Best Books of 2010

I really love this man.

In case you don’t know who he is, he’s Bill Bryson, arguably my favorite nonfiction writer. I always swore that I would name my first son Bryson after him, and actually I seriously considered putting Bryson on the boys’ list when we were coming up for names for Eleanor, but it joined the annoyingly trendy Jaden/Braden/Bryson/Mason crowd, so it had to go.

Anyway, Bryson finally had a new book out last year, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and it is hands-down my pick for best nonfiction book I read in 2010. It’s quite different than other books of his I’ve read— it’s a sampling of an astounding range of topics, Victorian poorhouses to the 17th century spice trade to 18th century wigs to American millionaires to why British people don’t use ice cubes to how many dust mites live in your pillow. The book is grouped into chapters by rooms in his house; “The Dining Room” is a history of food, crops, and dishes. “The Stairs” is a history of architecture, “The Bedroom” a history of social interactions and sexual mores, etc. A fantastic book.

Other honorable mentions for nonfiction: The Know-it-all by A.J. Jacobs (he decides to read through the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica in one year—hilarious factoid overload ensues) and The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War by James Bradley (a history of American expansionism into Latin America and Asia. A fascinating read, but the rampant racism of Roosevelt and Taft is hard to stomach sometimes).

Fiction is a lot harder to pick for me, probably because 84 of my 105 books were fiction. The most engrossing book I read all year was definitely The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson; I read it all in one day, and then promptly ordered the next 2 books in the trilogy on Amazon as soon as I was done. Lisbeth Salander, the main character, is a tattooed, antisocial, bisexual, 4’11” hacker who rides a motorcycle and has a photographic memory. She’s one of the most amazing and unique fictional characters I’ve ever encountered. But, I hesitate to make it my book of the year, because the language is really rough, and the sexual violence described is horrifying.

Hm. Ok, I’m gonna call it a four way tie for best fiction of the year.

1. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (see above).

2. False Colours by Georgette Heyer (this feels slightly like cheating since it was a re-read, and Heyer is my favorite author, but I hadn’t read it in more than five years, so it counts!). Set in Georgian England it tells the tale of Kit and Evelyn Fancot, who are twins. Evelyn is engaged to Cressida, a lovely young lady, Kit has returned from serving as a diplomat because of unease about his twin, and the twins’ mother has run up a lot of debt. Hijinks ensue, Austenesque minor characters abound, and the dialogue is Heyer at her witty best.

3. Speaking of Austen, Emma by Jane Austen is third on my list. (Somehow I had never read this—or I read it so long ago that I don’t remember it). Miss Emma Woodhouse is a schemer, who has the best intentions of matchmaking those around her…although somehow her plans always go awry…

4. The Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves. Raven Black, White Nights, and Red Bones are the only 3 published so far. These are excellent mysteries, starring the emininently likeable Detective Jimmy Perez, who goes about solving crime in the tiny, insular society of the Shetland Islands. The imagery in these novels is so vivid that I really want to visit the Shetlands now. I can’t imagine living somewhere so far north that it never gets dark in summer, or somewhere where there are no trees for that matter.

All right, there you have it, my book picks for 2010. If you’re only going to read one off each list, I’d say go for At Home and False Colors.

My Favorite Language Books

Here are a few of the better books I've read on language. They're sort of ranked, but it's difficult to do accurately since they discuss widely different aspects of language.


(1) The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher

"A fascinating look at how languages have evolved and become more complex throughout human history. I liked this book because it includes a wider array of languages than most of the books I've read--examples include obscure African, Semitic, and Asian languages."

(2) Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley

"A look at some of the rapidly vanishing languages in the world, from Aboriginal tongues, to Manx, to Yiddish. Abley aptly conveys a sense of loss at the disappearance of many minor languages, and a sense of hope that perhaps some of them, such as Welsh, can be revived."

(3) Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson

"Bill Bryson at his best: both informative and hilarious. An excellent look at English words that were (you guessed it) Made in America. Bryson discusses the effects of immigration, revolution, democracy, and innovation on creating American English as a very distinct entity."

(4) The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow

"An overview of the history of the French language that neatly ties historical context into the development of the language. It gets a bit redundant toward the end with its insistence that English is not taking over as the only global language, but the first two thirds of the book are great."

(5) Talk Talk Talk: Decoding the Mysteries of Speech

"Less about words, and more about the brain: a layman's guide to how the brain processes language. Clear, concise, and with interesting case examples from "wild" children to churchgoers who speak in tongues."

(6) The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way

"I realize that I already have another Bill Bryson book on this list, but I feel that he can't be beat for informal yet erudite looks at the etymology and history of the English language."

(7) Word Watching: Field Notes of an Amateur Philologist by Julian Burnside

"A fun look at some of the more unusual words in the English language. I especially liked the chapter on Australian slang, since that is the 'branch' of English with which I am least familiar."

(8) Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea

"I haven't finished this book yet, but so far it's awesome. Ammon Shea undertook the amazing feat of reading the entire OED in one year, and then wrote this book about some of the more unusual or memorable entries. As he put it in his introduction, "I read the OED so you don't have to.""

Insanity, oh the insanity!!

This weekend I got to hang out with Nicole and we pretended that we were in college again and went out to eat and went to a movie and had a fun girly time. Then I got to go to the Keith Urban/ Kenny Chesney concert in Glendale, which was awesome since it was free because [my new best friend] Jessica won tickets. And plus, Keith Urban is both as pretty and as talented as ever. The drunk guy serenading me during Kenny Chesney killed that part a little bit, but c'mon, you can't beat a free concert!

But then VBS started Sunday, and now I'm short on sleep and short on time. So I haven't done any reading or any baking or really much of anything besides work, VBS, and sleep. I am listening to Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson, and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, which are both fun on two drastically different levels. Anyway, at some point, when I get to sleep again I'll review them! Till then I'll be getting grass-stains and eating goldfish crackers with the munchkins.

A Brief Tale In Which I Am Influenced In My Eating Habits By An Audiobook

I've been listening to Mark Kurlansky's Salt on audiobook in my office. It has been fairly interesting, better than The Basque History of the World, which I just couldn't get into. The thing that is frustrating me about the book though, is that whenever I listen to it in my office I get crazy cravings for salty foods. Monday it was pretzels. Yesterday it was Cheez-its. Today it was Goldfish crackers. I'm not even really hungry, but after listening to that book for an hour or two, I can't help myself, I have an intense urge to devour anything salty that can be found in the break room. After indulging myself, I am of course very thirsty, which leads to drinking lots of water, which leads to bathroom breaks, which leads to pausing the audiobook, which leads to my computer freaking out and refusing to play the audiobook, which leads to me having to restart the disc I'm on and skip through to where I was; meaning that I get to listen to even more information. About salt. And more salt. Salted cod and salted herring and salted anchovies and salted (corned) beef and ham and pickles and lots of other salty foods that I don't even like!

Then this afternoon there was a headline on the MSN homepage for an article about sodium-heavy foods, and in the Bill Bryson audio book that I was listening to in the car on my way home, he took the "Salt Way"--a path from Winchcombe to some Roman ruins, named the Salt Way because it was a path used by (you guessed it) salt traders. Salt, salt and more salt.

I think it's time to go get some Cheez-its.