WHAT I READ 2010

Given the endless possibilities of choosing a book to read it is a flat-out miracle that any decision is made. As I've written before, it is terribly exciting to finish a book and then start thinking of what to read next, not just what is perched on the nightstand but all the choices floating around out there in one's head and on one's bookshelves.  So, I made firm decisions 34 times last year and was happy with most all.  Then I started thinking that 34 wasn't really that many so I must do better this year (that sounds like a New Year's resolution, doesn't it?)

Here is what I read last year:

2010 BOOK LIST

• The Red House Mystery - Milne (a quick, fun read)
• The Provincial Lady in London - Delafield (laugh out loud)
• The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday - Smith (I love Isabel Dalhousie)
• The Paperwhite Narcissus - Riggs (well-written mystery)
• The Lost Art of Gratitude - Smith (Isabel Dalhousie again)
• The Making of a Marchioness - Burnett (nice little Cinderella story)
• A Moveable Feast - Hemingway  (better than I expected)
• Some Country Houses and Their Owners - Lees-Milne (interesting if you've traveled around England)
• Here's Poison - Heyer (not as good as I hoped)
• The Diary of a Nobody - Grossmith (good, understated British humor)
• Jeeves and the Mating Season - Wodehouse (laugh out loud to the point of ridiculous)
• Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain During its Darkest, Finest Hour - Olson (excellent)
• Stiff Upper Lip - Wodehouse (really, who is funnier than Bertie Wooster?)
• To Serve Them All My Days - Delderfield (beautiful)
• How Right You Are, Jeeves - Wodehouse (I wish Bertie would stop by for a visit)
• Louisa May Alcott Biography - Reisen (very good)
• Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness - Browning (good)
• Strong Poison - Sayers (excellent)
• Gaudy Night - Sayers (one of my all-time favorites)
• Cranford - Gaskell (sweet)
• Garden Open Tomorrow - Nichols (witty)
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Heath (very good, worth reading)
• Sense and Sensibility - Austen (wonderful, of course)
• The Bag Lady Papers - Penney (good)
• Whose Body? - Sayers (love)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Barbery (really liked)
• Deadly Nightshade - Riggs (entertaining murder mystery)
• Game Change - Heilemann and Halperin (depressing)
• Tough Choices - Carly Fiorina (I have a new found respect for Fiorina)
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Bradley (excellent, I want to read more of the series)
• Miss Hargreaves - Frank Baker (a little Twilight Zone but fun)
• Crashing Through - Robert Kurson (a real eye-opener)
• Real Food - Nina Planck (good)
• The Johnstown Flood - David McCullough (scary, sad, but worth reading)