While reviewing my reading log for the past year, I lost count of the number of times I looked at a title and asked, "Really? I read that this year?" Maybe it's one of the advantages of getting older and losing your memory. You can reread books over and over and it's like reading them many wonderful books this year. Here are some that I enjoyed.

Once I finally got a copy of Kathryn Stockett's popular book, The Help, I couldn't put it down. Set in Jackson, Miss. in the 1960's, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan has returned home with a journalism degree from Ole Miss but no engagement ring on her finger, making her a definite outsider with her fellow Junior Leaguers. When a good friend pushes a proposal to prohibit the black "help" from using the toilets in their employers' homes, Skeeter is compelled to write a book about the maids' experiences. Told in the first person by Skeeter and two of the maids, this debut novel is a definite winner.

One book I purposely reread this year was The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard. It's a collection of personal essays and if you read nothing else in the book, don't miss "The Fourth State of Matter." I won't give away the story, but it involves a bad marriage, a dying collie, squirrels in the attic, astrophysics and a horrific crime. Beard's low-key narrative and self-deprecating humor keep the story from becoming maudlin.

I'm indebted to my fellow Golden Library book club members, who force me to read books I wouldn't read otherwise. Such is the case with John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. I wasn't the only one in the group to admit an aversion to Steinbeck after having to read him in high school, but we all agreed Cannery Row was a nice surprise. A fictional work set in the 1940s and based on the real-life people Steinbeck met while living in the Monterey Bay area, it's witty, funny and quite different from Steinbeck's "heavier" books.

One of my favorite authors in the literary journalism genre is Susan Orlean. Probably best known for her book, The Orchid Thief, two of her other books are worth a look as well. In The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, Orlean charms us with profiles of intriguing people including a female bullfighter, a clown, a New York cabbie and Maui surfer girls. In My Kind of Place, she focuses on settings no one else has thought to investigate including a grocery store in Queens, a taxidermy convention in Illinois and an African music shop in Paris. Her books are offbeat and entertaining and you'll see why The Washington Post called Orlean "a national treasure."

More books from my reading log

Fiction
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy
Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely
The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
Like You'd Understand Anyway by Jim Shepard
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall

Nonfiction and memoir
Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban
The Food of a Younger Land edited by Mark Kurlansky
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup
The Hopes of Snakes by Lisa Couturier
Leave Me Alone: I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan
Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney
No Impact Man by Colin Beavan
Shopping for Porcupine by Seth Kantner

You can check out these titles and many more at any Jefferson County Public Library location. Talk to your librarian for more recommendations.