You know the feeling you get after rereading the Harry Potter series for the fourth time, when it seems like nothing will be as good to read? And you’re doubly bummed because you can’t actually attend Hogwarts School of Magic?
No? Okay, well how about the constant wondering of what to read next? Yes? Fantastic!
Now that we’re all on the same page, we present the Insider’s official list of what to read in 2010.
We couldn’t do this alone, so we enlisted the help of area booksellers and the Concord Public Library. Each of them put their collective heads together to come up with must-reads for a variety of categories.
With any luck, you won’t be without something to read until 2011. Enjoy!
Concord Public Library
45 Green St., 225-8670
concordpubliclibrary.net
Fiction
“Baking Cakes in Kigali” by Gaile Parkin, 2009
“New Mercies” by Sandra Dallas, 2005
“The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver, 2009
“Noah’s Compass” by Anne Tyler, 2010
“Bleak House” by Charles Dickens, 1853
“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008
Mystery
“The Silent Spirit” by Margaret Coel, 2009
“About Face” by Donna Leon, 2009
“Skull Duggery” by Aaron Elkins, 2009
“ ‘U’ is for Undertow” by Sue Grafton, 2009
“The Fourth Time is Murder” by Steven F. Havill, 2008
Nonfiction
“A Lion Called Christian” by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, 2009
“Grayson” by Lynne Cox, 2006
“Surviving Paradise: One Year on a Disappearing Island” by Peter Rudiak-Gould, 2009
“Stones into Schools” by Greg Mortenson, 2009
“Half the Sky” by Nicholas Kristof, 2009
Biography
“A Three Dog Life” by Abigail Thomas, 2006
“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion, 2005
“Here If You Need Me” by Kate Braestrup, 2007
“Sweet Thunder” by Wil Haygood, 2009
Children
“Guinness World Records 2010,” published in 2009
“Tricking the Tallyman” by Jacqueline Davies, 2008
“Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11” by Brian Floca, 2008
“The Lost Conspiracy” by Frances Hardinge, 2009
“Scat” by Carl Hiaasen, 2009
“When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead, 2009
“The Secret of Zoom” by Lynne Jonell, 2009
Teens
“Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009
“Beautiful Creatures” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, 2009
“The Everafter” by Amy Huntley, 2009
“Flash Burnout” by L. K. Madigan, 2009
“Breathless” by Jessica Warman, 2009
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, 1985
Local authors
“Primary Storm: A Lewis Cole Mystery” by Brendan DuBois, 2006
“Proust Was a Neuroscientist” by Jonah Lehrer, 2007
Liberty Books and Comics
75 Allison St., 223-0335
libertybooksnh.net
Fiction
“1984” by George Orwell. A great dystopia – timely since published in 1948, and especially so over the last two decades.
“The Iron Web” by Larken Rose. This is a remarkably well-written book for a first novel. If you are a freedom-oriented person, you’ll probably like it.
Nonfiction
“33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed To Ask” by Thomas E. Woods. One of the 33: Did the founding fathers believe juries could refuse to enforce unjust laws?
“The End of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot” by Naomi Wolfe. Wolfe builds bridges between opposing political groups.
“The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve” by G. Edward Griffin .
Actually helpful self-help
“Foraging New England” by Tom Seymour. Detailed descriptions of edible plants and animals along with tips on finding, preparing and using them.
Children
“Adventures of Tintin: Three Complete Adventures in One Volume” by Herge. Includes “Red Rackham’s Treasure,” “The Seven Crystal Balls” and “Prisoners of the Sun.”
“Sonic the Hedgehog” comics
“Little Lulu” books
Teens
“Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow. Author Neil Gaiman said, “It made me want to be 13 again.”
Chick lit
“Inu Yasha Volumes” by Rumiko Takahashi. Historical action and romance.
Biography
“We The Living” by Ayn Rand
Local authors
“Dishonest Money” by Joseph Plummer. A useful primer to the current economic crisis.
“Live Free Or Die” by P. Gardner Goldsmith and Paul H. Goldsmith. A collection of essays and fiction by New Hampshire libertarians.
“New Hampshire Gun, Knife, and Weapon Law” by Evan F. Nappen.
Gibson’s Bookstore
27 S. Main St., 224-0562
gibsonsbookstore.com
Fiction
Louise Erdrich’s powerhouse of a new novel is coming out in February. Called “Shadow Tag,” it’s a very intense domestic drama, far more accessible than some of her earlier works, very memorable.
“Alice I Have Been” by Melanie Bejamin is a novel about Alice Liddell, the real girl who inspired Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to write “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.” A delicious mix of fact and fiction.
Jasper Fforde’s “Shades of Gray.” The author of the Thursday Next series is back with another fantastically imaginative social satire.
Nonfiction
Elizabeth Spires has a new poetry collection out this month called “The Wave Maker.”
Actually helpful self-help
“The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande. It’s about the surprising power of the ordinary checklist, from the operating room to the boardroom to the kitchen.
Lynne Olson’s “Citizens of London.” Featuring three Americans who played key roles in the alliance between the U.S. and Britain during World War II. One of them was New Hampshire’s own John Winant; the others are Edward R. Murrow and Averell Harriman.
“Eaarth” by Bill McKibben, coming out in April
Children / Teens
Patricia MachLachlan, author of “Sarah Plain and Tall,” has a new book coming in the spring called “Word After Word After Word.”
“If I Had A Hammer” by David Rubel. The whole story of Habitat for Humanity, from its start as an intentional community in rural south Georgia to its work around the U.S. and the world today. For all ages, this is a book to read and then leave out on the coffee table for the kids to discover.
We all live in hope that Christopher Paolini will finish the next Eragon book soon, but no word yet on a publication date. Sigh.
Mystery
Everyone should be reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels. The third book, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” will be out in the U.S. in May.
There’s nothing like a Mrs. Pollifax novel, by Dorothy Gilman, to make the world seem right again. These spy mysteries are wise and clever and a lot of fun.
Chick lit
Both Jane Green (author of “The Beach House” and many more) and Emily Giffin have books coming out in the spring or early summer.
I am a fan of “Aga Sagas,” a subgenre of chick lit set in England, so named for the “aga” cookers in many British homes. Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope are good authors to try.
Biography
Don’t miss “Mennonite In a Little Black Dress” by Rhoda Janzen. A hilarious memoir, but also very smart and touching.
Susan Hand Shetterly’s “Settled In the Wild” comes out in February – a naturalist’s look at the wildness all around us.
Paul Johnston’s new biography, “Churchill.”
An older book that is amazing? “Eleni” by Nicholas Gage. The only book I’ve ever read that made me cry for over a hundred pages. And his daughter (Eleni Gage, named after her grandmother who is the Eleni in the first title) ended up writing a kind of follow up memoir, “North of Ithaka,” that is also fantastic.
Local authors
Maxine Kumin has a poetry collection coming out in April: “Where I Live: New and Selected Poems”
Ruth Doan MacDougall has a new novel out, “Mutual Aid.”
Marek Bennett has a new graphic novel about his trip to Nicaragua to teach comics workshops to kids in Henniker’s sister community.
Kathy Lowe has a book of photography called “Petreflections.”
