The Year in Books

Current bedtime reading

It’s quite some time since I wrote a book post but inspired by another blogger, Dar.  I thought I’d attempt to give an overview of my reading this year.  I’m a messy reader. I often have several books on the go at once. I start things and don’t finish them or dip into books and read relevant bits, especially when reading non-fiction. I have also developed a new reading habit - reading ‘Samples’, the opening chapters of books provided for free by Amazon on Kindle.  There are 64 of these on my Kindle. Sometimes I go on to read the book I’ve sampled but not always.  I can’t give any reliable statistics on my reading as my record keeping is also erratic.  I don’t set reading targets - number of books to read in a year etc.  - this is daft in my view because of the very obvious reason that some books take significantly longer to read than others.  And anyway reading is pleasure, not homework or something that’s good for me like 5 a day or 10000 steps. 

To compile this list I’ve looked at my borrowing record from the local library which is where I usually get my books.  I was bereft when it was closed because of Covid in lockdown.  I also read quite a lot of my books on my Kindle so I’ve used it to jog my memory. I prefer a real book, but the Kindle allows me to read without putting the light on when I wake up as I am wont to do around 3am. I also like being able to increase the print size.  I don’t actually buy many physical books - only those I want to keep like the book on Seamus Heaney by Roy Foster I got for Christmas.  There isn’t that much room for more books here and I tend to give away paperbacks I have. Here’s the list with a score out of ten I’ve used in previous book posts and a few comments. I’ll stick to fiction and haven’t included poetry or audiobooks.

Bookclub reads.  I like being part of a bookclub as it encourages me to try books I wouldn’t normally choose. 

1. My Choice- Girl with the Louding Voice Abi Dare 9 

I loved this book about a young girl surviving against the odds in Nigeria. 

2. Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow 3

Others loved this story of a Russian aristocrat being banished to a luxury hotel after the revolution. I found it implausible and despised the Gentleman as I found him patronising with a particularly annoying attitude to women.

3. Slow Horses Mick Herron 5 

Not my kind of book. Spy thriller. Too many characters, some sketchily drawn.

4. The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry (Reread) 8

Brilliant writing, didn’t fully reread though.

5. The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter 8

Short stories based on fairy tales. 

6. Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 8

Another book I enjoyed. Gilead is on my wish to read list. 

7. The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo 7

Family Saga type thing. A bit like The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen. It took a while to get going. 

8. Mayflies Andrew O’Hagan 6

Expected to enjoy this highly rated semi-autobiographical novel more as the first part was set in Manchester in the 1980s.  I lived there 1977-1981 before it was cool and before the Hacienda. This book begins in the late 80s and I’d moved on by then. It focuses on a group of young men from Glasgow going on a trip to Manchester see bands like The Smiths. Very ‘laddy’ - hard to follow the dialogue and like being out with my now husband and his mates at that time. All in jokes and references to stuff you don’t know. The second part of the novel is better as it explores the friendship between two of the characters in later years when one discovers he has cancer. 

9. Nacropolis Jeet Thayli 5

Not an easy read but glad I persisted. About opium addiction in Bombay. Opened my mind to a different world.  

10. Notes on a Scandal Zoe Heller 9

Thought I’d read this but in fact I’d just seen the film. Both brilliant.

Classics

I’ve read a few classics this year. Three were for the WEA courses I took, the others were Thomas Hardy novels, inspired by a visit to Dorset. I loved the short Virginia Woolf book Flush which is about the life of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning  written from the viewpoint of her dog.

Old Goriot Balzac 8

Flush Virginia Woolf 9

Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky 7

Under the Greenwood Tree  Thomas Hardy 7

Far From the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy (Reread) 10

General Fiction

This can be sub- divided into categories. There are the by six novels and two plays by Irish writers, seven if I count Maggie O’Farrell as Irish, some of this being teaching preparation as well as pleasure. Some are by established writers, others are less well known.  I’m running out of time to discuss them all except to recommend highly Piranesi by Suzanne Clarke, I read it because I heard it reviewed positively on Radio 4.  It’s very different, set in an alternative world which is a huge many-roomed derelict mansion filled with statues and surrounded by seas which sometimes flood it. There are only two inhabitants, the narrator Piranesi and The Other.  It sounds very strange and it is, but it is brilliant. It reminded me a little of Gormenghast, another book I enjoyed.  I don’t normally like fantasy type books but this isn’t really fantasy. I have bought it for two of my sisters for Christmas. 

Klara and the Sun Ishiguro 8

Never Let Me Go Ishiguro 7

Ghosts Dolly Alderton 7

Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell 9

Unless Carol Shields 8

Small Pleasures Clare Chambers 9

Magpie Elizabeth Day 6

Academy Street Mary Costello 5

Leonard and Hungry Paul Ronan Hession  7

Piranesi Suzanne Clarke 10

From a Low and Quiet Sea Donal Ryan 8

Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 8

Confessions of Madame Psyche Dorothy Bryant 7

Stitching a Life Mary Helen Fein 3

A Long Way from Verona Jane Gardam 9

Rereads

The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan 10

Brooklyn Colm Toibin 8

Nora Webster Colm Toibin 8

Dancing at Lughnasa Brian Friel (play) 9

Translations Brian Friel (play) 7

I haven’t included non-fiction on the list will mention one book I am reading now Spoonfed by Tim Spector.  I came across Tim as he runs the ZOE Covid App and he posts sensible updates and advice on Covid on YouTube. Before Covid  his research was on nutrition and the microbiome and this book debunks some of the myths about eating healthily. Some things I was aware of already but others not so much. He’s put me right of eating farmed salmon, for example.