You will find...
* I gave these reviews a lot of thought, so they should be tidier than the initial impressions I wrote throughout the year.
* As I wrote I discovered that one of the things that *makes* a book for me is if there's a particularly meaningful or touching relationship between two characters (usually a protagonist and a side character.) So I mentioned these.
* I didn't read any 2010-published mystery or romance books this year.
BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2010 - PUBLISHED IN 2010
Fiction #1:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson - UK author (March 2010)
There are a lot of romance and mystery novels that try to recreate Jane Austen, but Major Pettigrew is a true Austen successor. It's about: A petty man in his 60s whose horizons are broadened when he gets mixed up in the dramas of the Pakistani-English woman he's falling in love with. Simonson satirically but affectionately portrays a small English town, and uses romance to gently nudge her protagonist in the direction of Character Growth.
Special Relationship: You know a book's about to get good when the rigid Muslim nephew needs a place to live, and stuffy white Pettigrew offers to take him in.
Did I cry? Not that I remember.
Further Reading: Jane Austen of course. If you've only ever watched/read Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, make sure to seek out Persuasion. It's about a woman who rejected the man she loved on bad advice, and now he's back in town... and still hurt! Anne is a much quieter heroine than her Austen fellows, but I loved her.
Other cover:
Imaginary Casting: Michael Kitchen as the Major.
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