Now reading Half Broke Horses, a "true life novel" by Jeannette Walls about her grandmother's life in the West. Calm writing about tremendously dramatic events, which is I guess how you avoid melodrama. And yet the emotion and the nuance comes flowing through. I'll now have to read her memoir, Glass Castle, which is about the author's childhood. We meet her mother in Half Broke Horses, and the set-up for disaster is clear.

2011 List so far.

10. Skippy Dies, Paul Murray
9. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
4-8. The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, The Dragon Heir, The Demon King, The Exiled King Cinda Williams Chima
3. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
2. Armadale, Wilkie Collins
1. The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton

Re-Read:
5-6 The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
1-4 The Nine Tailors, Gaudy Night, Busman's Honeymoon, Lord Peter, Dorothy L Sayers