Book List 2010

Yeah, January was a nice month, right? Sheesh! I tried to get this done at the beginning of the month but I have the list written across two notebooks. One was always lost. I found both of them and finally, on the very last day of January, I will get this thing written.

Here is a list of the books I read in 2010, along with stars to indicate their quality. That could mean I liked (or disliked) the story, characters, prose, or whatever. In other words, it's purely subjective. I graded on a 5-point scale with 5 stars meaning "phenomenal" and 1 meaning something akin to "ick".

+ indicates a book club selection

January
Pardonable Lies (Jacqueline Winspear) ****
Messenger of Truth (Winspear) ****
An Incomplete Revenge (Winspear) ****
Callie's Tally (Betsy Howie) ***
Plain Language ***½
Scarlet Feather (Binchy) ****
Quentins (Binchy) ****
The Lilac Bus (Binchy) ***
Dublin 4 (Binchy)***
Tara Road (Binchy) ***½
Plain Language (Barbara Wright) ***½
Anne of Green Gables ****
Who's Haunting the White House? ***
Historic Houses of Ohio ***½
The Christmas Sweater ***
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress ***½

February
The Sugar Camp Quilt (Chiaverini) ***
The Lost Quilter (Chiaverini) ****
The Kitchen Quilt (Chiaverini) **
Manless in Montclair **½
Stones in the River (Has a note next to it that says "Weird book") **** +
Uneasy Spirits **
The Runaway Quilt (Chiaverini) ****
Deep in the Heart (Gilbert Morris) ***½
The Yellow Rose (Gilbert Morris) **½
Buckeye Schoolmaster (Couldn't finish)
Ghost Stories of Ohio **
The Know-It-All (Jacobs) ***½
The Eyes of Texas **
Violin: An Easy Guide (Coetzee) ****

March
Cindy's Honor **
Poison Study (Maria Snyder) ****+
Scrapbooking Solutions (Creating Keepsakes) ****
Quick and Easy Handmade Cards ***
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (A. McCall Smith) ****
Quick and Clever Instant Cards ***
Better Homes and Gardens Handmade Greetings for All Occasions ***
Creating Cards with Scrapbook Embellishments ***
The Artful Card (A. Eads) ***½
Stamping Tricks for Scrapbooks) **½
The Complete Guide to Card Making (Beaman) **
Tantalizing Textures (Sigurdson) ***½
Focal Point (Memory Maker Books) ***
Make Your Own Cool Cards (Blanchette & Thibault) **
Greeting Cards in an Afternoon (Gorder) **
Along the Ohio Trail ***
Celebrate with Cards **½
44 Scotland Street (McCall Smith) ****
Espresso Tales ***
Love Over Scotland ***½
The World According to Bertie (this and the other 2 above were also McCall Smith)
At Home on Ladybug Farm (Donna Ball...note says "made me cry") ****½
Dinner with Anna Karenina ***
A Quilter's Holiday (Chiaverini) ****
The White Queen (Gregory) ***½

April
Cream Puff Murder ***½
Peach Cobbler Murder ***½
Anne Frank In The World ****
Sunday Philosophy Club ***
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ****
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows *****
Where Do I Go? (Jackson) ***
Sweet Revenge (Davidson) ****
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (McCall Smith) **
Dark Tort (Davidson) ***
Carrot Cake Murder ***
Cook This, Not That ***½
Double Shot (Davidson) ***½
The Right Attitude to Rain (McCall Smith) ***
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire ****

May
The Constant Princess (Gregory) ***½
The Last Queen of Henry VIII (Erickson) ***
The Boleyn Inheritance (Gregory) ***
The Other Queen (Gregory) ***½
Apple Turnover Murder ***
The Virgin's Lover (Gregory) **½
Anne's House of Dreams (Montgomery) Couldn't get through it
Careful Use of Compliment (McCall Smith) **
Jhereg (Brust) *** +
Yendi (Brust) ***
Taltos (Brust) ***
Teckla (Brust) ***
Day of Atonement (F. Kellerman) ****

June
Much Ado About Anne *** (J/YA)
Dear Pen Pal **** (J/YA)
A Plain Life: Walking My Faith (Scott Savage) ****½
The Plain Reader (Scott Savage) ****
Athyra ***
Good Bugs Bad Bugs ****
@ Home For the Holidays ***
SAHM I AM ***

July
Mother-Daughter Book Club *** (J/YA)
Return Journey **
The Help ****
Daddy Long-Legs ***
Julia's Last Hope (Oke) **
Picasso **
Little House in the Ozarks (Wilder) ****
Dead and Buried (Hambly) ****
To the Tower Born (R. Maxwell) ***½
Comfort Me With Apples (Reichl) **½
The Amish Cook's Family Favorites & Facts (Eicher & Williams) ***
The Amish Cook Cookbook (Coblentz) ***
Notes from An Italian Garden (Joan Marble) ****
Whitethorn Woods (Binchy) ***
September (Pilcher) **

August
Echoes (Binchy) **
The Prodigal Son (Koontz) ***½ +
Murder on Astor Place (V. Thompson) ***½
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All ***½ (Ok until the end)
Last Dinner on the Titanic (McCauley) ****
The Woman's Guide to Hysterectomy ***½
Southern Fried Divorce **
City of Night (Koontz) ****
Dead and Alive (Koontz) ****
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, & Got a Life (Viswanathan) *** (Should have been labeled YA)
1000 Gardens You Must See Before You Die **½
Murder on St. Mark's Place (Thompson) ***½
Murder In Little Italy (Thompson) ***½
Hangman (F. Kellerman) ****
Murder on Mulberry Bend (Thompson) ***½

September
The Last Town On Earth (Mullen) ***
State Fair (Fowler) ***½
This Time of Dying (James) ***
Murder in Chinatown (Thompson) ***½
Murder on Bank Street (Thompson) ***½
Murder on Waverly Place (Thompson) ***
Murder on Lenox Hill (Thompson) ***½
Polly (Borntrager) ** (J/YA)
Frankenstein: Lost Souls (Koontz) ***
Murder On Marble Row (Thompson) ***
Murder on Lexington Ave. (Thompson) ***½
Fired ***
Rosewater & Soda Bread (Mehran) ***½
Letters to Juliet (Friedman & Friedman) **
Hornswoggled (Donis Casey) ****
The Drop Edge of Yonder (Donis Casey) ****
The Sky Took Him (Donis Casey) ***½
Snow Flower & the Secret Fan *** +

October
Belles on Their Toes (Gilbreth) ***½
The Two Lives of Miss Charlotte Merryweather ***
Andy (Borntrager) **½ (J/YA)
Prayers for Sale (Sandra Dallas ****
These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine 1881-1901 (Nancy Turner) ****
Garlic & Sapphires (Reichl) ***½
Sarah's Quilt (Turner) ***½
New Mercies (Sandra Dallas) ***
The Star Garden (Nancy Turner) ***½
The Lover's Knot (Clare O'Donohue) ***
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (****
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets ***½
Whiter Than Snow (Dallas) ***½
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban ***½
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire ***½
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix ****½
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince ****½
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows *****
The Tale of Halcyon Crane *****
The Victory Club ***½
Tallgrass (Dallas) **** +
Girls of a Tender Age ****
The Red Queen (Gregory)***½
Unlocked (Kingsbury) ***

December
Much Ado About Anne ***
The Mother-Daughter Book Club ***
The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters) **** Note says "Well-written but wouldn't read again"
Love Finds You in Humble, Texas ***½
A Murder of Taste (Goldenbaum) ***
Olive Kitteridge (Strout) ***½
Hot Flash Club ***
The Spiritualist (Megan Chance) ****
Hot Flash Club Strikes Again ***
Hot Flash Club Chills Out ***
Mint Julep Murder (Carolyn Hart) ***½
Queen City Gothic *** Note says "Interesting but poorly edited."
Confessions of a Prairie B**** ***½
Glossed & Found *
Lydia's Charm ***
Holiday Grind (Coyle) ***
On What Grounds (Coyle) **½
Espresso Shot (Coyle) **
Piece de Resistance ***
Yankee Doodle Dead ***
Christmas Letters ***½ Loved the format of this book
A Set of Directions for Putting & Keeping Yourself Together ****
Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio ***