Things I Read 'N' Things I Thought 2010: Part 1

I seem to have read at a swifter pace in 2010, so I thought I'd take a look back at my readings with a mid-year update. Looks like a lot of fantasy books. I guess I'm on a kick.

1. Beastly by Alex Flinn - Affably bland and unnecessary "Beauty & the Beast". Wish I could travel back in time and see what I'd think of YA books like this if I were an actual teenager.
2. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander - I highly enjoy Eilonwy's constant use of analogies.
3. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire - He seems less unwieldy and enamored of his own writing style, meaning I can understand him. Tentative thumbs up.
4. A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce - Not at all crappy retelling of Rumplestiltskin. Don't know why I read it because Rumplestiltskin has always disturbed me. Witness this other terrifying illustrated version.
5. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain - He's a werewolf, we know, just spit it out.
6. The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn - More of a "follow these characters through life" story than an "I have a story to tell" story and I don't think I mean that in a good way (it makes sense).
7. Fables (Vols. 1-11) by Bill Willingham - Fairy tale characters are real. And immortal. And living in New York. Not life-changing, but pretty damned amusing.
8. The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl - Glory.
9. The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury - Did you know that when man gave up fiction in the name of science that the ghosts of authors and their stories went to another planet and now man is flying in spaceships to that planet and Edgar Allen Poe wants to make a glorious last stand but Charles Dickens is having no part of it?
10. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - So long, so good, so exactly like the movie. Scarlet is hilarious, hateful and sympathetic all at once.
11. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - Dragons are branch of the British military during the Napoleonic Wars. Go. Read it now.
12. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - Wish I were this British girl. I don't talk nearly well enough.
13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - It will never be anything other than spectacular.
14. Just an Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson - Not as mind-blowing as The Lottery, but Shirley is always entertaining.
15. Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I want to go barefoot on the prairie and spend my days knitting and cooking. I'll skip the malaria and blizzards and locusts and possible starvation.
16. Lisey's Story by Stephen King - Lisey. Her slightly crazy sister. Her husband's horrible life. Inter-dimensional travel. A good read.
17. Matilda by Roald Dahl - She likes book and has psychic powers and she's British? Done.
18. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis - You know what the problem of pain is? We don't like it.
19. Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede - Magic and spellcasting are logical and fairly matter of fact. A less rage-enducing retelling of "Snow White and Rose Red" [see: Tender Morsels]
20. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman - Unending drama. If I didn't love her use of language and delicate, soul-clutching magical realism so dearly I don't think her stories would interest me all that much.
21. The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - Vampires are disgusting. Vampires are parasites. Watch out! your blood will turn white.
22. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - I try not to think about this book because it fills me with rage and confusion and wild disappointment and frustration and unbearable sadness. I will never recommend this to anyone. I desperately wish she'd left out 70% of this book and stuck with the 30% that had such amazing, heart-wrenching, human potential.
23. The Walking Dead (Vols. 10-11) by Robert Kirkman, et al. - Zombiiiiies! Human dramaaaaaa!
24. Watchers by Dean Koontz - One of my all time favorite books of ever anywhere.
25. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier - 12 Dancing Princesses meets Frog Prince set in Transylvania. Quite enjoyable! Gogu just about broke my heart.
26. The Witches by Roald Dahl - Do not accept chocolates from women in wigs.
27. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs - Yea, for he hath grown a mighty beard and did make me both laugh and think, even unto the end of the book.