, which joins Simon R. Green's Hawk & Fisher series with his Forest Kingdom series. I shouldn't have bothered; it was terrible.

The other major science fiction I read this time around was Eifelheim, which I read on the way back from Alaska. It's a first contact story set during the time of the Black Plague. It is extremely well done, and far better than any of Michael F. Flynn's other books that I've read.

On a comic bent, I read volume 3 of Gotham Central, which follows the hard working police officers of Gotham City. Catwoman, Dr. Alchemy, Black Spider and others appear along with Renee Montoya. Good stuff; I see why it got good critical reviews and have no idea why it didn't sell well enough to keep running.

I caught up on my Stephen King and read the Richard Bachman novel Blaze, the novella Blockade Billy, and the full length novel Under the Dome. Blaze is nothing special and be skipped unless you are a King completist. Blockade Billy is aimed more at baseball fans; I enjoyed it but if you aren't a fan it might be boring for you. Under the Dome, I'm pleased to report, is as fine a book as King has ever written. It's got a huge cast, an interesting set up and plenty of King's keen observations on how people react under pressure. I highly recommend it.

I read the novel Skinny Legs & All by Tom Robbins. This was my second outing with Robbins, and I enjoyed it almost as much as Jitterbug Perfume. Robbins skewers art, religion, Middle Eastern politics and television evangelists with equal acuity. Also contains one of the best definitions of art that I've ever read. Good stuff.

In non-fiction, I read Bill Fagan's "The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850", which as the name implies covers The Little Ice Age. This has been on my reading list for ages, but sadly it proved not to be deserving. The topic is interesting, but the writing is dead boring. It's like somebody took an academic journal and cut out all the good parts, making for an unreadable mess. Even with that the topic was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end. There's a good book about this somewhere, I'm sure, but this isn't it.

Finally, I read what is widely acclaimed to be the finest book of sports writing ever published, Ball Four. Jim Bouton's true tales of what happens in the major league clubhouse is the rare book that is just as good, if not better, than its hype. If you like baseball, or just good writing, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

I didn't finish it in 2010, but I did just read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which I really like. I wonder if my grandfather's generation experiences growing up was similar to that.