My Books of 2010: Lordy Lordy, Stopped at 40

Not a record-breaking year, my friends, but a good one for reading nonetheless. Following the last two years' tallies of 61 and 70 books read, respectively, I'm weighing in with a mere 40 for 2010. Now, if you counted the number of times I've reached for "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and a dozen other like-minded tomes, you would have a slightly different number. Along with the conclusion that I'm a trifle obsessed and anxiety-ridden. Yes indeed.

This year's list, the third annual, tells a story. It reminds me of what I was doing or what was going on while I was reading a particular book: mainly, preparing for the life-altering experience of becoming a parent. The other two years' spreadsheets tell their own stories, a record of highs and lows that soared and dipped like an out-of-whack barometer. (Find 2009's here, and 2008's here.) The 2010 list always will remind me of my pregnancy, and the birth of our son in October.

Some of my favorite reads this year included Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, which I devoured while sprawled out on the couch in January. Picture paddling a canoe up to the second floor of your house in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Not long after, I re-read The Stranger by Camus while teaching in the Humanities, and was reminded of my first reading, just after graduating from college. I was working a temp job as a receptionist for a phone company, saving money to go to Europe. I did not know how to pronounce Camus (Ca-MOO), or what I was going to do with my life, or why such-and-such boy had broken my heart, and so on. The Stranger, existentialism at its finest, flipped me on my ear, took me out of myself for a moment. And it did it again this year.

I read Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs while flying to/from California. Laughed out loud, then cried and tried to hide it by facing the window, until my friend handed me an in-flight napkin. You know it's a good book, she said, if it makes you laugh and cry within a few pages. I missed Moore's November reading at Butler U, sadly, when the baby was less than a month old and I was a huge wreck. The baby is now three months old, and I am much less of a wreck. I hope to catch Ms. Moore, one of my favorite living writers, another time.

Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake also topped my list of books this year. (You can read my interview with Bender in a recent issue of Guernica.) It was one of my pregnancy insomnia reads, along with Nami Mun's Miles from Nowhere. Those books will always remind me of the sun cracking through the sky, and I'd finally look up, surprised that night was over.

I finally read Tom Barbash's The Last Good Chance, a book I'd bought years ago when he gave a reading in Syracuse. I finished it a day before going into labor. I remember seeing the book on the coffee table once we were home from the hospital, and it seemed like another life, reading that book. It was. Barbash and I both worked for the same newspaper, The Syracuse Post-Standard, at different times. His upstate NY setting felt very real to me, as did the reporter's conundrums.

The last ten or so books on the list have been read while nursing the baby, pretty much the only time I have for reading right now. A couple of critically acclaimed literary novels fell short for me -- maybe I'm not in the right headspace for melancholy, brooding stories? -- while I voraciously read popular fiction like Kathryn Stockett's The Help. My friend Donna, who always has stellar recommendations, pointed me to Kate Atkinson's novel, When Will There Be Good News? Hilarious and dark, a literary mystery. Another by Atkinson, One Good Turn, patiently waits its turn on my shelf. Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply was another favorite this year: identity theft with thrilling and unexpected plot twists.

Break it down:

40 books
20 male authors/20 female authors (Weird. And unintentional.)
31 novels
5 nonfiction
4 story collections
2 re-reads
Author repeats: Ian McEwan (2), Elinor Lipman (2)

I'm heading back to work in a couple weeks, and balancing baby & the rest of life. We've got an excellent start on our home library of children's books. Not sure what next year's spreadsheet will be like, but I have a feeling 2011 will be the year of reading out loud.

Happy New Year.