Willoyd's Reading 2022

[willoyd]

Thread contents

 

Post number

02.   Book List 2022

03.   Favourite books

04.   Favourite authors

05.   Tour of the United States

06.   Classic fiction:  Dickens, Zola

07.   Fiction: O'Brian, Sansom, Leon, Simenon

08.   Some stats

09.   Big books

10.   A Read Around the World list - books read

11.   Spare

12.   Spare

13.   Spare

14.   2021 review, 2022 preview

15.   Accolades 2021

16.  Welcome!

Edited December 28, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Book list 2022

 

January

01.  American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld GU ****

02.  I Belong Here by Anita Sethi **

03.  Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe G ***

04.  Bright Day by J.B. Priestley G *****

05.  The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin U **

06.  The Promise by Damon Galgut W *****

 

February

07.  Assembly by Natasha Brown ****

08.  Broken Heartland by Sebastian Payne ****

09.  Golden Hill by Francis Spufford G *****

XX.  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce GX *

10.  Reading the World by Ann Morgan *****

11.  The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara U *****

 

March

12.  The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith G *

13.  His Excellency Eugene Rougon by Emile Zola ***

14.  In The United States of America by Abdourahman Waberi W ***

15.  The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin G ***

16.  Beloved by Toni Morrison GW *****

 

April

17.  Chocolate House Treason by David Fairer  *****

18.  The Devil's Cathedral by David Fairer G *****

19.  The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett GR ***

20.  Ice Rivers by Jemma Wadham ***

21.  Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan ***

 

May

22.  The Horseman by Tim Pears G *****

23.  The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark G ****

24.  The Odyssey by Homer *****

25.  No Nettles Required by Ken Thompson ***

 

June

26.  The Dutch House by Anne Patchett G ****

27.  The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa GW ****

28.  The Republic of San Marino by Giuseppe Rossi W ***

 

July

29.  Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann GW *****

30.  The Vegetarian by Han Kang W *

31.  Walking Home by Simon Armitage G ***

32.  Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus ***

33.  O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker ***

 

August

34.  A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin G **

35.  Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill G **

36.  The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf ******

 

September

37.  Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray ***

38.  The Instant by Amy Liptrot G **

39.  One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard GW ******

40.  Main Street by Sinclair Lewis U ***

 

October

41.  A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell R ****

42.  Cycling at the Speed of Life by Chris Bolton ***

43.  Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov GW ***

44.  The Trees by Percival Everett G *****

45.  A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell R ***

46.  This Sovereign Isle by Robert Tombs ****

XX.  An Honest Deceit by Guy Mankowski GX *

47.  Curlew Moon by Mary Colwell *****

 

November

48.  The Periodic Table by Primo Levi GX **

49.  The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers U *****

50.  The Eight Week Blood Sugar Diet by Michael Mosley R ***

51.  A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o GW *****

52.  Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch by Rivka Galchen G **

53.  The Astronomer and the Witch by Ulinka Rublack *****

54.  10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak GW ***

 

December

55.  The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo GW ****

56.  Michel the Giant by Tete-Michel Kpomassie GW *****

57.  Treacle Walker by Alan Garner G ****

58.  Samuel Johnson, A Biography by John Wain *****

59.  Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal W *****

60.  As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner U ******

61.  The Chimes by Charles Dickens R ****

62.  Christmas Stories by George Mackay Brown ****

63.  Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata W **

64.  Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis ******  

65.  More About Paddington by Michael Bond R ******

66.  A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon R *****

67.        

 

Ratings

*  Positively disliked this (probably a lot), likely to be unfinished

**  Disappointing: didn't really engage with or like this, often skimmed to get to the end, sometimes not even that far

***  Fine: a decent enough read, but not unputdownable; a non-fiction book that does its job competently

****  Good: into the realms of not wanting to put it down

*****   Excellent: a top notch read, even if not quite making it as a favourite

******   A favourite; something makes this special, even if only personal to me

 

A = audiobook; G = book group choice; R = reread, U = Tour of the United States book, W= Around the World book, X = unfinished

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Favourite Books
A record of the 133 books and series to which I've given my top rating.  These aren't necessarily the best literature I've read, but the books that are personal favourites, that, for whatever reason, struck a special chord in my reading. 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 (79)
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

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
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

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

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
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News

Roffey, Monique: The Mermaid of Black Conch
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children
Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy
Simenon, Georges: The Inspector Maigret series
Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres
Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle
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
Woolf, Virginia: Between the Acts
Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind

Non-fiction (45)
Blanning, Tim: The Pursuit of Glory
Brown, Hamish: Hamish's Mountain Walk
Clayton, Tim: Waterloo
Cocker, Mark: Crow Country

Dennis, Roy:  Cottongrass Summer
Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris
Frater, Alexander: Chasing the Monsoon

Gogarty, Paul: The Water Road
Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road
Harding, Thomas: The House By The Lake

Harrison, Melissa: The Stubborn Light of Things
Hastings, Max: All Hell Let Loose
Holland, James: Dam Busters
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
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
Moore, Richard: In Search of Robert Millar
Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for Madmen

Nicolson, Adam: The Seabird's Cry
Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the Reader
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 (8)
Berna, Paul: Flood Warning

Bond, Michael: The Paddington Bear series
Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies
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

Edited December 28, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

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.

Fiction
Jane Austen
JL Carr

Willa Cather

Charles Dickens
Sarah Dunant

George Eliot
Margaret Elphinstone

Thomas Hardy
Donna Leon
Patrick O'Brian
Georges Simenon

Virginia Woolf

 

Non-Fiction
Tim Clayton
Lisa Jardine
Jan Morris
Simon Schama
Claire Tomalin
Jenny Uglow

 

Both

Melissa Harrison

Edited February 16, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

A Tour of the States
My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would like, I decided to take a tour of the states in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the American 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; 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, a red cross at the end of the entry means read this year.

30/51

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) ** +
The Book of Unknown Americans - Cristina Henriquez (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) ****
The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow (Illinois)
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana) **** 
The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) ***
Not Without Laughter - Langston Hughes (Kansas)
Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) *****
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (Louisiana)
Empire Falls - Richard Russo (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) ***
Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico)
Underworld - Don DeLillo (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) ***
Welcome to Hard Times - EL Doctorow (South Dakota)
Shiloh - Shelby Foote (Tennessee)
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ******
The Nineteenth Wife - David Ebershoff (Utah)
The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont)
The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron (Virginia)
Snow Falling on Cedars- David Guterson (Washington) ***
Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) ****
Storming Heaven - Denise Giardina (West Virginia)
American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld (Wisconsin) ****  +
The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming) ***** 

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Classics fiction

Two authors whose books I want to focus more on:

          +  Charles Dickens

          +  Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series

 

Charles Dickens
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).

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Fiction focus

• Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
• CJ Sansom's Shardlake series
• Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series
• Georges Simenon's Maigret books

Books in standard blue are those read in previous years; 2022 books are marked with a red cross.

 

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
01. Master and Commander
02. Post Captain
03. HMS Surprise
04. The Mauritius Command
05. Desolation Island
06. The Fortune of War
07. The Surgeon's Mate
08. The Ionian Mission
09. Treason's Harbour
10. The Far Side of the World
11. The Reverse of the Medal
12. The Letter of Marque
13. The Thirteen Gun Salute
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation
15. Clarissa Oakes
16. The Wine-Dark Sea
17. The Commodore
18. The Yellow Admiral
19. The Hundred Days
20. Blue at the Mizzen
 

CJ Sansom's Shardlake series

01. Dissolution (2003) 

02. Dark Fire (2004)

03. Sovereign (2006)

04. Revelation (2008)

05. Heartstone (2010)

06. Lamentation (2014)

07. Tombland (2018)

 

Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series

01. Death at La Fenice (1992)

02. Death in a Strange Country (1993)

03. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)

04. A Venetian Reckoning (1995)

05. Acqua Alta (1996)

06. The Death of Faith (1997)

07. A Noble Radiance (1997)

08. Fatal Remedies (1999)

09. Friends in High Places (2000)

10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)

11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)

12. Uniform Justice (2003)

13. Doctored Evidence (2004)

14. Blood from a Stone (2005)

15. Through a Glass, Darkly (2006)

16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)

17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)

18. About Face (2009)

19. A Question of Belief (2010)

20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)

21. Beastly Things (2012)

22. The Golden Egg (2013)

23. By Its Cover (2014)

24. Falling in Love (2015)

25. The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016)

26. Earthly Remains (2017)

27. The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018)

28. Unto Us A Son Is Given (2019)

29. Trace Elements (2020)

30. Transient Desires (2021)

31. Give Unto Others (2022)

 

Georges Simenon's Maigret novels

1-27 read prior to 2021

28. Maigret's Holiday

29. Maigret's Dead Man

30. Maigret's First Case

31. My Friend Maigret

32. Maigret at the Coroner's

33. Maigret and the Old Lady

34. Madame Maigret's Friend

35. Maigret's Memoirs

36. Maigret at Picratt's

37. Maigret Takes a Room

38. Maigret and the Tall Woman

39. Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters

40. Maigret's Revolver

41. Maigret and the Man on the Bench

42. Maigret is Afraid

43. Maigret's Mistake

44. Maigret Goes to School

45. Maigret and the Dead Girl

46. Maigret and the Minister

47. Maigret and the Headless Corpse

48. Maigret Sets a Trap

49. Maigret's Failure

50. Maigret Enjoys Himself

51. Maigret Travels

52. Maigret's Doubts

53. Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses

54. Maigret's Secret

55. Maigret in Court

56. Maigret and the Old People

57. Maigret and the Lazy Burglar

58. Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse

59. Maigret and the Saturday Caller

60. Maigret and the Tramp

61. Maigret's Anger

62. Maigret and the Ghost

63. Maigret Defends Himself

64. Maigret's Patience

65. Maigret and the Nahour Case

66. Maigret's Pickpocket

67. Maigret Hesitates

68. Maigret in Vichy

69. Maigret's Childhood Friend

70. Maigret and the Killer

71. Maigret and the Wine Merchant

72. Maigret's Madwoman

73. Maigret and the Loner

74. Maigret and the Informer

75. Maigret and Monsieur Charles 

Edited January 9, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Some Stats

 

The Last 10 Years (to end 2021)

Books read- 725 (396 in the past 5 years)

Most books in a year - 92 (2021)

Fewest books in a year - 56 (2013)

Most pages in a year - 23626 (2018)

Most books in a month - 17 (Dec 2013)

Highest average month - 13.0 (December)

Lowest average month - 3.8 (January)

% Fiction / Non-Fiction  - 63.4 / 36.6

% Male / Female author - 59.0 / 41.0

 

Star ratings (second % excluding rereads)

1 - 28 (3.8%, 4.2%)         0 rereads

2 - 59 (8.0%, 8.9%)         0 rereads

3 - 189 (25.7%, 26.6%)  13 rereads

4 - 239 (32.6%, 34.5%)  10 rereads

5 - 151 (20.6%, 20.2%)  17 rereads

6 - 68 (9.3%, 5.6%)       31 rereads

 

2021 figures

Books read - 92 (2020 - 84)

Most books in a month - 11 (December)

Fewest books in a month - 6 (May-Jun, Aug-Oct)

Pages in the year - 22623  (2020 - 22192)

Average pages per book - 248 (2020 - 262)

Most pages - 521 (Unsheltered - Barbara Kingsolver)

Fewest pages - 63 (The Portrait of a Tortoise by Sylvia Townsend-Warner)

% Fiction / Non-Fiction  - 50 / 50 (the first year NF has matched F!)

% Male / Female author - 57 / 43  (2020 - 63/37)

% Paper / Electronic - 90 / 10  (2020 - 81/18)  

% Owned / Borrowed (inc Library) - 77 / 23  (2020 - 81/19)

 

Star ratings

1 - 2 (2.2%, 0 reread)

2 - 7 (7.6%, 0 reread)

3 - 19 (20.7%, 1 reread)

4 - 36 (39.1%, 0 reread)

5 - 21 (22.8%, 2 reread)

6 - 7 (7.6%, 1 reread)

 

TBR list

End of...

2017 - 1472

2018 - 1378

2019 - 1331

2020 - 1351

2021 - 1357

Edited December 31, 2021 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Big Reads

I've got a long list of books I want to read, many of them pretty chunky, but there are a few which are particularly big, humungous even, often multi-volumed.  They thus tend to get put off and put off.  Generally, they will be 700+ pages long for fiction and 600+ pages for non-fiction. So a list to keep prodding me.  I singularly failed to read any in 2021, so will any, even single volumes, get read this year??!

 

Non-Fiction

Ackroyd, Peter: Dickens; London The Biography

Barker, Juliet: The Brontes

Barzun, Jacques: From Dawn to Decadence

Boorstin, Daniel: The Discoverers

Braudel, Fernand: The Identify of France (2v); The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World (3v)

Brewer, John: The Pleasures of the Imagination

Brogan, Hugh: The History of the United States of America

Catton, Bruce: The Army of the Potomac  trilogy

Davies, Norman: Vanished Kingdoms

Evans. Richard: The Third Reich trilogy

Fisher, HAL: A History of Europe (3v)

Foote, Shelby: The American Civil War (3v)

Fox, Robin Lane: The Classical World

Foreman, Amanda: A World On Fire

Gardiner, Juliet: The Thirties; Wartime Britain

Gibbon, Edward: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6v)

Herodotus: The Histories

Holland, James: The War In The West (3v)

Inwood, Stephen: A History of London

Johnson, Paul: The Birth of the Modern; A History of the American People

Judt, Tony: Post-War

Kershaw, Ian: Hitler

Lawrence, TE: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Leuchtenberg, William: The American President

Macauley, Thomas Babington: The History of England (5v)

MacCulloch, Diarmid: A History of Christianity

MacGregor, Neil: A History of the World in 100 Objects

MacMillan, Margaret: The War That Ended Peace

Mikaberidze, Alexander: The Napoleonic Wars, A Global History

Montefiore, Simon Sebag: The World, A Family History

Morris, Jan: Pax Britannica trilogy

Muir, Rory: Wellington (2v)

Osterhammel, Jurgen: The Transformation of the World

Overy, Richard: Blood and Ruins

Paine, Lincoln: The Sea and Civilization

Parker, Geoffrey: Global Crisis

Pepys, Samuel: The Diaries (9v)

Richie, Alexandra: Faust's Metropolis

Roberts, Andrew: Salisbury; Churchill; George III

Roberts, JM: The History of the World; Twentieth Century

Sassoon, Donald: The Culture of the Europeans

Schama, Simon: Landscape and Memory; An Embarrassment of Riches; Power of Art

Sugden, John: Nelson (2v)

Stevenson, David: 1914-1918

Todman, Daniel: Britain's War (2v)

Tombs, Robert: The English and their History

Watson, Peter: Ideas A History; The German Genius;  A Terrible Beauty

Wilson, Ben: Empire of the Deep

Wilson, Peter: Europe's Tragedy

Woolf, Virginia: The Essays; The Letters; The Diaries (6v each)

 

Fiction

Cervantes, Miguel de: Don Quixote

Dickens, Charles: Martin Chuzzlewit; Dombey and Son; Little Dorrit; Our Mutual Friend

Ellman, Lucy: Ducks, Newburyport

Grossman, Vassily: Stalingrad; Life and Fate

Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables

Joyce, James: Ulysses

Mantel, Hilary: A Place of Greater Safety; The Wolf Hall trilogy

Palliser, Charles: The Quincunx

Powell, Anthony: A Dance to the Music of Time (12 books in 4v)

Shree, Geetanjali: Tomb of Sand

Tocarczuk, Olga: The Books of Jacob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

A Read Around the World

 

A tour of the world in 200 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), the four home nations (rather than just UK) and Antarctica (the only continent otherwise not represented).  Books should be prose, preferably fiction, normally written by someone from that country, and ideally set there, but if not, as close as I can get!

 

Read so far: 16/200

 

Europe

Czech Republic:  Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal ****

Germany:  Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann *****

Italy:  The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa ****

San Marino: The Republic of San Marino - Giuseppe Rossi ***

Scotland: O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker ***

Ukraine: Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov ***

Wales:  One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard ******

 

Africa

Djibouti:  The United States of Africa - Abdourahman Waberi ***

Kenya:  A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o *****

South Africa:  The Promise - Damon Galgut *****

Togo: Michel the Giant - Tete-Michel Kpomassie *****

 

Asia

Malaysia: The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo ****

Japan:  Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata **

South Korea:  The Vegetarian - Han Kang *

Turkey: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak **

 

North America

USA:  Beloved - Toni Morrison *****

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Spare

Edited January 2, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Spare

Edited January 2, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Review of 2021, Preview of 2022

Reading through last year's review and comparing what my preview to what exactly happened, it struck me how much of it could simply be cut and pasted here!  Last year the one numerical goal  I set myself was to average at least 300 pages per book and hit 24000 pages, ie more bigger books.  Whoops!  In fact, whilst I read more books than ever before in a calendar year, 92, and even hit 100+ books in a rolling year, ending in April, my average plummeted to the lowest since I started recording that figure, a relatively measly 248, lower even than the 260 in 2020!  The reason remained pretty much the same that had led me to focus on shorter books in 2020: the dreaded Covid.  Ever since the first lockdown came into being, I seem to have lost an ability or willingness to read longer books - just don't seem to be able to settle to them. I'm not quite sure why, but reading around, it appears I'm not alone.  I'm certainly reading plenty - the 22600+ pages this year is my second highest total ever even if shy of my goal - but in smaller chunks, getting through books almos feverishly on occasions.  It's only in the past couple of months that I've started to get a bit restless at that.  Maybe, I'm now ready to move on?  I think so, but will have to see in the New Year.

 

So, I missed my numerical reading targets, what about the 'qualitative' ones?  Well, I said I wanted to read more natural history, and I certainly did that. Some crackers there were too, with two of my top 3 books of the year from that genre, and a fistful of other 5 star books in the same bracket.  In fact, I read some 19 n-f books that could count in that genre, with quite a few others containing strong elements; 9 of those were graded at 5* or 6*.  That's a trend that I hope to continue in 2022.  In fact, non-fiction overall continued to take up a greater and greater proportion of my reading, and for the first time ever the number of books actually matched the fiction total, 46 of each.  On the fiction front, I wanted to make significant inroads into my Tour of the USA.  Well, I made inroads, but not huge, finishing just 4 more books.  But, as I said last year, half the point of this challenge was to broaden my horizons and discover new writers, well at least new to me.  That was certainly achieved: all of the 4 books achieved 5*, and all the authors now feature on my 'must read more' list - and yes, I know I should have read some like Toni Morrison long before this!  As those scores show, I'm really enjoying this challenge, but would like to pick it up a bit more in 2022, as am still yet to reach half-way (24 of 51).  The other challenges were barely touched: one each from most lists, and none from my Dickens list other than one of his short Christmas stories - back to that short book focus again! Given that I said I wanted to finish the Dickens challenge off, that's almost funny!

 

In terms of sources for reading, the vast bulk of it comes from my own library, which, given that my To Read list is still over 1300 probably isn't surprising, but library books nudged back up to 25% this year after a small  dip in 2021.  That could do with being higher, although that would mean that I'd not be making much progress on that TBR pile!  Only 10% of my reading this year was e-books, the lowest since I bought a Kindle.  I do actually use the Kindle more than this suggests, but it's far more things like reading German (I have a number of short story books on there to practise) and referencing guide books etc. There's a pretty substantial library of reading books on it, and I regularly succumb to 99p sales etc, but not much is actually getting read. That, I suspect, is because I'm simply not travelling much nowadays, which is when I used the Kindle mostly in the past - especially on cycle tours!  Maybe that'll pick up sometime when I get back into that

 

So, all in all, a pretty decent year, - not everything achieved that I wanted, but enough to make it reasonably satisfying.  I am getting itchy though!  So, that takes me to next year.  At the risk of being repetitive, I think I'm going to reiterate most of what I said last year, even if phrased slightly differently - it really is as if we've just missed a year out (again!). That means:

 

+  More of the chunky books.  To that end, I set a target of 300 pages per book average last year - this year instead?  How about at least 4 of the Big Reads list?

+ Good progress on my Tour of the USA - I've never managed more than 6 books in a year, so at least that?

+  Come on, I've got to get to grips with the rest of the Dickens list - I love his books, so what's keeping me? - probably not finish, but could I at least halve the outstanding list?

+  Same with Zola: he's brilliant, what's keeping me?  Aim for one a quarter, say?

+  I daren't put a number on the rest, but I could do with focusing on them more often, and making at least some progress on all the lists.

 

So, on to 2022.  As usual, this post is followed by my book awards for last year.  Most of them are repeats from my post on the BCF Awards thread, although I also include my short lists.  It's actually been quite difficult whittling down this year - and it was good to keep the Duffer of the Year list of candidates so short.

.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Accolades for 2021

 

Book of the Year

1.  The Stubborn Light of Things by Melissa Harrison

2.  The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

3.  The Great Level by Stella Tillyard

 

Fiction Book of the Year

Winner: The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

Runner-up: The Great Level by Stella Tillyard  

 

Shortlist:

Au Bonheur des Dames by Emile Zola

Song of Solomon by Toni  Morrison

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

 

Non-fiction Book of the Year

Winner: The Stubborn Light of Things by Melissa Harrison

Runner-up:  Orchard by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates

 

Shortlist:

Bringing Back The Beaver by Derek Gow

Gilbert White by Richard Mabey

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

 

Duffer of the Year

Winner:  Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

 

Shortlist

The Motion Of A Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying  by Marie Kondo

 

Discovery of the Year

Gilbert White and his world

 

Most Disappointing of the Year

How To Argue With A Racist by Adam Rutherford

 

Reread of the Year

Waterland by Graham Swift

 

Special mention

The duo of Sylvia Townsend-Warner's Portrait of a Tortoise and Verlyn Klinkenborg's Timothy's Notebook proved a superb combination that didn't fit neatly into any of the above categories, being a combination of fiction and non-fiction. 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Welcome to my reading blog for 2022. This thread is now open!

(2021 Review and 2022 Preview on its way!)

[lunababymoonchild]

How incredibly well organised. I take it that you do this every year but this is the first time I've seen it. 
 

I share some of your interests : Dickens (I haven't read many), Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series - not read any of these yet - and aspire to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series and C J Sansom's Shardlake series. 

Edited January 2, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[willoyd]

2 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:

How incredibly well organised. I take it that you do this every year but this is the first time I've seen it. 
I share some of your interests : Dickens (I haven't read many), Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series - not read any of these yet - and aspire to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series and C J Sansom's Shardlake series. 

 

Most of it is copied across from year to year, and then just edited, so it's not half as much work as it might look.  I'm a bit obsessive about organising my books and reading - as my LibraryThing catalogue might show.  almost all my books are catalogued and shelved in categories and then alpha/chronological/Dewey order!  Drives my OH demented, whilst I just regard it as fairly essentil when dealing with a fairly sizeable library!

[lunababymoonchild]

9 hours ago, willoyd said:

 

Most of it is copied across from year to year, and then just edited, so it's not half as much work as it might look.  I'm a bit obsessive about organising my books and reading - as my LibraryThing catalogue might show.  almost all my books are catalogued and shelved in categories and then alpha/chronological/Dewey order!  Drives my OH demented, whilst I just regard it as fairly essentil when dealing with a fairly sizeable library!

I think it's great and it strikes me as essential. My books are not in any order on my shelves but I like it that way because I get pleasure looking through them to find one and there are not too many to do that (yet). That said I do have an app where they are all catalogued so that I can check that I have the book I'm looking for and it does keep statistics. I also keep lists of authors work.

 

ETA Just had a look at your Librarything. Wow! That is impressive and yes, you'd need some sort of organisation for that.

Edited January 3, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[willoyd]

After quite a lot thought, I've decided to go ahead with a new challenge this year, even if I haven't finished (and am really enjoying) my Tour of the United States.  In some ways, they could be regarded as complimentary. So, I've set up a new thread in Reading Challenges, Willoyd's Read Around the World, the aim being to read a book (preferably novel) from every country in the world (plus one or two places that might not be regarded as 'countries' in their own right) - 202 in total.  It's a bit daunting, and indeed it may never be finished, but just as my American tour has hugely helped diversify my reading, so my main aim is for this to do that even more. A couple of book group choices in the past year or two have really made me appreciate how narrow my reading was getting, and how much I have enjoyed the variety and different insights these new authors and books have provided.  I suspect that it won't be long before I add non-fiction books to the challenge, which really would sort out my reading for the next few years!

 

On a slightly different tack, I'm going to keep a record here also of books acquired for reading this year.  Just a prompt to me to actually read some of them, rather than let them merge into my overlarge TBR shelves.  To that end, I've acquired the following books since New Year, not all for immediate reading admittedly, as one or two are adding to series or sets of which I'm reading earlier books

 

Ice Rivers by Jemma Wadham

Restoring the Wild by Roy Dennis

Mistletoe Winter by Roy Dennis

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Beak, Tooth and Claw by Mary Colwell

What Is History Now? by Suzannah Lipscomb and Helen Carr

The Devil's Cathedral by David Fairer

The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home

J.B. Priestley by Vincent Brome

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld ****

My first book of the year, a book group choice, but one that nicely satisfies one of my aims this year, to read some bigger books. At over 600 pages it certainly counts as one of those!  Having said that, it proved a fairly rapid read - more to do with the readability than any physical aspect of the book!

With the main character, Alice, modelled on Laura Bush, the wife of George W Bush, it opens with the couple in bed in the White House, and Alice contemplating her marriage: she's betrayed the President (we don't know how) and is not certain how her marriage is going to progress - we then move into flashback and Alice tells the story of her life and how she got to this point.  Whilst Alice is modelled on Laura Bush, it becomes fairly quickly apparent that Alice is not actually Laura Bush: there are enough differences, not least that the story, until it reaches Washington, is set in Wisconsin rather than Texas - which meant that rather neatly but unexpectedly, I found I could slot it in as my Tour of the USA book for that state!.  However, there are some key aspects where the 2 lives coincide, aspects, or events, which inevitably impact massively on the women's respective lives.  It would be too much of a spoiler to itemise them all, but one which has been well-flagged in reviews, and occurs early on enough not actually spoil, is that it's well documented that Laura Bush, at the age of 19, drove through a stop sign one evening, and collided with a car coming along the other road, killing the driver, a boy who she knew well.  A similar incident occurs to Alice, but the circumstances and the aftermath are pure fiction. 

I initially thought that a lot of this book would be about the rise to the Presidency, but in fact that barely features. Three quarters of the book is about the Alice's life before Charlie (her husband) runs for political status, whilst the last quarter (there are 4 parts) jumps to a couple of years after they reach the White House.  But the parts are all strongly connected.  What the book does focus on is Alice's relationship with Charlie: they love each other, but they are political opposites - Alice is a signed up Democrat.  There social background is also very different (as were the real-life couples').  So, how does Alice work this, how does she compromise her political beliefs and principles to handle that relationship.  Or does she?  I have to admit, I did find the book quite hard going at times, not because of its readability (as we know), but because of of the extent of the navel-gazing, or internal monologue, and, to be honest, some of the repetition.  The challenge and its resolution, the moral hurdles Alice has to negotiate make for fascinating reading, but a good editor would have made this even better (interesting to hear only the other day the presenters of the Book Club Review podcast saying exactly the same about Sittenfeld's latest, 'Rodham', another alternative history biography). I never felt the desire to abandon the book, but I did find myself skimming on occasions.

When we came to the book group discussion, I think I was the most positive about the book.  Most felt it overlong, a good proportion found Alice frustratingly annoying ('Why was she such a doormat?' was one's question that summed this up neatly), but I have to say that I never once thought that: rather the opposite: this was very much a woman trying to balance her obvious love for her partner with the fact that they were such diametric opposites in so many areas - how did she handle this.  It may have been the life of an American First Lady, but so much of it reflected the questions pretty much every couple must face at one time or the other.  In her own way, I found Alice to be a rather strong character.

In summary: a generally engaging read, with a few patches of longeuse that would have benefited from a stronger editor, asking some very human questions. It certainly made for a good book club read.  A promising start to the year, with the added bonus that I've taken my Tour of the USA score up to 25 - one off half way! : 4 stars out of 6.

Edited February 28, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

January books

 

Already in danger of falling behind!  These are the books I read in January after American Wife:

 

I Belong Here by Anita Sethi **

The author walks sections of the Pennine Way in the aftermath of a highly abusive racial attack on a train, and contemplats both impact and feelings - walking as therapy.  this started off well enough, and had much potential, but, I rapidly came to realise that the writing was simply not that good, in fact distinctly poor, and becamse a real chore.  I read to the end becasue I thought she had some important things to say, but I couldn't understand the rave reviews in the press.  I later discovered reviews by 'ordinary' readers have been rather more mixed! 

 

Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe ***

A book group read. A combination of Billdungsromans and a sort of critical hymn of praise to Billy Wilder.  Readable, but ultimately not really sure of the point - it was there, I read it, it was mildly enjoyable, but so what?  The central fifty or so pages in the style of a screenplay, whilst the heart of the book and a consideration of the influences on Wilder, really didn't work for me.

 

Bright Day by J.B. Priestley *****

A book group read. 1950s screenwriter triggered into recollection of his youthful pre-WW1 world by meeting someone from his past, contemplates the destruction of an old world, and his own growing up.  Priestley's character development was for me verging on the extraordinary - considered, developmental and multi-layered.  I had to read this in relatively short bursts, it was too much to handle in longer sittings.  Loved this, and, this being my first reading of this local author, fully intend to explore more soon. 

 

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin **

What a contrast. Whilst Bright Day was obviously of its time, dated it wasn't. This on the other hand was horribly so.  Thank goodness it was such a quick read, as it just felt so shallow and dated.  The concept was just silly, and the satire for me fell flat on its face. The halfway book in my Tour of the USA (26/51), but sadly the lowest rated so far.

 

The Promise by Damon Galgut *****

Travelling through forty or so years of aparthed and post-apartheid South Africa, a white land-owning family slowly implodes as it fails to honour a promise made to their black servant - not because of that failure, but perhaps caused by the same faults within the family.  Episodic in nature, based around four deaths and funerals up to ten years apart, there's still plenty of humour and much character insight.  It was certainly a remarkably easy read for such serious topics, and whilst some readers found that didn't work for them, I could but admire it, and was thoroughly engaged by it. I can certainly see why it won the Booker - I haven't read the other books, but it's certainly good enough to be a worthy winner.  The first read in my Read Around The World project too - only 199 more books to go!

 

Reading books this month:

Adding to the list posted on Jan 12th (I always seem to go overboard in January!):

The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce

The Swan, A Biography by Stephen Moss

The Marches by Rory Stewart

The Republic of San Marino by Giuseppe Rossi

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[willoyd]

February books

A steady month's reading, nothing spectacular, with some very enjoyable reads. I know the month's not over yet, and there's a chance I'll finish my current book before it is, but now's as good a time as any to catch up!  I also spent a fair bit of reading time researching books for my Read Around the World challenge this month - as well as reading on the subject too (see below)!

 

Assembly by Natasha Brown ****

A  very slim,novel (almost novella): a 'life in the day of' a young black woman working in financial services (as the author herself did), and then heading off to her wealthy white boyfriend's parents for a weekend houseparty.  Sounds unpromising, but I found it very t hought provoking and illuminating given its commentary on what the author obviously sees is still a strongly colonial, patriarchal society.  Being whilte, male, middle-class I don't see it that way, but I wouldn't would I (and there's a certain, probably false, comfort that the worlds of narrator and boyfriend are very different to the one I live in)?  Which is almost certainly exactly the point.  it certainly gave me more pause for thought than any number of essays or commentaries - demonstrating one of the strengths of fiction.  This has been described as somewhat of a modern Mrs Dalloway. Maybe - it's not quite in the same league as a piece of writing in my view, but the way it tackles important important themes, and it's very contemporaneity, make up for much of that deficiency. 

 

Broken Heartland by Sebastian Payne ****

With almost a surfeit of forensic detail, the author visits half a dozen of the so-called 'red wall' constituencies (Labour 'safe' seats of a certain type in the north that fell to Conservatives in 2019) and investigaes the whys and wherefores.  Alongside this, he has obviously interviewed pretty much all of the key political players in recent years.  It could have all been somewhat of an overload, and it does get a teensy bit repetitous on places, but it's also an illuminating (that word again!) insight into a political and social viewpoint that has certainly made me rethink my understanding of what happened.  Although they were wrapped up together in many people's thinking, there were actually two separate issues involved:  one was Brexit, the other was the rejection of the Labour party.  It certainly helped me understand why both happened.  It didn't change my feelings on Brexit (FWIW I think it was largely a case of turkeys voting for Christmas); it did make me rethink some of my views on Labour.  A fascinating book, with plenty to learn from. I think I'll be following Sebastian Payne a bit more.

 

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford *****

Read for one of my book groups, this is the story of a young Englishman who arrives in New York in the autumn of 1746 with a large bill of exchange and a mysterious objective. It's not immediately cashable, so most of the rest of the book is taken up with the story of what happens: is it (and he) a fraud?  Who is he?  What is his objective? How does he cope with frontier New York? Inspired by the likes of Smollet and Fielding (brother and sister!), it's a brilliant read which the whole group thoroughly enjoyed (one member, someone who knows what they are talking aboutboth literally and historically, described it as a 'tour de force').  This won three major prizes (Costa First Novel, the Desmond Elliot prize, and the RLS Ondaatje prize), and for me the last is the most significant, being for a fiction or non-fiction book that evokes its setting: this is a wonderful portrait of early colonial New York. How accurate it is, I'm obviously no judge (although those that are say it's, as far as they themselves can tell, bang on), but I certainly felt I was very much there - it really came alive.  A cracking read, that is a serious contender for that sixth star.

 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce *

Another book group read, from the sublime to the ridiculous!  I know that's a cliche, but that doesn't seem inappropriate, given that this whole book felt like one big cliche.  Harold Fry, an ordinary ex-office worker lives in retirement with his ordinary wife Maureen on the south coast. Theirs is obviously not a happy relationship, but they are still living together. One day Harold receives a letter with upsetting news about an ex-colleague, Queenie, who he has not been in touch with for years, lives at the other end of the country and is now in a hospice with  termina cancer.  He struggles to write a reply, goes to post it, and carries on walking. It turns into a pilgrimage as he determines he is going to walk all the way to Berwick in the hope of effecting something to reverse Queenie's path to death.  This seems to have polarised opinion quite strongly.  The vast majority of reviews pretty much rave about its 'heart warming' narrative, its charm, how 'uplifting' it is. A small minority, with whom I concur, found this obvious, predictable, simplistic, twee, trite and even manipulative (choose any or all adjectives!).  I also disagreed with the majority of my book group in that I thoroughly disliked the writing itself, which for me lacked imagination or variety.  For me, it was unfinishable, although I did manage to skim enough to both follow the gist of the story (the section with the pilgrims was perhaps the lowest point), and confirm that the main plot 'twist' and the ending were both exactly as predicted. A strong early contender for my 'duffer of the year'.

 

Reading the World by Ann Morgan *****

In 2012, to celebrate the Olympics in London, the author took on the challenge of reading a book by a writer from each of the 196 UN recognised nations.  She has a fascinating website (at https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/ ). which includes all her blog entries, and where she continues with occasional items on literature around the world.  This is slightly different, being effectively a series of essays (chapters) focusing on a number of themes that came out of that year's reading, for instance the issues of translation, differences in cultural views etc etc.  In its own way it was just as interesting, although I did find that, having read a chapter and been quite enthralled, I have subsequently struggled actually remember much of what was discussed.  This was partly, I suspect, through trying to read through a slight fog of Covid, but I think it aslo can be attributed to the fact that the discussion was in places quite dense and, dare I say it, sometimes a little bit liable to wandering?  I'm not sure about this though, so have promised myself to go back and read individual chapters to allow more time and space to absorb the material.  Whatever, as someone who is starting out on a similar challenge, if over rather a longer timespan (one year? Wow!), I've found it invaluable as a source of ideas (athough there's even more available on that front on the website), as a helping hand in creating my own framework and developing my thoughts, and as an inspiration. One little note - I would 'd have appreciated an index, as it'll certainly be used for reference in the future.  4/6 stars. - which may go up if I can better get my head around some of the chapters! Later edit: I did bump it up a star!

 

Reading books acquired this month:

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

The Way of A Ship by Derek Lundy

Ulysses by James Joyce

Antarctic Navigation by Elizabeth Archer

Reading the World by Ann Morgan (read)

The Far Cry by Emma Smith

Edited September 20, 2023 by willoyd

[France]

4 hours ago, willoyd said:

 

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford *****

  A cracking read, that is a serious contender for that sixth star.

 

For some reason I can't get into Golden Hill, it should be exactly the sort of book I love but though I've started it three times I always loose interest. Maybe fourth time lucky!

 

4 hours ago, willoyd said:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce *

 A strong early contender for my 'duffer of the year'.

 

 

 

 

I'm with you totally about Harold Fry though.

[Madeleine]

I haven't read Harold Fry but read one of her other books "The Music Shop" and felt the same way about that as you do about Harold Fry.

[willoyd]

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara *****

The 27th book on my Tour of the USA - this was my choice for Pennsylvania and provides a small moment of celebration, as filling in this tates means that for the first time, I have a complete line of states filled in all the way from "Sea to Shining Sea", Pacific to Atlantic!
After the disappointment of The Stepford Wives (Connecticut), this was a return to the high ratingsthat the vast majority of the books on this tour have so far achieved. The title is a slightly odd one, more reminiscent of a zombie novel, or at least something out of Doctor Who (I think those are actually Weeping Angels!), but there's nothing odd about the book itself, a fictionalised narrative of the Battle of Gettysburg, told mainly from the perspective of General Robert E. Lee and his second-in-command, James Longstreet, but including other 'lesser' players too, including Joshua Chamberlain, a college professor turned regimental commander on the Union side who went on to great things. By fictionalising the narrative, Shaara was able to take the historically factual aspects (and I gather he was pretty rigourous on this front, with mainly just some compression of time and removal of minor characters in places), and bolt on his own interpretations, particularly enabling the inclusion of internal feelings, perceptions and conversations of the characters. They and the place are brought vividly to life, and the result is a superb evocation of battle and the men fighting it. I was gripped, and can well see why it won the Pulitzer. This not a book that features on many 'US Tours', but it should be. I've also spent quite a bit of time on Google Earth whilst reading, exploring relevant parts of the Gettysburg area as much as that will allow, but it's actually somewhere I'd now love to visit. I read James MacPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom a few years ago, but think I need to go and have a reread - or maybe tackle Shelby Foote's trilogy at long last (it's been sat waiting for me long enough!).I've got his novel of Shiloh on my list for one of the other states, and it'll be interesting to compare.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by willoyd