Books of the Year 2010
Carl nicked this off Paul who nicked it off Norm, and he tagged me along with about a hundred others, and as he obliged me I'll oblige him. I haven't read 10 in any category, at least not that I'd recommend, so my lists trail off.
Top 10 non-fiction
Top 10 non-fiction
- Bertrand M Patenaude Stalin's Nemesis
- James Horrox A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement [which I will review at Contested Terrain in the new year]
- Roger Hewitt White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism [not finished it yet, but strongly recommend it]
- Benny Morris Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict
- Gillian Evans Educational Failure and Working Class White Children in Britain [a lot better than it sounds from the title!]
Top 10 Fiction
- Javier Cercas Soldiers of Salamis [thanks Richard]
- Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna [thanks Ruth]
- Jose Saramago Baltasar and Blimunda [thanks Francisco]
- Sebastian Barry A Long, Long Way
- Jonathan Wilson The Hiding Room
- George Pelecanos Drama City
- Milan Kundera Immortality
- JG Ballard Millenium People
- Daniel Pennac The Scapegoat
Comments
I read Martin Amis' autobiographical book 'Experience' not so long ago (I forgot to add it to my list) and it has a great few pages on Christopher and him, references to drinking games and their time together at the New Statesman. If you haven't already you should check that out.
Bob;
The Malik book is fantastic, you'll like it a lot, it might not all be new information for you, but it's very well written and recollected.
if still politically active the piggy eyed cunT wood be in the EDL (if he isn't already) nowadays of course.
disgusting fuckking scum.
as you're around - happy New Year, btw - do you know if any of Reijo Mäki novels have been published in English?
You're my go-to-guy when it's matters relating to Finland.
I haven't read From Fatwa to Jihad but I did enjoy Strange Fruit.
I'm not sure if it's THE best, but the book which immediately sprang to mind as one I particularly enjoyed this year was Theodore Dreiser's American Tragedy.
Happy New Year by the way,
James/Carl, Love, Poverty and War is a superb Hitchens collection - some really great pieces. Cuba seems a good place to read it too.
Sarah, I started off thinking I was going to love Millenium People, but then got incredibly bored. I have never read any other Ballard, and know I should, but am slightly put off now.
Noga, thanks for your great list. Will reply to that and one state stuff in next couple of days
Frank Dikotter, Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 (Bloombsbury, 2010).