This year was marked by several trends in my reading. I read 18 collections of short stories, and an abundance of memoirs. I read several really long novels (Barney’s Version and Vanity Fair) and long memoirs (Jane Fonda’s “My Life” and Barbara Walters’ “Audition”).

I read 202 books this year.

I include books published in other years, as this is my reading list and not a list of greatest books of 2010.

The books included in this list are books that I have continued to think about long after I finished reading them. (Done mainly in a chronological order, snagged from my goodreads.com page)

1. Because I have loved and hidden it by Elise Moser- A story set in Montreal. A woman’s married lover is lost and she develops a relationship with his wife. Winding, beautiful, erotic prose. This is not a fast moving book, but one that causes you to look at the details.

2. February by Lisa Moore- This novel is based on a real-life event. In 1982, an oil rig sank off the coast of Newfoundland. Eighty four men were killed. This novel tells the story of Helen O’Meara, the widow of one of the men who was killed. It’s a look at family, grief, loss and hope.

3. Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk- This is a book that frustrated me while I was reading it, but I kept on thinking about it again and again after I was done. Waiting for Columbus tells the story of a man stuck in a Spanish mental hospital. The man thinks he is Christopher Columbus. No one knows his identity. There are chapters full of historical detail about Christopher Columbus that really impressed me. There’s a mystery and a question of identity here. If I recall correctly, this book was quite bawdy.

4. The Works of Ha Jin- I discovered Chinese writer Ha Jin this year and read three of his books. I need to read more of his stuff because I really love it. He has beautiful, poetic sentence structure and tells stories about Chinese immigrants, culture, history and life. I read “Waiting”, which I thought of like a fairy tale, “A free life”, which was a winding immigrant to America saga, and “A good life” which was a collection of stories.

5. Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer- A meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth in this teen novel. Sixteen-year-old Miranda writes a diary that tells the reader the story of the apocalypse that happens on earth. This is a wonderfully crafted book that continually raises the stakes as the reader hopes that Miranda’s family will survive this cataclysmic event.

6. The stories of Richard Bausch- I read three or four collections of stories by Richard Bausch. He writes novels, but I consider him such a master of short stories that I haven’t yet read one of his novels. His stories are perfectly crafted tales of domestic life. I think he’s one of the best and underrated short story writers alive today.

7. Fauna by Alissa York- I had problems with this book when I was reading it, but I keep thinking about it now. The story is an interlace that follows multiple characters who all have lives that involve a connection to animals. The story is set in the Don Valley in Toronto. I loved the exploration of how humans connect to each other, to nature and to animals.

8. Cult of Quick Repair by Dede Crane- A collection of short stories that never got a lot of attention when it was published. This were brilliant, bawdy and risky stories, mainly about relationships. I loved it.

9. The Cake is for the party by Sarah Selecky- Read this book very quickly and loved it immediatelyt. Wonderfully crafted short stories.

10. Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel- This teen novel is set in the 1970s and fictionalizes real-life experiments that occured with a chimpanzee. In the experiments, chimps were taught sign language and brought to live with a human family. The novel has a good story, and explores ideas about how humans relate to animals and ethical ideas about animal testing. Damn good book.

11. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann- A collection of connected stories that explores the lives of a bunch of people working at a newspaper in Rome. I think this book has a special appeal for journalists.

12. The False Friend by Myla Goldberg- A woman remembers a traumatic event that happened to her 20 years ago. She returns to her childhood home to uncover the truth about the death of her friend and becomes lost in the idea of memory and how we interpret things. She is shocked to learn that she was a pre-teen girl bully. I made my mom read this book so I could discuss it with someone, and we had debates over some of the things that happened. Don’t read this book if you want a clear resolution. This book contains extremely accurate depictions of pre-teen girl bullying. They were so accurate that they could trigger bad emotions for some readers.

13. Twenty-six by Leo McKay Jr. – This book came out in 2003 and I didn’t read it then because I loved his short stories so much that I was afraid a novel wouldn’t measure up. Thank goodness I read this book now! It tells the story of a mine explosion that killed 26 men. The story is told in a non-chronological narrative that allows you to get a better understanding of the people in one family affected by the disaster. This is wonderfully descriptive book full of muscular, tough writing.

14. Where the god of love hangs out by Amy Bloom- Amy Bloom is one of those authors that I prefer in short story form. These stories explore ideas about love and grief and how people cope with the death of a loved one. There was one story in this collection that shocked the hell out of me and disturbed me immensely, which is why this book is on this list.

15. The Sky is falling by Caroline Adderson- I loved this book because it was the smartest and most truthful depiction of activist culture that I’ve ever read. There were characters in this book that I have met and known. For example, one of the guys in the book is an anarcho-feminist who uses his politics as an excuse to act like a jerk and sleep around. HA! Another character denies herself every semblance of pleasure becuase the world might end. The story is set in the 1980s, and concerns a group of anti-nuclear activists living in Vancouver. The main character is looking back at her actions 20 years after they occurred.

16. Annabel by Kathleen Winter- After looking through my list, I decided that this was a last minute add because it was so creative, and fresh. Annabel tells the story of an intersex child living in Labrador. I loved the Labrador setting and the exploration of identity and gender in this book.

Tomorrow- NON FICTION!