procrastinator picks – best books of 2010

Well another year and another stab at a top ten or so. In reviewing my books of last year I realized I’m mostly reading the same authors, I find myself torn between an old favorite and finding a new favorite. So this year I’m going to pull some new names off the shelf, after I finish this Michael Chabon I’m working on of course.

• Nobody’s Fool/Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo – One of my favorite authors and while his books have a familiar comfort to them, Nobody’s Fool visits the same themes as it wraps the Mohawk trilogy, Bridge of Sighs brings a slightly new take and a greater complexity to a family in a small town over a period of time.
• Curse of the Spellmans/Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz – These fluffy detective stories are totally delightful as we join the quirky San Francisco PI family dealing with at least one case but mostly get themselves in and out of trouble.
• The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett – From the author of Bel Canto, we get to know a woman who gets to know her magician husband and maybe herself after his death.
• Lush Life by Richard Price – This was my first Price and more interesting than the Manhattan Lower East Side crime that the novel follows is the way he details the place through the various people involved.
• Gun with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem – I’ve been continuing back with his earlier works and he seem to cover a broad spectrum of genres, this futuristic detective novel is amusing and engaging though just a little bit plain weird.
• Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – I enjoyed but wasn’t as absolutely in love with this book as many were, only because the story of generations of Dominican family was uneven in my engagement and attachment to the various stories and point of views.
• Generation A by Douglas Coupland – Even when he’s imperfect his writing is enjoyable, this time his slightly unusual plot is about folks stung by bees, after bees have disappeared, though the weirder it got perhaps the harder to wrap up to a satisfying conclusion.
• The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith – On Beauty was one of my favorite books so I took a step into the backlog for this and found that although it had elements of the writing and characters that I had so enjoyed, the unlikable protagonist often being lame kept me from really embracing it.
• Falling Man by Don DeLillo – A look at the lives of a few people following the destruction of the twin towers, the writing often made me feel like I should just be spending more time appreciating the language of the book rather than trying to engage with the meandering story and at times disconnected characters.

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