Dec. 26, 2010
MY YEAR IN BOOKS: More Than 100 Books Reviewed in 2010
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
I've always got a book opened or saved at a place while I'm reading it, often two or more at a time. So it's no wonder that years ago I decided to turn my reporting skills loose on the books I read.
As of Christmas Day, I've read and reviewed 105 books for www.huntingtonnews.net, from a Jan. 2 review of a book on the Mayo Clinic Diet to the Dec. 24 review of "Globalising Hatred" by British politician and former journalist Denis MacShane. That's an average of two books a week, week after week.
Of course, I've read more than 105 books this year -- a lot more since I'm a lifelong bookworm with a capital "B"; I read Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" and the late Robert B. Parker's "Painted Ladies," probably the last Spenser novel from one of the masters of crime fiction. Parker died in January. He was born in 1932 and will be missed. I still mourn the loss of Parker's fellow Massachusetts author George V. Higgins (1939-1999).
The "big" novels I reviewed in 2010 included "The Passage" (June 9) by Justin Cronin; Joseph Wambaugh's "Hollywood Hills" (Nov. 23); and Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story." (Aug. 5).
Looking down at my list of books reviewed I see plenty of works that are often ghettoized as "chick lit." This is unfair to the women who worked hard to show the interaction of their women protagonists and the men and women in their lives. Some of the books I reviewed that fall into this category include "This Is Where I Leave You" (July 7); "The Wives of Henry Oades " (March 11); "Arcadia Falls" (March 11; "Beautful Malice" (July 15); "Spooky Little Girl" (May 5); "The Sheen on the Silk," a fine historical novel by Anne Perry (May 18); "The Late Molly Marx" (June 11); "With Friends Like These" (Aug. 11); "Juliet" (Sept. 29); and "An Amish Christmas" (Oct. 26). Check the archives file for these and other books I've reviewed -- or you can plug my name into the Google search engine on the Huntington page.
Current affairs books that I reviewed included George W. Bush's memoir "Decision Points" (Nov. 11); Robert D. Kaplan's wonderful "Monsoon" (Nov. 15), about geopolitics in the Indian Ocean nations; and books by authors as diverse as former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough and Texas Gov. Rick Perry on politics. I've reviewed many books about the economic meltdown of 2008 that's still continuing, including former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's "On the Brink" (Feb. 25); "Chasing Goldman Sachs" (July 19); "Crash of the Titans" (Nov. 5); and "Complicit" (Feb. 10).
I read and reviewed one book, "Drowning in Oil" (Dec. 8) about the April 20 Deepwater Horizon/BP explosion and oil spill off the Louisiana coast, and I've finished but haven't yet reviewed another fine book on the same subject, "Disaster on the Horizon" by Bob Cavnar. I'll review this book by a veteran oil construction worker and executive before the year is done.
So, in this supposedly post-literate world, my advice is pick up a book and widen your horizons...It's an active form of keeping the brain exercised and you'll enjoy it in the process. Happy Book Year!
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MY YEAR IN BOOKS: More Than 100 Books Reviewed in 2010
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
I've always got a book opened or saved at a place while I'm reading it, often two or more at a time. So it's no wonder that years ago I decided to turn my reporting skills loose on the books I read.
As of Christmas Day, I've read and reviewed 105 books for www.huntingtonnews.net, from a Jan. 2 review of a book on the Mayo Clinic Diet to the Dec. 24 review of "Globalising Hatred" by British politician and former journalist Denis MacShane. That's an average of two books a week, week after week.
Of course, I've read more than 105 books this year -- a lot more since I'm a lifelong bookworm with a capital "B"; I read Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" and the late Robert B. Parker's "Painted Ladies," probably the last Spenser novel from one of the masters of crime fiction. Parker died in January. He was born in 1932 and will be missed. I still mourn the loss of Parker's fellow Massachusetts author George V. Higgins (1939-1999).
The "big" novels I reviewed in 2010 included "The Passage" (June 9) by Justin Cronin; Joseph Wambaugh's "Hollywood Hills" (Nov. 23); and Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story." (Aug. 5).
Looking down at my list of books reviewed I see plenty of works that are often ghettoized as "chick lit." This is unfair to the women who worked hard to show the interaction of their women protagonists and the men and women in their lives. Some of the books I reviewed that fall into this category include "This Is Where I Leave You" (July 7); "The Wives of Henry Oades " (March 11); "Arcadia Falls" (March 11; "Beautful Malice" (July 15); "Spooky Little Girl" (May 5); "The Sheen on the Silk," a fine historical novel by Anne Perry (May 18); "The Late Molly Marx" (June 11); "With Friends Like These" (Aug. 11); "Juliet" (Sept. 29); and "An Amish Christmas" (Oct. 26). Check the archives file for these and other books I've reviewed -- or you can plug my name into the Google search engine on the Huntington page.
Current affairs books that I reviewed included George W. Bush's memoir "Decision Points" (Nov. 11); Robert D. Kaplan's wonderful "Monsoon" (Nov. 15), about geopolitics in the Indian Ocean nations; and books by authors as diverse as former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough and Texas Gov. Rick Perry on politics. I've reviewed many books about the economic meltdown of 2008 that's still continuing, including former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's "On the Brink" (Feb. 25); "Chasing Goldman Sachs" (July 19); "Crash of the Titans" (Nov. 5); and "Complicit" (Feb. 10).
I read and reviewed one book, "Drowning in Oil" (Dec. 8) about the April 20 Deepwater Horizon/BP explosion and oil spill off the Louisiana coast, and I've finished but haven't yet reviewed another fine book on the same subject, "Disaster on the Horizon" by Bob Cavnar. I'll review this book by a veteran oil construction worker and executive before the year is done.
So, in this supposedly post-literate world, my advice is pick up a book and widen your horizons...It's an active form of keeping the brain exercised and you'll enjoy it in the process. Happy Book Year!
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
