Not as many books read as I had hoped. My knitting interferes with my reading and vice-versa.
(1)Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday**
(2)How to Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan***
(3)Great House - Nicole Krauss - I'm stuck
(4)A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles*****
(5)Latitudes of Melt - Joan Clark*****
(6)A Ladder in the Sky - John Boyne*****
(7)A House in the Sky - Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett*****
(8)The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai****
(9)The House of Allsorts - Emily Carr*****
(9)The Magnificent Spinster - May Sarton****
(10)We all expected to die - Anne Budgell*****
(11)Our Homesick Songs - Emma Hooper 0
(12)Rules of Civility - Amor Towles ***
(13)Feeding My Mother - Jane Arden*****
(14)Small Fry - Lisa Brenner*
(15)Gaff Topsails - Patrick Kavanaugh 0 {DNF} {BC}
(16)The Beginners Goodbye - Anne Tyler****
(17)Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing - May Sarton****
(18)A Slipping Down Life - Anne Tyler***
(19)Digging in America - Anne Tyler****
(20)If Morning Ever Comes - Anne Tyler***
(21)The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris**
(22)Noah's Compass - Anne Tyler*****
(23)The Boat People - Sharon Bala*****
(24)Milkman - Anna Byrne*****
(25)August Gale - Barbara Walsh {BC}****
(26)We Were the Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter {DNF}
(27)Providence - Anita Brookner****
(28)The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves***
(29)Beneath The Earth - John Boyne ****
(30)A Mother's Reckoning - Sue Klebold{BC}****
(31)Growing Up Next to the Mental - Brian Callahan 0
(32)The End of Absence - Michael Harris*****
(33)The Power - Naomi Alderman*****
(34)Left Neglected - Lisa Genova***
(35)A Misalliance - Anita Brookner****
(36)Normal People - Sally Rooney*****
(37)This Glorious Country - Florence Clothier {BC}*****
(38)Sum - David Eagleman****
(39)Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton*****
(40)The Dreamers - Karen Thompson Walker**
(41)Send More Tourists the Last Ones were Delicious - Tracey Waddleton****
(42)A Private View - Anita Brookner*****
(43)Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner*****
(44)City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert*****
(45)Mrs. Everything - Jennifer Weiner**
(46)Invisible Women - Caroline Priado Perez*****
(47)Stay Where you are and then Leave - John Boyne ****
(48)Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Grace Honeyman ****1/2
(49)The Innocents - Michael Crummey ****
(50)No Time to Spare - Ursula K LeGuin*****
(51)Dear Evelyn - Kathy Page*****
(52)We are all simply Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler*****
(53)Emancipation Day - Wayne Grady{BC}**
(54)Pond - Claier Louise Bennett*****
(55)Salt Path - Raynor Wynn*****
(56)Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng*****
(57)The Best of Adam Sharpe - Graeme Simsion {BC} 0 DNF
(58)Everyone Brace is forgiven - Chris Cleave*****
(59)Three Women - Lisa Taddeo***
(60)The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead*****
(61)The Forbidden Dreams of Betsy Elliott - Carolyn Parsons**
The very best were 4, 13, 23, 24, 32, 36, 39, 43, 44, 46, 51, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60.
Some were book club choices, some I couldn't finish due to a preference for watching my fingernails grow. But on the whole, some truly great and immensely readable and enjoyable books.
All the books read over the years of blogging can be found here.
I am also on GoodReads if you'd like to find me there.GOODREADS WWW REVIEWS
Hooray for reading. I will not admit how often I neglect other things in its favour.
ReplyDeleteI have read some of the same books as you and am most in complete agreement with your rating.
Some great reads EC, and some clunkers but they sweeten the good ones!
DeleteXO
WWW
Prolific blogging and internet addiction comes at the expense of book reading, so maybe twelve books for me this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm wheeling off FB quite a bit apart from some groups I'm in and some feeds but I do limit myself. Not that I'm a paragon by 'arf. Lexulous (Scrabble) is a real NEED of mine. I've played 14 games a day for years and years. One of my players is in OZ.
DeleteXO
WWW
You read more than I did. I got to 48 books ... and amazingly, not one that's on your list. My favorites were:
ReplyDeleteIf Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Indifferent Stars Above: Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown
The Witch Elm by Tana French
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World by Hans Rosling
These Truths: History of the United States by Jill Lepore
Educated by Tara Westover
The Killer in Me by Olivia Kiernan
Metropolis by Philip Kerr
And maybe a few more ... but I'm going to take a look at your list for some new (to me) books and authors. Thanks, and happy reading!
How did you find the new Tana French, Tom? I loved all except her last one with its wooey flavour and was most disappointed.
DeleteI read Educated in 2018 but I will look out for the rest of your list. I saw an amazing doc on the Donner party years ago and it never left me.
XO
WWW
Didn't read any on your list except Left Neglected which I read some time ago. I read one on Tom's list - Educated - but have read some good books myself this year. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was my favourite. Also, I enjoyed Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.
ReplyDeleteIn 2018 I read Educated and Before we were Yours. Loved both.
DeleteI'm on the list for Crawdads at my library. Can hardly wait!
XO
WWW
I've never heard of any of those, but I think I'll try to find a copy of Send More Tourists the Last Ones Were Delicious, it sounds hilarious. Is it funny? I don't read nearly enough books these days, I'm not a fast reader and by the time I get through the blogs end emails, half the day is gone or more. Then there's the TV watching, mostly dvds though and lately, the news to keep track of the fires.
ReplyDeleteTourists was written by the daughter of a good friend. It is edgy and millennial so might not be your taste, the title is great though!
DeleteI have to carve out my reading time and unplug. ButI totally get the constant monitoring of the news. Is it End Times? With WW3 on the horizon it feels like it. It is hard to find joy.
XO
WWW
As usual, an impressive list. Where do you find the time?
ReplyDeleteI lost track of all the books that I read during the year but to make amends, I shall review each as I finish reading one this year.
I am under previous years Ramana, I deliberately make the time. I try and do 50-60 pages a days. I'd like to do more. I think you read quite a bit more than you realize as I often see your posts of books, usually of a more searching nature. Mine is basically, strictly entertainment, taking me out of this stressful planet for a while.
DeleteXO
WWW
Wow, that's a lot of books to read. I admire you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gigi, I make it a priority in my life, we all need a form of escape :)
DeleteXO
WWW
That's an impressively long list!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read my absolute favourite book in all the world? The Perfection of the Morning, by Sharon Butala.
Does your library order in anything and everything you could ever want? How I love my local library and its interlibrary loan system. I could never afford to read as much as I do, without it.
Now to look more carefully at your starred "best" books to get some ideas.
xoKate
Mearly all of my books are library, Kate. Inter-library is brilliant and also I am very impressed with the overall library system here as they deliver free to your door if you are in rural or handicapped. I did read the Perfection a few years ago on your recommendation - how she adjusted to country living. It was very good.
DeleteTry and do a list also as I would love to read your recommendations for the year.
XO
WWW
I've read five of those! I loved Little Fires Everywhere. I was totally hooked all the way through, which is very rare for a book of that length. Now I'm retired I managed to read 60 books this year. When I was working I was lucky to get through 35.
ReplyDeleteThat's brilliant Nick. I truly adored Little Fires also, I highly recommend. I'd love to see your list and ratings if you make one or if you're on GoodReads.
DeleteHave you read John Boyne? I think you might enjoy him. I think I've read all of us now along with Sebastian Barry.
XO
WWW
Oh, I see I was confusing Little Fires Everywhere with A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (both of which I've read). A Little Life is actually the very long one (736 pages)
DeleteI’m making a note of your five star ones as I value your judgement. I read Hotel du Lac years ago and liked it - and it’s length - so much I read all her others. I’m reading a huge book at the moment - Ducks, Newburyport - and really enjoying her style. It’s an internal monologue but she makes you work for the plot by dropping a clue in here and there. Aren’t books wonderful? xxx
ReplyDeletethey are wonderful Anne. I made a note of Ducks, your brief take on it reminds me of Pond, an internal dialogue too, so lyrical. I'd love to write in that form and I might try it this year.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW