I’ve read ten books for this project now. I had always planned to look back after each ten, kind of estimating how they are still sitting with me after all this time.

When I used to review films, it seemed an important inclusion for me to comment, from time to time, on how well or unwell a film finished for me, days later. It was always interesting. A film could seem great at first, but by the next day, it was gone, seemingly in a puff of smoke! Or the opposite, something that didn’t seem to have the dynamics right afterward, could then seem to grow as time went on.

So I would like to do that briefly with these books as well. Not a summary, just thoughts…

OUTLANDER. I still have vivid memories of this and in retrospect, the story telling was quite strong. Not my vision of romance, so I didn’t think then or now that I would read all of them. But I don’t know. Maybe later, I might try the second one. Doesn’t seem like I would do it but not impossible. Seems to me that this author’s greatest strength is in depicting scenes with the same kinds of danger and plot twists over and over and making them seem consistently entertaining. A fun read and I know why many women swoon over it. Not a full swooner for this huckleberry, but great characters and story telling.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. This guy, Junot Diaz, writes like a bat out of hell and that’s what I will always remember about the book. Breaks the fourth wall, explains a ton of the action in footnotes. But his greatest gift is in his choice of protagonist – Oscar, a largely ignored and completely forgotten kid of color in a harsh world that basically pays no attention to him. This undoubtedly felt liberating to many who read it and thought that no one would ever write their life story. That doesn’t include me and yet it did. I wouldn’t be led to read another by him, but I’m glad I partook of this one.

SIRENS OF TITAN. Sigh. I have to talk about this one and HITCHHIKER’S at the same time. I’m sure it is the worst insult I could ever make to the fans of each to say that they are more or less the same book to me. Clever, zany, SIRENS was written the year I was born – in 1959! And that gives it the edge for me, as it seemed so very current. There are scads of folks who love this genre. I’m not one of them. Makes me want to read a Tom Robbins book again. For now, as zany goes, I feel like I’ve finished my quota.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. What can you say about this? Loved it. Reading this amazing writing is like eating the best dessert you could have. Gorgeous, sparse, loving and lovely point of view of Scout, a little girl we feel we all grew up with. If there is anything other than love that I felt, it was the fact that this ended up being a bit quirkier than I remembered from years ago. That felt really cool, in that it is often thought of as one of the greatest American novels of all time and yet, it didn’t fit in a simple form and that remains with me.

I, ALEX CROSS. Honestly, I remember this one the least of the ten so far. Now, mind you, that isn’t so different than a bunch of mysteries that I have read and can’t remember much about almost immediately after. So what makes this a bit different? My own sense is that mystery series’ and their fans have everything to do with how close you feel to the main character. If you have a strong sense of him or her, that will carry you through endless journeys with them. I didn’t have that about Alex, so I’m not pulled to more stories about him.

THE LOVELY BONES. Such a strange little opus. When I used to review films, I always felt that the litmus test should be whether the filmmaker made what they intended to make, not what you wanted to see. And I still feel that way. But here, I think the author made what she wanted to make and it wasn’t the book I wanted to read. This isn’t a ding in the least on the author, as the number of people who set their emotional clocks to this novel is proof positive that she made a classic. The initial premise of the dead girl narrating was shocking and great. But I started to lose it from there. Really wanted more about heaven than a whole book with her watching her family fall apart. But that’s just my two cents.

JURASSIC PARK. Like the book I read before it, this is also an explosive premise – this one eventually becoming the foundation of a billion dollar industry. I enjoyed reading it more than I thought I would. I will remember it as a classic plot format, where someone doesn’t have a clue what is coming at them, while someone else is being chomped on by a dinosaur a couple of feet away. I will also remember the skill with which those dinosaur attacks came at you so shockingly fast. There was real story telling skill here.

LITTLE WOMEN. This I will remember as something I thought I would love re-reading and instead was deeply difficult to get through. Having said that, everyone who read it as a kid remembers all four daughters by name and there is a reason for that. Very well executed characters and surprising how much poverty played a role in it, as it should have, though I hadn’t remembered that.

GHOST. Since the Hitchhiker book is really folded into the Kurt Vonnegut one, I get to end this little list with my most pleasant surprise of the first ten. Loved Ghost! The main character’s point of view was deeply refreshing. The way he internally looked at life was very effective. I particularly will remember how he could see a sight that to the reader was ghastly but he didn’t see or recount like that. So you frequently got both layers of the truth. I didn’t really know where it was going and every scene was memorable. This, my first book for young adults, turns into a series that I would continue to read later. A quick, wonderful read!

HITCHHIKER’S. See SIRENS above. Though I will say that I did love Marvin, the depressed robot! He was great. I don’t know how much of this I will remember, as I only finished it today, but I suspect very little of it. It is exactly what you would imagine it would be, so all kudos to the author and my friend Kim and people who loved it.

And now, for lucky number #11!…