Tag: Books Of The Year 2019

Looking Around…….

On By philshanklinIn Uncategorized8 Comments

lookingaround

Something I very much enjoyed doing last year, was, for my final retrospective of the year to take a look at what other bloggers have been choosing as their favourite books so I thought I’d give it another go keeping a look out for similarities and adding a number of titles to my To Be Read list because of their lavish recommendations.

I was delighted, especially with so many books out there, to see some common ground with Lou at Random Book Reviews as indeed there was last year, especially as she, like me does not restrict her list to books published in 2019 but counts any books she reads as eligible.  In her Top 10 list was my Book Of The Year “Swan Song” by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott and within her top 10 was another that I really wanted to read this year (also featured on Books On The 7.47’s list) “My Sister, The Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite.  At number 4 she had a book I’ve actually got out now from the library which I’ve had to renew a couple of times because I haven’t got round to it and that is Joyce Carol Oates’ novelisation of the life of Marilyn Monroe “Blonde”.  Lou mentions that this has been made into a film due to be released soon which will increase the demand for this book so I better get on with reading it soon before other library users begin to reserve it.  Incidentally, Random Book Reviews top pick was a non-fiction choice “Chernobyl: History Of A Tragedy” by Serhil Plokhy which might just be a little too traumatic for me.

blonde

Another Lou, who I work with and who has urged me to read so many good books in the past including last year’s Book Of The Year “The Count Of Monte Cristo” and runner-up this year “Sanditon” has decided her top read of 2019 was a non-fiction choice which  combined true crime with a woman’s obsession to find the truth in Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark”.  She has lent me her copy and I’ve added it to my list so hopefully I’ll be able to let you know what I think of this in due course.

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It does seem that 2019 was a great year for non-fiction with Bookish Beck actually highlighting this in her end of year retrospective in which her top choice was “Irreplaceable- The Fight To Save Our Wild Places” by Julian Hoffman with Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Again” as her top fiction pick.

Going back to Jen at Books On The 7.47’s list which she did not place in any order it was great to see another of my Top 10 choices “Things In Jars” by Jess Kidd together with another one I know I’m going to like Laura Purcell’s spooky Victorian set slab of Gothic “The Corset” which Jen feels is her best yet.

Australian blogger Kim at “Reading Matters” placed another of my Top tenners “Shadowplay” by Joseph O’Connor in her top selection together with one of my choices from last year John Boyne’s “Ladder To The Sky“.  “Shadowplay” also made it into the Top 5 Irish books from Cathy at 746 Books who continues to do a great job in highlighting the excellent works coming out of Ireland.  Also on her list was “The Narrow Land” by Christine Dwyer-Hickey which I’d placed in my 2019 “Looking Forward” post but never got round to reading, further evidence that I should.  Also in her selections was joint runner-up to the Booker Prize “Girl, Woman Other” by Bernardine Evaristo which appeared on my 2019 Should Have Read list and it does seem that if the decision was left to us bloggers there would not have been a tie as I saw this recommended quite a few times and didn’t actually come across any mentions of joint winner “The Testaments” by Margaret Attwood.  In fact, the title that should have given Evaristo a run for her money seems to have been “10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World” by Elif Shafek which was a top choice from among others Fiction Fan’s Book Reviews.

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As 2019 turned to 2020 some bloggers took the opportunity to look at their Books of the Decade.  I certainly would not argue with Margaret at Books Please selection of “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson and “The Grapes Of Wrath” by John Steinbeck which would probably both be on my Books Of My Lifetime list.  I also very much appreciate the great variety on some lists, it was great to see Colin at Colingarrow recommend the chilling “Blacklands” by Belinda Bauer which gave me a few disturbed nights sleep when I read it and Nina Bawden’s children’s classic “Carrie’s War”.

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Other titles I’ve added to my to be read list includes “Fleishman Is In Trouble” by Taffy Brodesseser-Akner (top recommendation of Canadian blogger Anne at I’ve Read This who like me used her end of year report to mention the passing of  her muse to her blog, her cat Smokey.  I know exactly how that loss feels (if you don’t know what I’m talking about see here).  Also added is “Dear Mrs Bird” by A J Pearce (the choice of Julie at A Little Book Problem, “Night Theatre” by Vikram Paralkar the choice of Fiction Fan’s Book Reviews and another Canadian choice Fictionphile’s “Where The Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens which is due to be published in the UK next week.

So that’s just a taster of what delighted some of us bookbloggers last year.  Now, let’s get on with 2020!!

 

 

 

Top 10 Books Of The Year 2019 – The Top 5

On By philshanklinIn 100 Essential, Books, New Books, Uncategorized2 Comments

Right, let’s crack on with this.  Here is the rest of the countdown.

5. The Meaning Of Night – Michael Cox (2006) (Read and reviewed in July)

meaningofnight

Amazingly the only book I re-read this year, just a couple of years ago I had read enough re-reads to give them their own separate Top 10 but I cannot ignore this book and so my Book Of The Year from 2007 makes it into the Top 5 for this year.  It is a strange one, I read it and totally love it but after I finished it the events in the novel seem to rapidly fade from my memory and I struggle to remember what it was about even when I can remember books I enjoyed much less in greater detail.  This has happened twice which makes me think there is some kind of ethereal quality to this which causes it to dissipate once finished.  It’s a great Victorian revenge novel and I said of it “On completion the feeling was of total satisfaction for a high quality reading experience. This novel does seem to have faded from public consciousness but I can’t help feeling that a sensitive tv or film adaptation could bring it back to the top of bestsellers lists.” Maybe that will happen in 2020.

4. Shadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker 2019) (Read in December not yet reviewed)

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I highlighted this in my earlier 2019- What I Should Have Read post and managed to squeeze it in before the end of the year.  A full review of this will follow but this is a splendid historical novel, shortlisted for Best Novel at the Costas, with Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula the main character and here part of a long-lasting love triangle with actress Ellen Terry and actor and theatre impresario Sir Henry Irving.

3. Sanditon – Jane Austen and Another Lady (Corgi 1975) (Read and reviewed in December)

sanditon

I can’t say I’ve ever been tempted to read a novel which has been finished by someone else after the original author had died before completion, particularly one that was completed 150 years later.  This was all changed by the ITV adaptation which was one of this year’s television highlights as far as I was concerned and a recommendation from my friend and colleague Louise who felt I should read how it should have ended (well how “another lady” wanted it to end anyway).  I always thought the joins between the two authors would be obvious but I thought this was done seamlessly and ended up enjoying this more than when I re-read “Pride And Prejudice” a couple of years back.

2. Little – Edward Carey (Gallic 2018) (Read and Reviewed in June)

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Another splendid historical novel with that added bit of quirkiness which I so often find appealing.  This is a fictionalised account of the early life of Madame Tussaud.  Punctuated throughout with little pencil drawings which adds much to the experience.  I said of this “Through a first-person narrative Carey has created an enthralling character I will probably remember forever.  Written with gusto and an eccentric energy “Little” will not be beaten down however bad circumstances get.  There’s a naivety and optimism which fuels this novel- she is certainly no “Little Nell” yet the skill of storytelling here will suggest comparisons to Charles Dickens.”

1.Swan Song – Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott (Hutchinson 2018) (Read and reviewed in April)

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This sublime account of the later years of Truman Capote and an act of literary betrayal towards his friends was always going to be in with a strong shot of being at the summit this year.  Debut author Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott’s position was further cemented when I went to see her talk about this book at this year’s Isle Of Wight Literary Festival following its publication in paperback.  I said of it “I was hooked from the moment I saw printed on the back cover; “They told him everything.  He told everybody else.”  It is a novel fuelled by gossip which makes it sound tacky but it is so beautifully written and every word seems considered and measured.”  I can’t remember ever falling for a book written in the third person (by a chorus of the betrayed women) but here it worked just brilliantly.

So Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott joins my Hall Of Fame for producing the book which has given me the most pleasure this year.  She becomes the first American author to do since 2014.   Here is my list of my favourite books going back to 2008.

2019 – Swan Song – Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott (2018) (USA)

2018- The Count Of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (1845) (France)

2017 – The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne (2017) (Ireland)

2016- Joe Speedboat – Tommy Wieringa (2016) (Netherlands)

2015- Alone In Berlin- Hans Fallada (2009 translation of a 1947 novel) (Germany)

2014- The Wanderers – Richard Price (1974) (USA)

2013- The Secrets Of The Chess Machine – Robert Lohr (2007) (Germany)

2012 – The Book Of Human Skin – Michelle Lovric (2010) (UK)

2011 – The Help- Kathryn Stockett (2009) (USA)

2010- The Disco Files 1973-78 – Vince Aletti (1998) (USA)

2009- Tokyo – Mo Hayder (2004) (UK)

2008- The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2007) (Australia)

Happy New Year and let’s hope there’s lots of great reading in 2020!

Top 10 Books Of The Year – 2019- Part One (10-6)

On By philshanklinIn 100 Essential, Books, New Books, Uncategorized3 Comments

Even though we’re not quite at the end of the year I now know that I am unlikely to finish the book I am currently reading so it’s time to look back again to the 10 books which made the most impression on me during the year.  These are not necessarily published this year (just 3 out of the 10 were) if I read it this year then it was up for inclusion.  The total number of books I finished in 2019 is 56, which is down on previous years where I usually hit the mid to late 60’s mark, apart from the golden year of 2016 when I read 80.  I’m not sure why this figure is down so this year probably due to a change of commitments.  Out of those 56 nine of them I classed as five star reads which nicely fills up most of my Top 10 places, the spread of the other star ratings is 28 at 4*,15 3* and 4 at 2* (didn’t have any two star reads last year where the spread was (12/32/22)- I must have been feeling a bit stingier this year.

It does seem like quite a bit of my reading has been books which I missed out in 2018, obviously a bit of a vintage year as 50% of the titles were published then.  Gender wise the men have pushed ahead with a 60-40 split putting an end to last year’s perfect balance.  Nobody makes the list more than once this year and there are two authors who are no strangers to my end of year Top 10.  It does seem, however, and perhaps it is no surprise given the state of the world currently, that for much of 2018 I have been rooted in the past as all of the fiction choices are set in earlier times with a significant chunk (4) being set in the Victorian era or earlier.  Right, let’s get on with the list.  The full reviews for each title can be found be clicking on the link.

10. The Library Book -Susan Orlean (Atlantic 2019)  (Read and reviewed in August)

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My non-fiction pick of the year is this extremely memorable book which works both as a love letter towards libraries and their continued importance and as a true crime work where the author explores the fire which destroyed the Los Angeles Central Library in 1986.  It wasn’t just because I work in libraries that I found this work so inspirational although it was one of the reasons behind me applying for (and getting) a promotion.  Susan Orlean reinforces everything I believe about libraries although the systems in place in the UK seem decidedly impoverished compared to the USA.  I said “The book itself was inspired by Orlean’s memories of going to a public library with her mother when she was a child and them bonding over their piles of chosen books. This seems to me a valuable inspiration for a fascinating work.”

9.Things In Jars – Jess Kidd (Canongate 2019) (Read and reviewed in March)

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I’m up to date with Jess Kidd having read all three of her novels and this marks her first time in my end of year Top 10 with her best book yet.  This built on the supernatural elements which have been present in all her works yet with its nineteenth century setting it seemed to work better here than it has in the past.  I said of this “Here we have the Victorian love of the unusual and freakish and the developments in medicine which attracted the honourable and the disreputable sitting beautifully in with what becomes a gripping mystery peopled with characters about whom I wanted to know so much more.”

8. Bridge Of Clay – Markus Zusak (Doubleday 2018) (Read and reviewed in July)

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We had to wait years for it to arrive but Australian author Zusak manages to get his follow up publication to my 2008 Book of The Year, “The Book Thief” into my Top 10.  I would have thought that a publication from an author of a modern classic after a lengthy wait would have been a major literary event but it seemed to creep under the radar somewhat when it arrived in hardback last year and this year in paperback.  That made me initially a little anxious but I needn’t have been.  I said “Its chatty, scattered narrative actually masks the emotional depth of the content.  It was only looking back as I neared the end that I realised how much I knew about the characters’ lives and how involved I had become, a testament to a great novel.” I read a library copy and then had to go out and buy it to have it readily on hand for a re-read.

7.The House Of Impossible Beauties – Joseph Cassara (Oneworld 2018) (Read in July, reviewed in August)

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2018 was the year when the New York Drag Balls of the late 70’s and 80’s went mainstream in the UK thanks to TV series such as “Pose” and “Rupaul’s Drag Race” and at least a couple of novels of which this was the best.  In my review I compared it to what else was out there (as well as the documentary “Paris Is Burning”, available on Netflix, from where Cassara’s characterisations are developed) and concluded “Perhaps more than “Pose” it shows the struggles in terms of coping with discrimination, poverty, prostitution and mortality but like the television series it is all done with great humanity and compassion and more than a fair share of glitter.”

6. Take Nothing With You – Patrick Gale  (Tinder 2018) (Read in February, reviewed in March)

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This marks British author Patrick Gale’s fourth appearance in my end of year Top 10’s out of the nine books of his I have read which must mean that he has settled into being one of my most favourite authors.  Previous end of year positions have been 4th for “Facts Of Life” (1995) in 1996, 9th for “Rough Music” (2000) in 2001 and 6th for “A Perfectly Good Man” (2012) in 2013.  His latest matches this position and I can’t help but note that the books of his I really like I miss out on at the time and catch up with in the following year.  This has the most modern setting of any of the books on this year’s list with one narrative strand actually being set in the present (gulp!) with the main character contemplating his past whilst receiving treatment for cancer, but it was the past that Gale really drew me into with his story of Eustace, the young gifted cellist.  I said “I fell in love with the boy growing up in his parents’ old people’s home in Weston-Super-Mare in the 1970s with ambitions to be a musical great if only his mother and father and society will let him realise his dreams. It is haunting, nostalgic and sensitive and has all the qualities to make it an essential read.”

Find out the Top 5 in my next post.