Book List for 2010

It finally snowed, and it's finally good and cold out!! Happiness. I'm enjoying some very special tea and listening to the Voyage of the Dawn Treader soundtrack while I get this list together. I decided to add something new this year--I've rated each book on a 5-star scale so you can get a basic idea of what I thought.* Anyway, with that background, here's my book list for 2010. My light vs. serious reading ratio got a little out of hand this year, I think. Will have to try to improve that in 2011. :)


History/Biography
They Behaved Like Soldiers (Michael Cecere) ***
George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War (Thomas B. Allen) ***
84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff) ***
Into the Arms of Strangers (Mark Jonathan Harris) ***
The Scarlet and the Black (J. P. Gallagher) ****
The Inextinguishable Symphony (Martin Goldsmith) ***
The Story of My Life (Helen Keller) ****
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy (Eric Metaxas) *****
Sophie Scholl: The Real Story behind German's Resistance Heroine (Frank McDonough) ***
Daktar: Diplomat in Bangladesh (Viggo Olson) ****

Other Non-Fiction
Costume Close-Up (Linda Baumgarten) *****
Acting and How to be Good At It (Basil Hoffman) ****
Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady (Edith Holden) ***
Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (Edith Holden) ****
Whoopie Pies (Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell) ***

Christianity
Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will (Kevin DeYoung) ****
Let Me Be A Woman (Elisabeth Elliot) *****
Passion and Purity (Elisabeth Elliot) *****
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (Richard Foster) ****
Counterfeit Gods (Timothy Keller) ****
The Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis) ****
Feminine Appeal (Carolyn Mahaney) ****
Shopping for Time: How to Do it All and Not Be Overwhelmed (Carolyn Mahaney) ****
The Loveliness of Christ (Samuel Rutherford) *****
The Christian Imagination: the Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing (compiled and edited by Leland Ryken) ****

Fiction
Hospital Sketches (Louisa May Alcott) ****
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) *****
Little Dorrit (Charles Dickens) ****
Nicholas Nickleby (Charles Dickens) ***
Perelandra (C. S. Lewis) **
The Valley of Fear (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) ***
The White Company (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) **
Gentian Hill (Elisabeth Goudge) **
The Scent of Water (Elisabeth Goudge) ***
The Blue Castle (L. M. Montgomery) ***
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy) ****
The Elusive Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy) ***
El Dorado (Baroness Orczy) **
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Schaffer) *
The Keeper of the Bees (Gene Stratton-Porter) **
The Princess Adelina (Julie Sutter) ***
Vienna Prelude (Bodie and Brock Thoene) ***
Prague Counterpoint (Bodie and Brock Thoene) ***
What Men Live By (Leo Tolstoy) ***
The Unfinished Gift (Dan Walsh) **

Children's/YA Fiction
The Tale of Despereaux (Kate DiCamillo) ****
The Healer's Apprentice (Melanie Dickerson) **
Born to Trot (Marguerite Henry) ****
And Both Were Young (Madeleine L'Engle) ***
Hattie Big Sky (Kirby Larson) ***
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) ****
The Horse and His Boy (C. S. Lewis) ****
Prince Caspian (C. S. Lewis) ***
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C. S. Lewis) ****
The Silver Chair (C. S. Lewis) ***
The Magician's Nephew (C. S. Lewis) ***
The Last Battle (C. S. Lewis) ****
At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald) ***
The Light Princess and other fairy tales (George MacDonald) ****
The Railway Children (Edith Nesbit) *****
A Year Down Yonder (Richard Peck) ***
The Littlest Rebel (Edward Peple) ***
On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (Andrew Peterson) ***
North! Or Be Eaten (Andrew Peterson) ***
Escape from Warsaw (Ian Serraillier) ***
The Bronze Bow (Elizabeth George Speare) ***
Calico Captive (Elizabeth George Speare) ***
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare) *****
Heartless (Anne Elisabeth Stengl) ***
The Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff) ****

Flame-Colored Taffeta (Rosemary Sutcliff) **

Frontier Wolf (Rosemary Sutcliff) **

The Mark of the Horse Lord (Rosemary Sutcliff) **

Outcast (Rosemary Sutcliff) ***

The Shining Company (Rosemary Sutcliff) ****

The Silver Branch (Rosemary Sutcliff) ***

The Lark in the Morn (Elfrida Vipont) ****
The Lark on the Wing (Elfrida Vipont) ****
The Birds' Christmas Carol (Kate Douglas Wiggins) ***
Counting On Grace (Elizabeth Winthrop) **

Total History/Biography/Nonfiction: 15
Total Christianity: 10
Total Number of Nonfiction: 25

Total Number of Fiction: 20
Total Number of Children's/YA fiction: 35
Total Fiction: 55


Total Number of Books for 2010: 80


* (In case you wondered, my rating system works something like this: 1 = bad, don't read; 2 = not that great; 3 = default/it was fine/nothing remarkable/good with caveats; 4 = good book, worth reading; 5 = really like it/excellent).