Best & Worst of 2010 - General Fiction

Here are my favorite and least favorite general fiction reads of 2010 (books that I read in 2010, not just books that were published in 2010).



Best:

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli Originally I rated this one a 4.5 stars out of 5, but this story lingered in my mind, and whenever friends and family asked for recommendations I found that this was the book I recommended the most. So, because I loved the story so much I went back and changed my rating to 5 stars (something I hardly ever do), and I will continue to recommend it, especially to those interested in Vietnam War fiction.





The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes This is a story of four women among hundreds of Australian war brides on an aircraft carrier travelling to England to be with their husbands. I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and was completely drawn into the story of these womens lives and journey around the world together.






Worst:

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel Ugh! This tops my list of worst reads for the year. Does it have symbolism? Yes. Did I like it? Not even a little bit. I so loathed this book. It was a horrible disappointment, especially after the stunning artistry of his previous book, Life of Pi.





Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten Although the writing was quite good, I did not like the story at all. It was a weird mix of a foreign culture that Im not familiar with and a bit of magical realism, leaving me to wonder if the village or people of the story bear any resemblance to reality.






The Semantics of Murder by Aifric Campbell - To be honest this book was completely forgettable. I wouldn't have remembered to put it on the list of worst reads had it not been that this was one of my lowest rated books of the year. The overabundant similes and metaphors were just too much for me to take, and I only made it twenty pages before I gave up reading it.






Ulysses by James Joyce Okay, I didnt even come close to finishing this book, so its not on my official reads list, but I did read about 150 pages, and that was enough for me to know that I dont want to read any more of this overly pretentious book.

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