Lists

At the end of the year, library list-servs and message boards are always full of librarians’ lists of favorite books of the past year. Librarians like to outdo one another with odd book titles that the rest of us have never heard of. I think it makes them feel smart to have read something peculiar. I also think that if a librarian claims to find great value in a book that nobody else read, it makes the money spent to buy that library book seem less foolish.
Me (I?), I’m a pretty ordinary reader. If it’s on the New York Times Bestsellers List, I probably read it and loved it, or at least plan on reading and loving it. Two of the best books I read in 2010 weren’t brand new. The Book Thief was a terrific story of World War II Germany told through the voice of a young, female narrator. I also loved Driftless by David Rhodes. I heard Rhodes speak at a library conference. He said that he was inspired to write the book after attending the funeral of a friend. It was there he realized that each of the attendees knew the deceased in a different way. A couple of brand new books I enjoyed were Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel by Tom Franklin. The title refers to the way kids learn to spell Mississippi. The other book is Room by Emma Donoghue. These are both mysteries and are “must reads” for any mystery fan.
When I polled the library staff for their favorite 2010 books, I received a motley, assorted list of titles. Oddly enough, two suggestions from two different staff members involve elephants: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Hannah’s Dream by Diane Hammond. The only other animal book that made anyone’s list is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. The narrator in that one is Enzo, a lab-mix. He is the side-kick of a race car driver. Even a non-dog lover would like this story about love, parenthood and following one’s dreams.
One librarian discovered author Pat Conroy this year. Several of his novels made it to her top ten list. The library owns his newest one, South of Broad. It is a good, if not particularly plausible story. Any group of high school friends that had that many shared major events and catastrophes would never make it to adulthood.
Books by many of the standard, popular writers made our lists: Danielle Steel, Jude Deveraux, Phillipa Gregory, Nora Roberts and Barbara Delinsky, for example. A couple of classics were mentioned: Giants in the Earth and To Kill a Mockingbird. And, lots and lots of mysteries by Harlan Coben, Linwood Barclay, Andrew Gross and Preston & Childs.
A library patron just stopped by the office. Her favorites of 2010 included Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. Not coincidentally, Crow Lake will be our February reading group selection for Humboldt Reads!. The January choice is Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos. We will meet January 20 at Vinny’s at 5:30 to discuss it, so you still have plenty of time to get it read.
Whatever your reading mood, there’s a book for that at your library.