Laura’s Top Ten Books of 2010

I read a lot of good books in 2010. I like to call 2010 the year that disappeared. With my horrific morning sickness at the beginning of the year, the birth of Penelope Rose on October 15th, and having a baby to nurse along with a 4 & 2 year old, I haven’t had as much time to socialize as I usually do. I did have a lot more time to read instead of sleeping!

Overall I read 95 books in 2010 and listened to 9 audiobooks. My number of books was up for the before stated reasons, but my number of audiobooks was down. I was in a number of challenges this year including The All About the Brontes Challenge, The Classics Challenge, The Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge, and the Everything Austen Challenge II. I was also in two book clubs, my Kewaunee Library Book Club and FLICKS Book and Movie Club.

I read a variety of books through the year, but I didn’t read as much non-fiction or sci-fi as I would usually like too. This is probably because between reading advance review copies of books, books for challenges, and books for my book clubs, I didn’t have much time to read personal picks. I need to work on this.

My top ten books are my favorite ten books that I read this year. They were not necessary published in the year 2010 and do not include books I read and enjoyed for a second, third, or fourth time (such as Pride and Prejudice, Outlander, Child of the Northern Spring) as it is obvious that I love those novels. If you are interested, check out my top 10 from 2009, 2008 and 2007.

Without further ado, my top ten favorite books of 2010 (in no particular order):

1. Room by Emma Donoghue – Room was a horrifying and heart-warming tale rolled into one told through a very unique prospective, that of a five-year old child. Jack has lived in a small room trapped with his abducted mother throughout his five-year life. The room encompasses his life, but things are about to change as Ma plans their escape. I literally couldn’t put this book down!
2. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson – I know I’m cheating here by counting a trilogy as one selection, but I loved the entire trilogy and read it this year. Larsson weaves a unique tale set in Sweden, with a very unique heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Hero Mikael Bloomberg is a crusader who stops at nothing to get the story for his Millennium magazine and to right wrongs even if it means bringing down the Swedish government.
3. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins – I loved this young adult trilogy set in a post-apoplectic world. The world has ended as we know it and the U.S. has been divided into thirteen districts. The districts are controlled by the capital and are kept under strict control. Each year each district is required to send two children to compete in the televised “Hunger Games.” There can only be one winner left alive at the end of the games. Katniss Everdeen is trying to keep her sister and mother alive in District 12 when her sister is chosen for the games. Katniss steps in to save her and her life is forever changed.
4. The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick – These two novels are among the best historical fiction novels that I have ever read. I love the hero William Marshal. His story is a riveting tale that I had never read about before. Chadwick is a master storyteller that is vividly able to bring the past alive. I look forward to reading more of her novels!
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – This book is uniquely narrated by death during WWII and tells the story of one girl and her struggle to survive during WWII in Germany. The German people not painted as only evil, but rather shades of gray.
6. Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran – I honestly didn’t know that Cleopatra even had a daughter! Moran’s novel is an intriguing look at the life of the famed Queen’s children after her death.
7. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrich – A stark fascinating novel set in the depths of winter in Wisconsin. A mail order bride has arrived, but is she all that she seems to be? Lovers of gothic tales such as those written by the Brontes or Daphne Du Maurier will love this novel.
8. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – Although it has been almost two hundred years since this novel was written, it is still an action packed novel that kept me up in the night trying to find out what happened next. It is the ultimate novel of revenge.
9. The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier – I loved this book. It was a unique story with a unique heroine, Joy Harkness, that has moved to a small town into a large Victorian mansion that needs a lot of fixing up. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the writing is superb.
10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel – Why do we believe? This tale of a boy and a tiger on the high seas was thought-provoking.

Books that I love tend to keep me thinking about them late into the night. I read a lot of good books this year and had a hard time narrowing them down. Special honorary shout-outs go to Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush, Alone by Richard Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender, The Brave by Nicholas Evans, By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan, and The Polski Affair by Leon H. Gilden. Also I have a special mention of Black Hills by Dan Simmons. This book had some of the best and most memorable scenes in fiction that I read (or listened to in this case) this year, but was brought down overall by some scenes that should have been cut (Brooklyn Bridge) and a too frisky General Custer.

Did you enjoy any of these novels? What were your favorite books in 2010?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the third and final book in the Millennium Trilogy. It is an excellent novel and such a page turner that I had a hard time putting it down. It is a 500 page book with some pretty dense language, but I was able to finish it in only a couple days.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest starts directly after the events of The Girl Who Played with Fire. Lisbeth Salander is fighting for her life the hospital after being shot in the head at the end of the last novel. Although Lisbeth is wounded and locked away for a large part of the novel, she is a formidable foe. Her allies Mikael Blomkvist, Annika Gianni (Blomkvist’s sister and Lisbeth’s lawyer), Anders Jonasson, and Dragon Armansky work together to help free Lisbeth from murder allegations and to expose the massive government cover-up that has led to Lisbeth being abused for much of her life. Exposure of this conspiracy will not only vindicate Lisbeth, but will rock the Swedish government.

Larsson wrote this novel with meticulous detail, which I have read complaints about in other reviews. I like the detail and still was able to briskly read through the novel. It was a bit slow at the beginning and the end, but overall a good read.

Was anyone else scared by the scene of Zalachenko trying to get to Lisbeth’s room in the hospital on his crutches? The thought of being confined to a hospital bed and being able to hear your attacker’s crutches coming down the hall is terrifying. I wanted to know why the two were only doors apart when they were both in the hospital after trying to kill each other! That seems like a problem!

While the novel was a thrilling read, my favorite part of it was the strong women. Lisbeth herself is a unique heroine and although she is small in stature, she doesn’t let life take control of her, she takes firm control of life. Other female characters such as Monica Figuerola and Erika Berger were tough women in a man’s world. I liked the exerpts about amazons and women warriors. The first book in this trilogy may have been about “men who hate women,” but the third book is about women triumphantly fighting back.

I enjoyed this book and the entire series. If you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend them. Are the Swedish movies worth watching or should I wait for the American versions?

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second riveting novel in the Millennium Trilogy, following The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In The Girl Who Played with Fire, journalist and publisher Mikael Blomkvist, has a new freelance journalist at his magazine, Millennium, who has an extensive study on sex trafficking in Sweden that will uncover the crimes of many high-ranking officials. The freelance journalist, Svensson, is planning on publishing an article with Millennium and also a full-length detailed novel. Svensson is working together with his fiancée, Mia Johansson, who is doing her doctoral thesis on the same subject.

Lisbeth Salander has used her newfound wealth to take a trip around the world. She vacations in the Caribbean and spends her time working on complex math problems, defending women against “men who hate women,” and trying to avoid a hurricane. She eventually makes her way back to Stockholm and tries to reconnect with people from her past, while avoiding Mikael Blomkvist. She does like to keep tabs on his work through hacking into his computer and is intrigued by the sex trafficking investigation.

When Svensson and Johansson are found murdered, Lisbeth becomes a suspect as her fingerprints are found on the weapon. She becomes all but convicted of the crime by the police and press when her legal guardian, lawyer Nils Bjurman, is also found murdered. Lisbeth has to remain hidden while trying to solve the crime. The only person on her side is Mikael Blomkvist who wants to help Lisbeth and find the murderer of his friends. The resulting mystery is enthralling, and also helps to solve the mystery of Lisbeth herself.

I loved this novel. While the start of the novel was rather slow, once I got into it, I had a hard time putting it down. I really wanted to solve the mystery and to learn more about Lisbeth herself.

I love the characters of Lisbeth and of Mikael Blomkvist. They are each unique and intriguing characters that I truly love to read about. Lisbeth is an anti-social punk, but she has her own set of morals and makes sure that justice is served. I loved Lisbeth’s character growth in this novel from the beginning where she feels like she is a loner with no one in her life, through the end of the novel when she realizes there are indeed people out there that do care and will help her in her time of need. Blomkvist is a womanizer that also wants to see justice served and will do everything in his power to make it happen.

The characters and the mystery of this novel are wonderful, but I also like the crusading part of this novel against sex trafficking, and also against government corruption. It was eye opening and gave me a lot to think about. I am more than a little disturbed that women and young girls are treated in such ways around the world.

The ending was very abrupt and left me wanting more. I can’t wait until I finally get The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest from the library. I’m still on the waiting list.

Overall, if you are looking for a fascinating mystery with intriguing characters and concepts, I highly recommend The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I have been meaning to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the past two years or so. Finally this summer with casting of the American movie and discussion of the novel reaching fever pitch, I decided it was time to finally pick up the novel and see what all of the fuss was about.

The book is a riveting read that I had a hard time putting down. I spent half of the night reading it on our camping trip instead of sleeping. And I’m pregnant and I like to sleep!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a mystery set in Sweden. Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist that has found himself convicted wrongly of libel and is trying to figure out how to salvage his career. At this point, a mysterious elder of a rich Swedish business empire, Henrik Vanger offers Mikael a substantial amount of money and information to redeem himself if Mikael will assist with the forty-year old mystery of Henrik’s Great Niece Harriet’s disappearance. Mikael soon finds himself wrapped up in the secrets of the Vanger family and on the trail of a killer.

Lisbeth Salander is a 24-year old social misfit that is a genius at finding out information about people. She joins Mikael on his search and the two are unstoppable. Lisbeth has her own set of values and it would behoove one to not to wrong her.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had a lot of sexual violence in it, which I usually do not like to read about. But somehow the story and the characters made the story so compelling that I couldn’t stop reading it. Mikael and Lisbeth are unique characters unlike anything else I’ve read. I love Lisbeth’s punk attitude and her ability to survive and come out on top of any situation. Mikael’s ability to be a crusader and to try to right the wrongs of this world was very appealing, although his casual love affairs annoyed me at times. The setting in Sweden was also unique and intriguing in its own right. I love reading books that are set in different places.

SPOILER ALERT!! The only thing I disliked was that Mikael and Lisbeth became casual lovers. I thought they worked better as a team that respected one another, but didn’t cross that boundary. I did like that it was Lisbeth’s decision, but still, I didn’t like it over all. SPOILER END.

I have been thinking a lot about this book since I finished it. It is disturbing to think how scary the world is for a woman alone trying to make her way in the world.

Overall, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a non-stop, unique thriller that will keep you up into the night. I highly recommend it, but do want to put it out there that it has disturbing scenes of sexual violence in the novel.

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library