My Year in Books
At the end of every year, everyone and their dog posts best-of-the-year lists, so why should I run against tradition? This is a list of every book I have read this year. Only the first and last places will be what I actually believe to be the best and worst books I've read this year. everything in between will be ranked in no particular order, except all the 5 stars will be together, etc.
1. The Weight of Water by Laura McHugh:
I got this as an advanced reader's copy from either a Random House giveaway or Bookreporter.com, I'm not sure which. I can't remember the last time I read a book so quickly or the last time I had to force myself to go to bed at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning because I had to be at work in a few hours. I didn't want to put this book down. There are so many truly twisted twists and turn in the story and the author doles out nuggets of information expertly throughout so you don't feel like she's hoarding all the gold for the end. Was it a bit of a stretch in places? Possibly, if I wanted to be really critical of it. But I felt so swept up in the story that it felt real and genuine at the time. I look forward to more of her novels.
2. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (I might have put this as my #1 book of the year, but I'm not sure that it's not just proximity that would put it over The Weight of Water. Let's just say it's a very close second)
3. The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
4. Night by Elie Wiesel
5. The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
6. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
7. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
8. The Revange of Seven by Pittacus Lore
9. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
10. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
11. The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
12. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell
13. Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
14. Dragon Bones by Lisa See
15. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
16. The Interior by Lisa See
17. Flower Net by Lisa See
18. Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
19. Cousin Phyllis by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. Mary, Mary by James Patterson
21. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
22. The Nature of my Inheritance by Bradford Morrow
23. The Trivia Lover's Guide to the World: Geography for the Lost and Found by Gary Fuller
24. Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
25. A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond-Mouillot
26. Compendium of Srem by F. Paul Wilson
27. Rides a Stranger by David J. Bell
28. Run by Andrew Grant
29. It's in the Book by Mickey Spillane
30. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
31. Year Zero by Rob Reid
32. Da Vinci for Dummies by Jessica Teisch
33. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
34. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
35. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
36. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
37. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
38. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
39. The Giver by Lois Lowry
40. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
41. The Sequel by R.L.Stine
42. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
5 Stars
I got this as an advanced reader's copy from either a Random House giveaway or Bookreporter.com, I'm not sure which. I can't remember the last time I read a book so quickly or the last time I had to force myself to go to bed at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning because I had to be at work in a few hours. I didn't want to put this book down. There are so many truly twisted twists and turn in the story and the author doles out nuggets of information expertly throughout so you don't feel like she's hoarding all the gold for the end. Was it a bit of a stretch in places? Possibly, if I wanted to be really critical of it. But I felt so swept up in the story that it felt real and genuine at the time. I look forward to more of her novels.
2. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (I might have put this as my #1 book of the year, but I'm not sure that it's not just proximity that would put it over The Weight of Water. Let's just say it's a very close second)
3. The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
4. Night by Elie Wiesel
5. The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
6. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
7. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
8. The Revange of Seven by Pittacus Lore
9. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
10. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
11. The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
12. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell
13. Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
14. Dragon Bones by Lisa See
15. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
16. The Interior by Lisa See
17. Flower Net by Lisa See
4 Stars
18. Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
19. Cousin Phyllis by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. Mary, Mary by James Patterson
21. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
22. The Nature of my Inheritance by Bradford Morrow
23. The Trivia Lover's Guide to the World: Geography for the Lost and Found by Gary Fuller
24. Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
25. A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond-Mouillot
26. Compendium of Srem by F. Paul Wilson
27. Rides a Stranger by David J. Bell
3 Stars
28. Run by Andrew Grant
29. It's in the Book by Mickey Spillane
30. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
31. Year Zero by Rob Reid
32. Da Vinci for Dummies by Jessica Teisch
33. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
34. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
35. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
36. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
37. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
38. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
39. The Giver by Lois Lowry
40. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
41. The Sequel by R.L.Stine
42. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2 Stars
43. If I Stay by Gail Forman
44. The Oz Chronicles, Vol. 1 by L. Frank Baum
45. 2 AM at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
46. Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
47. Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Mishka Shubaly
48. The Magician King by Lev Grossman
49. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
50. Remaindered by Peter Lovesey
51. The Dinner by Herman Koch
52. What's in a Name? by Thomas H. Cook
53. The Gospel of Sheba by Lyndsey Faye
54. The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
1 Stars
55. A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
56. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
57. England, My England: Anglophilia Explained by Mark Dery:
When I was in college, I had to write an essay on A Room With A View. My professor, quite rightly, gave me a poor grade because it was admittedly all over the place. I remember he basically told me that not every thought in your head needs to be written down. Now I can say this, not every thought you have needs to be self-published on Amazon. Oh how I wish this author had taken a class with professor Shea. If this is meant to be amusing it fails astoundingly, although you can see where he is trying (too hard, I might add). He is proud of his blue-collar background but complains of his friend's "noblesse oblige" attitude after returning from prep school. He also drops words like "parvenu" and a couple of other foreign phrases that I've never heard. You're hardly likely to hear Joe complaining about Bob's noblesse oblige outlook over a couple of longnecks in the beer joint. Pot, have you met kettle? Also ironic was his complaint about Madonna's "mockney" accent while his narrator fake Brit-speaks through ever quotation. Perhaps my biggest complaint is that this essay is supposed to explain Anglophila. If it's part of the title, you better make sure you do it. He sort of suggests it may be separation anxiety or the product of cultural influence on Americans as children, but he gives no definitive explanation. The nearest thing I could get is that he thinks '70's prog rock was really cool. If you want to waste 48 minutes of your life by listening to this and finding the answer, I will gladly take this back. But I'm sure you have better things to do with your 48 minutes.
When I was in college, I had to write an essay on A Room With A View. My professor, quite rightly, gave me a poor grade because it was admittedly all over the place. I remember he basically told me that not every thought in your head needs to be written down. Now I can say this, not every thought you have needs to be self-published on Amazon. Oh how I wish this author had taken a class with professor Shea. If this is meant to be amusing it fails astoundingly, although you can see where he is trying (too hard, I might add). He is proud of his blue-collar background but complains of his friend's "noblesse oblige" attitude after returning from prep school. He also drops words like "parvenu" and a couple of other foreign phrases that I've never heard. You're hardly likely to hear Joe complaining about Bob's noblesse oblige outlook over a couple of longnecks in the beer joint. Pot, have you met kettle? Also ironic was his complaint about Madonna's "mockney" accent while his narrator fake Brit-speaks through ever quotation. Perhaps my biggest complaint is that this essay is supposed to explain Anglophila. If it's part of the title, you better make sure you do it. He sort of suggests it may be separation anxiety or the product of cultural influence on Americans as children, but he gives no definitive explanation. The nearest thing I could get is that he thinks '70's prog rock was really cool. If you want to waste 48 minutes of your life by listening to this and finding the answer, I will gladly take this back. But I'm sure you have better things to do with your 48 minutes.
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