My favorite book this year was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. This is one of those books I carried around with me all the time in hopes I’d have a few minutes to keep reading. I don’t usually read historical novels, but this one was so luscious and unsentimental that I could not put it down. It’s the story of the Anne Boleyn crisis from a fresh point of view: that of Thomas Cromwell, lawyer and fixer for Henry VIII. I love Mantel’s intimate point of view, and her unsparing portrait of Cromwell, who is a pragmatist, to say the least. He’s a ruthless politico and yet you feel for him as well. Mantel couldn’t fit everything into this book, so she’s writing a sequel. I can’t wait!
More from a Year in Reading 2010
Don’t miss: A Year in Reading 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
The good stuff: The Millions’ Notable articles
The motherlode: The Millions’ Books and Reviews
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