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1. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard Absolutely the best book I read this year. I could not put the book down. She employed the "if this one would only talk to that one" technique in an excrutiatingly brilliant way. The bloodbath of an ending rivals Hamlet. She captures the self-involved world of the teen ager so well. It is riveting.
2. The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill This book should have been breathtakingly frustrating. All of the plot lines of the book end without resolution. But it certainly left me eager for the next book. The plots advanced the characters that I adore like Simon's sister, Cat. The first in this series, Various Haunts of Men, didn't engage me as much as this one. Making Simon aloof from everyone in that one meant I had no interest in him. Or sympathy for him. I was right there with him about Diane. But wanting to giving him a swift kick as Cat did. Do Something, Simon. Anything.
3. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny In a year that I hadn't read the previous two books, this would have been at the top of the list. Gamache is an absolutely excellent character who needed some weaknesses exposed. And this book does that. This series is fast becoming my favorite. I still think the first one in this series, Still Life, is one the most beautifully written books I have ever read. The villagers of Three Pines are really the stars here.
4. Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope This book had all the permutations of women's lives. All the life choices modern women make to try to exist in the world are represented by the characters in the book. Single women, married women with children, single women with children, widowed women with children, career women. And the painful and glorious role men play in those strategies. An excellent look at the problems and joys of children and work and home.
5. Simisola by Ruth Rendell I read every single Wexford book this year. I picked the sad story of Simisola because when I see the title of this book, I remember the story instantly. I can be reminded of the story in the others, but this resonated with me. Wexford has a misstep in this book and comes all over with liberal guilt, as he should. The racial overtones and implications in this book raise questions for the reader as well. I'm sure I'd have done what Wexford did. And that is sobering.
6. A Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris No this is not the vampires. This is my personal favorite series written by True Blood's author. Harper Connolly can tell where bodies are buried and knows how they died. She is hired by private people to either find the body or tell them more about the body. And her family situation is complex in that modern way. Her half sisters live with her aunt and uncle who hate her. She travels with her "brother" who is really not her brother--he was raised with her when his dad married her mom. So the half sisters are related by blood to each of them. Um yeah. The plots here are ingenious in presenting situations that require her "talent."
7. Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews These books are so funny and so outlandish that a reader should be put off. But somehow it all makes sense. And you follow the intrepid Meg while more and more people camp at her house and she becomes more and more pregnant with twins. Of course a murder occurs with all the other mayhem. But somehow keeping her mother from decorating the nursery is on Meg's list more than the murderer. I wish Donna wrote several books a year. Everyone needs to laugh this much.
8. Death Message by Mark Billingham Billingham represents the token male on my list. I read Bloodline as well, but the story of the murderer and the cell phone is better. Thorne trying to work this out while being just this side of a Luddite is priceless. His usual sidekicks are there, making it difficult for him. Great cop story.
9. The Fixer-Upper by Mary Kay Andrews As much as I miss this author being Kathy Hogan Trochak, these fluffy Southern tales are fabulous for a light boy meets girl or rather girl meets boy. Her heroines always learn something and fall in love. This book is no exception. I love the work on the house almost as much as the romance. But I was happy this was actually work that crapped on the heroine instead of a cad. Her previous book, Deep Dish, I didn't like as much because it traversed well-traveled ground. This was different.
10. Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin My favorite Gail Godwin of all time is Father Melancholy's Daughter and I recommend it as well. Unfinished Desires is about a girl's school, and how changing alliances and friendships affect the lives of one class of girls. And what effect that all has when their daughters go to the school. In less skillful hands, the dual timeline and changes in narrator could leave a reader bewildered. Godwin weaves together mother and daughter stories with ease. Truly awesome.
The most surprising thing to me after re-reading my list of books was that I read 90 books this year and only seven were by men. Ouch. And two of those were the same man (Billingham). Men don't seem to be doing much better this year--first three so far are also by women.
