| Title | : | 2019 on |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2019 |
For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2019 on Goodreads on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf.
Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir.
Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir
Cover art: Paul Cézanne, The bend in the road, 1906
2019 on Reviews
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UPDATE: Well, I still haven’t finished last year and I’m not going to finish updating my books this year. I started out good by posting everything I read AND THEN, I was over it. Most of my friends on here know I battled cancer last year. Obviously that changed my life. Things just don’t matter as much as they used to and I’m trying to do more with my charities and cancer group.
Goodreads, over the years, has become a stupid competition to see who can get the most likes (by book bumping or making generic comments on people’s reviews) and I’m over it. I’m hoping to connect with my friends more on here and spend quality time reading books in the new year.
You will only see big reviews that I used to love to do, when I reread something. I like to use gifs or pics to state how I feel most of the time or just give a star review.
Anyway, I just wanted to put all of that out there. I’m hoping the new year will be better in all aspects. And I do hope to connect to my friends on here again and downsize things.
Love ya peeps!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
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Let’s see what this year holds. I still have to update last year!! I’m going to be optimistic and add 5 stars for this year damn it!! I will be updating as I go along! ❌⭕️
5 Stars
✅ Honor Among Thieves
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Priory Of The Orange Tree
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ No Place Like Here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Shadow Frost (Favorites)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Ruin Of Kings
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Once Upon A River
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Smoke and Summons
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Emmy & Oliver
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Four Swans
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Gardens of the Moon
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ An Easy Death
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Slayer
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Sandman Overture
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Stain (Favorites)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Deadhouse Gates
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (favorites)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Shiver
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅Memories Of Ice
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ King of Scars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Runes of Truth
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Circle Of Stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Angry Tide
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Bird Box
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Red Sonja Queen of Plagues
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Priest Of Bones
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅The Storm Crow
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅Spin The Dawn
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Night
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ A Spark Of Light
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅Zoo Nebraska
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Curse Of The Mistwraith
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The One And Only Ivan
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Storm and Fury
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ A Curse So Dark And Lonely
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Dragon Republic
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Wilder Girls
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Sea Of Rust
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 Stars
✅ East
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Subhuman
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Eragon
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Summer Tree
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Wicked King
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ First Rider’s Call
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Eldest
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Tower of Living And Dying
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Girls Made Of Glass And Snow
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Dragon Pearl
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Magicians
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Captain Marvel
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ The Raven’s Tale
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ Courting Darkness
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ A Pack Of Blood And Lies
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
✅ All Sysyems Red
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
RANDOM AMAZON REVIEWS
https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amz... -
Every Rating & Review for 2019
Aquaman, Volume 7: Exiled by
Cullen Bunn
(C+) 64% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐ – 01/03/2019
Notes: Allegedly Aquaman, it paints pictures with pond scum: a murky morass, waterlogged with cringe and dank edginess.
Aquaman, Volume 8: Out of Darkness by
Dan Abnett
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/05/2019
Notes: A bubblegum sitcom: scaled-down and shallow. It hooks with humor, stems the tide and floats with jokes and action.
Deadly Class, Book Two: The Funeral Party by
Rick Remender
(A-) 83% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/10/2019
Notes: Heartrending and raw, it cuts deep with depravity, coercion and heat, singing teenage melodies to a murderous beat.
Tokyo Ghost: Complete Edition by
Rick Remender
(A-) 82% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/14/2019
Notes: A stirring satire, it shines in sketchy sublimity, but sadly stoops to schlock for shock's sake in its so-so second section.
The Last Days of American Crime by
Rick Remender
(C+) 67% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 01/17/2019
Notes: One long, disjointed red-band trailer: it's a pain to follow, hard-boiled but hollow, with not much egg within its shell.
Kick-Ass: Volume 1 by
Mark Millar
(A-) 83% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/21/2019
Notes: Very Itchy & Scratchy, it's nuts: a salty teenage fantasy, with heart beneath its blood and guts and rollicking vulgarity.
Kick-Ass 2 Prelude: Hit-Girl by
Mark Millar
(A-) 80% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/23/2019
Notes: A surfeit of indecency, it's sanguine and sincere: a gag-laden interlude fueled by revenge and served cold with relish.
Kick-Ass 2 by
Mark Millar
(A-) 81% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/27/2019
Notes: It dishes body blows in deconstruction: a black and bruising, blunt-force drama, fun no more and bleak with trauma.
Kick-Ass 3 by
Mark Millar
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/31/2019
Notes: A blunted expression of toothless aggression, it sputters to climax: a stunted digression, sufficient by residual feeling.
Green Valley by
Max Landis
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/05/2019
Notes: A fairly conventional action-adventure, it's a one-trick pony, popcorn, picture show: a gilded, medieval movie-script.
The Fade Out by
Ed Brubaker
(A-) 81% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 02/12/2019
Notes: Ode to inability, it's woozy downbeat clamor: a grim and gaudy fever dream through lands of schmutz and glamour.
Deadly Class, Volume 7: Love Like Blood by
Rick Remender
(A-) 84% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 02/16/2019
Notes: A ton of death, as burdens crest and baggage boils over: bloody bluster, wall-to-wall, and beaten hearts beneath it all.
The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th-Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece by
Laura Cumming
(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/26/2019
Notes: Like a box too big for its baubles, it's profuse in puffy packing peanuts: padding out vacuities with filler art analyses.
A Face in the Crowd by
Stephen King and
Stewart O'Nan
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/28/2019
Notes: Sluggish, it plays small ball with story: sliding in safe on sentiment with little zing to its swing on the follow through.
Superman, Volume 2: Secrets and Lies by
Dan Jurgens,
Keith Giffen,
Scott Lobdell and
Fabian Nicieza
(B-) 70% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/06/2019
Notes: Quintessentially inessential: a bland-as-water, starchy waste; it ends in stenchy indigestion, and acid reflux aftertaste.
Superman, Volume 3: Fury at World's End by
Scott Lobdell
(C+) 65% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐ – 03/09/2019
Notes: It's fruit of the tree of greed and bad ideas: an art book at best, at worst a total waste of time masquerading as a story.
Superman, Volume 4: Psi War by
Scott Lobdell and
Mike Johnson
(B-) 69% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/15/2019
Notes: Overstuffed to illness, it spews twists and returns: a dreary, unrested, swollen, congested farrago of psionic delirium.
Superman: H'El on Earth by
Scott Lobdell,
Mike Johnson and
Tom DeFalco
(C+) 66% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/21/2019
Notes: Black hole of bother, it's all busywork and bickering, a bona fide snoozer: seriously stagnant, slack and short of story.
Superman: Krypton Returns by
Scott Lobdell,
Tom DeFalco,
Michael Green,
Mike Johnson and
Justin Jordan
(C+) 67% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/25/2019
Notes: It's frivolous drivel: meanderings missing meat and meaning, mumbling plot and gnawing at the bones of backstory.
Superman, Volume 5: Under Fire by
Scott Lobdell
(C+) 64% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐ – 03/29/2019
Notes: It's murder to read: a chore to its core, committing crimes against storytelling and droning songs to groan along with.
Superman: Lois Lane (2014) #1 by
Marguerite Bennett
(B-) 68% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/31/2019
Notes: Half-baked, ham-fisted, humdrum claptrap: a miserably maudlin, ditzy endeavor, it loses the plot trying to be clever.
Superman Unchained by
Scott Snyder
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 04/07/2019
Notes: Flawed and overwritten, it's a bit deus-ex future tech, but nonetheless proficiently sufficient, standard-issue Superman.
Superman: The Men of Tomorrow by
Geoff Johns
(A-) 81% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 04/12/2019
Notes: A soul-injection course correction, heartfelt and hopeful, it's home-style heroism: classic cuisine free of fads or fusion.
Superman, Volume 1: Before Truth by
Gene Luen Yang
(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 04/17/2019
Notes: Seemingly Superman, it swaps steak for tofu: an anemic, lightweight letdown, inciting apathy, grumbles, and shrugs.
Superman, Volume 2: Return to Glory by
Gene Luen Yang,
Peter J. Tomasi,
Aaron Kuder and
Greg Pak
(C+) 67% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 04/24/2019
Notes: A bore to bear and hard to care, it's dumb to dreadful to decent fare, and may've had meaning if it weren't so stupid.
Superman (2011-2016) #23.2: Featuring Brainiac by
Tony Bedard
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 04/26/2019
Notes: Framed in flashback and dubbed with spin, it's Secret Origins meets Pravda: evil public relations optically out-of-sync.
Superman (2011-2016) #23.4: Featuring Parasite by
Aaron Kuder
(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 04/28/2019
Notes: It's a lot like sour candy: a rush of tart and tangy fun, but sparse on story, with little substance beneath its sugar high.
Teen Titans, Volume 3: Death of the Family by
Scott Lobdell,
Fabian Nicieza and
Scott Snyder
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 05/01/2019
Notes: It's generic ephemera: trivial team-ups and rehashed plots, featuring all the narrative nuance of a TV toy commercial.
Teen Titans, Volume 4: Light and Dark by
Scott Lobdell and
Tony Bedard
(B-) 68% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 05/04/2019
Notes: Ketchup stains on the bright shirt of clarity: sloppy, lackadaisical and needlessly nonsensical. It's simply inexplicable.
Teen Titans, Volume 5: The Trial of Kid Flash by
Scott Lobdell
(B-) 69% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 05/10/2019
Notes: Wherein things tie up in very knotty ways, and the author commits narrative malpractice against long-suffering fans.
Teen Titans (2011-2014) #23.2: Featuring Deathstroke by
Corey May and
Dooma Wendschuh
(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 05/11/2019
Notes: Short on spice and sizzle, it barely delves beneath its surface. Like non-alcoholic beer, it's a plot of very little purpose.
Justice League, Volume 3: Throne of Atlantis by
Geoff Johns and
Jeff Lemire
(A-) 80% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 05/16/2019
Notes: Bittersweet and splashy, it's about fluid affinity, ebbing uncertainty and how magic can overflow impulse to villainy.
Justice League International, Volume 1: The Signal Masters by
Dan Jurgens
(B-) 71% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 05/19/2019
Notes: Broadly bootless, it's bloodless and bland: a barely bush-league bindle of blah, beyond bygone and bereft of buildup.
Justice League International, Volume 2: Breakdown by
Dan Jurgens,
Geoff Johns,
Dan DiDio,
Ethan Van Sciver and
Joe Harris
(C+) 67% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 05/23/2019
Notes: Its protagonists are pathetic posers: piss-and-moan protectors puling about powerlessness and piteous predicaments.
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Addendum #1
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Addendum #2
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Addendum #3 -
Happy holiday season and new year to come to all of my Goodreads friends. This year has flown by. I have celebrated family milestones- my oldest child starting high school and me hitting a big birthday. After a so-so year in 2018, I decided to make 2019 a nonfiction reading year to jumpstart my reading and what a year it has been. The Nonfiction Book Club is about to complete its first ever yearly group reading challenge, completing over 500,000 pages read as a group. From this challenge, I have read books from all genres of nonfiction, some out of my comfort zone, and expanded my reading horizons. In the group, we integrated Little Rock Central High School, became the First woman on the Supreme Court, met the Cat in the Hat, conquered Polio, traveled across the Lone Star State, celebrated the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street, and learned about Theodore Roosevelt from a new angle in A Strenuous Life. Those were among my favorites, and feel free to visit the Nonfiction Book Club to discover more nonfiction reading adventures.
In the Baseball Book Club, I took it upon myself to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s birth by reading Opening Day by Jonathan Eig, Child of a Dream: A Memoir by Sharon Robinson, When Baseball Went White by Ryan Swanson, and Teammates by Peter Golonbock. We read about the 100th anniversary of the Black Sox Scandal and then about how a Big Fella saved baseball during the 1920s. Over the summer we observed the 50th anniversary of the turbulent 1960s, discussing the Year of the Pitcher, The Collision of the 1960s and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and visited baseball’s Southern League. When we were not reading about baseball, we chat about the game on a daily basis, even in the winter months when we wait for baseball to be played again. Until opening day, there will always be plenty of baseball reading material to keep us busy as well as chatting with good friends who love America’s pastime.
Outside of both groups, I rekindled my love of biographies and memoirs, a favorite genre from the time I was a kid. Standing out, I learned to combine Mind and Matter, that Yale needed women fifty years ago, how Gander, Newfoundland is among the most giving places on this planet, and that in 1978 a group of girls in a town I know well won a State title. My journey included trips to the Berlin Wall, a Yellow House in New Orleans, and visiting with a Girl Scout who became a rocket scientist, the daughter of a money runner, and a college professor preserving her family history for her three daughters in the poignant In the Country of Women. I also reminisced with celebrities in their memoirs Home Work, My Mother Was Nuts, and We’re Going to Need More Wine. And, I found time to laugh out loud with Tina Fey and Kevin Hart as I learned how they journeyed to the comedic lives that they now enjoy.
During this nonfiction year, I still had time to read favorite authors including John Steinbeck, Truman Capote, Agatha Christie, Carson McCullers, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Nicole Krauss, Jacqueline Woodson, and reread To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I discovered new favorites Colum McCann and nonfiction authors Tom Reiss, Timothy Egan, and Ryan Swanson who is a kindred spirit in our shared love of baseball and history. I immersed myself in Hamilton: The Revolution and traveled to The Heights, and, last, but definitely not least, I fell in love with the memoirs of nonagenarian Harry Bernstein.
The year 2019 ended up being more rewarding than expected. I enjoyed participating in groups The Baseball Book Club, the Nonfiction Book Club, Reading for Pleasure, and Catching Up on Classics (and lots more!). With this nonfiction year winding down, I am looking forward to furthering my friendships in these groups and adding fiction to my repertoire next year. So Happy New Year to come to all my Goodreads friends who helped shaped my reading year. I look forward to more, wonderful reading in the year to come!
Classics (50 years or more)
1. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
2. Call for the Dead by John Le Carre
3. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre
4. Grass Harp by Truman Capote
5. Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (reread)
7. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
8. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (reread)
Contemporary (less than 50 years)
1. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (1974)
2. Man Walks Into A Room by Nicole Krauss (2002)
3. Mudbound by Hilary Jordan (2009)
4. Dancer by Colum McCann (2004)
5. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (2019)
Drama
1. In the Heights by Quiara Alegria Hudes/Lin-Manuel Miranda (2003 , drama)
2. Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
3. Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein
General Nonfiction
1. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count Of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
2. The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine F. Weiss
3. Dear Mister Rogers, Does it Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood? Letters to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers
4. A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Match That Leveled the Playing Surface by Selena Roberts
5. A Woman’s Place: The Inventors, Rumrunners, Lawbreakers, Scientists, and Single Moms Who Changed the World With Food by Deepi Ahluwalia and Stef Ferrari
6. When Women Played Hardball by Susan E. Johnson
7. Pounding the Rock: Basketball Dreams and Real Life In a Bronx High School by Marc Skelton
8. Alex Haley and the Books That Changed America by Robert J. Norrell
9. The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics by Salena Zito and Barry Todd
10. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs Of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan
11. The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer by Caitlin Murray
12. G-D Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright
13. The King and Queen Of Malibu: The True Story for the Battle for Paradise by David K. Randall
14. Golden Days: West’s Lakers, Steph’s Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball by Jack McCallum
15. Polio: An American Story by David E. Oshinsky
16. The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough
17. The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968 by George Howe Colt
18. Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey into the Heart Of Fan Mania by Warren St. John
19. Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It’s Chaotic Founding, It’s Apocalyptic Weather, It’s Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream Of Becoming a World Class Metropolis by Sam Anderson
20. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan
21. Quiet: The Power Of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
22. I Have a Dream Speech by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr with illustrations by Kadir Nelson
23. Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins
24. Hoop Dreams by Ben Joravsky
25. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
26. Tough Luck: Sid Luckman, Murder, Inc., and the Rise of the Modern NFL by R. D. Rosen
27. The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey
28. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
29. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis
30. A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez
31. State: A Team, A Triumph, A Transformation by Melissa Isaacson
32. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean
33. The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss
34. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
35. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
36. Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West by Timothy Egan
37. The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete by Ryan Swanson
Baseball Book Club Reads
1. Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game by Dan Barry
2. Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times Of Ernie Banks by Doug Wilson
3. The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane Leavy
4. Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever With Baseball in the Brink by Kevin Cook
5. Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story Of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team The Helped Win World War II by Anne R. Keene
6. When the Crowd Didn’t Roar: How Baseball’s Strangest Game Ever Gave a Broken City Hope by Kevin Cowherd
7. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof
8. One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, An Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season by Chris Ballard
9. The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group Of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball by Aaron Skirboll
10. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life Of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff
11. Rookie: When Michael Jordan Came to the Minor Leagues by Jim Patton
12. Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the ‘90s Dynasty by Bill Pennington
13. They Called Me G-D: The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived by Doug Harvey with Peter Golonbeck
14. Jackie Robinson West: The Triumph and Tragedy of America’s Favorite Little League Team by George Castle
15. Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back by Luis Tiant
16. Home Game: Big League Stories From My Life in Baseball’s First Family by Bret Boone with Kevin Cook
17. Edgar: An Autobiography by Edgar Martinez with Larry Stone
18. They Bled Blue: Fernandomania, Strike Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Season Baseball Had Ever Seen by Jason Turbow
19. Astroball: The New Way to Win it All by Ben Reiter
20. Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and a Secret Society That Shocked Depression Era Detroit by Tom Stanton
21. The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McClain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age by Sridhar Pappu
22. The Last Innocents: The Collision Of the Turbulent 1960s and the Los Angeles Dodgers by Michael Leahy
23. Nolan Ryan: The Making Of a Pitcher by Rob Goldman
24. Babe Ruth - A Superstar’s Legacy by Jerry Amernic
25. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler
26. Southern League: A True Story Of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Southern League’s Most Compelling Pennant Race by Larry Colton
27. The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball’s Greatest Salesman by Don Zminda
28. Lady Tigers in the Concrete Jungle: How Softball and Sisterhood Saved Lives in the South Bronx by Dibs Baer
29. The 2005 Washington Nationals: Major League Baseball Returns to the Capital by Ted Leavengood
30. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season by Jonathan Eig
31. Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages by David Ross with Don Yeager
32. The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball’s Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption by John Rosengren
33. When Baseball Went White: Reconstruction, Reconciliation, and Dreams of a National Pastime by Ryan A. Swanson
Biography/Memoir
1. My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall
2. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
3. Invisible Wall: A Love Story of Breaking Barriers by Harry Bernstein
4. Family of Earth by Wilma Dykeman
5. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey
6. We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories by Gabrielle Union
7. Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir Of Family by Condoleezza Rice
8. Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
9. Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo
10. Through a Window: Thirty Years With Chimpanzees Of Gombe by Jane Goodall
11. The Tenth Muse: My Life In Food by Judith Jones
12. When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
13. A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page
14. In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life Of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary
15. Chamique: On Family, Focus, and Basketball by Chamique Holdsclaw with Jennifer Frey
16. Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
17. First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas
18. The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making Of an American Dynasty by Susan Page
19. Mind and Matter: A Life In Math and Football by John Urschel with Louisa Thomas
20. Becoming Dr Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making Of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones
21. Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts by Stacy Cordery
22. Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein
23. When We Were Arab: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History by Massoud Hayoun
24. Inheritance: A Memoir Of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
25. The Dream: A Memoir by Harry Bernstein
26. The Golden Willow: A Story of a Lifetime of Love by Harry Bernstein
27. My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King as told to Reverend Dr. Barbara Reynolds
28. Marian Anderson: A Singer’s Journey by Allan Keiler (read 2/3 only)
29. Forty Autumns: A Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides Of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner
30. In the Country of Women by Susan Straight
31. All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
32. The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis
33. Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963 by Sharon Robinson
34. Path to the Stars: My Journey From Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo
35. Bossypants by Tina Fey
36. Curveball: How I Discovered True Fulfillment After Chasing Fortune and Fame by Barry Zito
37. Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews
38. Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir by Nikki Grimes
39. Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
40. Roaring Back: The Fall and Rise of Tiger Woods by Curt Sampson
41. I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart
Poetry
1. And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
2. Love Letters: Poems by Phyllis McGinley
3. The Body’s Question: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
4. Homecoming: Poems by Julia Alvarez
5. An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo
6. Out of Wonder: Poets Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander
Children’s
1. More All-Of-A-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
2. Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse
3. Rebound by Kwame Alexander
4. Teammates by Peter Golenbock
5. The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander with illustrations by Kadir Nelson
6. The Duchess Bakes a Cake by Virginia Kahl
7. The Good Luck Cat by Joy Harjo with illustrations by Paul Lee
8. Hanukkah in Alaska by Barbara Brown illustrated by Stacey Schuett -
Classics:
☒
The Iliad
☒
Bleak House
☐
Atlas Shrugged
☒
Their Eyes Were Watching God
☒
Old Goriot
☒
Don Quixote
2019 Releases - Must-Read:
☒
In an Absent Dream
☒
The Winter of the Witch
☒
King of Scars
☒
On the Come Up
☒
Superman: Dawnbreaker
☒
Shout
☐
The Deepest Blue
☒
Dig
☐
The Place on Dalhousie
☒
Wolfhunter River
☒
The Bride Test
☐
The Dragon Republic -
2019?
Another year is almost gone, the Christmas presents are wrapped and patiently waiting under the tree, and so the time has come again to honour the tradition that Fionnuala has coined, inviting us to reflect on this year’s life with books.
No point beating around the bush, these fifteen books (or stories) stood out for me in 2019 (in no particular order):
1. Gabriel Josipovici,
Infinity: The Story of a Moment
2. Ida Jessen,
A Change of Time
3. Nikolai Leskov,
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
4. Patrick Modiano,
Family Record
5.
The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy
6. Antonio Tabucchi,
Message from the Shadows: Selected Stories
7. David Garnett,
Lady into Fox
8. John Berger, From A to X
9. Pushkin,
The Snow Storm (from Tales of the Belkin)
10. Virginia Woolf,
Kew Gardens and
In the Orchard
11. William Blake, Songs of innocence and of experience
12. Katleen Raine, William Blake
13. Adam Zamoysky, Napoleon
14. Maria Gainza, Optic Nerve
15. Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Lazily pressing the statistics button here tells me I have marked 168 books/single short stories as read in 2019, amounting to 21918 pages – again mostly novels or collections of short stories, single short stories, a few poetry collections, a few collections of essays, some books on art, a few biographies and a sprig of graphic novels/comics. Looking at this pile is more pleasing than focussing on what I intended to read but didn’t, or on the reading projects or plans that evaporated on the way while digressing to paths and places which looked more alluring.
In summer, after making a few reading choices that resonated less with me, I got stuck in the project to read one female author from every EU member state, a project of which the self-inflicted pressure that came with it almost pushed me into a reading slump. A few GR friends who had embarked on a Russian journey helped me out, inspiring me to read Leskov (
The Steel Flea), Pushkin (Tales of Belkin), Chekhov (The black Monk,
Ivanov), Turgenev (Diary of a superfluous man) and Leonid Dobychin (
The Town of N) (earlier in the year I had read a few short works of Tolstoy (
Albert, Hadji Murat ), Turgenev (
First Love), and Karolina Pavlova (
A Double Life). It was a delight to follow the discussion threads of friends on some Russian books I have read when I was young and merry and on books which I look forward to read too (Nabokov’s
Strong Opinions at the moment particularly tempting).
I greatly enjoyed reading a few books on art and artists, covering David Hockney
Hockney - Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature, William Blake,
Auguste Rodin: Sculptures and Drawings,
The National Gallery London, Man Ray and the Belgian artist Michaël Borremans (
Michaël Borremans. Schilderen over geheimen.); of the essays I read I was mesmerised by those of Simon Leys (Le bonheur des petits poissons: Lettres des Antipodes) and Cees Nooteboom (Japan). A surprisingly tender and affecting graphic novel was
La délicatesse by Cyril Bonin. Of the biographical books on writers I have read the most interesting were those about Rilke, Chekhov, George Eliot (My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead)), and the five portraits of writers in
Madame du Deffand and the Idiots by Javier Marías. Rilke, Hart Crane, Yeats, Raymond Carver, Sappho, a collection of haiku, Richard Leising and Emily Brönte
The Night is Darkening Round Me enriched the poetry shelf.
I also enjoyed reading Vicky Baum (
Grand Hotel) , Muriel Spark (The girls of slender means), Sarah Moss (Ghost Wall), Sjón (
The Blue Fox , John Williams (Augustus), Ali Smith (
Spring), Thomas Espedal (Against Nature: The Notebooks), Margarita Karapanou (
Kassandra and the Wolf), Natalia Ginzburg (All Our Yesterdays), Maeve Brennan (
The Visitor). A particular joy was the discovery of the Belgian writer Madeleine Bourdouxhe of whom I read a novel (
La Femme de Gilles) and a short story collection (
A Nail, A Rose).
I have the bold plan of not making any reading plans for 2020 – I will slowly continue with the female authors of the EU countries I didn’t get to in 2019 and for the rest let serendipity play in the local library and draw some reading inspiration from this site and some of the books that have been collecting dust on the shelves here for all too long (I am looking at you, mister Mann). I experienced I enjoy making plans and starting projects more than actually sticking to them with regard to reading: this was a year in which quite a few plans got stuck half the way or didn’t truly take off (Rilke, rereading Ovid, reading on music & composers). No use crying over spilled milk however, the year is done and as to reading it was rewarding, even if not like last year having come across a novel as memorable as
Middlemarch.
Oh, and last but not least, a true highlight in this reader's year was the walk from Lewes to Virginia Woolf's Monk's House, and the time spent under a tree in her garden.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributes to make this site a reader’s dream of bookish exchanges, inspiration and discussions. You are wonderful, may 2020 be gorgeous for each and every one of you! -
I read 73 books in 2019. Many were outstanding. For various reasons, here's my list of favorites. Click each title to read my review.
Best Memoir (Drama)
Carmen Maria Machado -
In the Dream House (2019)
Best Memoir (Comedy)
David Sedaris -
Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000)
Best Movie Novelization
Michael McDowell -
Clue (1985)
Best Cult Classic
Robert Devereaux -
Santa Steps Out (1998)
Most Fabulous
Elizabeth Gilbert -
City of Girls (2019)
Best Short Story
Sylvia Plath -
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom (1952)
Best Classic Remix
Ian Doescher -
William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls (2019)
Best Pulitzer Prize Winner
Margaret Mitchell -
Gone with the Wind (1936)
Best Politics
Pete Buttigieg -
Shortest Way Home (2019)
Best Family Saga
Michael McDowell -
Blackwater (1983)
Best Blast from the Past
Mrs. Humphry -
Manners for Men (1897)
Best Book About Books
Grady Hendrix -
Paperbacks from Hell (2017)
Best Out-of-Print Discovery
Shelley Katz -
Alligator (1977)
Best Vintage Comedy
Max Shulman -
Barefoot Boy with Cheek (1943)
Best Adventure
Michael Rutger -
The Anomaly (2018)
Best '60s Throwback
Marilyn Ross-
Dark Shadows (1966)
Best Book on Writing
Blake Snyder -
Save the Cat (2005)
Best Bucket List Check-Off
Sigmund Freud -
The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)
Best Gothic Series
Edwina Noone -
The Craghold Legacy (1971)
Best Reference Text
Elsa J. Radcliffe -
Gothic Novels of the Twentieth Century (1979) -
As usual I started using this link to compile my to read list for the year and after that year, it turns into a review. So here’s my review of 2019 in books!
My personal year 2019 has been still tough due to personal circumstances, but it is getting better now, without getting into much detail. I hope to read a lot in 2020, pick up a new education, maybe a master, find new work challenges and do more fitness and swimming 😊
Here’s my list of the highlights of 2019 in reading. To be clear, I hardly have one or two star ratings. I focus on the good books.
So, here we go short lines per book, all five stars and a selection of four stars:
FIVE STARS:
• The Widows of Malabar Hill and The Satapur Moonstone (Perveen Mistry #1 and #2) by Sujata Massey : Historical series, based in India and UK. Love this writer, love the storylines! Same for the India Gray novel which I read in 2019.
• Golden State, Ben Winters . Futuristic, apocalyptic. Weird and intriguing. Love this writer. His series The last policeman is amazing.
• The song of Achilles, Madeline Miller . New writer for me. Read both her novels, based on classic stories, ancient Greece, gods and characters. Loved them both.
• Holy Lands, Amanda Sthers . Quite a quirky and exceptional story of a troubled and loving family. Impressed and intrigued. Looking out for more of this author definitely.
• The Tea Lords, Hella Haasse . The grande dame of Dutch literature, I love her books. This family historical chronicle plays on Java largely, dark and interesting. My favorite Dutch writer.
• Invisible, Paul Auster . Not an easy writer, but an icon in American literature. Every year I read at least one of his books and almost always it’s 4 or 5 stars. Dark and beautiful. Big fan of Auster.
• This Tender land, William Kent Krueger. Loved Ordinary Grace. Started reading his Cork O’Connor series (Iron Lake #1). This latest book of Krueger is beautiful.
• The Butterfly Girl, Rene Denfeld . What a talented writer and such dark stories. This is the sequel to Child Finder.
• December Park, Ronald Malfi . Had this on my reading shelf for a long time, once I really got into the story, wow! Surprising, dark, emotional coming of age story.
• Death in the East (Sam Wyndham 4), Abir Mukherjee . What can I say. Love love love this series of a troubled British police detective Captain Wyndham in dark and fascinating India. Can’t wait for the next in the series.
And a selection of great runnersups FOUR STAR ratings:
• The shadows we hide (Joe Talbert 2), Alan Eskens – first book was better but still a worthy sequel. To be continued I hope.
• The sentence is death (Hawthorne 2), Anthony Horowitz – again a worthy sequel, potential to be a great series.
• Whispers underground (Rivers of London 3), Ben Aaronovitch– weird and fantastic, again a great series to be continued (I am behind in this series)
• The night tiger, Yangsze Choo, great tale told, fascinating
• The broken king (Bull Mountain 0.5), Brian Panowitch, unexpected short story in this great dark series
• The dreamers, Karen Thompson Walker, I am reading The age of miracles now by this author and absolutely love her style and stories. Quiet storytelling of horrific events.
• Convenience Story Woman, Sayaka Murata, picked this small book up at Schiphol airport and happy to have done this. Weird, absurd, great story!
• The disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, Joel Dicker. Love this writer, love his long stories. Wonder whether this one is already available in English. Original in French, I had to read it in Dutch.
• The way of all flesh, Ambrose Parry, Great historical crime fiction read, pleasant surprise.
• Montana, Larry Watson, Great writer, dark crime story beautifully set and told.
• Bad day at the vulture club, Vaseem Khan, love this series about private investigator Chopra, his wife Poppy and baby elephant Ganesha
• The aunt who wouldn’t die by by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay – so happy I found this in Waterstones Edinburgh, what a weird and lovely book!
• My year of rest and relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh – Absurd, dramatic, weird and intriguing, what a book…
• Miracle Creek, Angie Kim, great dark courtroom read.
Great to see the 2020 preview link is already up, I will use that to outline my idea and wishes as to read in 2020 and as usual, that will be a work in progress, be back with this soon, happy reading all! -
What a bad reading year it has been for me. Instead of crashing through mountainranges of rock-hard literature armed only with a pearl-handled knife and a trusty llama called Delphine what did I do? I got distracted. Yes, it was the dreaded B word.
Brexit.
The real world interfered with my reading. How could I have let that happen? The thing is, we have had a lengthy political crisis going on here in the UK – all year! - and it turned out to have more surprising plot twists and unlikelier characters than a dozen Booker shortlists. It has been edge of seat stuff. It was more interesting than the novels I was reading!
So that is why I only read 40 novels in 2019, down from 56 in 2018. And that is why I was secretly glad about Boris Johnson’s Conservative landslide victory. Now finally we will have business as usual, politics will become dull and tiresome again and I can get back to where I once belonged. Turn the tv OFF. Get out the gold-handled pickaxe and approach the sagging TBR shelves with a light heart.
WHAT I DID MANAGE TO READ
THE GOOD
Old novels ruled over new novels in 2019.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall : Anne Bronte (1848)
- A great novel within a less great novel. The middle section, taking up most of the book, is the best (i.e. most upsetting, most heartrending) account I have ever read of a middle-class abusive marriage where the abuse is mental rather than physical.
The Man of Property : John Galsworthy (1906)
- The first book of the Forsyte saga and he can really write, this guy, he seems to know all his onions, the whole nuts ‘n’ bolts of society thing, all the moving parts, oh, and the second-best account of an abusive middle class marriage I read this year. Will I plunge onward into the rest of the saga? I should do that. Maybe.
Babbitt : Sinclair Lewis (1922)
- Second great Sinclair Lewis book, after Main Street. Both grip you in a love/hate relationship. These novels are like to drive you mad with their slow plodding accretion of every possible detail about the protagonist but you can’t look away. I did love Babbitt, the character. He was my kind of idiot.
- Journey to the End of Night : Celine (1932)
Just coming to the end of this journey now, but it’s one of the books of the year. Full review to follow.
The Dark Room : R K Narayan (1938)
- It seems R K Narayan found it really hard to write a bad novel! This is the fifth of his I have read and there has only been one misfire. So I guess I may become a Narayan completist. Oh and this was the third account of an abusive marriage…. really, I wasn’t intending to collect them.
The Bluest Eye : Toni Morrison (1970)
- Contained maybe my favourite quote of the year, where a preacher gets mad and sits down to write a strong letter :
Dear God
The purpose of this letter is to familiarize you with facts which either have escaped your notice, or which you have chosen to ignore.
And finally two new-ish ones – last year I asked you all for recommendations of a genre I had only recently discovered, the Modern Western – I had read True Grit followed by The Sisters Brothers and I wanted more…. I got more…
News of the World : Paulette Jiles
The Thicket : Joe R Lansdale
- Both really tough-but-funny lovely reads. I love Modern Westerns!
THE BAD
Once again, these novels should go and sit on the naughty step.
The Enormous Room : e e cummings (1922)
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes : Angus Wilson (1956)
The End of the Road : John Barth (1958)
Breathing Lessons : Anne Tyler (1988)
The Shipping News : Annie Proulx (1993)
Melmoth : Sarah Perry (2018)
Normal People : Sally Rooney (2018)
THE PRETTY WEIRD
Trout Fishing in America : Richard Brautigan (1967)
Just as odd as it was supposed to be. I got interested in the author and I like biographies of curious individuals (Anais Nin, Tiny Tim) so I saw someone had done one for Mr Brautigan – he didn’t have a long life, died at the age of 49. So I bought it online (Jubilee Hitchhiker). You can’t tell the size of books when you just see a little picture of the cover. It said it was 700 pages, I thought that sounded pretty long. What I got was a giant volume the size of the New York City Phone Book from 1983. If it was normal sized, this would be at least 1000 pages. I wonder if I’ll ever get round to reading it.
The Ballad of the Sad Café : Carson McCullers (1951)
Weird bordering on bonkers.
Treasure Island!!! : Sara Levine (2011)
I wrote that this novel is clearly not literature because I had such a good time reading it and I finished it in two days. It’s about a woman who reads Treasure Island.
THE LONGEST
Longest novel I read this years was Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency, 738 large-sized pages. It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst, it was just kinda bleughhhhhhhhhh. And then more bleughhhhhhh.
THE BEST NON FICTION:
Portrait of a Marriage : Nigel Nicolson
A son writes about his gay parents. His mum was Vita Sackville-West. Terrific stuff.
The Sopranos Sessions : Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall
Strictly for fans in depth commentary on each and every episode of the great tv series.
A History of Heavy Metal : Andrew O’Neill
Music history as comedy. The kerrannngs come fast & furious and bats’ heads are probably going to be bitten clean off.
The Man with the Candy : Jack Olsen
Best true crime book for a long time even though it was a quickie from 1974 (the crimes had only been discovered the previous year). This feel-bad book poses the question how can 30 boys disappear from one area of a big American city and no one noticed anything particular was amiss? (Until they began digging them up, then they did.)
BOOK SERIES OF THE YEAR
I found out that Cahier du Cinema did a really neat series on great directors and they were all going cheap on Amazon. Cram full of great stills and giving you clear overviews of the said director’s career (revelation for me : Billy Wilder). Only drawback is that each book is written by a different critic, a lot of them French and a little bit on the pompous side, and occasionally translated very clunkily. But I didn’t care, these books are great.
STATS
According to Goodreads, the most popular book I read this year was A Christmas Carol by Dickens and the least popular was a study of the Australian film shocker Bad Boy Bubby. 810,865 people had previously read A Christmas Carol and before me precisely zero people had read Bad Boy Bubby.
NEXT YEAR WISH LIST
I hope to do better next year. Gee willikins, I have so many real big books I would like to get through. Real lollapaloozas. There are the usual clutch of hefty novels – Lonesome Dove, Our Mutual Friend, Death and Mr Pickwick, there’s The David Foster Wallace Reader; and I saddled myself with a cheap but beautiful copy of Three days before the Shooting so there’s 1102 pages of that; then the non fiction, sitting on my real life shelves are a huge bio of Virginia Woolf, the encyclopedic Stalin to finish and I just found a handy list of 17 or so great-but-short novels...not to mention my stack of uncompleted vintage sf anthologies...
VERY GEEKY FINAL NOTE
This was a sheer coincidence and it made me smile when I saw what I’d done. I read MelMOTH (a novel) followed by The MOTH (a collection of stories) followed by Are You my MOTHer? (a memoir) – one after another. Can anyone beat that? If only I had decided to read The MamMOTH Book of Vintage Science Fiction next – it was right there on my shelf.
Now I might get funny looks if I explained that to any of the people I know in so-called real life so I’m glad I’m talking to you not them. -
Doing an end of year recap is fun!! I love looking back over all the great books I discovered, remembering the pleasure they brought me. It is also hard to pick the top two or three in any given category. I started a list of notable books in each of the categories or genres I read this year- but I ran out of steam and decided to make it short and sweet this year.
Reminder: This list is of the notable books I READ this year- not all of them were PUBLISHED in 2019.
So, without further ado-
My favorite books of 2019 are:
The Heart’s Invisible Furies- John Boyne-
The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini-
The Five – Hallie Rubenhold-
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite-
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield-
Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller-
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing-
The Library Book by Susan Orlean-
Good Talk by Mira Jacob-
Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly Warren- George-
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal-
The Whisper Man by Alex North-
Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughn by Alan Paul-
Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke-
The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis-
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman-
The Familiars by Stacey Halls-
Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan-
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza-
Moloka'I by Alan Brennert -
The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang-
The Boy by Tami Hoag-
November Road by Lou Berney -
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey-
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz -
That’s a wrap folks!
I’ve so enjoyed following your updates and reviews this year! You have all introduced me to so many great authors and books I probably would never have discovered otherwise, and you are truly an inspiration to me!! To my old friends, I’m so happy you are still hanging with me!!
I’ve lost track of some of my favorite people this year- some suddenly and without explanation and others who have drifted off onto other platforms. So, for those who are still active, I am very grateful to have such loyal friends who put up with my many moods and are always so generous with your kind words and support!!
I have also made many new friends this year, from all walks of life, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know every single one of you through the books we share. I hope we can continue to connect in the coming year and am looking forward to sharing our reading journey together.
I hope everyone who is a part of my Goodreads family will have a wonderful, healthy, safe, and prosperous Happy New Year!!
-
2019 was a really interesting year for me, both in general and reading-wise.
*Updated with links to my reviews for the books listed, in case you are interested
My reading tastes have definitely been changing and broadening over the last few years, and this year I really found myself wanting to read across a lot more genres and subjects. When I first joined goodreads back in 2012, I pretty much read strictly romance, paranormal/fantasy romance, and straight up smut, with the occasional memoir or nonfiction. For some reason, "mainstream" fiction and contemporary fiction never interested me all that much.
Last year, I discovered the pool of high fantasy and gleefully submerged myself...and this year, I finally felt that pull toward those more "mainstream," popular books a la Fredrik Backman and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
So there's that. Otherwise, here are my stats for 2019:
I read 106 books..
and 34,867 pages...
For an average rating of 3.6...
...which at first sounded a little low to me; but when I sat down and looked at my year in books, I actually saw that it sounds about right. I didn't actually have all that many 5-star reads this year, but I also tried to be a little more strict about my rating, so that makes sense. I really only want to give a 5-star rating to books I truly consider amazing. And those books should be lower as far as quantity goes if you really think about it.
As a result, I have a lot of 3 and 4-star reads this year, and I'm content with that. They can't all be 5-star reads...and I wouldn't want them to be. Because then amazing would become the standard and I want "amazing" to...stay amazing.
So I'm pretty happy with the quality of my reads this year. I read almost half the amount as I have in other years, but again, I was trying to be more selective and I think it panned out well for me.
When I generally contemplate my 2019 reading year, it feels pretty solid in my head. I feel like I read some really good books this year and I am very happy with how my tastes are changing and broadening. Plus, I ended the year with two of my top favorites. Super lucky.
All that said, here's how my year shook out..
Favorite Reads of the Year:
My reviews (if I have one):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Favorite Smut:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Favorite Series:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Honorable Mentions:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Biggest Disappointments:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -
➽ Thanks to the amazing
Brock at
Let's Read, here are some 2019 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet:
My Top Ten Favorite 2019 Publications:
➽ 10.)
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
➽ 9.)
The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum
➽ 8.)
Darkdawn (The Nevernight Chronicle #3) by Jay Kristoff
➽ 7.)
Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor #3) by Mark Lawrence
➽ 6.)
The Hod King (The Books of Babel #3) by Josiah Bancroft
➽ 5.)
The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch #3) by Rin Chupeco
➽ 4.)
Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
➽ 3.)
The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden
➽ 2.)
Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi
➽ 1.)
The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3) by Holly Black
My Favorite 2019 Publications that ALMOST made my Top 10 (Books 11-15):
➽ 15.)
In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4) by Seanan McGuire
➽ 14.)
If I'm Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
➽ 13.)
The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses #1) by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu
➽ 12.)
Wicked Fox (Gumiho #1) by Kat Cho
➽ 11.)
Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters #1) by Talia Hibbert
Extra End of the Year Things:
➽
Best Books of 2019
➽
Best Books I've Read this Decade on Goodreads
➽
Dragons & Tea Book Club Wrap Up
➽
Holiday Book Haul | Unboxing Bookish Amazon Packages
➽
My Reading Statistic & Year in Review
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➽
My 2018 Reading Challenge
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My 2017 Reading Challenge
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My 2016 Reading Challenge
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My 2015 Reading Challenge -
Top Ten of 2019
This is a monthly list of all of the books that I rated between 4 and 5 stars in the year of 2019.
Best of January
Best of February
Best of March
Best of April
Best of May
Best of June
Best of July
Best of August
Best of September
Best of October
Best of November
Best of December
Re-Reads
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I am hopeless at writing about my reading year, but rest assured I had a fabulous time with books in 2019. However, it was a tough year healthwise but this made books so much more important and necessary. What it did mean is that I struggled to cope with writing good reviews, keeping up with updates, replying to comments and messages, so if I didn't reply to you, and I know there are so many of you, I apologise. I want to toast our amazing Goodreads family and community, for enriching the world of books and playing a decisive role in what each of us reads. So many of you, particularly my Goodreads band of regular friends, put in time and effort to write brilliant reviews and post supportive comments. For this I salute you all. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all and hoping 2020 will be a stellar year of reading. For those of you who are interested in what I read, here is the link!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i... -
I loved looking through the list of books that I read this past year because it brought back so many of the characters and stories that I was fortunate enough to spend time with. I mostly read new releases, but I tried to get to some other titles that I own. In an effort to do that, I focused on reading the rest of the books by a few very favorite authors that I had not read. I was mostly successful having read all of
Colum McCann and
Maggie O'Farrell. I’ve read every novel and short story collection by
Richard Russo.
I also veered a little out of my lane by reading more nonfiction and memoirs than I usually do. That was prompted by my decision to try audiobooks and listening to nonfiction seems to work well for me. My favorite memoir on audio was
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. My favorite audio nonfiction was
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon. I did, however listen to my first fiction audiobook
A Parchment of Leaves and was so taken with this beautiful story and the fabulous narration that I plan to try more fiction on audio next year. For years I was unable to really enjoy short stories because they often left me wanting more. I found several stand alone short stories that just said so much in so few pages. My favorite was
Everything My Mother Taught Me. I have come to really enjoy some collections of stories that are connected, so much so that they feel like novels. Most notably for me this year was
The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy, an author that I’ve come to love and will read more of in the coming year.
My most favorite books of 2019 not already mentioned above, in order of when I read them from January to December are:
The End of Loneliness
The Glovemaker
The Girls at 17 Swann Street
The Last Romantics
Things My Son Needs to Know about the World
The Things We Cannot Say
My Coney Island Baby
Everything in This Country Must
Dancer
Lost Roses
Chances Are...
A Job You Mostly Won't Know How to Do
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Call Your Daughter Home
The Women of the Copper Country
Olive, Again
This Tender Land
In the Warsaw Ghetto
In the Shadow of Wolves
Red at the Bone
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Beloved
Cilka's Journey
The World That We Knew
The Giver of Stars
The Nickel Boys
To the Edge of Sorrow
Run Me to Earth
In the Time of the Butterflies
Dear Edward
The Night Watchman
My most favorite was
Apeirogon: A Novel, closely followed by
When All Is Said and the last book I read this year
The Bear
As always, I’m grateful to my Goodreads friends for sharing their love of reading, for their recommendations, their thoughtful comments and discussions, and for being an important part of my reading journey. A special thanks to Fionnuala for coming up with the idea of the year on Goodreads that gives us a chance to reflect on what we’ve read and the opportunity to see our friends’ favorites of the year. Thanks again, Fi! -
once, i had a review-in-progress posted here, charting my monthly progress, and goodreads deleted it. now that they have reduced the available review space, i probably won’t be able to repost it, and if i end up doing an end-of-year reading post, it will likely just be on my blog.
this year was hard. i just barely met my reading-challenge, i’m a million reviews behind, and i’m tired like i’ve never been before. maybe i will put more here later, but for now, i'm glad to have at least reached my reading goal so i'm not a complete failure.
rah rah. -
2019 has been one the longest reading years I've had in a while if I count it not in weeks but in titles read—more than eighty. But if I count it in authors sampled, it might be the shortest year ever because I read less than thirty-five authors in all. The best of those authors make for neat divisions of the year into Author Months so I'm celebrating the shortest day of the year (in my part of the world), or Reader's Day as I like to think of it, since the long dark evenings offer more time for reading, by posting my
2019 Author Calendar today.
January was Rachel Cusk month, dominated by her
Outline
Transit
Kudos trilogy. In each of the three books, Cusk places the focus on a theme that was to become an essential part of my 2019 reading though I didn't know it then: the process of writing rather than its content. And in so doing, she caused me to think more than usual about the process of reading.
February was Gabriel Josipovici month, continuing perfectly Cusk's theme of how a writer constructs a book, structure being especially in evidence in his
Moo Pak which in addition focuses on the role of the reader in the realisation of an oeuvre. And Josipovici's
The Cemetery in Barnes introduced another theme that became significant in my 2019 reading choices though I'm only now seeing the pattern: poetry. I don't read a lot of poetry but this year I found it occurring where I least expected it, sometimes openly as in The Cemetery in Barnes, sometimes more subtly, as in the third of Josipovici's books I read,
Infinity: The Story of a Moment. The title alone was a line of poetry. But more on poetry later.
March, at least the first half of it, was spent with Barbara Comyns. There was little poetry in her writing but she has some great titles,
Our spoons came from Woolworths,
The Vet's Daughter,
The Juniper Tree,
The Skin Chairs and
Who was Changed and Who was Dead which themselves capture the range of her novels from the childishly mundane to the fantastically bizarre. Those five books are very obviously based on the author's life, as the autobiographical
Sisters by a River reveals. Comyns was the first of several authors I read in 2019 whose fiction turned out to be thinly veiled autobiography.
Olga Tokarcuk was the dominant star of the second half of March. As I read my way through all
four
of
her
books that have been translated into English, they felt at times like one long book, full of geography and history and myth and folklore, especially about Tokarczuk's home ground, Nowa Ruda, in north-western Poland where animal and vegetable life is focussed on just as closely as human life. And since Tokarczuk's books spilled over into the first few days of April keeping me in her weather-beaten world past the end of March, I'm reminded of a bit of weather folklore from my own native land. The first days of April used to be known as the 'Riabhach Days'. The story goes that March, being a harsh month and April a more benevolent one, animals that survived into April felt they had made it to another whole year of life. One particular year, an elderly cow made too much noise about her survival causing angry March to borrow three days from April to finally drive his plow over the bones of the old cow. And March has held on to those three days ever since, reminding all creatures not to celebrate Spring too early. It's a story that could be right out of a Tokarczuk book.
I celebrated
Spring myself with the arrival of the third episode of Ali Smith's Seasons series in my book shop in early April. I'm not someone who reads books as soon as they come out, being usually too busy on some personal reading track independent of best seller lists, but I've made an exception for this series. Part of the attraction is that the series is very much concerned with the 'present day' of our world so it makes sense to read it in the present rather than waiting to read it in the future. But for me, a greater attraction is the way Smith involves the reader in her writing just as Gabriel Josipovici does. Smith depends on us picking up the scattered pieces of the narrative and building them into a meaning-full structure over the course of the four books—and I say that with certainty even though the fourth book hasn't appeared yet. I feel so implicated in the series that the thought of reviewing the fourth book is almost as exciting to me as the thought of reading it.
April merged into May in my reading calendar with the help of the prolific Muriel Spark. Looking back now, I can't quite believe that I read fourteen of her novels in a row—plus an autobiography and a biography. Could that really be true? The 'My Books' page on goodreads assures me that it's not a fiction although it still feels as if the whole episode has been invented by some alter ego of mine who likes to play around with my goodreads shelves, adding titles and reviews behind my back. The border between reality and fiction is something Spark herself enjoyed playing with, and the best of her books (
or
the
ones I
remember
reading) have a way of drawing on the
events of her own life while expanding those events in
interesting ways.
Muriel Spark wrote poetry too, and a reference I came across linking her to another British poet and novelist called Stevie Smith, made me seek out Stevie's novels in June. My first attempt failed and I ended up reading
two
novels by Canadian poet Elizabeth Smart instead, which, like some of Muriel Spark's and Stevie Smith's novels are semi-autobiographical. Coincidently, I discovered that Elizabeth Smart moved to London in the 1940s when Muriel Spark and Stevie Smith lived there. All three worked in publishing and wrote their poetry and novels on the side. By the end of June, I'd gotten through Smart's two novels plus
three
of
Stevie Smith's, and dipped into some of their poetry online. Phew!
Not waving but drowning
July merged into August in the stimulating company of six of Elizabeth Bowen's novels which together offered a neat and brilliant concentration of all the elements I'd noticed when I'd previously read her:
mood,
atmosphere,
place,
what's not said, and especially, the
fragility of
innocence.
September saw me visiting Italy both literally and literarily. Before I travelled and while I was there I read books by 20th century Italians such as
Natalia Ginzburg,
Elsa Morante and
Alberto Moravia, all three of whom focussed on innocence in different ways. I also read the Italian half of a dual language edition of Stendhal's
account of his trips to Italy in the early nineteenth century. Fortunately the text contained a ridiculous amount of place names which makes the claim of 'reading it in Italian' a bit of a cheat but still...
In October I skipped across the Atlantic ocean to read some central and South American writers whose work I'd long planned to discover. Julio Cortázar's
Hopscotch proved to be as worthwhile an adventure as I'd hoped. That book picked up on the themes I'd spotted in Gabriel Josipovici's books back in February: the importance of the construction of a book and how the reader has a role to play in that process. I posted a lot of update quotes as I read, accompanied by images because the text constantly suggested images to me. I was very excited towards the end of the book when I realised how connected the images I'd chosen were to the eventual working out of the story. I had a different but equally exciting reading experience with Juan Rulfo's
Pedro Páramo, and even though I was reading it in translation, I felt I was getting a good glimpse of Rulfo's ability to make prose sound like poetry, not in the baroque way poet Elizabeth Smart does in her novels but in a very pared back style, using repetition and the simple music of place names.
In the second half of October, just when the light was getting dimmer, I got a text message to say that a book I'd ordered months before had finally arrived in my local book shop. I'd been checking to see if they'd received it every time I passed the shop, so when I finally heard they had, I was excited. But then I reread the text message and instead of Between Dog and Wolf, it seemed Neither Wolf nor Dog was waiting to be picked up at my earliest convenience. Grrr...
Even earlier than my earliest convenience, I stalked into the shop with my hackles raised and demanded an explanation for the mistake in the order. The staff member I spoke to checked the order on her screen and then reached under the desk and produced a blue-covered book by Sasha Sokolov. The correct book had been ordered after all, though the title had somehow been transformed in the text message.
Well, reader, (if you're still reading), when I walked out of the book shop with Sokolov's book in my bag, I had little idea what a long reading odyssey
Between Dog and Wolf would send me on. Sasha Sokolov is a contemporary Russian author whose writing not only transforms meaning at every turn but is also threaded through with art, music and especially literature references. Being the kind of detective-minded reader I am, I just had to chase down all the literary clues he scatters in the puzzle of his text so November was devoted to 19th century Russian literature. I couldn't count the number of britzkas, cabriolets and droshkies I've ridden in while I journeyed across Russia, and particularly in the Caucasus and Crimea area, in the company of
Mikhail Lermontov,
Alexandr Pushkin,
Lev Tolstoy, and
Nicolai Leskov. Between the lines of a selection of their novels, poems and short stories, I found little pieces of the puzzle that was Sasha Sokolov's book.
I found other tracks to follow too, and one of those tracks lead to a book that dominated the first half of December: Andrei Bely's
Petersburg, which is haunted by Pushkin's Bronze Horseman as well as by many other pieces of Russian literature. And because Pushkin had intrigued me in his travel writing with a little vignette of an encounter with a dead Vazir on a mountain road in Armenia, I decided to read Yuri Tynyanov's,
The Death of the Vazir-Mukhtar.
Bely's Petersburg also sent me back to Gogol's
Plays and Petersburg Tales. That book will probably take me through to 2020. Alongside Gogol, I'm currently reading a book by contemporary Russian author
Eugene Vodolazkin which not only focuses on St Petersburg and the Crimea, but also references many of the names in Russian literature that have become so familiar to me in the last two months, including Gogol, especially his Dead Souls (which incidentally was also referenced in Michel Houellebecq's
Sérotonine which I read in February).
And that reminds me that I was reading Gogol's
Dead Souls when the midnight bells rang out to welcome 2019 so it's quite perfect that I'll be reading Gogol when the bells ring out again for 2020! -
Life has a way of constantly changing, doesn’t it? I suppose that can be a good thing (sometimes), especially for a restless spirit like mine that gets bored with routine rather easily. Last year at this time I was talking about the chaos of the college search process and less reading time. With that process successfully over, other changes were on the horizon. I began a new job in the summer and once again my reading suffered a bit as a consequence. However, I will take quality over quantity in just about any aspect of my life and can therefore say that 2019 was gratifying!
Candi's Blue ribbon winners for 2019:
Jane Austen at Home by
Lucy Worsley: This fangirl could sit and listen to anyone talk about Jane Austen anytime, anywhere. I had a glimpse of all those places Jane wielded her pen and rested her head. I wanted to gather up all my Austen novels and set everything else aside.
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by
Maggie O'Farrell: This was an unexpected pleasure! My first introduction to O’Farrell was via audiobook, a format I rarely take advantage of due to my incapacity to focus on two things at one time (driving/reading, cooking/reading, etc). O’Farrell’s memoir dazzled me and all I desired was to heap all of her books on my pile and find more outstanding narration like I found in this one.
The Weary Blues by
Langston Hughes: One of my rare forays into poetry in 2019 was rhythmic and soulful. I longed to rush out the door in search of a smoky jazz club and extend the experience even further. Extremely accessible poetry for a rookie like me.
Rules of Civility by
Amor Towles: I was afraid this one wouldn’t be in the same league as
A Gentleman in Moscow, but I was proved wrong. Katey Content is an enterprising heroine and New York City becomes a character in its own right. Towles is a master at any setting he sketches. Please write me another, Mr. Towles.
Out Stealing Horses by
Per Petterson: A self-reflective Scandinavian piece that impressed me with its ability to pack a powerful punch despite its subtlety. How do we come to terms with the knowledge that our parents have secrets and imperfections just like everyone else?
Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott: A treasured childhood favorite that was just as charming the second time around. Jo March is right up there with my favorite heroines of all time. My heart ached and rejoiced right along with her.
Moving On by
Larry McMurtry: Proof that there is a great literary life after reading the crowning novel of my reading experience,
Lonesome Dove. I can’t make comparisons between the two books, but Patsy won me over and the writing is just as brilliant. Be warned: Your own relationships will succumb to a heavy scrutiny after this one.
My Old True Love by
Sheila Kay Adams: Arty Norton Wallin comes alive in the pages of this novel. The love of music and dancing, motherhood, the courage of women, and the heartbreak of war are illustrated through a very lyrical prose.
The Towers of Silence by
Paul Scott: The third book in the outstanding Raj Quartet. This series is a prime example of the value of rich historical fiction that is elevated to greater heights than any textbook due to the emotive, human element. It’s a weighty undertaking but oh so rewarding.
Mink River by
Brian Doyle: Stylistically different from my other favorites – episodic, run-on sentences, a good dose of magical realism – but equally stunning. Ordinary lives are written in such a beautiful way that you come to understand the importance of all living things. I quickly added all of Doyle’s writing to my list after this one.
Not Forgetting the Whale by
John Ironmonger: This book is nearly impossible to find. I saw three friends reading this in 2019 and without their enticing reviews, I would never have run across this one. This is a refreshingly different take on the post-apocalyptic novel. The possibility that something like this scenario could really happen intrigued me. The Cornish setting delighted me! Those of you who have tolerated my love affair with the Poldark series know all about that ;)
The Secret History by
Donna Tartt: Why on earth did I wait so long to read Tartt?!! Intelligently crafted, loaded with psychological tension, and excellent characterizations. I could have read another 500 pages of this one without a second thought. Bring on
The Goldfinch!
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by
Svetlana Alexievich: This wins the award for most heartbreaking read of the year. The voices of the victims will haunt you but please don’t ignore them. It’s a remarkable account as told directly from the survivors.
A Sport and a Pastime by
James Salter: The naughtiest book on my list this year. An extremely unreliable narrator, exquisite prose, and France! Don’t forget to turn down the heat in your house while reading.
Finally, to round out my year, I read four
John le Carré novels that scored 5 stars each!
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold,
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,
The Honourable Schoolboy, and
Smiley's People. There is no glamour here in the real world of espionage. George Smiley is now officially my favorite spy. No, he’s not a sexy James Bond-like kind of guy, but he’s genuine, principled, and courageous. Never in a million years did I imagine I would fall in love with these books!
The tally of books read may have decreased in 2019, but my list of books to-read continues to grow. More importantly, I have been gifted with valuable, continuing friendships as well as some new ones that are both meaningful and enriching to me. I’m always impressed by your keen insights, your eclectic reading habits, and your generosity of spirit. It gives me much comfort to know that there are like-minded friends tucked into all corners of the world. I look forward to another year filled with sharing views and expanding connections, both new and old. -
I read, or at least reviewed or re-reviewed , a
lot of books in 2019. This is because I do not have a life, reading substitutes.
These are the books I rated 10-star. They were so far above absolutely-excellent, a wonderful read 5 star, that I doubled the rating. There are 18 of them, I didn't read them all in 2019, but I reviewed them then. Sometimes it takes a while for what I want to say to cohere into a review.
The first book is a 100-star book because it may save your life or the life or someone you are close to and is knowledge that few medical professionals even have now.
1.
Into the Grey Zone How not to get diagnosed as 'vegetative' and risk having your life support turned off when you are merely paralysed and cannot communicate in any way.
2.
Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist
3.
Wordcrime: Solving Crime Through Forensic Linguistics
4.
All Who Go do not Return Leaving a strange (they aren't all) Hasidic sect by a man who lost his faith.
5.
The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin A Jewish man, a graphic artist, who lived throughout the Holocaust in Berlin. A very uplifting story in every way.
6.
Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
7.
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture I haven't completed this review. The chapter on the historical Jesus from extant documents, placing him in an occupied country, pagan, Roman Israel, is quite extraordinary. It utterly destroys the stupidity of those books like "Did Jesus Really Exist?".
8.
Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal
9.
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment I have just finished
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing which is also gonzo or immersive journalism, but covers mostly quite different ground.
10.
Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World Review sill not completed.
11.
Nature's Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves Not just whose got the biggest willie, has the most orgasms, likes to screw for 24 hours at a time or prefers orgies, but why.
12.
She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity I was so taken by this, I went on to read another 4
Carl Zimmer's in quick succession. Another one, Evolution, was also a 10 star.
13.
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea
14.
The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
15.
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
16.
The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self
17.
The Pendant in the Kitchen Julian Barnes' dry, English humorous take mostly on recipes, cookbooks etc.
18.
West End Girls Prostitution as a career choice in London in the 40s by a maid who absolutely loved her job.
These are the worst books, the 1-star stinkers (YMMV).
1.
Bye Felipe: Disses, Dick Pics, and Other Delights of Modern Dating PC for a purpose and very cynical, a scam to make money, or so it seemed.
2.
Retro-Age: The Four-step Program to Reverse the Aging Process I never review books by authors I know personally but this is an exception. She's a rapacious she-wolf.
3.
Your Life in My Hands Doctor writes socialist tract. If I think I'm going to get a medical memoir I don't want the Labour Party manifesto plus irrelevant Trump-hatred. I'm not a socialist. I'm an anarchist.
4. Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart Another mistitled medical book. This is about meditation and such.
5.
The Turner Diaries The play book for all white supremacists and useful for terrorists in general.
6.
New World History and Geography: In Christian Perspective "If the Southerners freed their slaves, how could they make a living? And how would the freed slaves make a living? There were no easy solutions to the problem of slavery." Homeschooling text book for Christians apparently.
7.
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS Attempt to make people feel sorry for the women who left the UK to fight for ISIS and marry terrorists by saying it was so hard for them to be Muslims in the UK, they just had to leave but now have pity for them and welcome them back. NO!!!
8.
Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free Phenomenally badly written book about Christian men's desire to control women and the brainwashing women have to fight against.
9.
Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality Author thinks that statutory rape is all the fault of tarty, drunken young girls and enabling parents and is ruining young men's lives.
10. How to Create Chemistry with Anyone: 75 Ways to Spark It Fast--and Make It Last This only got notes while reading, no review. Suffice it to say it didn't have any good points and therefore didn't work and I'm still single.
11.
The Roaming Greenery Short story where I missed the point so thoroughly I didn't even know what was supposed to be funny.
12.
I Just Made The Tea: A lifetime in the Formula 1 pitlane I read this before going racing in Daytona. It was so far from the mark. It was also really badly-written and boring. Racing is anything but boring! And staying in a half-million dollar motorhome as I was and the book wrote about is phenomenal!
Occasionally books turn into real life like the Harlequin romance I lived. I went out for a while with a handsome, billionaire racing car driver where Ferraris and Aston Martin's were just the cars we took to the supermarket and I got to do three laps in a Corvette at Daytona. Unfortunately unlike Harlequin books, I didn't get a Happily Ever After, and in my despair I bled all over "reviews" and even set up a pic group so I could post photos. Oh dear. But most of my friends stuck with me (some didn't, they'd had enough of the personal angst I suppose). Anyway I have no life again so I am back to reading and reviewing.
I hope all my friends, followers and everyone else (you are all potential friends or followers) have a wonderful reading year, all 5 star and write lots of reviews for me to read!
Note to the myriads of people who blocked me -
January
The Nowhere Girls
The Bear and the Nightingale
I Let You Go
Mr. Nobody
The Odyssey (REREAD)
Beautiful Darkness
Dear Evan Hansen
Us Against You
The Gracekeepers (REREAD)
Winter Trials
Two Can Keep a Secret
The Gloaming
Total read: 12
Fave(s): The Nowhere Girls
Least fave(s): The Gloaming
February
The Penelopiad (REREAD)
Only Human
The Darkest Part of the Forest
Circe
Incarceron (REREAD)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (REREAD)
A Conjuring of Light
The Shape of Water
S.T.A.G.S
Bird Box
Total read: 10
Fave(s): Circe, A Conjuring of Light. Or The Five People you meet in Heaven, but that was a reread.
Least fave(s): S.T.A.G.S and Bird Box mainly.
March
The Dead Ex
King of Scars
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
Beautiful Chaos
Tiger Lily
You
Sapphique (REREAD)
Delirium
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
The Princess Saves Herself in This One
The Scorpio Races
Total read: 11
Fave(s): Tiger Lily, You & The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Least fave(s): The Princess Saves Herself in this One
April
I Am the Messenger
I'll Give You the Sun
The Cruel Prince
The Boy Made of Snow
Britt-Marie Was Here
The Curse of the Gloamglozer
The White Hare
Marlena
Record of a Spaceborn Few
Total read: 9
Fave(s): The Cruel Prince & I'll give you the sun
Least fave(s): The White Hare & The Boy Made of Snow
May
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Wicked King
Eleanor & Park
Fire and Blood: A History of the Targaryen Kings from Aegon the Conqueror to Aegon III
The Eyes of the Dragon
Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Total read: 6
Fave(s): The Priory of the Orange Tree & The Wicked King
Least fave(s): Eleanor and Park & Dreams of gods and monsters
June
The Mars Room
Everything Under
The Virgin Suicides
Run Away
Awaken
Force of Nature
Hidden Bodies
The Breakdown
Scythe
Odd and the Frost Giants
Pandemonium
Five Feet Apart
Alice
Total read: 13
Faves(s): Hidden Bodies, Force of Nature, Scythe & The Mars Room
Least faves(s): Five Feet Apart, Pandemonium & The Virgin Suicides
July
Riverdale: The Day Before
Hold Still
Love & Gelato
More Happy Than Not
Beautiful Redemption
If We Were Villains
Opposite of Always
Red Rising
Total read: 8
Faves(s): If We Were Villains, Red Rising & More Happy Than Not
Least fave(s): Beautiful redemption
August
The Lost Man
Red Queen
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
The Silent Patient
Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun
The Girl in Red
War Storm
The Wife Between Us
The Dreamers
This Savage Song
Letters to the Lost
Total read: 11
Fave(s): Pan's Labyrinth & The Lost Man
Least fave(s): The Dreamers
September
Strange the Dreamer
Don't Wake Up
The Copper Promise
Neverworld Wake
The Sleeper and the Spindle
Dark Matter
The Light Between Worlds
The City of Brass
Total read: 8
Fave(s): The Copper Promise, City of Brass & The Light Between Worlds
Least fave(s): Strange the Dreamer and Neverworld Wake
October
Before I Die
Never Have I Ever
Daughter of the Pirate King
The Boy Who Steals Houses
Behind Closed Doors
Summer Bird Blue
City of Ghosts
The Kingdom
Requiem
Heartstream
Autumn
Total read: 11
Fave(s): Heartstream
Least fave(s): Autumn
November
The Girl in The Tower
After the Flood
The Stories You Tell: Roxane Weary #3
The Edge Chronicles 2: The Winter Knights: Second Book of Quint
Senlin Ascends
Get Out of Town
The Neverending Story
Total read: 7
Fave(s): The Girl in the Tower and Senlin Ascends
Least fave(s): The Neverending Story
December
Imaginary Friend
Heartstopper
Snow Glass Apples
The Girl He Used to Know
Our Dark Duet
Ninth House
Total Read: 6
Fave(s): Imaginary Friend
Least Fave(s): Snow Glass Apples -
For me, 2019 was a remarkable year. So much joy in reading books, reading reviews, exchanging comments and posting my own Goodreads reviews. My hearty thanks and thanks again to all my Goodreads friends.
Here's a list of the Goodreads reviews I posted this year - all 156 and counting. I will post reviews on M. John Harrison's Empty Space Trilogy and another book or two before 1/1/2020. Thanks again, all!!
Gargoyles – Thomas Bernhard
The Mrożek Reader – Slawomir Mrożek
The Unicorn Girl - Michael Kirland
Babylon - Victor Pelevin
Old Masters, A Comedy - Thomas Bernhard
The Blue Room - Georges Simenon
The Bass Saxophone - Josef Škvorecký
Novel with Cocaine - M. Ageyev
The Ugupu Bird - Slawomir Mrożek
Compartments - Zoran Živković
The Library - Zoran Živković
Impossible Encounters - Zoran Živković
The Writer - Zoran Živković
The Ghostwriter - Zoran Živković
Peace on Earth - Stanislaw Lem
Eden - Stanislaw Lem
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag - Robert A. Heinlein
Writers on Writing: - John Darnton (Editor)
Seven Touches of Music - Zoran Živković
The War Against Cliché - Martin Amis
Silly Novels by Lady Novelists - George Eliot
Millennium People – J. G. Ballard
A User's Guide to the Millennium - J. G. Ballard
The Last Book - Zoran Živković
Time Gifts - Zoran Živković
The Book - Zoran Živković
Steps Through the Mist - Zoran Živković
The Night Face Up - Julio Cortázar
The Southern Thruway -Julio Cortázar
Graffiti - Julio Cortázar
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris - Julio Cortázar
Twelve Collections - Zoran Živković
The Argentine Ant - Italo Calvino
The Image Interpreter - Zoran Živković
Smog - Italo Calvino
If These Walls Could Talk - Maureen H. O’Connell
The Translator's Bride - João Reis
A Little Lumpen Novelita - Roberto Bolaño
Miss Tamara, the Reader - Zoran Živković
The Cloven Viscount - Italo Calvino
The Spirit of Science Fiction - Roberto Bolaño
Amarcord - Zoran Živković
After-Dinner Declarations - Nicanor Parra
Ivy Feckett is Looking for Love - Jay Spencer Green
The Nonexistent Knight - Italo Calvino
Antipoems: New and Selected - Nicanor Parra
Concrete Poetry - Mary Ellen Solt (editor)
The Bridge - Franz Kafka
Escher's Loops - Zoran Živković
Emergency Poems - Nicanor Parra
The Old Woman - Daniil Kharms
The Nose - Nikolai Gogol
Four Stories Till the End - Zoran Živković
Ivan Fyodorovich Sponka and His Auntie - Nicolai Gogol
The Heart of a Dog - Mikhail Bulgakov
Scenes from a Bathhouse - Mikhail Zoshchenko
Late Victorian Gothic Tales by Roger Luckhurst (editor)
The Penguin Book of Dutch Short Stories - Joost Zwagerman (editor)
The Vulture - Franz Kafka
The Grand Manuscript - Zoran Živković
Cruel Tales - Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
Solar Lottery - Philip K. Dick
The Cosmic Puppets - Philip K. Dick
The Bridge - Zoran Živković
Nothing is Strange - Mike Russell
Hidden Camera - Zoran Živković
The Man Who Japed - Philip K. Dick
Listening to Bethlehem - Cymru Roberts
The Galosh and Other Stories- Mikhail Zoshchenko
The Five Wonders of the Danube - Zoran Živković
Gun, With Occasional Music - Jonathan Lethem
The Box Man - Kōbō Abe
Smuggler - Nicholas Fillmore
Dr. Futurity - Philip K. Dick
The Collected Connoisseur - Mark Valentine & John Howard
Secret Europe - Mark Valentine & John Howard
The Compendium of the Dead - Zoran Živković
The Pain Tree and Other Stories - Charles Wilkinson
Fancies and Goodnights - John Collier
Reginald at the Carlton - Saki
The Fourth Circle - Zoran Živković
A Twist in the Eye - Charles Wilkinson
Store of the Worlds - Robert Sheckley
The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aiires - Eric Stener Carlson
The Wisdom of Life - Arthur Schopenhauer
Herald of the Hidden and Other Stories - Mark Valentine
Sub Rosa - Robert Aickman
Night Voices - Robert Aickman
Green Thoughts and Other Stories - John Collier
The City & The City - China Miéville
Berlin Alexanderplatz - Alfred Döblin
Strange Medicine - Mike Russell
The Hanged Man - Gary Inbinder
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle - Tobias Smollett
Sulphuric Acid - Amélie Nothomb
Hygiene and the Assassin - Amélie Nothomb
Nada - Jean-Patrick Manchette
Galatea 2.2 - Richard Powers
The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira - César Aira
Carte Blanche - Carlo Lucarelli
The Father and the Foreigner - Giancarlo De Cataldo
The Damned Season - Carlo Lucarelli
The Silence of the Wave - Gianrico Carofiglio
Beauty, A Very Short Introduction - Roger Scruton
Campagna's Trail - Massimo Carlotto
The Speed of the Angel - Gianrico Carofiglio
The White Powder Dance - Giancarlo De Cataldo
The Iron Staircase - Georges Simenon
The Clay Writer - Zoran Živković
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
The Defenders - Philip K. Dick
An Alien Heat - Michael Moorcock
The Hollow Lands - Michael Moorcock
The End of All Songs - Michael Moorcock
The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality - Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Unscheduled Departures - Greg Boyd, editor
Barefoot in the Head - Brian Aldiss
Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
The Manniken Cypher - Thomas Wiloch
All Gone, 18 Short Stories - Stephen Dixon
The Student - Stephen Dixon
Zendegi - Greg Egan
Asylum Annual 1995 - Greg Boyd, editor
Axiomatic - Greg Egan
A Novel Bookstore - Laurence Cossé
The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Asylum Annual 1994 - Greg Boyd, editor
Asylum, Spring 1988 - Greg Boyd, editor
With the Animals - Noëlle Revaz
Asylum, Volume 5, Number 4 - Greg Boyd, editor
The Origin of the World - Pierre Michon
Camera - Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Television - Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Zündel's Exit - Markus Werner
Strange Secrets - Mike Russell
The Whole of Life - Jürg Laederach
Choose Your Own World - Edouard Roditi
Splendid in Ash - Charles Wilkinson
Time to Go - Stephen Dixon
The Book of Orgasms - Nin Andrews
14 Stories - Stephen Dixon
Asylum Annual 1993 - Greg Boyd, editor
The Stories of Stephen Dixon - Stephen Dixon
Mating - Norman Rush
Frog - Stephen Dixon
Betting on the Muse - Charles Bukowski
Long Made Short - Stephen Dixon
The Book Review - Stephen Dixon
Inner Europe - John Howard & Mark Valentine
Masques and Citadels - Mark Valentine & John Howard
Deshoulières - Jean Richepin
The Clockwork Man - E. V. Odle
A Dog's Ransom - Patricia Highsmith
Nevermore - William Hjortsberg -
Another year almost consigned to memory.
Why do they go so quickly?
At the age of ten, I felt I'd already lived a hundred lives as a swashbuckling pirate, an English Tarzan, a space captain, a superhero, a cat burglar, a cowboy, an Apache brave and a time-travelling daredevil. These days, I can barely find time to do the weekly supermarket shop!
Pleasingly, my 2019 reads were mostly four-stars and above, with Irish writers leading the charge with their vivid stories and silken prose.
To my bookish friends around the world, I owe a debt of gratitude for their thought-provoking, elucidative reviews. Additionally, it never ceases to amaze me how eloquently so many members write in English, when it isn't even their mother tongue. Goodness knows how majestic their reviews must be when read in Spanish, German, Polish, Swedish, Armenian, Arabic and a medley of other languages too numerous to name.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest wishes for a magical 2020 to bookaneers right across the planet.
Happy reading, everyone!
Hugs, Kevin
x
FIVE-STAR READS*****
The Absolutist
The Hoarder (sold as ‘Mr Flood’s Last Resort’ in the U.S.A)
Things in Jars
Quichotte
The Comedians
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg
Bitter Orange
The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray
FOUR-STAR READS****
The Metamorphosis
Foster
Madame Bovary
Hotel du Lac
The Mote in God’s Eye
Seven Hells
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
During the Dance
The Birthmark
THREE-STAR READS***
A Strange and Sublime Address
Ordinary Grace
Last Orders
When Wendy Grew Up
A Vineyard in Andalusia
An Orchestra of Minorities
TWO-STAR READ**
We Were Liars -
My choices this year were atypical, and skewed by aftermath of my father’s totally unexpected death in November 2018: see my review of Saki’s
The Reticence of Lady Anne.
By the end of January 2019, I had ignored friends’ reviews for several months and was struggling to read myself. I turned to a mix of nostalgia, short pieces, children’s/YA, a bit of humour, and things I was confident of enjoying.
Image: Curled up with a good book (
Source.)
Highlights
I chose a few books specifically because I thought I might find them helpful, including the picture book
Michael Rosen's Sad Book, and Mary Oliver’s poems,
Thirst.
Other books caught me in unexpectedly poignant, healing ways. The standout was Billy O’Callaghan’s beautiful
My Coney Island Baby. The second chapter in particular released a flood of cleansing tears. Almost as powerful was Bothayna Al-Essa’s
All That I Want to Forget.
Lowlights
Perhaps because I’ve been more focused on myself and am painfully aware that life is short, I’ve been readier to give up on books: four DNFs this year (one not yet listed on GR), plus a fifth at the end of 2018 (compared with only 14 in the previous 11 years). However, this is liberating, so not really a bad thing.
Looking back
Now it’s year end. Just past the first anniversary of my father’s death. I’m still struggling to untangle the practical fallout, in addition to the obvious emotional issues. At a national and international level, things alarm and depress me.
I return again and again to the safe embrace of fiction. Books (and politics) were my father’s lifeblood: I literally would not have come into existence without them, and books were a constant link between him, me, and my own child (as well as between my mother, me, and my child).
I guess my “book” of the year should be a short story that is about the life-changing importance of the right story at the right time: Alix E Harrow’s
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies.
Thanks
You, my GR friends, have been a huge support to me this last year: some directly and knowingly (you know who you are), and many more just by being here: commenting and reviewing. Thank you, thank you. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2020, infused with good books.
Reviews from 2019
Image: "My reading year" by Tom Gauld (
Source.)
• The Sleeper and the Spindle, Gaiman and Riddell, 5*,
HERE
YA comfort, but refreshingly new.
• A Child’s Garden of Verses, Stevenson and Wildsmith, 5*,
HERE
Retreat to childhood.
• Thirst, Mary Oliver, 5*,
HERE
Solace for grief, prompted by Laysee.
• My Coney Island Baby, Billy O’Callaghan, 5*,
HERE
An author I love, with, it turned out, powerful chapter on grief.
• Suicide, Survivors: A Guide for Those Left Behind, Adina Wrobleski, 2*,
HERE
Hurtful rubbish.
• Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, 4*,
HERE
• Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, Michael Rosen, 5*,
HERE
Grief, obviously. Aimed at children, but universal.
• The Newton Letter, John Banville, 4*,
HERE
• The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester, 3*,
HERE
A silly title for the extraordinary story of two very different men’s role in the first Oxford English Dictionary.
• Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson, 5*,
HERE
I read this for the gender angle, but responded to the (unexpected) grief angle.
• Blood on the Tracks: Railway Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, 3*,
HERE.
• Difficult Loves, Italo Calvino, 4*,
HERE
Early Calvino: short stories.
• Smog, Italo Calvino, 3*,
HERE
• All that I Want to Forget, Bothayna Al-Essa, 5*,
HERE
An extraordinary insight into the unfamiliar world of a contemporary young woman, subject to strict Kuwaiti Muslim family, and desperate to break free and write poetry.
• The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry, 3*,
HERE
• In Exile, Billy O’Callaghan, 4*,
HERE
Difficult to obtain, but worth it. Grief in some.
• Happiness Rules, Mark Hebwood, 4*,
HERE
Sought for struggling grief, and found some solace.
• The Twat in the Flat, Geoff Allnutt, 4*,
HERE
Puerile fun.
• The Victorians: Twelve Titans who Forged Britain, Jacob Rees-Mogg,
HERE
An excuse for a political rant.
• Adjustable Spanner: History, Origins and Development to 1970, Ron Geesin,
HERE
• The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch, 3*,
HERE
He’s too nasty, it’s too implausible, and it went on too long.
• More Tell Me Why, Arkady Leokum , 3*,
HERE
Back to memories of childhood - mine and my own child’s.
• A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, by Alix E. Harrow, 5*,
HERE
The transforming power of the right book at the right time.
• The Algebraist, Iain M Banks, 3*,
HERE
Sci-fi that goes on too long, but I got there.
• The Great Sermon Handicap, PG Wodehouse, 4*,
HERE
In my mind’s ear, I can still hear my father reading this aloud.
• The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, 4*,
HERE
As much a tribute to my child as the book and author.
• The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien, 4*,
HERE
Mini Tolkien reviews:
• The Fellowship of the Ring (LotR 1), 4*,
HERE
• The Two Towers (LotR 2), 4*,
HERE
• The Return of the King (LotR 3), 4*,
HERE
• Exhalation, Ted Chiang, 4*,
HERE
Nine stories.
• Four Cautionary Tales: Translated from the Chinese by Feng Menglong, Harold Acton, Lee Yi-Hsieh, 4*,
HERE
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit, 5*. Two reviews:
HERE
and
HERE
Nine essays.
• Six Dinner Sid, Inga Moore, 4*,
HERE
• The Mating Season, PG Wodehouse, 4*,
HERE
• Closely Watched Trains, Bohumil Hrabal, 3*,
HERE
• Life Isn’t Binary, Alex Iantaffi, Meg-John Barker , 5*,
HERE
Open your mind, and stop pigeon-holing everyone and everything into black/white, good/bad etc.
• The Testaments, Margaret Atwood, 3*,
HERE
• The Fifth Child, Doris Lessing, 4*,
HERE
• Unspeak, Steven Poole, 4*,
HERE
The power of neologisms as covert propaganda.
• A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump, Hazeley and Morris, 4*,
HERE
Sometimes humour, even when it’s unsubtle, is the best escape.
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 4*,
HERE
• Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber, Bimisi Tayanita, 3*,
HERE
Guilty laughs.
• The Dark Flood Rises, Margaret Drabble, DNF,
HERE
• Monsters: An Owner's Guide, Emmett and Oliver, 5*,
HERE
Why the world needs technical writers!
• Wanderlust, Rebecca Solnit, DNF,
HERE
• The Story of Brexit, Hazeley and Morris, 2*,
HERE
Not funny any more.
• The Dot and the Line, Norton Juster, 4*,
HERE
• In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 4*,
HERE
Japanese aesthetics.
• Christmas with Dull People, Saki, 4*,
HERE
Four festive Saki shorts
• Dear Life, Alice Munro, 4*,
HERE -
- ها هي السنة تلفظ ساعتها القليلة المتبقية، تخلع ثوبها التاسع عشر المعفّر، تستعرضه فترى بقايا دماء ��ذريتها السائحة من شوارع بغداد الى دروب ليبيا.. ترميه وتتناول الثوب العشرين، ثوبٌ أبيضٌ عساه لا يكون كفناً! تضطجع على حوافي دقائقها، ترنو الى الساعة "صفر" مدركةً انها تستنسخ نفسها في هذا الجزء من العالم بين صفرين اثنين لكنها تعلل نفسها بالأمل، بالخروج من دوامة القتل والموت والتشريد....
- وإذا كان الزمن قاتماً، فكسر عتمته يكون بالقراءة، "قراءة شيئ، كتابة شيئ، فعل شيئ"...
- ابتدأنا رحلة ال2019 مع صاحب القلم الرحيم عبد الوهاب مطاوع "صديقي لا تأكل نفسك" و"أرجوك لا تفهمني"، فكمشة "رمل وزبد" لجبران ف "بطل من هذا الزمان" و "زوجات ومحظيات" ثم وقفة مع برناردشو في "رجل الأقدار" الى قدر أفغانستان مع "حجر الصبر" ورحلة بحرية مع "تاجر البندقية" اخذنا فيها "مانديل بائع الكتب القديمة" لنتفاجأ بكارثة "إنقطاعات الموت" لساراماغو (نجمة واحدة يتيمة) فنأخذ وقفة مع "الحداثة السائلة" و"مختارات شعرية" لممدوح عدوان.
- بدأ فبراير (شهر التسوق) ب "اعترافات ولعنات" تتلاءم مع الأوضاع الإقتصادية، "مذكرات طبيب شاب" لبولغاكوف وإتمام الجزء الرابع من مؤلفات انطوان تشيخوف. أعلنت القائمة القصيرة لجائزة البوكر فأشرقت "شمس بيضاء باردة" على "النبيذة" الرائعة لكنها ما لبثت ان انتحرت مع "صيف مع العدو" وارسلت رسالة انتحارها بـ "بريد الليل" قلا تسألني "بأي ذنب رحلت" وما هي "الوصابا" فهذه اللائحة غير المتجانسة غريبة فلا بد من عبثية "الغريب" لألبرت كامو.
- حل آذار مع جود أبو صوان و "خرافة المعتقدات اليهودية وتأثيرها على المسيحية" أتبعتها بكتاب حميد لحمداني "النقد الروائي والإيديولوجيا" والذي أنصح الجميع بقرائته، ثم بعض القصص الخفيفة بترجمة لبنى أحمد نور التي على ما يبدو سيكون لها شأن كبير في الترجمة مستقبلاً، "الحمامة" لباتريك زوسكند والتي تؤول على الف وجه، فـ "رقصة الوداع" للرائع ميلان كونديرا. انتصف الشهر مع "كوميديا الغفران" و "رسائل لروائي شاب" لتكون فاتحة اعمال يوسا والتي اتت لاحقاً. "بارتلبي النساخ" وختام الشهر كان مع الكتاب التوثيقي الموجع "زمن مستعمل: نهاية الإنسان الأحمر" لسفيتلانا ألكسييفيتش.
- نيسان ابتدأ مع قصص ماركيز "عينا كلب أزرق" فقفزة معاكسة الى القوقاز مع "الحاج مراد" لتولستوي فعودة متوسطية مع "ميرامار" الجميلة فرحلة الى ايطاليا مع نيكولاي أمانتي "أنا لا أخاف" وأمبرتو إيكو "الأثر المفتوح". انهيت الشهر مع "لا تقتل عصفوراً ساخراً" وكانت تجربة سيئة.
- أقبل أيار ومع الأدب الأمريكي ايضاً والقصة الجميلة "غاتسبي العظيم" مروراً بمؤلفات تشومسكي "السيطرة على الإعلام"، "من يمتلك اعالم"، "ماذا يريد العام سام" و "أوهام الشرق الأوسط"، هذه العبثية السياسية تستحضر عبثية كامو فكان "الضيف" وبعض القصص القصيرة التي اغتصبتها الترجمة العربية فقرأتها بالفرنسية الى "السقطة" رائعة البير كامو وأفضل كتبه وأعمقها (برأيي طبعاً). هذا العبث يحتاج لسخرية مارك توين فكان ذلك مع بعض القصص الجميلة و"الرجل الذي أفسد هادليبرغ" و "مغامرات هاكلبيري فين". أشتقت لكونديرا! "الخلود" إحدى أروع الروايات التي كتبت يوماً ونكمل الشهر مع قصص إدغار الان بو السوداوية المجنونة.
- شهر حزيران بدأ كما انتهى أيار مع قصص آلان بو "قناع الموت الأحمر"، ثم رحلة رمزية مع جورج أورويل ورائعته "مزرعة الحيوان"، الى عزيز نيسن "مزحة حمار"، فـ "الخوف"، "أسطورة فيراتا" و"أموك سعار الحب" لزفاييغ ثم "فهرانهيت 451". "اختراع العزلة" لبول أوستر "الشيخ والبحر" لهمنغواي، "إله المتاهة" لكولن ويلسون، "امرأة بل أهمية" لأوسكار وايلد ثم نقلة اجتماعية مع "العبودية المختارة" و "سيكولوجية الجماهير" لجوستاف لو بون. ينتصف الشهر مع رائعة كامو "الطاعون" والتي تقرأ بطبقات عديدة ثم "لن أغادر منزلي" تليها "فونوغراف" للكاتب المبدع سليم بطي. ينتهي الشهر مع نعومي كلاين "عقيدة الصدمة" والذي يجب ان يقرأه كل قارئ ليعرف ما لا يقولونه في نشرات الأخبار!
- يعود أدونيس تموز فتكون الفاتحة مع "الفكر العربي في عصر النهضة" لألبرت حوراني، كتاب مهم ومميز ومرجعي، "مونولوج عازف البيانو في المحيط" ثم "ذئب البراري" "نرسيس وغولدموند" المهولة و"سيدهارتا" لهيرمان هيسة. وعطلة الصيف الجميلة.
- يأتي أيلول ووقفة إجتماعية سياسية فكرية مع "كينونة الإنسان" لإريك فروم تقابلها مآساة السجن و"خيانات اللغة والصمت" لفرج بيرقدار بروحه الساخرة، "مرتفعات وذرينغ" التي قضّوا مضاجعنا بها! "لائحة رغباتي" الخفيفة اللطيفة و"اختبار الندم" لخليل صويلح. ينتصف الشهر وتبدأ الرحلة الأسطورية مع عملاق الكتابة الروائية بتقنياتها المتشعبة، ماريو فارغاس يوسا، "ليتوما في جبال الأنديز"، "امتداح الخالة"، و"شيطانات الطفلة الخبيثة"
- تشرين الأول الأصفر يبدأ مع الرواية الكئيبة الباردة "المطر ألأصفر"، ثم "حفلة التيس" و"دفاتر دون ريغوبرتو" و "من قتل بالومينو مونيرو" ليوسا، فثلاثة دوواوين لفاروق جويدة "وللأشواق عودة"، "طاوعني قلبي على النسيان" و"ملعون سيف أخي" بشعره الرقراق النغمي، ثم عودة للسياسة والفكر مع الدراسة العميقة للدكتور محمد الجويلي "الزعيم السياسي في المخيال الإسلامي". ينتهي الشهر مع إحدى روائع الروايات "الساعة الخامسة والعشرون" لقسطنتين جورجيو، "ساعي بريد نيرودا" و"المرجومة".
- السنة بشهرها الأخير فليس أفضل من "أخذك وأحملك بعيداً" لنيكولاي أمانتي، هذا الشهر شهد تعرّفي (وأقولها خجلاً من تقصيري) على قامة فكرية يدعى حبيب عبد الرب سروري و "لا امام سوى العقل"، "عرق الآلهة" "تقرير الهدهد" و "وحي"، فعودة الى الجذور مع "مذكرات الأرقش" ومرداد لميخائيل نعيمة. "الثقافة السائلة" لباومان و"روح السياسة" لجوستاف لوبون. أربعة كتب عن تاريخ لبنان والشام للدكتور كمال الصليبي وعلي فتوني. لم تشأ السنة ان تودعنا سوى مع فجيعة البوكر ككل عام لكن الأمل برائعة "سلالم ترولار" لسمير قسيمي وبما ان العزاء قائم فأنهيت السنة برواية "ثوب حداد ملوّن" للصديق سليم بطي والتي أنصح بها لتذوق الألم والأدب واللغة.
- هذه السنة قرأت أيضاً للأصدقاء رولا حسن "شهقة حياة"، أمل الأصيل "الصندوقان"، محمود حبوش "حكاية الفتى الذي لم يضحك أبداً" والعزيز أحمد جابر "السيد أزرق في السينما" وأتمنى لهم كامل التوفيق في أعمالهم القادمة.
- فقدنا هذا العام قامات أدبية مثل صالح علماني ومي منسّى (رحمهم الله)، واستفقدنا للعديد من أصدقاء الموقع، وأكتسبنا العديد من الأصدقاء الجدد. كل عام وانتم قرّاء، كل عام وأنتم شموع مضيئة في هذا الجزء المظلم من العالم!!! -
2019 was another challenging year for our family. Life is full of change, but one thing that remains consistent is my love of reading.
I read 120 books this year and 89 were successful with a rating of 3.5 or higher.
One of my goals for 2019 was to DNF books that aren't working for me instead of pushing through a book I'm not enjoying. I DNF’d 24 books, which definitely contributed to my success rate. I also planned to request fewer books from NG and EW so I would have time to read backlist titles on my tbr list. I had limited success as I’m easily distracted by the new and shiny. Only 33 of my books were backlist titles, but 42% of books read were library books, and 48% were ARCs.
2019 confirmed that:
*I love a strong character-based story and/or a book that is thoughtful and makes me think and feel deeply.
* My pleasure in reading increased with fewer psychological suspense.
* Historical fiction once again didn’t have a strong presence in my books this year. Much of it takes too many liberties with the truth and/or they are thinly disguised romance.
* I love non-fiction on audio. 38% of my reading was on audio.
* Buddy reading without pressure is the best. Thanks Marialyce for the excellent books and discussions we’ve had this year! You're the best reading buddy and make a pleasurable hobby even more so 💖
Hyped books that deserved the hype. My favorite literary fiction:
The Dearly Beloved
Ask Again, Yes
Olive, Again
The Nickel Boys
Normal People
Miracle Creek
Nothing to See Here
Honorable mention:
Daisy Jones & The Six
Over-hyped books that didn’t deserve the hype (for me):
The Last Romantics
The Dutch House– the last 20% ruined the story for me
Books that didn’t get the hype they deserved:
The Body in Question
Talk to Me
Little Faith
A book that sounds ridiculous but isn’t:
Nothing to See Here
Best romance for a non-romance reader:
The Girl He Used to Know
New-to-me authors I discovered in 2019:
Peter Heller. I usually prefer non-fiction on audio but Peter Heller is an exception. I loved
Celine and soon after read and enjoyed
The Dog Stars and
The River. His prose shines on audio.
Tim Johnston.
The Current and
Descent are my new benchmark for excellent well-plotted intelligent mysteries
I love listening to non-fiction on audio. Favorites:
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 – at 625 pages, it was my longest book but it was so riveting it didn’t feel long.
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
I Miss You When I Blink: Essays
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Best True Crime
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter
Historical Fiction
A genre I continue to have difficulty with now that many of them are thinly disguised romances.
The Island of Sea Women is an exception. I loved learning about these amazing women and the impeccable research of the author.
Favorite mysteries
The first two play homage to the classic mystery and I’m here for it. More please! The next two are just fun. The last 3 are character studies/literary mysteries
Eight Perfect Murders
The Sentence is Death
Lock Every Door
The Silent Patient – surprisingly, this was the “most popular” of all the books I read this year.
The Current
Descent
Celine
Breaking Up Is So Hard to Do:
Good-bye Louise Penny. The last few books have been disappointing so this series has run its course for me.
Feel-good books that are delightful and put a smile on my face and an occasional tear in my eye
Rules for Visiting
The Lager Queen of Minnesota
Things You Save in a Fire
Harry's Trees
The character that is the most fun to hate
Jane Doe
Special mention of books I loved that I read ARCs in December 2018 but were published in 2019
An Anonymous Girl
The Dreamers
And just for fun, the review that has the most “likes” at 2344 as of this posting, and the most comments:
Where the Crawdads Sing A book I really, really didn’t like and it seems many agree with me. The comments are the best ever and often make me laugh!
Happy New Year to all my Goodreads friends. I look forward to sharing and chatting books in 2020! -
My 2019 goals are to return to the root of my literary love. Since becoming part of the online bookish world I have challenged myself, read outside my comfort zone, followed the big book awards, kept up with hyped new releases, and read many titles my previous self would never have heard of or had an inkling to pick up on my own. This, I believe, is a good thing. It has allowed me to grow both as a reader and as a person, discovering many unforeseen favourites along the way.
2019, however, will be a return to where I know my heart lies. I plan to focus more on my love of high fantasies and female-penned classics, without fearing their size or without focusing on the quantity of books I consume as the ultimate end goal. I plan, also, to tackle some of the intimidating books that adorn my bookshelves and that I then fear picking up for years, due to their size. Happy 2019 reading to me!
Read Virginia Woolf's work in publication order:
Read Stephen King's work in publication order:
Read all of my #abouttome book club big books:
5 star reads of 2019:
January
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
February
(REREAD)
March
April
May
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
June
July
August
September
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
(RREAD)
October
(REREAD)
(REREAD)
November
December
-
Ok, so I hope to put more into this years review than I did for 2018. That said I am not going to detail every single book I've read through the year.
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
January :
Book of the month:
The Light Fantastic
Read 8 (4 Paper (Real), 2 Audio, 2 Kindle)
Bought 21 (5 Paper, 1 Audio, 15 Kindle )
February:
Book of the month:
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
Read 11 (7 Paper (Real), 3 Audio, 1 Kindle)
Bought 33 (5 Paper, 3 Audio, 25 Kindle )
March:
Book of the month:
Mort
Read 6 (3 Paper (Real), 0 Audio, 3 Kindle)
Bought 20 (3 Paper, 0 Audio, 17 Kindle )
April:
Book of the month:
The Yellow Dog
Read 10 (4 Paper (Real), 1 Audio, 5 Kindle)
Bought 28 (2 Paper, 1 Audio, 25 Kindle )
May:
Book of the month :
Cards on the Table
Read 10 (4 paper(Real), 2 Audio, 4 Kindle)
Bought 24 (4 Paper, 2 Audiobooks, 18 Kindle)
June:
Book of the month :
Wyrd Sisters
Read 10 (10 paper(Real), 0 Audio, 0 Kindle)
Bought 24 (0 Paper, 0 Audiobooks, 14 Kindle)
July:
Book of the month :
Lake On The Moon
Read 10 (4 paper(Real), 2 Audio, 4 Kindle)
Bought 14 (5 Paper, 0 Audiobooks, 9 Kindle)
August :
Book of the month :
Guards! Guards!
Read 7 (6 paper(Real), 0 Audio, 1 Kindle)
Bought 21 (5 Paper, 0 Audiobooks, 16 Kindle)
September :
Book of the month :
Appointment with Death
(A tough choice this month)
Read 7 (6 paper(Real), 0 Audio, 1 Kindle)
Bought (and received) 24 (9 Paper, 0 Audiobooks, 15 Kindle)
October :
Book of the month :
Robots and Empire
(A choice of 2 this month, sorry James
Academic Curveball)
Read 7 (5 paper(Real), 0 Audio, 2 Kindle)
Bought (and received) 27 (2 Paper, 4 Audiobooks, 21 Kindle)
November :
Book of the month :
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Read 6 (5 paper(Real), 1 Audio, 0 Kindle)
Bought (and received) 25 (5 Paper, 1 Audiobooks, 19 Kindle)
December :
Book of the month :
Reaper Man
Read 6 (4 paper(Real), 1 Audio, 1 Kindle)
Bought (and received) 15 (2 Paper, 0 Audiobooks, 13 Kindle)
Hmm, as for my book of the year and any other highlights, as per usual I will delay putting my thoughts to paper until maybe tomorrow (depending on my hangover or lack of )
Well one day turned into a whole month, and I still haven't decided what to say in my summing up of 2019.
One thing to note is that I did read
The Lord of the Rings during the year, and I have long made it clear that if it is not my all time favourite book, it is certainly in the top 3. I have not included it in any Book of the Month, and so will not include it as my Book of the Year.
And that still leaves me to decide what is, or at least what books are up for consideration, or even if I want to decide what my Book(s) of the Year is/are.
More thinking required me thinks. -
I fell in love several times this year.
How romantic, you might think.
Romantic? Nah. I wish. Things are different now, in my 40s. Falling in love is not what it used to be. The rubric for love was so different in my teens and twenties: a hot ass in a perfectly formed pair of Levi's, a dancing dimple on the left side of the mouth, an appealing tenor voice coupled with a laugh.
What's sexy to me now is vulnerability: a show of pain, the ability to grab hold of the neck of the elephant in the room, the courage to dance with death as a partner.
I want my lovers terrified, but willing to admit it.
Humored by life, and wanting, still, to embrace the absurd.
Several new lovers emerged this year to satisfy my needs, agitate my desire for life, make me beg for more:
Larry McMurtry:
The Evening Star
Raymond Carver:
Ultramarine
Short Cuts
Where Water Comes Together with Other Water
Yehuda Amichai:
Open Closed Open
Love Poems
Elizabeth Strout:
Olive, Again
Such meaningful, memorable lovemaking this year. -
Best Lesfic Books of 2019
Before I start the 4th annual best of lesfic awards, I just want to give a few thoughts on the year. I felt overall that the books that came out this year were solid. Like in 2018, I gave out many 3.5 star and 4 star ratings. What I was missing again were more of the full 5 star books. Maybe I’m getting a little pickier as the years go by. On the good side I still had plenty of books to choose from for my best of awards. In fact even a few more made the list than last year. I also found some really good debut authors which makes me excited for the future.
When it comes to Goodreads itself I really enjoyed this year. I feel very blessed to have such a great group of friends. In a year that was so divisive with so much nastiness, it was so nice to have this little corner of the internet to go to and just forget everything but books for a little while. I want to thank all my friends, followers, and everyone who took the time to comment, like, or read one of my reviews. You all are the best and the reason I keep coming back and reviewing year after year. And to my fellow reviewers, thank you for helping my to read list to grow day after day and for keeping my love of books going strong. I can’t thank you all enough.
I have high hopes for 2020 with the start of a new decade that hopefully will bring many new 5 star reads. I’m excited to mention I am going to my first ever book con in 2020. I’m going to GCLS in July which is for wlw literature. I can’t wait and if you are going I hope you will let me know so we can meet up. If you are thinking about it, early bird pricing is still available until the end of January. I'm also happy to be reviewing for the website
https://lezreviewbooks.com. I hope you will come check us out. Gaby has redesigned the whole site and it looks amazing.
Now it’s time for my best of list in the world of lesfic. Like previous years, the only books eligible are books published in 2019. I’m very strict about this but I did decide to add just one category for ‘best book I read not published in 19’. Only that one, all the rest will follow the rules. Anyway, all the books are wlw and cover just about every category I felt had a worthy winner. If you see (Book 2) that means the book is part of a series and the number corresponds to where the book is in the series. I hope you find some great books to add to your to read lists.
Best Book of 2019:
Alone by E.J. Noyes
Best Romance:
If the Shoe Fits by E.J. Noyes (Book 3)
Best Slow Burn Romance:
Beautiful Dreamer by Melissa Brayden
Best Contemporary Romance:
Back to September by Melissa Brayden
Best Medical Romance:
Breathe by Cari Hunter
Best Butch/Femme Romance:
Burn It Down by K. Aten
Best Drama Romance:
Other Girls by Avery Brooks
Best Family Drama Romance:
Thursday Afternoons by Tracey Richardson
Runner-ups in the Romance Category:
Listen by Kris Bryant,
The Secret Chord by Virginia Hale,
Beautiful Accidents by Erin Zak,
Not the Marrying Kind by Jae,
Pretending in Paradise by M. Ullrich and
Love to the Rescue by Radclyffe (5)
Best Love Story:
Invisible, as Music by Caren J. Werlinger
Best Drama:
The Song of the Sea by Jenn Alexander
Best Sports Book:
Breaking the Ice by K.R. Collins (Book 1)
Best Sports Romance: A tie between
Fire & Ice by Rachel Spangler and
Slammed by Lola Keeley. Both deserve to be on the list.
Best YA:
The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum
Best YA Mystery:
Say Her Name by Stefani Deoul (Book 3)
Best Steampunk:
Raven, Sand and Sun by Nita Round (Book 2) and
Raven, Storm and Shadow by Nita Round (Book 3) These two are from the same series so they can’t really compete against each other. Plus they both deserve to be on the list.
Best Steampunk Romance:
The Sovereign of Psiere by K. Aten
Best Fantasy:
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Best Fantasy Romance:
The Queen of Rhodia by Effie Calvin (Book 3)
Best Dark Fantasy:
Thorn by Anna Burke
Best Paranormal:
A Bittersweet Garden by Caren J. Werlinger
Best Paranormal Romance:
Stay by Mildred Gail Digby
Best Urban Fantasy:
Shadows & Dreams by Alexis Hall (Book 2)
Best Urban Fantasy Romance:
The Grim Assistant by Jodi Hutchins
Best Sci-Fi:
All Things Mortal by Laurel Johanson
Best Sci-Fi Romance:
Changing Course by Brey Willows
Best Futuristic:
Across the Dark Horizon by Tagan Shepard
Best Action:
Candice Cushing and the Lost Tomb of Cleopatra by Georgette Kaplan (Book 2)
Best Action Romance:
Gold Star Chance by C.J. Murphy (Book 1)
Best Crime:
Cash and the Sorority Girl by Ashley Bartlett (Book 3)
Best Crime Romance:
Payback by Charlotte Mills
Best Thriller:
Legacy by Charlotte Greene
Best Mystery:
Not Dead Enough by J.M. Redmann (Book 10)
Best Mystery Romance:
Moonlight Avenue by Gerri Hill
Best Intrigue:
The Blood Runs Cold by Catherine Maiorisi (Book 2)
Best Historic Fiction:
The Plan by Kim Pritekel
Best Historical Romance:
In My Heart by Bette Hawkins
Best Historic Fantasy:
Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones (Book 4)
Best Superhero Book:
A Lover’s Mercy by Fiona Zedde (Book 2)
Best Comedy:
Borage by Gill McKnight (Book 1)
Best Romantic Comedy:
The Wrong McElroy by K.L. Hughes
Best Erotic Romance:
The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair
Best Novella:
Tinsel by Kris Bryant
Best Full Length Debut:
Always a Love Song by Charley Clarke
Biggest Surprise of 2019:
Gallows Humor by Carolyn Elizabeth
Best Book More People Need to Read:
The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus by Alanna McFall
Best Book Read in 19 But Not Published in 19:
Charon Docks at Daylight by Zoe Reed. One of the best books I read all year. And what make this book even sweeter is that it is FREE! Go to the books page for the free EPUB link or the online version link.
Best Published Author of 2019:
E.J. Noyes Runners-up:
Caren Werlinger,
K. Aten, and
Melissa Brayden. All four authors had a great year making the list multiple times but Noyes is the winner with two full 5 star books.
Best New Published Author of 2019:
K.R. Collins Runners-up:
Charley Clarke,
Jenn Alexander,
Carolyn Elizabeth and
Avery Brooks. This was tough as all five authors were very good. 2019 was an excellent year for debut authors. One of the best I ever remember. I had to give it to Collins since she wrote one of the best sports books I have read in a long, long time.
That is it for my 2019 awards. It is mostly the same categories from last year but with a few changes. Hopefully there are some books here that will appeal to everyone. I do have all these books on a shelf titled “2019 favorites” if it is easier for people to navigate. I also have last year’s winners on a “2018 favorites” shelf for anyone who might have missed them plus a shelf for the 2017 and 2016 favorites too. Thank you again everyone for a great year. I wish you all a happy 2020 filled with great reads. -
Books read in 2019:
January:
1. The Shining- Stephen King: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
2. Crown Of Midnight- Sarah J. Maas: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. To Make Monsters Out Of Girls- Amanda Lovelace: 2.75/5 stars ⭐⭐.75
4. It- Stephen King: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Milk And Honey- Rupi Kaur: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
6. 9 From The Nine Worlds- Rick Riordan: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
7. Children Of Blood And Bone- Tomi Adeyemi: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Our Dark Duet- Victoria Schwab: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. After The Quake- Haruki Murakami: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
10. Love Her Wild- Atticus: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
February:
1. The Poppy War- R. F. Kuang: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. The Song Of Achilles- Madeline Miller: DNF @ 42%
3. Heir Of Fire- Sarah J. Maas: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
4. An Enchantment Of Ravens- Margaret Rogerson: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
5. The Gilded Wolves- Roshani Chokshi: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐��
6. Pet Sematary- Stephen King: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
March:
1. An Ember In The Ashes- Sabaa Tahir: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. The Lost Girls Of Paris- Pam Jenoff: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. And I Darken- Kiersten White: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
4. Final Girls- Riley Sager: DNF @ 26%
5. Zach (Hell's Handlers MC, #1)- Lilly Atlas: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Murder Lo Mein- Vivien Chien: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. The Art Of Taxidermy- Sharon Kernot: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Hotel Dare- Terry Blas & Claudia Aguirre: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. The Language Of Thorns- Leigh Bardugo: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
10. The Fifth Season- N.K. Jemisin: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
11. Of Rioters & Royals- M.L. Greye: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
April:
1. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo- Taylor Jenkins Reid: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Red, White & Royal Blue- Casey McQuiston: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Sour Candy- Kealan Patrick Burke: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Thread On Arrival- Lea Wait: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
5. Patron Saints Of Nothing- Randy Ribay: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Shadow's Kiss- T.M. Hart: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
7. A Curse So Dark And Lonely- Brigid Kemmerer: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
8. The Raging Ones- Krista & Becca Ritchie: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
9. Sorcery Of Thorns- Margaret Rogerson: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. Dead Until Dark- Charlaine Harris: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
11. The Merciful Crow- Margaret Owen: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
May: (A.K.A: The month of 4 star reads)
1. Sadie- Courtney Summers: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
2. Woman 99- Greer Macallister: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. The Bone Houses- Emily Lloyd-Jones: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Shadow's Touch- T.M. Hart: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. House Of Salt And Sorrows- Erin A. Craig: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Lady Midnight- Cassandra Clare: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. I Know You Remember- Jennifer Donaldson: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
June:
1. Flowers Over The Inferno- Ilaria Tuti: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Dear Wife- Kimberly Belle: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. The Female Of The Species- Mindy McGinnis: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet- Becky Chambers: DNF @ 54%- To be continued
5. The Beautiful- Renée Ahdieh: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. The Dead Girls Club- Damien Angelica Walters: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
July:
1. The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career Of Ed And Lorraine Warren- Gerald Brittle: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
2. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen: 3.75/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.75
3. The Turn Of The Key- Ruth Ware: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. The Tenth Girl- Sara Faring: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
5. Rules For Vanishing- Kate Alice Marshall: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. The Silent Patient- Alex Michaelides: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
7. The Wake: The Deadly Legacy Of A Newfoundland Tsunami- Linden MacIntyre: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Willow-E.M. Raegan: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. The Secrets Of Hawthorne House- Donald Firesmith: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. Eight Will Fall- Sarah Harian: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
August:
1. Into The Crooked Place- Alexandra Christo: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
2. Maverick- Lilly Atlas: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Living Dead In Dallas- Charlaine Harris: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
4. The Nanny- Gilly Macmillan: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Club Dead- Charlaine Harris: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
6. Joyland- Stephen King: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. The Spinner Of Dreams- K.A. Reynolds: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. We Speak In Storms- Natalie Lund: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. The Babysitters Coven- Kate Williams: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
September:
1. The Cursed Coin- Culliver Crantz: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
2. Pumpkinheads- Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Killing November- Adriana Mather: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
4. Fireborne- Rosaria Munda: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
5. Thornhill- Pam Smy: 2/5 stars ⭐⭐
6. Beyond The Black Door- A.M. Strickland: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
7. Vicious- V.E. Schwab: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Darkdawn- Jay Kristoff: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October:
1. War Girls- Tochi Onyebuchi: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
2. Winterwood- Shea Ernshaw: 4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
3. Gravemaidens- Kelly Coon: Temporary DNF. I need a break from fantasy.
4. The Diviners- Libba Bray: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. NOS4A2- Joe Hill: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow- Washington Irving: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
7. Moon Deeds- Palmer Pickering: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. The Halloween Tree- Ray Bradbury: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
November:
1. Next Year In Havana- Chanel Cleeton: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Dead To The World- Charlaine Harris: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
3. Tunnel Of Bones- Victoria Schwab: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. Dead Voices- Katherine Arden: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
5. All Fired Up- Lori Foster: 3.75/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.75
6. Love From A To Z- S.K. Ali: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. Black Girl Unlimited- Echo Brown: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
8. Jamaica Inn- Daphne Du Maurier: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
9. Oasis- Katya De Becerra: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
December:
1. Ninth House- Leigh Bardugo: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Cowboy Christmas Redemption- Maisey Yates: 3.75/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.75
3. Misery- Stephen King: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. The King's Questioner- Nikki Katz: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5
5. The Passengers- John Marrs: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ -
أوّل قرارات العام؛
الزام نفسي بـ قراءة كتاب أسبوعيًا من تلك الكتب ذات الثقل الفكريّ؛
إذ لو تركت نفسي لـ هواها فـ لن أقرأ سوى الكتب سهلة القراءة.
أي سيكون الهدف النهائي قراءة ٥٢ كتاب بنهاية العام إن شاء الله؛
إلى أي مدى سأحققه؟ الله أعلم 😊
هو قرار أخذته بلحظتي الحماسية الراهنة،
وللاستمرار بـ تنفيذه أحتاج طلب العون من الله عز وجل؛
فالله المستعان.
ولمتابعة مدى تقدمي تجاه تحقيق هذا الهدف أنشأت قائمة لإضافة ما قرأت منها تباعًا
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أحد تطبيقات هذا الهدف انتهى إلى اتخاذ قرار آخر؛
أن يتضمن تنفيذي للهدف ذاك بأن ي��تصّ أسبوع واحد من كل شهر لقراءة أحد كتب سلسلة "عالم المعرفة" والتي لم أقرأ منها قبل هذا القرار سوى كتاب واحد حسب ما أذكر، رغم أهميتها.
وقد جاءت أيام فترت فيها رغبتي بالقراءة، وأيام انعدمت فيها تلك الرغبة؛
ولكني تشبثت بهذا الهدف لئلا تتداعى مني سبل انجازه إن أنا أفلتُه.
فصرتُ لا أقرأ سوى ذاك الجزء الذي حددته من الكتاب الأسبوعي
