Best of 2010

Ok, for better or worse, my picks for the "Best of 2010". It was a disappointing year for me. I started and stopped more books than I finished, both in print and on audio. It was a year of 58 books and 47 audios. A couple of audios were series that I had previously read in print and wanted to enjoy again in audio. So in no particular order, here are my picks for "Best of 2010".

Books
Dark Gardian #1 Moonlight by Rachel Hawthorne
Wistril Compleat , Mister Trophy, Mallara & Burn on the Road by Frank Tuttle
Southern Vampire series #10: Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Dark Devine by Bree Despain
Love in a Time of Zombies by Paul Gude
World’s Wickedest Women by Margaret Nicholas
Blood Engines by TA Pratt
Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson
Ophelia & Abby series #7: The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard
House of Dead Maids by Claire B. Dunkle & Patrick Arrasmith

Audiobooks
A Year in the World by Frances Mayes (read by the author)
Open Season by Linda Howard
Wheel of Time series #6-13 includes the two newest books
The Gathering Storm & Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (read by Michael Kramer & Kate Reading)
The Hunger Game series: Hunger Games, Catching Fire, & The Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)
Fever Dream by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (read by Rene Auberjonois)
Life as We Knew It #2: The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (read by Dean Robertson)
The Southern Vampire series or the Sookie Stackhouse series or the True Blood series or Whatever-You-Want-to-Call-it series by Charlaine Harris (read by Johanna Parker)

Blasphemy

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston

Unabridged Audio, 11 CDs, read by Scott Sowers.

Another excellent book by Douglas Preston. The reader was okay, except for the main scientist's voice, it sounded too whiney. Also, I thought the main girl character in the book was stupid although it was necessary for what happens in the last few chapters.

The story revolves around a multibillion dollar science experiment that gets the religious fanatics whipped up. I always have enjoyed every book I've read by Douglas Preston be it solo or with Lincoln Childs. This was no exception, it was outstanding.

Just a Complaint

I've started and stopped so many books lately. The main females in most are so stupid. In the last one I tried to read, the couple had only been seeing each other a few days. The girl wants to know if he will leave her when she gets old. After assuring her he won't, he says something about their children. She got all mad because they had just met and he was talking about her having his baby?? Well, she had just talked about growing old together -- duh!

Most females in books, movies and TV series these days expect too much. They want to be the most important thing in their man's life. To heck with the fact he is in school trying to earn a degree so he can support her spending habits and needs time to study or that his mother is dying and he is the sole caregiver. They are so self centered and whiney. Love and marriage is give and take not take, take, take.

Most of the so called "strong" women in books aren't strong, they are bitchy. One can be strong without being mean or unattentive to other peoples feelings or needs.

Ok, done with my rant. I'll quietly go back to reading. Hopefully, a good book with a good plot and strong (but not bitchy) characters.