Books read in 2010

I found a list I made last year of the books I'd read to date in 2010 (back in October or November, I think).

I'm surprised to see that I didn't blog about some of these books:

Heart and Soul
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
Voice of the Violin/The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Evelina by Fanny Burney
Faceless Killers/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Woman in White
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope
Till You Hear From Me by Pearl Cleage

Let me start with Pearl Cleage's Till You Hear From Me. Pearl Cleage is an African-American writer and academic, currently living in Atlanta, and the author of What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (an Oprah Book Club book).

Till You Hear From Me is, I guess, a topical novel. The heroine is originally from the South; she's worked on the Obama campaign and she hopes to get a call from the White House offering her a position there. The days have turned into weeks and the weeks into months and she hasn't heard anything yet. Her father is a crusty old soul, separated from her mother, and currently, not really speaking to her, either. While she loves her father very much, and admires him, she's also more than a little angry at him for being bossy and unforgiving, among other things.

Suddenly, a friend of the family calls with an urgent request that our Ida rush home and look after her father, who may be losing his mind: he's embarrassed himself publicly by making some insulting remarks about Hispanics.

Ida reluctantly returns and, meets an attractive but duplicitous man, a childhood crush, who really means her some harm. Along her journey, Ida is reminded of the values she grew up with, the comforts of friends and family, and to trust herself that she is all right alone.

Even last year, the novel seemed a little dated and the situations contrived but I believe that Cleage aimed to make a point about black culture before and after the Obama election: that there is no reason to ignore the achievements of a past that was heroic because it was really dangerous and every reason to embrace the future with its promise both of opportunity and continuing challenges.

Skillful characterization and some of the storyteller's arts are not Cleage's strengths, but she has something to say and I respect that. More so because I agree with her message: she is reminding all of us not to forget the past but to embrace the future which can be much harder than it sounds.

March, by Geraldine Brooks, is a beautifully written novel, with strong and very thoughtful characterizations, and some violence.

It's the story of Mr. March, from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. To me, it's really the portrait of a marriage. And, the view of that marriage expressed by Mrs. March seemed to me to be a little too modern to be quite believable. However, it's not meant to be historical fiction.

Rumspringa: To Be or Not To Be Amish is a nonfiction account of the Old Amish practice in this country of letting young people do what they want -- whether it's drink, smoke, do drugs, have sex, go to live in the big city -- in order to give them a chance to decide whether they are ready to be baptized into the Amish community as adults. This period is also one in which some Amish use their freedom to look for a spouse. The Old Amish community is very unforgiving, on the whole, to adults who have transgressed the code of the community once they have been baptized, so making this decision is important and very difficult for some.

Without question, my favorite book last year was Evelina, by Fanny Burney. I read it with a friend who proclaimed it utterly charming, and I agree with her. Evelina's innocence is both comic and painful; her lack of romantic feeling is somewhat underwhelming; the characters who are meant to present to us how not to behave are drawn broadly, and are somewhat annoying. I also enjoyed the scenes of London life. Burney's work clearly influenced Austen, and may have been the single most important influence on Austen. What is most important to me about Evelina, however, is the beauty of the writing. For weeks after I read Evelina, my speech and my writing were affected. I could wish my writing were affected more.