Eight at Five Stars for 2010

Since we are coming up on the end of the year, I’ve decided to close down My Reading Room ~ 2010. I would be remiss if I didn’t therefore, sum up the most notable of the 64 books I’ve read throughout the year:

— ERAK’S RANSOM John Flanagan. [Ranger’s Apprentice], [2007 Random House (Australia); First American Edition hardback, 2010 - book 07, Philomel Books, (an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)]. *summary: “On a mission to pay the ransom of a new ally, apprentice Will and his friends find themselves in a desert wasteland awash with enemies.” Percolation

— THE KINGS OF CLONMEL John Flanagan. [Ranger‘s Apprentice] [2010 Random House (Australia); First American Edition hardback, 2010 - book 08, Philomel Books, (an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)]. *summary: “Halt, Will and Horace set out for Hibernia, where a quasi religious group, the Outsiders, is sowing confusion and sedition, and they find that secrets from Halt’s past may hold the key to restoring order before the last kingdom is undermined.” Review

— HALT’S PERIL John Flanagan. [Ranger’s Apprentice] [2009 Random House (Australia); First American Edition hardback, 2010 - book 09, Philomel Books, (an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)]. *summary: “Tennyson, the false prophet of the Outsider cult, has escaped and Halt is determined to stop him before he crosses the border into Araluen, but Genovesan assassins put Will and Halt’s extraordinary archery skills to the test.” Percolation

— THE MEANING OF NIGHT Michael Cox. [2006 W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (London/printed in the USA); First Edition hardback]. *summary: “A spellbinding story of murder, deceit, love and revenge in Victorian England.” Review

— MERRY HALL Beverly Nichols. [1951 Jonathan Cape, London; (Forward and Index copyright 1998 by Timber Press, Inc., United Kingdom)]; [hardback - 10th printing 2008 Timber Press, Oregon USA]. *summary: “…..deliciously malicious. The local characters who alternately delight and frustrate him [Nichols] are as important as the plants: the ancient gardener Oldfield, who refuses to plant “bloolbs”, the scheming Miss Emily, and Gaskin, Nichols’ omniscient and beatific factotum.” Review - Notice

— DROOD Dan Simmons. [2009 Back Bay Books; first Back Bay trade paperback edition, 2010 (an imprint of Little, Brown and Company)]. *summary: “On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his mistress, fifty-three-year-old Charles Dickens -at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world-hurled into a disaster that changed his life forever.” Review

— THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN Mark Twain. [2010 University of California Press, Ltd - Berkeley and Los Angeles, USA; (Mark Twain Project)] hardback edition edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and other Editors of the Mark Twain Project]. Autobiographical account of Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain) written between the years of 1870 and 1909, published posthumously (at his insistence) 100 years after his death, which occurred four months after the book was completed in 1910.  Review

— THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING Joan Didion. [2005 Vintage books (a registered trademark of Random House Inc. USA); paperback]. Autobiographical account of the author’s journey through the first year of bereavement after the death of her husband. Review

I've read many excellent books this past year, and have enjoyed all the journeys taken with my new found 'friends'. I've even had the pleasure of revisiting with old 'friends', but only these eight, in my opinion, were worthy of a Five Star rating. Now, I'm looking forward to meeting up with some old characters under different circumstances: Joe Pike and Elvis Cole; Flavia Deluce; Halt and Will; Eve Dallas; all the residents of Cedar Cove; Thomas Covenant; and, oh my I could just go on and on......but I'll just leave the rest of the name-dropping up to My Reading Room ~ 2011, already on my sidebar. Happy reading one and all !!!

*Summaries are taken verbatim from the copyright page and/or the book’s jacket, and credit to each publisher is heretofore extended.

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