2010 Book Review

Yes, we actually did read some of the books on that interminable fucking list. So it's not a whole lot.

Besides, the excuse is, ve haff bin ketchingk up on ze past six years' backlog of Science News.

Srsly. We're all, like, up to 2010 January or something now.

So here's the review so far.

Book List 2010

1. A Ceremonial Death***- B.J. Oliphant
   
2. A Mercy***** - Toni Morrison
   
3. A Novel Bookstore***** - Laurence Cousse
   
4. A Point of Light*** - Zhou Mei
   
5. Ancient Roman Feasts & Recipes - Jon Solomon
   
6. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman***** - Ernest J. Gaines
   
7. Blood Lust* - Alex Josey
   
8. Catch A Fire*** - Timothy White
   
9. Chinese Snuff Bottles*** - Vanessa Holden
   
10. Cities Of The Red Night - William Burroughs
    
11. Christmas Island
    
12. Daniel Deronda***** - George Eliot
    
13. Death for Old Times' Sake - A.J. Orde
    
14. Death Served Up Cold - B.J. Oliphant
    
15. Dreams From My Father***** - Barack Obama
    
16. Hotel Iris***** - Yoko Ogawa
    
17. Images of America - Oakland Hills - Erika Mailman
    
18. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
19. In The Woods** - Tana French
    
20. Juliet, Naked**** - Nick Hornby
    
21. Looking for the Aardvark*** - A.J. Orde
    
22. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand**** - Helen Simonson
    
23. My Side of History***** - Chin Peng
    
24. Memory: A Very Short Introduction*** - Jonathan Foster
    
25. No Country For Old Men*** - Cormac McCarthy
    
26. No Cowardly Past*** - James Puthucheary
    
27. No More Daddy's Little Girl - Karen Lee
    
28. Nonsense***** - Robert J. Gula
    
29. Pham Xuan An, General of the Secret Service**** - Hoang Hai Van & Tan Thu
    
30. Sapphires & Garlic**** - Ruth Reichl
    
31. Shantaram*** - Gregory David Roberts
    
32. Shirley**** - Charlotte Bronte
    
33. Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
    
34. Still Life*** - E.E. Horlak
    
35. The Elegance of the Hedgehog***** - Muriel Barberry
    
36. The Emperor***** - Ryszard Kapuscinski
    
37. The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
    
38. The Enthusiast - Charlie Haas
    
39. The First Third - Neal Cassady
    
40. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
    
41. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
    
42. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
    
43. The Great Indian Novel*** - Shashi Tharoor
    
44. The Hungry Tide**** - Amitav Ghosh
    
45. The Likeness - Tana French
    
46. The Moor's Last Sigh***** - Salman Rushdie
    
47. The Narrow Strip of Land**** - Tran Mai Nam
    
48. The Pantropheon**** - Alexis Soyer
    
49. The Plague***** - Albert Camus
    
50. The Rottweiler - Ruth Rendell
    
51. The Tin Drum***** - Gunther Grass
    
52. The Triads in Singapore and Malaya**** - Leon Comber
    
53. The Unexpected Corpse - B.J. Oliphant
    
54. The Waiting Earth**** - Punyakante Wijenaike
    
55. The Way of All Flesh***** - Samuel Butler
    
56. There are Ghosts Everywhere in Singapore
    
57. True Singapore Ghost Stories 2 - Russell Lee
    
58. True Singapore Ghost Stories 9 - Russell Lee
    
59. Wedding Song***** - Naguib Mahfouz
    
60. Yogini Cult & Temples***** - Vidya Dehejia

Not too shabby, eh? The ones I thought worth reading are starred. Number of stars indicates rank of book. Limit: 5. Anything over 3 stars is pretty much recommended reading, although some of it might be a bit arcane for the average reader's taste. Or as Gabriel Garcia Marquez' translators like to say, recondite.

Incidentally, we here at La Casa de Los Gatos are changing our reading policy. We're reminded, as all our loved ones and friends exit the planet, that time is not necessarily on our side, as avid readers. No more lengthy reviews. It's not like anybody's reading them anyway, right? And no more trashy reading. Only the stuff that will blow my socks off. Anything else goes out the door.