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05. Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh ** I picked this up in our local bookshop as the premise intrigued me, being (apparently) based on a real incident in 1950s France, when an entire village (including animals!) succumbed to some form of (never identified) mass poisoning. On this, the author bases a 'darkly erotic mystery'. There was certainly a lushness, an elegance of writing that initially drew me in, giving the book an instant appeal, but after the (promising) first twenty pages or so when the two principal couples are introduced and developed (baker and wife with non-existent sex life, he obsessed with the 'perfect loaf'; metropolitan 'ambassador' and wife Violet, interesting sex life, a source of increasing obsession for the baker's wife Elodie) things started to deteriorate. The whole sexual aspect felt increasingly unlikely and contrived (and disjointed), whilst the the only mystery for me was a growing sense of confusion, wondering what on earth was going on, and had the author lost the plot (literally)? The story, mainly told in the first person by Elodie, interspersed with letters to Violet from Elodie written long after the events being described, felt increasingly disjointed and engendered irritation rather than intrigue (morsels of the outcome being dripped into the story by these letters). Relationships and plot progression just became more and more obscure, especially as one was never sure if Elodie was fantasising, recounting fantasy, or actually giving us the reality; there's unreliable narrator and unreliable narrator! To be honest, I found this easier and easier to put down and harder and harder to pick up; in short, I was bored, this coming over increasingly as more an exercise in style than a piece of narrative fiction. I finally forced myself to sit down and read the last 60 or so pages (it's only 180 pages long) in one sitting, as I realised I simply wasn't going to reach the finishing line otherwise. And when I got there? Nothing, or at least little of any consequence or interest to this reader. In fact, a thorough anti-climax, particularly in relation to the mystery that wasn't - because the mystery I was interested in is what happened over the mass poisoning (touched on throughout), and that really wasn't what the author was interested in after all. Yes, the 'darkly erotic' bit was resolved, but then I'd never found that interesting (and certainly not 'erotic'). In one phrase? Elegantly tedious. Not sure whether to give this one star, or allow a second for the writing, because strictly speaking the ending took it beyond being just 'disappointing' (2 stars) into the genuinely unlikeable (1 star). Later edit: decided to stick with 2 stars: I've read worse this year!

04. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot ***** Read for one of my book groups. Having said that, this has long been on my to read list, and I was grateful to be kickstarted to actually read this huge tome - by far and away the longest book I've read in the past few years, coming in at 900 pages in Everyman Classic edition (and just over 1000 pages and 2 volumes in my 1930s Collins Clear Type Press edition!). Right from the outset, I would say that it's not (IMO!) quite in the same league as Middlemarch, but it is a powerful, intricate, fascinating read, that never lost my interest in the 3 weeks or so that it took me to read. In many respects (and it's often claimed to be as such) it's almost two books rolled into one: the story of spoiled, almost childlike, Gwendolyn Harleth and her marriage to perhaps one of the nastiest characters in fiction, Henleigh Grandcourt, and that of Daniel Deronda, foster son of Grandcourt's uncle, Sir Hugo Mallinger, and his search for self-identity. Indeed, it has been argued that the book(s) would have been better if separated, one critic (FR Leavis) in particular arguing that if it wasn't for the burden of the latter story, the former would be one of the great classics. Hmmm. I can see where this comes from, but the fact is that the two parts are integral to each other for the whole book. Gwendolyn and Deronda are foils for each other's development (although Gwendolyn is initially so self-centred that she barely notices anything else Daniel might be doing or thinking), and Gwendolyn and Mirah are important foils to each other in their relationship with Deronda. And how would Leavis handle Daniel's 'journey' if cutting out his relationship with Mordecai? On the other hand, there have been many (mostly interested in the Zionist aspects) who would discard the Gwendolyn thread. Ridiculous! But, I can understand where these arguments come from. With two major plot lines, each in itself worthy of its own book, it's not surprising that this novel is so big. It's thus all too often encumbered (and yes, I'm afraid it does feel that way at times) with having to cut away from one narrative thread to deal with the other: the two only really come fully together in the final hundred and fifty pages or so (when the action transfers to Genoa), only nudging up against each other at varying points in the previous 750! But, having said that, I did find watching the development of these two very different characters absolutely fascinating. What I think is easy to forget is how radical this book must have been at the time of publication, with Eliot's Jewish plotline, a time when anti-semitism was almost engrained in English society - it was certainly not appreciated by a fair proportion of her readership. My biggest regret though on this side is that Mirah, so central to the novel, is so thin as a character, particularly alongside the superbly developed Gwendolyn. We see into the heart of the latter, whilst we barely scratch the former's surface - too good and sweet by half. It often seems that way in Victorian fiction: it's the flawed, or worse, characters who are best developed, whilst the 'goodies' (especially the women) are so often left to be mildly uninteresting or at best over-sentimentalused. One of the strongest characters in this book is Grandcourt - the portrayal of his subjugation of Gwendolyn is brilliantly delineated, a classic case of isolation abuse, exploiting to the full all the advantages of the husband in Victorian society - a fair amount left to be read between the lines. Daniel Deronda was not an easy read, but it was gripping. I initially found myself having to plan to read a set number of pages each day to ensure I finished the book in time. In the event, as the book progressed, I didn't need to worry with that, as I found momentum building up. There were one or two sections where I found myself gliding over some of the more detailed discussion, especially on philosophical or religious topics, but on the whole I actually found myself hanging on to the words. With so much to discuss (I've barely scratched the surface above!) it'll make for a good evening. (And why is it, whenever I try to write a review of a half decent book, I really struggle to make sense? These reviews never turn out the way I envisage them, and I never seem to be able to write coherently about all the issues and questions these books raise).

03. Strong Female Character by Fern Brady **** Picked up on a whim in my local independent, having been grabbed by the first couple of pages, this proved an utterly compelling memoir. Fern Brady is a best known as a stand-up comedian, but the focus here is very much on her experiences growing up as an autistic female, undiagnosed until well into adulthood. It's a ferociously vivid read, doesn't pull any punches, and really shows up how far society as a while has to go in this aspect of life - we are not good at 'different'. I must admit, as an ex-primary teacher who taught two autistic girls in my last three years (one diagnosed, the other not, but blindingly obviously so) I wish I'd had the chance to read this beforehand!! It was an eyeopener, and particularly so where the author related her experiences / behaviour to the research into and recognised 'symptoms' of autism - and where she showed how those who should have known better missed the signs completely. What's really worrying is the strong implication that little has changed. I hadn't realised when I bought the book that it had been shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Non-Fiction prize, but found out as I finished it, that it had actually won. I'm not surprised. Once or twice I felt it could have done with some stronger editing (a minor comment I hasten to add), but I am so glad I picked it up! (Book 02 this year was the York Advanced Notes, A Passage To India - which served its purpose well!).

Howards End is on my favourites list! Forster skewers the Anglo-Indian class in APTI as skilfully as he does the middle classes in HE! I don't think Adela was telling lies - she was telling it very much as she believed was true. Which is why, when she realised how wrong she'd got it, she changed her story, in spite of the personal consequences. I've just watched the film, and this comes across very well in that. But I agree, Howards End was more enjoyable. Both brilliant though, with ARWAV very close behind IMO. The more I read of Forster, the more impressed I am.

So, the end of the reading year. A good year on the whole. 66 books completed, the same as last year, even if the average page count was lower, but there were fewer disappointing books and a higher proportion of 4+ star books (mostly at 4 star level itself). A more detailed review on my 2024 thread.

Two last books Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson **** A very enjoyable dozen stories with linking mini-essays that include some interesting recipes. None of the stories were earth shatteringly original or different to the standard Christmas fair, but then this is Christmas! They were still fun and, inevitably with this author, well written. I suspect I'll save this for future Christmas reads too, and certainly for a couple of the recipes! Frostquake by Juliet Nicolson *** Purporting to be a social history of the snow-stricken 1962-3 winter and the impact it had on a changing society (or at least that's how I interpreted the blurb), this proved to be a readable but ultimately disappointing mish-mash of personal memoir and general cultural history of the the period, spreading rather a lot away from the winter itself. Basically this was nothing that the likes of David Kynaston, Dominic Sandbrook, Peter Hennessy and others have all done so much better, and certainly more thoroughly researched and in-depth. It just about achieved 3-stars because it was readable, and it was both the last book of the year and the Christmas season, but 2 beckoned, ! However, it has gone instantly to Oxfam!

First post for 2024 - welcome to this year's blog. A good one to start the year off! 01. A Passage To India by EM Forster ***** Read for one of my book groups. I've previously read other Forsters, and enjoyed them enormously (especially Howards End), so was looking forward to this, and was not disappointed. Written in 1924, and very much an examination of the interaction between British and Indian in the India of the time, some twenty years before independence. On the whole we British don't come out of it very well! The full range of attitudes is represented in early chapters where both British and Indians discuss the 'other side' in some depth, the attitudes then examined under the stress of the incident involving Mr Aziz and Adela Quested in the caves midway through the book. To cover all those viewpoints, Forster uses a surprisingly wide cast of characters, which I have to say I did find a bit confusing at times (plenty of referring back to character introductions to be sure who was who!). This width did mean that some characters didn't feel to be drawn in any great detail, and the odd bit of stereotyping reared its head, but the central characters, their ambiguities and the dilemmas they faced, did come to life for me. As ever with Forster, he proved a far easier read than anticipated (I always expect these earlier 20thC books to be harder than they are, perhaps scarred a bit by some of Henry James's denser writing!), and I happily cantered through this first book of the year. It's also a book that I look forward to discussing in the group later this month - and one that I've also ordered a study guide for to try and tease out some more coherent thoughts. A final note - I found this particularly interesting because one line of my own family lived and was brought up under the Raj, if a bit earlier than the book is set - my grandfather was born in Delhi at the end of the 19thC and, whilst he came back to Wales at a young age, at least the two previous generations back to the early 19thC were out their all their lives (one great grandfather was in the Indian Army, another a teacher in India - which made the Cyril Fielding character all the more personally interesting).

But, contrary to my rather pessimistic post previously, the discounts are rather better than I predicted.

So, my awards are: Your favourite book cover of 2023: Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto (see photo below) Cover based on a railway advertising poster. Penguin Modern Classics have produced a series of really interesting, attractive covers in recent years, and I could have nominated any number of these but this one definitely had an edge. Loved it! Your favourite publisher of 2023: Penguin Modern Classics A repeat award, as they were my winners in 2022 as well! Mostly as books for my Reading the World project, I've read a fair number of these this year. There are an increasing number of others publishing great books in translation, in attractive bindings, and I came close to nominating one of them, but these are the ones I've read and enjoyed most this year. Titles this year have included Tokyo Express, Potiki, Season of Migration to the North, The Year of the Hare, The Ice Palace, The Book of Chameleons, Who Among Us?, Chess Story. Your favourite book shop/retailer of 2023: Bookshop on the Square, Otley West Yorkshire Third year on the trot for my local indie bookshop. It's going to take a lot to displace them - maybe I should make the award for any other shop I've visited during the year! In which case, I'd probably go this year for The London Review of Books - one of my favourites in London which I was able to visit earlier this year. Your audiobook recommendation of 2023: none listened to this year Your most read author of 2023: Ann Morgan Another repeat award from last year: I've not read more than one book from any author this year, but I do keep referring to her website (one of the best online reading resources I know), her book on the subject, and her reviews of books in translation. Her new novel is on my shortlist to read this year. Your recommended re-read of 2023: none For the first time in years I've not reread a book this year. Your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2023: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff An easy choice this year, my only 1-star book. A book group read that was pretty universally panned. She's such a good writer too.... (I have both Matrix and Vaster Wilds to read on my shelves this year, so hopefully this is a one-off!). The book you most wanted to read in 2023, but didn't get to award: Ulysses by James Joyce I really thought I was going to get to this in 2023! It's my intended book for Ireland in my Reading the World tour, and as I didn't manage it last year, 2023 was going to be THE year. I'm hopeful that a couple of changes in circumstances will mean that I do finally get to it in 2024. Ther's a fistful of other biggies that have long been on the backburner too, so if I get any of them read this year I'll be chuffed! Your biggest literary let-down of 2023: jointly to Less by Andrew Sean Greer, and Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver Two Pulitzer Prize winners, and both books which completely underwhelmed me. The first was just poor and shallow to my mind - a series of silly episodes based on an unlikely premise. The second was more complex: I could see why people liked it, but for me it was just too derivative, and as a result one pretty much knew what was going to happen to characters before things happened. David Copperfield is one of my favourite reads, and this was just a shadow of it. Kingsolver is very much a marmite writer for me, and this was, of all her books that I've tried, my biggest let-down (whereas Poisonwood Bible was IMO superb). Your favourite illustrated book of 2023: none None read, other than history books with photos! Your children's book recommendation of 2023: none I'm not a great reader of children's books, and this was a year where I read none. Your recommended classic of 2023: La Curee (The Kill) by Emile Zola I'm reading Zola's Rougon-Macquart sequence in the order he recommended, and this was as good as any so far: I love the vividness of his writing and the depth of image he creates. His writing just brings that period to life. Your favourite short story (or collection of short stories) of 2023: The Garden Party and other stories by Katherine Mansfield Unusually, I read several collections this year, all excellent (I'm usually not a great short story reader), but this set showed why Mansfield is regarded as one of the great writers in the genre. I did rate Jonathan Escoffier's If I Survive You too, and in another year it might well have won this award. Your favourite literary character of 2023: Esme Nicoll in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Unusually, my favourite character comes from my favourite novel of the year, but the character developmenbt was part of the reason why I so enjoyed Dictionary - I could have probably chosen a couple of others from the book as well. Your poetry recommendation of 2023: none Another award for which I read no books this year, again rather unusual. Your favourite genre of 2023: Historical fiction I could have just repeated last year's award, for African literature, and there were also 3 excellent Nordic novels I read this year, but I'm going for the broad category of historical fiction, which produced a string of cracking reads this year for me, including my top 2 novels, both added to my 'favourites' list. The funniest book you read in 2023: Standing Heavy by GauZ I generally don't find books funny, and this was certainly not a comedy! However, there were some wonderfully wry moments, with GauZ taking a very sceptical look at Western consumerism. Funny is probably the wrong word, but there was certainly some great humour there! Your favourite biography of 2023: Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories by Thomas Grant. I've not read many biographical books this year, but this isn't a 'default' winner, it is a genuinely great read, covering some of the most important legal cases of the 20th century. That sounds dry, but it's anything but. My only possible issue was that this did tend to the hagiographic, but one can understand why! Your non-fiction recommendation of 2023. Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. I've excluded books I've nominated for other non-fiction awards, not least because I've read a string of excellent non-fiction books this year, and want to spread the awards around a bit! This is probably the book I learned the most from (although it was pushed by Chris van Tulleken's Ultra-Processed People) - a fascinating, in-depth examination of the important issues surrounding the increasing problems of attention loss as a social problem. Actually, it partly led into the van Tulleken book. One I want to reread in 2024, there was so much to absorb. Your fiction book of the year, 2023: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Aside from the historical context, which already had me on side, I loved the character and plot development: these were people who I really cared about. I picked this up in my local bookshop on the spur of the moment, attracted by the theme(s) and knowing nothing else about it other than what I'd gleaned from a quick browse, and was wonderfully rewarded. It had to be good to beat my runner-up, the third volume in the excellent Chocolate House trilogy by David Fairer, Captain Hazard's Game. Both go on to my favourites list. Your author of the year, 2023. jointly James Baldwin and Annie Ernaux. Hmm, a tricky one as I've not read more than one book from any one author. But, whilst the books from these authors didn't (quite) make any of my other awards, they are perhaps the two authors I'm keenest to explore further. Your overall book of the year, 2023: October Sky by Hiram H Hickham Originally published as Rocket Boys, but renamed to tie in with the later film. A wonderfully engaging memoir of growing up and development beyond expectations in 1950s and 60s West Virginia, where coal is king, men are men, and small nerdy boys have a mountain to climb if they are going to make something of their lives. It has much to say about the world we live in today (good and bad), families, society and people in general. I was absolutely gripped from start to finish, and I'm not normally who is 'grabbled' by this type of book. My own categories, largely focused on non-fiction subjects I have a particular interest in: Favourite book in translation: Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih A close run thing with Standing Heavy, and closely followed by a fistful of other books, but this was exceptional - not surprised it has been voted the most important Arab novel of the 20th century. A powerful post-colonial novel, where aspects of colonialism are completely inverted. Slim and very readable too! Favourite historical/geographical book: The Restless Republic by Anna Keay Excellent book on the brief period of republicanism in English history - filling in an almighty hole in my knowledge. Centred on and told through the lives of a handful of key characters, this was a fascinating read. Favourite environment/nature book: The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer Probably would have been non-fiction award winner if I hadn't had this specific category (and wanted to include Stolen Focus somewhere!). Beautifully written contemplation of our relationship with water, and rivers particularly, in the aftermath of the death of a close friend whilst kayaking. The fact that so much of it was based in landscapes with which I'm familiar made it all the more involving and personal, but the fact that it won the Wainwright Nature Writing award earlier in the year shows that this isn't necessary to appreciate this deeply thoughtful book.

Well, we've reached the end of the year, and as is traditional this thread is an opportunity for you to highlight your favourite reads of the year. Listed below are just the 'standard' awards, copied almost exactly from those posted by Ravenous in previous years (which I 'shamelessly copied' last year, and do again this year!). Please feel free to add any others that you want (I have a few of my own), and equally feel free to ignore any that aren't relevant to you So - Members of the Forum - without further ado, please tell us: Yes, I did buy it for the cover, but I stayed for the reading! Your favourite book cover of 2023. They print the words I like to read! Your favourite publisher of 2023. They sell me the words I like to read! Your favourite book shop/retailer of 2023. It was like when I was little, and Mummy used to read to me! Your audiobook recommendation of 2023. I even found one of their shopping lists! Your most read author of 2023. Stop me if you've heard this one before! Your recommended re-read of 2023. I'd rather be on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! Your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2023. I don't know where this year has gone! The book you most wanted to read in 2023, but didn't get too award. I'm sorry it wasn't a unicorn! Your biggest literary let-down of 2023. Think: Spot the Dog, BUT BETTER! Your favourite illustrated book of 2023. It's like living in Never-never Land! Your children's book recommendation of 2023. Most people pretend they have read this, but I actually did! Your recommended classic of 2023. Compact and bijou, Mostyn! Compact and bijou! Your favourite short story (or collection of short stories) of 2023. He made Mr Darcy look like Kermit the Frog! Your favourite literary character of 2023. Me talk pretty one day! Your poetry recommendation of 2023. I like things to be in boxes, nicely ordered boxes! Your favourite genre of 2023. I laughed so much, people moved away from me on the train! The funniest book you read in 203. After three years of COVID I have no life of my own anymore, so I just read about others! Your favourite biography/memoir of 2023. No, this really happened, yes it really did, I'm not making it up! Your non-fiction recommendation of 203.! Sounds like stuff someone made up! Your fiction book of the year, 2023. They've taken out a restraining order! Your author of the year, 2023. I'll read it again, I'll tell ya! Your overall book of the year, 2023. The small print (some repetition here!): Don't just make this a list, please explain your choices. Tell us what you really think about the books you have read. If there is a section you don't have a reply for, just skip it. Books don't have to have been published in 2023 to make it onto your list, you just have to have read them this year. Feel free to add your own categories, if you feel something has been missed.

The Years by Annie Ernaux ***** A memoir/autobiography quite unlike anything I've ever read before. Covering the whole of the post-war period, it may be autobiography, but it's all told in the third person, and is very much a life in the context of society as a whole covering key societal/political landmarks, if described from a personal perspective (on the left of the French political spectrum). The story is not just an account, but told through descriptions of photographs and other media, in relatively short and often apparently unrelated paragraphs. I was gripped by the writing, but have to admit that on several occasions when picking the book up again, I had to go back and reread the previous dozen or so pages: at the time of reading, everything felt very real and vivid, but so little actually stuck. I think this was primarily because so much of it was unfamiliar terrain - so many names that to a French man or women were probably commonplace, but to this British reader, completely unfamiliar (for instance, most French politicians other than the presidents!). Midway through, I started Googling unfamiliar names as they occured, and my retention levels did start to improve! As a result, I think that to fully appreciate this book, I will almost certainly have to reread it at some stage! In the meantime, it's an easy 5, and probably should be a 6 (if I can get to better grips with French cultural history!).

A few books read since the last post here, the latest, both this week, being Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie, and A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov. Best of those not covered since my last post was definitely The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, which is one of the very 6-star reads I've had this year. Not great literature, but a great story, really well meshed in with 'real' history. Loved it! More detailed comments on my blog thread.

A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov *** Read for one of my reading groups. A short (barely 140 pages) novel set in the Caucasus of the early 19th century, featuring the somewhat amoral soldier Pechorin as the ironically titled 'hero'. This reads like a series of 5 short stories, told from different perspectives, examining Pechorin's sense of alienation from the society around him, and his refusal to conform: is he heartless or just brutally honest? I found this a difficult book to get into, really only grabbed by the fourth (and longest) of the five episodes - made all the more interesting (IMO) by the fact that it was told from Perchorin's perspective, thus seeing the world through his eyes rather than the rather mystified others around him. But maybe it was made more interesting by the fact that we'd seen him through the rather non-plussed eyes of other, more conventional, observers first? It'll be interesting to see what the rest of the group make of it. BTW, I looked forward to reading the introduction for insight, but found it hard going. One ot be read in small chunks, or, at least, not late at night!

Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie **** Read as follow up to Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words. The author is a lexicographer and ex chief-editor of the OED herself. On the last day of her time at Oxford, she went into a previously unopened (at least by her!) file box in the OED archives, and discovered a notebook belong to the most famous editor, James Murray, containing the contact names and addresses of all the volunteers who contributed to the OED during his time, with notes on their contributions. A phenomenal discovery, out of which grew further research into their lives and this book. It's a fascinating and well written piece of history. Each of 26 chapters (named after the letters of the alphabet) takes a theme or individual and dips into their lives and examines their contributions, highlighting what an incredible project this was. It makes for compulsive reading. However, it's not faultless, and does at least partially fall into a couple of traps, not least that whilst the dictionary is a list of words, this tends to a list of people. Lots of interesting detail, certainly, but it does tend to the encycolopedic style of entry, one 'dictionary person' after another. They are linked, there is a coherence, but I still came away feeling I'd read more of a series of (very interesting) biographical entries than an integrated book. This was then exacerbated by the fact that, for pretty much evey entry, we always got a list of words (with abbreviated definitions) and how many slips they'd contributed. Yes, I know that's at the heart of the subject, but after 20-odd chapters (with usually several people per chapter), it did tend to the formulaic. This is not to belittle the interest of the quality of the work. It perhaps says more about the best way to read this book. For me, this is very much a book to dip into and out of, perhaps treating it as a series of 26 different essays. I think if I'd read it like that, I'd have graded it higher, and been keen to get stuck in right to the very end. As it was, reading this as a book over a few days, I did feel a slight sense of ennui and repetition by the end, and found myself counting the chapters down ("phew, I've reached V" syndrome). Read as essays, I think this would have made for compulsive reading. I know I will go back and explore it further, and it's definitely staying on my shelves!

Accolades for 2023 Book of the Year Rocket Boys by Hiram Hickham (later renamed October Sky). Fiction Book of the Year Winner: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Runner-up: Captain Hazard's Game by David Fairer Shortlist: Another Country by James Baldwin; Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih; Standing Heavy by GauZ The top two may not have been the 'best' books I read, but they were the ones I enjoyed the most - comfort reading at its best! Non-fiction Book of the Year Winner: Rocket Boys by Hiram Hickham Runner-up: The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer* Shortlist: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari; The Years by Annie Ernaux; Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken; The Restless Republic by Anna Keay** * Best nature/geography ** Best history Objectively, nothing really touched the Annie Ernaux, but I found my lack of detailed French political history getting in the way a bit - had to read this with Wikipedia to hand to keep looking people up. The others just flowed over me effortlessly! So, probably more my fault than the book's, but this is my personal list! Duffer of the Year Winner: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Shortlist: Less by Andrew Sean Greer Most Disappointing of the Year Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Discovery of the Year Two independent presses, whose books I've barely started on, but which I've found totally intriguing: Peirene Press and Fitzcarraldo Editions. Reread of the Year Not awarded this year - unusually, there was just the one reread (for a book group), and it wasn't one I rated highly enough to make an award.

Review of 2023 and looking forward to 2024. I enjoyed and appreciated the bullet point approach last year, so it's the same again this! + 66 books completed and just over 16000 pages read this year, the same number of books as last year, but a 1000 pages less, averaging just over 250 per book. As I said last year, that's the lowest since 2014, but more than anything before then! + 1/2 star books were significantly down, with the big difference at 4 star level (5/6 combined were the same). So, a good year's reading. Pure numbers may be low, but, with 5/6 star books representing 35% of my reading, the quality/enjoyment level has never been higher. Last year, all 1-2 star reads were book club choices, this year it was just a large majority! + A similar ratio of fiction: non-fiction this year (69:31) as last year (71:29), back to pre-2017 levels (it's been almost equal the intermediate years). I suspect that's a combination of book groups (who hardly read non-fiction) and the projects I'm tackling, plus the apparent aversion I seem to have picked up to bigger books (see below!). + After a 6 year low of 34% female authors, that percentage was up to 42% this year, closer to my 60:40 long term average. Not sure why that's the case: most researchers say that men gravitate more to male writers and vice-versa, but the majority of my favourite writers are women, and I've no awareness of preferring male to female authors. Could it be something to do with the sort of books I read? Even then, I can't think what specifically. + Back down to under 20% library books read - disappointing. However, I do have a large personal library of unread books, so that's probably inevitable. The unread library hasn't grown much (by about 30 books to 1420 as I write - but I have been disposing of a fair number recently, so that doesn't say very much! More of an anti-library I'd say! + I deliberately didn't set any targets for this year - I all too frequently (always?!) fail to achieve them, but I did say I would like to make progress on the two main projects and my focus authors so.... + 4 books read for my Tour of the USA - fewer than the 6 in 2022, and taking me to 33 out of 51. That's fairly glacial progress and needs stepping up. Some cracking books read, including my 'Book of the Year'. + 18 books read for Reading the World - 2 more than in 2022, and taking me to 34 out of 200. Happy with that - I reckoned on around 10 years to finish this project, and pretty much on track. Again, some wonderful books, completely transforming my reading. + Classic authors: only part of one book (Barnaby Rudge) read for Dickens - that thread has stuttered almost to a halt in the past few years. Not sure why, but perhaps something to do with my longer book problem? Just the one read for Zola (La Curee), which is a pity as I always love them when I get round to them. None for Patrick O'Brian. I'm going to slim my focus down to these next year, to see if I can actually make some progress. The only other 'pure' classic authors (ie.more than 100 years old) were Samuel Johnson (History of Rasselas) and Mikhael Lermontov (A Hero Of Our Time) and, squeaking in chronologically, Katherine Mansfield (short stories). + book groups have been more fun since I slimmed down to 'just' two. Although there've been the usual 1/2 star books, the discussions are lively, the choices varied and good to discuss (even the 'bad' ones!) - loving this side of things! + So, next year? More books for the two reading projects (40+ completed for USA, 50+ for The World??), more of the authors, and a higher average number of pages per book - 251 is my lowest to date, and I do need to tackle what seems to be a bit of a subconscious fear/phobia/reluctance on bigger books. Fewer (if necessary) but bigger books, perhaps! And also perhaps a higher proportion of non-fiction - I've got some fab books on my shelves that are crying out to be read. + See the post below for my accolades of the year.

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Accolades History For the past few years, I've finished off the year by awarding some of my own accolades to books that I've read that year - for 2023 see a couple of posts below here. Some are included in the Forum's award threads. Titles in bold under Fiction and Non-Fiction Books of the Year were my overall winners for that year. Up to 2016, rereads were eligible for the Book of the Year lists; from 2016 onwards, a separate accolade was listed. Fiction Book of the Year 2013: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. Runner-up: The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell 2014: Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. Runner-up: Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 2015: Middlemarch - George Eliot. Runner-up: The Aubrey/Maturin series - Patrick O'Brian (first 5 vols read this year) 2016: The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry. Runner-up: Howards End - EM Forster 2017: To The Bright Edge Of The World - Eowyn Ivey. Runner-up: The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett 2018: A View Of The Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor. Runner-up: Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 2019: Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo. Runner-up: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry 2020: Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell. Runner-up: A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 2021: The Mermaid Of Black Conch - Monique Roffey. Runner-up: The Great Level - Stella Tillyard 2022: As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner. Runner-up: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard Non-fiction Book of the Year 2013: Letters To Alice On First Reading Jane Austen - Fay Weldon; Runner-up: The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne 2014: Pursuit Of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 - Tim Blanning. Runner-up: Under Another Sky: Travels Through Roman Britain - Charlotte Higgins 2015: Waterloo - Tim Clayton. Runner-up: Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley 2016: The House By The Lake - Thomas Harding. Runner-up: The Outrun - Amy Liptrot 2017: The Seabirds' Cry - Adam Nicolson. Runner-up: Love Of Country - Madeleine Bunting 2018: East-West Street - Philippe Sands. Runner-up: Wilding - Isabella Tree 2019: Daughter Of The Desert - Georgina Howell. Runner-up: The Five - Hallie Rubenheld 2020: Island Stories - David Reynolds. Runner-up: Home - Julie Myerson 2021: The Stubborn Light Of Things - Melissa Harrison. Runner-up: Orchard - Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates 2022: The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf. Runner-up: Cotton Grass Summer - Roy Dennis Duffer of the Year 2013: Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 2014: The Dinner - Herman Koch 2015: Divergent - Veronica Roth 2016: Us - David Nicholls 2017: Two Brothers - Ben Elton 2018: I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes 2019: I See You - Clare Mackintosh 2020: Gold - Chris Cleave 2021: Body Surfing - Anita Shreve 2022: The Department of Sensitive Crimes - Alexander McCall Smith Most Disappointing 2017: Jacob's Room Is Full Of Books - Susan Hill 2018: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou 2019: The Making Of The British Landscape - Nicholas Crane 2020: A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson 2021: How To Argue With A Racist - Adam Rutherford 2022: The Instant - Amy Liptrot Best Reread 2016: Emma - Jane Austen. Runner-up: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 2017: Flood Warning - Paul Berna; Winter Holiday - Arthur Ransome (jointly) 2018: Coot Club - Arthur Ransome 2019: Paddington Helps Out - Michael Bond 2020: Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf in combination with The Hours - Michael Cunningham 2021: Waterland - Graham Swift 2022: A Maigret Christmas - Georges Simenon Biggest Discovery 2019: George Mackay Brown 2020: Wendell Berry 2021: Gilbert White 2022: JB Priestley; African writing; David Fairer

The Book Pile I am very acquisitive when it comes to books, buying (or receiving) far more than I can actually read in short order. I'm happy with that - I like to have a library of books to choose from and follow whims - but it also means that books that I intended to read pretty soon after buying can get lost! So, I've decided to create a virtual book pile. This will consist of such books, with the aim that I will now read them in the near future!. The pile needs to stay manageable, so I will limit it to around a dozen, and will generally only add books to it as books already on the pile get read. Hopefully, this, appealing as it does to my passion for lists, will help me work through the bigger long term reading list. We'll see how it all works! Books that are ineligible to be added include any that are included in another reading project* or being read for a book group - these are meant to be all books that could otherwise get overlooked because I'm so focused on these other areas. I'll also keep a record of which book pile books I have actually read. Fiction The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands - Sarah Brook The Bee Sting - Paul Murray The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan Enlightenment - Sarah Perry Passiontide - Monique Roffey Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead The Fraud - Zadie Smith Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead Non-fiction An African History of Africa - Zanab Badawi A Voyage Around the Queen - Craig Brown The Scapegoat - Lucy Hughes-Hallett The Rising Down - Alexandra Harris The Garden Against Time - Olivia Laing The Haunted Wood - Sam Leith Another England - Caroline Lucas Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart The Burgundians - Bart van Loo Stuffed - Pen Vogler Book Pile books read this year The Marriage Question by Claire Carlisle Thunderclap by Laura Cummings Walking the Bones of Britain by Christoher Somerville

Classic fiction Two authors whose books I want to keep a track of: + Charles Dickens + Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series Charles Dickens - Novels 01. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) ***** 02. The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839) ****** 03. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) ****** 04. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) *** 05. Barnaby Rudge (1841) 06. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) 07. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son (1848) 08. The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850) ****** 09. Bleak House (1853) ****** 10. Hard Times (1854) 11. Little Dorrit (1857) 12. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) ****** 13. Great Expectations (1861) **** 14. Our Mutual Friend (1865) 15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) The Christmas Books 16. A Christmas Carol (1843) ****** 17. The Chimes (1844) *** 18. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) *** 19. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1846) Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series 01. La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) ***** 02. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon (His Excellency Eugene Rougon) **** 03. La Curee (The Kill) ***** 04. L'Argent (Money) 05. Le Reve (The Dream) 06. La Conquete de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans) 07. Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck) 08. Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight/Paradise) ****** 09. La Faute de L'Abbe Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret) 10. Une Page d'amour (A Love Story) 11. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) 12. La Joie de vivre (The Bright Side of Life) 13. L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den) 14. L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece) 15. La Bete humaine (The Beast Within) 16. Germinal 17. Nana 18. La Terre (The Earth) 19. La Debacle (The Debacle) 20. Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal) (English titles as used by OUP and/or Penguin, if different to the French).

Reading The World A tour of the world in 202 books, made up of one from each of the 193 full members of the United Nations, the 2 UN 'observer' nations (Palestine and Vatican City), Taiwan ( the most significant country with no UN recognition), Greenland (the largest island, and largest self-governing dependency/territory), the four home nations (rather than just UK) and Antarctica (the only continent otherwise not represented - getting 2 books, fiction and non-fiction). Books should be prose, preferably fiction, normally written by someone from that country, and ideally set there, but the ideal isn't always achievable! Books in blue are those read during the current year. Countries so far: 50/202 Countries in 2022: 16, 2023: 18 Countries this year: 16 Europe (20/48) Austria: Chess Story by Stefan Zweig ***** Bulgaria: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov *** Czech Republic: Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal **** Finland: The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna **** France: The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano ***** Germany: Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann ***** Iceland: History. A Mess. by Sigrun Palsdottir **** Ireland: Ulysses by James Joyce ****** Italy: The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa **** Luxembourg: The Pleasure of Drowning by Jean Burlesk **** Netherlands: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden ***** Northern Ireland: Travelling In A Strange Land by David Park **** Norway: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas **** Poland: Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk ****** San Marino: The Republic of San Marino - Giuseppe Rossi *** Scotland: O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker *** Spain: A Heart So White - Javier Marias **** Sweden: The Details - Ia Genberg ***** Ukraine: Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov *** Wales: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard ****** Africa (10/54) Angola: The Book of Chameleons - Jose Eduardo Agualusa **** Burkina Faso: So Distant From My Life - Monique Ilboudo **** Congo, Republic of: Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou ***** Cote d'Ivoire: Standing Heavy - GauZ ****** Djibouti: In The United States of Africa - Abdourahman Waberi **** Ghana: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born - Ayi Kwei Armah **** Kenya: A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o ****** South Africa: The Promise - Damon Galgut ***** Sudan: Season of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih ****** Togo: Michel the Giant - Tete-Michel Kpomassie ****** Asia (9/48) Malaysia: The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo **** China: To Live - Yu Hua **** Japan: Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata **; Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto **** Kuwait: The Bone Censor's Library - Bothayna Al-Essa ****** Pakistan: The Wandering Falcon - Jamil Ahmad ***** Philippines: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco *** South Korea: The Vegetarian - Han Kang * Turkey: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak ** Vietnam: The Sorrow of War - Bao Ninh ** North America (6/24) Antigua and Barbuda: Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid *** Canada: Runaway - Alice Munro *** Grenada: The Bone Readers - Jacob Ross ***** Mexico: Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo **** Trinidad and Tobago: Minty Alley - CLR James ***** USA: Beloved - Toni Morrison ***** South America (3/12) Argentina: Not A River - Selva Almeda ***** Columbia: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ***** Uruguay: Who Among Us? - Mario Benedetti **** Oceania and Antarctica (2/15) Nauru: Stories from Nauru - Bam Bam Solomon et al (plus readings from Indigehous Literatures of Micronesia) **** New Zealand: The Garden Party and Other Stories - Katherine Mansfield ******; Potiki - Patricia Grace ****

A Tour of the United States My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would have liked, I decided a few years ago to take a tour of the USA in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the states (including Washington DC). In fact, the English Counties was modelled on an American States challenge here, but in the spirit of broadening that experience, I have amended it using these rules: a. it must be fiction or narrative non-fiction; b. an author can only appear once; c. published after 1900 (what I've read has been predominantly 19th century); d. adult books; e. no rereads. Inevitably some great books and authors will have been left off, but the process itself has already helped identify those holes, and I aim to fill them in as additional reading! Blue means read, bold means read this year. Books in black are unread, and are those I've currently got lined up - but they can (and do!) change, and some alternatives are listed below the main list. 37/51 The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Alabama) ***** To The Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) ****** The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver (Arizona) **** The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington (Arkansas) East of Eden - John Steinbeck (California) Plainsong - Kent Haruf (Colorado) ***** The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin (Connecticut) * West of Rehoboth - Alexs D Pate (Delaware) Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurst (Florida) **** The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (Georgia) ****** The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings (Hawaii) Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson (Idaho) **** Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen (Illinois) The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana) ***** The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) **** Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes (Kansas) Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) ****** All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (Louisiana) Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout (Maine) *** Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler (Maryland) *** Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (Massachusetts) *** Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (Michigan) ****** Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota) *** As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (Mississippi) ****** Mrs Bridge - Evan S. Connell (Missouri) ***** A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean (Montana) My Antonia - Willa Cather (Nebraska) ****** The Ox-Bow Incident - Walter van Tilburg Clark (Nevada) ***** Peyton Place - Grace Metallious (New Hampshire) The Sportswriter - Richard Ford (New Jersey) **** The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico) Another Country - James Baldwin (New York) ****** Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (North Carolina) **** The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich (North Dakota) ***** Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (Ohio) *** True Grit - Charles Portis (Oklahoma) ***** Trask - Don Berry (Oregon) The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara (Pennsylvania) ***** The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike (Rhode Island) *** The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina) *** The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - Anne Weisberger (South Dakota) Shiloh -Shelby Foote (Tennessee) **** Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ****** The Monkey-Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey (Utah) The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont) Commonwealth - Ann Patchett (Virginia) Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson (Washington) *** Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) **** Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam (West Virginia) ****** American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld (Wisconsin) **** The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming) ***** Alternatives for states yet to be read Delaware: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez Hawaii: Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport; Moloka'I by Alan Brennert Illinois: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, So Long See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell Kansas: The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley Louisiana: A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Sexton; Oregon: Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey; Geek Love by Katherine Dunn; Hole In The Sky by William Kittredge South Dakota Welcome to the Hard Times by EL Doctorow Utah: The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff

Favourite authors To qualify for this list, I have to have read at least three books by that author (amazing how many where I've just read two, especially non-fiction!), so no one-book wonders (it's the book then, not the author!). None of the books themselves need to have reached a six star rating, but they do need to have been rated consistently highly. I've only included authors of adult books - for favourite children's authors, see favourite book list, as the two lists are pretty much the same. I've also included titles of books for authors where I have particular favourites. Fiction Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Lady Susan) JL Carr (A Month in the Country, The Harpole Report) Willa Cather (My Antonia, O Pioneers) Charles Dickens (Bleak House, David Copperfield) Sarah Dunant (In The Company of the Courtesan, Hannah Wolfe trilogy) Margaret Elphinstone (The Sea Road, Voyageurs) David Fairer (The Chocolate House trilogy) Thomas Hardy (Far From The Madding Crowd) Donna Leon (Brunetti series) Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey/Maturin series) Georges Simenon (Maigret series) Muriel Spark (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Abbess of Crewe) Elizabeth Taylor (A View Of The Harbour) Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway, The Lighthouse, The Years) Non-Fiction Tim Clayton (Waterloo) Jan Morris (Venice, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere) Claire Tomalin (Pepys, Dickens, Austen, etc.) Jenny Uglow (The Pinecone, Nature's Engraver) Both Melissa Harrison (The Stubborn Light of Things, Hawthorn Time)

Favourite Books A record of the 138 books and series which I rate as 'favourites': 6+ stars! These aren't necessarily the best literature I've read, but ones, that, for whatever reason, struck a special chord in my reading that continues to resonate long after actually reading them. Individual books within a series are likely to have scored less, but the rating is for the series as a whole. The lists are divided into Fiction Non-fiction Joint fiction/non-fiction Children's fiction Fiction (81) Ackroyd, Peter: Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice Austen, Jane: Emma Buchan, John: John Macnab Carr JL: A Month in the Country Carr JL: The Harpole Report Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales Chevalier, Tracey: Falling Angels Childers, Erskine: The Riddle of the Sands Collins, Norman: London Belongs To Me Cooper, Susan: The Dark is Rising Cunningham, Michael: The Hours Davies, Martin: The Conjuror's Bird Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol Dickens, Charles: Bleak House Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Sherlock Holmes short stories Dunant, Sarah: In the Company of the Courtesan Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose Eliot, George: Middlemarch Elphinstone, Margaret: The Sea Road Elphinstone, Margaret: Voyageurs Evaristo, Bernardine: Girl, Woman, Other Fairer, David: The Chocolate House trilogy Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair Forester, CS: The Hornblower series Goscinny, Rene: Asterix in Britain Greig, Andrew: The Return of John Macnab Guareschi, Giovanni: The Don Camillo series Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Hardy, Thomas: Far From The Madding Crowd Herbert, Frank: Dune Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy Hoeg, Peter: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow Horwood, William: The Stonor Eagles Horwood, William: Skallagrig Hulme, Keri: The Bone People Ivey, Eowyn: To the Bright Edge of the World Japrisot, Sebastian: A Very Long Engagement Joyce, James: Ulysses Le Carre, John: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mockingbird Leon, Donna: The Commissario Brunetti series Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall McMurtry, Larry: Lonesome Dove Melville, Herman: Moby Dick Miller, Andrew: Pure Miller, Andrew: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free Mitchell, David: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea Moorcock, Michael: Mother London O'Brian, Patrick: The Aubrey-Maturin series O'Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost Penney, Stef: The Tenderness of Wolves Perry, Sarah: The Essex Serpent Prichard, Caradog: One Moonlit Night Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News Roffey, Monique: The Mermaid of Black Conch Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy Simenon, Georges: The Inspector Maigret series Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men Stephenson, Neal: Cryptonomicon Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped Swift, Graeme: Waterland Taylor, Elizabeth: A View of the Harbour Thomas, Dylan: Under Milk Wood Thompson, Harry: This Thing of Darkness Tolkien JRR: The Lord of the Rings Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway Woolf, Virginia: The Years Woolf, Virginia: To The Lighthouse Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind Non-fiction (47) Atherton, Carol: Reading Lessons Blanning, Tim: The Pursuit of Glory Bewick, Thomas: A History of British Birds Brown, Hamish: Hamish's Mountain Walk Clayton, Tim: Waterloo Cocker, Mark: Crow Country Cumming, Laura: Thunderclap Dennis, Roy: Cottongrass Summer Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris Frater, Alexander: Chasing the Monsoon Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road Harding, Thomas: The House By The Lake Harrison, Melissa: The Stubborn Light of Things Hickam, Hiram H.: Rocket Boys / October Sky Hoskins, WG: The Making of the English Landscape Howell, Georgina: Daughter of the Desert Huntford, Roland: Shackleton Jamie, Kathleen: Findings Junger, Sebastian: The Perfect Storm Kpomassie, Tete-Michel: Michel the Giant, An African in Greenland Lee, Hermione: Virginia Woolf Lewis-Stempel, John: The Running Hare Liptrot, Amy: The Outrun Longford, Elizabeth: Wellington, The Years of the Sword Macdonald, Benedict & Nicholas Gates: Orchard MacDonald, Helen: Vesper Flights MacGregor, Neil: Germany, Memories of a Nation Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for Madmen Nicolson, Adam: The Seabird's Cry Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the Reader Peterson, Mounfort and Hollom: A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe Pinker, Stephen: The Language Instinct Rackham, Oliver: The History of the Countryside de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: Wind, Sand and Stars Salisbury, Laney and Gay: The Cruellest Miles Sands, Philippe: East-West Street Schumacher, EF: Small is Beautiful Simpson, Joe: Touching the Void Taylor, Stephen: Storm and Conquest Tomalin, Claire: Pepys, The Unequalled Self Tree, Isabella: Wilding Uglow, Jenny: The Pinecone Unsworth, Walt: Everest Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen Wheeler, Sara: Terra Incognita Wulf, Andrea: The Invention of Nature Young, Gavin: Slow Boats to China Joint fiction/non-fiction (1) Klinkenborg, Verlyn: Timothy's Book with Townsend-Warner, Sylvia: Portrait of a Tortoise Children's Fiction (9) Berna, Paul: Flood Warning Bond, Michael: The Paddington Bear series Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies Kipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Book Milne, AA: Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights Ransome, Arthur: The Swallows and Amazons series Sutcliff, Rosemary: The Eagle of the Ninth White, TH: Mistress Masham's Repose