List Week - Fifteen Fabulous Books - December 17, 2010

Fifteen Fabulous Books I Read in 2010 

(that may or may not have actually been released in 2010)

(though I think most were)

(links go to my reviews, either on this blog or elsewhere) 

(not all books I reviewed made it onto this list, FYI)

(I behaved myself and didn't link to Amazon with affiliate links anywhere in this post)

(obligatory "in no particular order" statement)

1. Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh. (memoir)
2. The Butcher and the Vegetarian by Tara Austen Weaver. (memoir-ish, stunt journalism/a year-long project, food writing-y)
3. This Lovely Life by Vicki Forman. (memoir) (heartbreaker)
4. Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. (food writing/memoir) (totally not from 2010)
5. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. (YA) (deserved the Newbery) (that link goes to the Washington Post, and no, I didn't write for it this year)
6. Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman. (Diane Ackerman-y) (essays on nature)
7. Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich. (Anti-Self-Help? Exposé?)
8. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim. (memoir) (hysterical) (and sad)
9. Room by Emma Donoghue. (fiction) (sorry Book Lady!)
10. Moon Rabbit by Natalie Russell. (picture book) (follow link to page 16)
11. Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher by Laurel Snyder. (picture book) (Laurel FTW)
12. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. (stunt journalism/year-long project) (surprising)
13. The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan. (biography) (OMG)
14. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. (Amazon says "food science, animal rights, fauna" - I don't know what to call it - memoir/exposé?)
15. My Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities (essay collection) (this book changed my life)

Currently reading the History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I'll write a review here when I finish it, which hopefully will be sometime this weekend. The full list of books I read in 2010 can be found on my Shelfari page. Lesson learned: Mark each book with a date, whether actual or arbitrary, so I know which books belong to which year, because the site won't do it for me.

I'm looking forward to the new Jean Auel in 2011. (I lied. That's an Amazon referral link.) If that makes you think less of me, so be it. I sometimes have the urge to flash around all my credentials - master's degree! relevant undergrad degree! career in book publishing! professional writer! short stint working in a children's bookstore! - and then I think, hey, sometimes I just want to read fluffy foofy stuff and not be judged. It's like how musically I have accepted that I can love Heavenly and Britney Spears, Bat for Lashes and Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae and some of the new Deerhunter album. One dimensional is so me-at-15... So in 2011 I shall stop being defensive about my choices (which I've been working on anyway for, oh, ten years or so) and just be.