So, we’re writing lists, and checking them twice; how about listing your favourite reads of the year then?
Not a poll, just recommendations and friendly discussions, and any year of publishing allowed, of course. Novels, non-fiction, poetry, cookbooks, manga, lavish coffee table slabs of glossy photographs matching the personality you always wanted – I want to hear about anything and everything that made you a happy reader this year! No need to rank them (unless you like doing it), but do tell us why you enjoyed them, so the rest of us can be inspired to blow our upcoming food budgets on the one comfort even bigger than eating: buying more books (perhaps read them too, eventually)!
(I’ll list mine in the comments)
The biggest joy I got from a book this year was a non-fiction reissue (and new translation, since I read it in Swedish) of The Peregrine by J. A. Baker – I can’t remember the last time I underlined so much text in a book before. The 25th of April is the Apocalypse painted by Bosch, and comedy and poetry and philosophy join hands in a Dance Macabre…love it! Ornithology will never be dull again.
Other stand-outs (novels):
Vibeke Olsson – Molnfri bombnatt (Swedish novel, the best WW2 novel I’ve ever read)
Yoko Ogawa – The Memory Police (The best dystopian novel ever? Poetic, philosophical, intelligent, heartbreakingly cruel, poignant)
Evie Wyld – The Bass Rock (Three women in three timelines, male violence, both physical and psychological, and some of the best descriptions I’ve read on the female experience in general)
Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (Her writing is brilliant, and this book is like a literary curiosity cabinet of stories held together by themes of travel, movement, changes, and the inner landscapes of our bodies) (Honorary mention to her tome The Books of Jacob, which I’m only half-way through, but loving the experience)
Damon Galgut – The Promise (It’s the way it’s being told…the shifting narrative, done so brilliantly, sometimes nearly mid-sentence, and the clear difference in voices. Good story, better storytelling)
José Eduardo Agualusa – The Society of Reluctant Dreamers (Fascinating novel, equal parts magical realism and political rage, and dreams; contagious dreams, dreams taking physical form, dreams that can spark a revolution. Poetical, passionate, humorous, psychedelic)
Sarah Schmidt – See What I Have Done (The story of the Borden murders told by differnt people in the household; this novel shouldn’t work, but boy does it work! After reading it from cover to cover you feel the need to take a warm shower to rid yourself of the smell of death and old soup, the sticky juice of ripe pears, blood and brain substance, sweaty clothes. The descriptions, the inner monologues, the atmosphere of the claustrophobic house…)
And the many books by Annie Ernaux that I read this year (all bar one before she was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize…she said, smugly…) The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…dissecting her life ruthlessly and brillantly.
The worst book I read (and didn’t DNF half-way through) was Still Life by Sarah Winman, which everyone but me seems to LOVE. A Hallmark movie disguised as literary fiction, I say. And infuriating, since in the last chapter she shows what kind of book it could have been!
I enjoyed The Promise a lot too, not least because he describes a world so different to my own. DuCool and I saw Damon Galgut when he came to Kulturhuset and he was very interesting.
He commented amusingly that many readers from outside of South Africa tended to find the characters and the situations a bit far-fetched. However South Africans of his generation praised him warmly for describing their childhoods so accurately.
Interesting, I can’t remember anything especially far-fetched in it, but perhaps as a fan of magical realism, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, Wodehouse and Poe, everything else seems very realistic to me! 😀
I feel like I need a shower, just from reading your description of the Sarah Schmidt book!
That novel is definitely worth taking an extra shower for, even in today’s economy!
Yes, I loved “the Peregrine” by J. A. Baker, too.
Locust – you may be interested in the album of the book!
Back in 2011, the British/Australian ambient/noise artist Lawrence English made an album inspired by his impressions of “The Peregrine”.
Logically enough, it’s entitled “The Peregrine”.
I have it on vinyl and like it a lot.
Here’s the Bandcamp page…
https://lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/the-peregrine
Interesting. I quite enjoyed that, but I rarely find myself yearning to listen to that sort of music. Also shocked that he didn’t write a track called “April 25”! Am I the only one obsessed with that part of the diary? (Is it a sign that I’m a psychopath? 😀 )
My list of favourite books of the year is the same as the list of books I’ve read. If I’m not enjoying something, or finding it hard going, I give up. So, in no particular order, and all recommended…
IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE by Sherwood King. Little-known noir that went through the Orson Welles mincer to become Lady from Shanghai. Smart but not smart enough weasel finds himself heading for death row unless he can prove who did it. Hums along very smartly.
THE ROME PLAGUE DIARIES by Matthew Neale. I’m a sucker for books about living in Rome, even during covid.
THE SLAVES OF SOLITUDE by Patrick Hamilton. Wartime intrigue in a sleazy boarding house.
A CERTAIN HUNGER by Chelsea G Summers. Smart and dark thriller about a food writer who can’t decide if she likes food more than sex or the other way round, until she discovers she likes being a serial killer even more.
A LEGACY OF SPIES by John le Carre. Late Smiley by the late le Carre, in which the old stagers find themselves held to account for something they thought was dead and buried.
A KILLING IN NOVEMBER by Simon Mason. Set in Oxford, in which an oafish rule-breaking cop is partnered with an uptight black former Balliol man. Morse it ain’t, but a great read.
DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER by Bernard J Farmer. One of the British Library crime classics, set in the rough, tough world of second-hand bookselling.
AUSTERITY BRITAIN 1945-51 by David Kynaston. My early years.
CIRCUS OF DREAMS by John Walsh. Rumbustious memoir of 80s publishing by former Lit Ed of the Sunday Times. I’m not in it, chiz.
Not finished, and an audio book, but DRESDEN by Frederic Taylor is a brilliant if horrifying account of the 1945 raid on the Florence on the Elbe. Right up there in the Anthony Beevor class.
I tend to say that I don’t read crime novels and such, but that’s not true; I just go through shorter and shorter phases of wanting to read them, and I’m very particular about genres and styles etc. This year I did a re-/reading project of a Swedish crime writer’s complete works, buying the ones I hadn’t already bought and read, reviewing them and upon conclusion, ranking them and writing an essey about them. It began as a light diversion, it had become a pain in the butt towards the end (her final novels were unbelievably bad), but I mostly enjoyed it.
You discover a lot when you annotate books, which I did with the essay in mind, and I discovered details that had passed me by on previous occasions.
Having said that; it’ll probably take a year or two before I feel up to reading that particular genre! When I do, I may look for that noir.
No offence, but I think Locust’s are the only recommendations on the whole site that I take seriously.
And here was me just thinking they were all made up.
I’m flattered, Moose…so; how many of my recommendations did you pick up this year? 😉
Arthur – it’s fiction, of course they’re made up!
I said I took them seriously, not that I actually read the books 😉
Like most Afterworders I already have a to-read list which I don’t realistically expect to get through this side of my Performance Review with St Peter.
No matter how many you read in a year, that list doesn’t get any shorter. Personally I feel that the if the day comes when my TBR-list is empty, that’s a sign I’ve lived way too long and should shuffle off voluntarily while I still have some dignity left.
am currently reading MIki Berenyi’s autobiography … very open and honest an excellent read. also enjoyed in Perfect Harmony Will hodgkinson’s book on 70’s singlong pop
I’ve just started the Miki Berenyi book. It’s very detailed. I’m hoping Will Hodgkinson will do an audiobook because I’d like to ‘read’ it but my time for reading books is when I’m walking and actual books and lampposts don’t mix!
If you live in the Midlands either @johnw or @exilepj then she’s appearing to talk about the book and her life in a small but perfectly venue I do stuff with, early Feb.
Of the books I’ve read, the ones that were published this year are:
Candy House – Julia Egan. Sort of science fiction wherein you can upload your memories and relive the past. There’s a bit more to it than that. Thumbs up.
The rest are rock memoirs. All pretty decent. Bunnymen best I would say.
The Light Pours Out Of Me – biography of John McGeogh
Radiohead – Life In A Glasshouse
Bunnyman – Will Sergeant
All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir – Kathy Valentine
Jann Wenner – Like A Rolling Stone (now reading)
Other books were read. They are pre-2022. I read mainly on a Kindle. Thank you.
I used to buy lots of rock memoirs, but I’ve gone off them (after reading too many dull ones).
Not a Kindle, but a Kobo, is what I’m now using on my commute – but on Friday night it was so cold when I was waiting for the bus home late at night, that it quite literally froze! Couldn’t turn the pages, couldn’t turn it off, not until it had been sitting indoors all night long thawing out. By then the battery was dead, of course.
I may have to sew a warm bag to keep it in this winter, or return to paperbacks if it gets even colder (which they threaten could happen soon).
Rock memoirs become dull as they are rather alike, but easy reading. Some stand out because they have some actual insight and humour. I have my authors that usually come through: Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, William Boyd, Margaret Attwood, among others.
….”they are rather alike” – you don’t say. “I had all the ideas…. managers and labels ripped me off… the other guys in the band were talentless cretins….tight-crutched trousers” etc
The last few rock memoirs I read have been great. Tom Petty, John Hiatt, John Prine and Warren Zevon. I just got all my cds out during the day, reading liner notes and playing them in order, and in time whilst reading the book at night. It’s amazing to find out how most of the songs came about and where they came from.
What’s the John Hiatt one, @bigstevie ? Quite the chequered career, I’d have thought, with his battle with booze part the early story. Ironic or inevitable that Lilly became alcoholic also….
It’s the only book about John Hiatt that I know about. I’ve been a big fan forever so I was delighted with this. Difficult but fascinating life story. I love song lyrics, and often wonder where the artists get them from. I often wonder too, what the songs are about and what they mean. John Hiatt’s songs are all from his life…..amazing! I have all the albums, and I listened to them in order as I was reading the book, finding out about all the different musicians and producers. I learned a lot that I didn’t know.
Murakami seems to be the victim of a backlash these days, after all of the love he received earlier. But I still read his new books, and mostly enjoy them (if not quite as much as some of his previous works). I’ve never tried a Mitchell, for some reason. He’s recommended all the time, but not in a way that has managed to enthuse me.
He was also better before. The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob Zoet, Cloud Atlas are worth checking out. They are outstanding. I have my authors but then I find I’ve read them all, or the best have been done. A sad day. Music you can keep on revisiting. Fiction, less so.
Two Afterword-friendly books I really enjoyed:
|||||||||||||||||| Peter Guralnick & Colin Escott: The Birth Of Rock’n’Roll • The Illustrated Story Of SUN Records
Lots of anecdotes, stories and facts about Memphis and the music of the 50s and early 60s, as told by my favourite music writers.
|||||||||||||||||| Bob Dylan: The Philosophy Of Modern Song
Not one to ‘read’ from cover to cover, but fascinatingly illuminating and amusing as he takes you into a fog of allusions, illusion and enlightenment. This one will keep me awake for months to come.
And then – me and our daughter had the silly idea in late summer to read at least one book by every recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. And then chat about it at length. So far we had (1) the ramblings of a French writer who never published a ‘real’ book during his life, the (2) complete history of the Roman Empire, a couple of (3) Norwegian novellas, and currently (4), a 200-page French poem about the beauty of the Provence. You couldn’t make it up. And no, I don’t intend to post monthly reviews in »Nights In«…
The Dylan one is on my list for sure. I’ve only heard praise for it.
I love having a reading project on the go. The one I talked about in a reply further up was a bit “unusual” and (because of ranking them) executed at an extreme pace, back to back for months, which is not to be recommended. But when spread out a bit with other books in between, it’s always interesting to do for instance a deep dive into a particular author.
I’m toying with the idea of reading all of Kurt Vonnegut’s books starting next year. I’ve read a few, but now I’ve bought them all (on sale) so nothing’s stopping me from making him my next project. But I’m going to pace myself this time so I don’t get fed up.
Your Nobel Prize project sounds great, but I’d be tempted to skip quite a few of the earlier winners…
@Locust I’d be interested in your reading of the Vonnegut books and your thoughts.
You realise you’ve got Winston Churchill coming up in your Nobel project?
“Your Nobel project” – it certainly will, hurrrrr
re. Winston Churchill coming up – it surely can’t be more daunting than 600 pages about the Roman Empire. But even that had a few surprises: reading about a politician who’s a drinker, a liar and a failed businessman, and who’s elected head of state because of his dubious connections to the important families, and all that happens 2500 years ago!
I remember reading Churchill’s memoirs, or part of them at least, about his childhood, and finding them quite amusing (although mostly IIRC in a “wow – so that’s what an upperclass childhood was like back in the day” kind of way).
That is a very impressive endeavour, @fatima Xberg. You will be at it for years!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature
There are some fantastic writers who have won it. And some real obscurities. Especially at the beginning. Ernaux is a good choice. And I enjoyed the novel I read by Abdulrazak Gurnah.
The late Swedish poet Tomas Transtörmer is well worth your time.
I’ve read a fair amount of books this year, but a lot were re-reads like my now annual ritual of Watership Down and the Lord of The Rings books.
No new-new stuff, but the new-to-me ones I have been most impressed by were:
– Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Yeah, yeah, I’m behind the curve on this one, but you did say year of publication didn’t matter? I loved this so much I started a post on it earlier this year. A cracking tale.
– The Stone Book Quarter by Alan Garner – First published in the 70s, four beautifully short tales from four different generations of Garner’s family (or closely based on, anyway). I was blown away by the gentle transcendence of working class life and connection to the landscape – “beautifully crafted” is the phrase here – every sentence a joy.
– Remembrance of Things Past by Proust – I got through the first three volumes then decided to take a break, but I’ll get back to it this year. It’s dense and slow, with some of the longest sentences I’ve ever seen since my school essays, but it’s decent.
– Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs – Just checked and this is my most modern book, published in 2021. It’s an anthology of folk tales telling a kind of alternative history of Britain through legends and stories. I found Amy Jeffs very readable and it was a ripping set of stories, some familiar to me and some not so familiar, from Lllud to Vortigern to Arthur. I bookmarked a few key sentences, including this one: “The stories in this book… justify political ambitions, and help define communities and hierarchies. If history is about self-knowledge, then let us be wise to the myths we are still creating.” Reading this book made me realise how much of our modern concerns are all about creating stories and characters to help define our world, and the magical world of myth is just as important as the dry world of facts and statistics.
For balance, some books I wasn’t so impressed by this year:
– I read a bit of Joseph Campbell, a thing called The Power of Myth. To be fair, this is not so much a book but an edited transcript of a series of interviews carried out for a TV series in the 80s. But with all the references I have seen to Joseph Campbell over the years (his name pops up everywhere) I was expecting something revelatory, and instead I found him tedious and incomprehensible. One of those people who sound far better in short quotes and references (the Hero’s Journey and all that) than in their actual work.
– I’ve also decided there’s a genre of books I’ve been drawn towards but I’m not going to bother with any more. I don’t know what the genre is called, but there’s been a tendency (in the UK anyway) for books about getting back to nature and walking and exploring old pathways and stuff like that – I’ve previously read Bird Therapy (can’t remember the author), The Hidden Ways by Alistair Moffat etc, and this year I read The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane. I’ve decided (sweeping statement alert) they are all fluff and no substance, and people buy them to be seen to be buying into a particular lifestyle rather than actually enjoying reading them cover to cover.
I very much enjoy walking and seeing wildlife and seeing inspiring ancient places, but I don’t think I particularly get anything from reading people writing about doing the very same thing.
I’m going to stick to more utilitarian, old-fashioned reference books going forward. OS Maps, the RSPB Guide to British Birds, Oliver Rackham’s History of the Countryside, even Julian Cope’s Modern Antiquarian (bonkers, but informative and comprehensive).
Never did read Tess…and only watched half of the TV adaptation. The genre of “women being punished by society” is too depressing for me!
Proust is another one I’ve never been able to warm up to. I think my biggest problem is knowing that there are so many books to go through…I’m not a fan of a series.
Alan Garner was nominated this year for the Booker, wasn’t he? Treacle Walker, I think it was called, and it caused much discussion online – was this novel impossible to understand in a good way or a bad way? Marmite Walker should perhaps had been the title.
I can enjoy a certain type of nature book, where the author uses nature to go into essays on all sorts of topics inspired by the nature they’re in. But it takes a skilful writer with eclectic knowledge on all sorts of topics to make it really work.
I read Tess as more poetic than polemic. It has social relevance, of course, but it’s the story itself which shines through. The closing chapters (I won’t ruin it by going into any detail) are hauntingly beautiful.
Yes, Alan Garner was a Booker nominee, and at one point the bookie’s favourite I believe! I was so disappointed he didn’t win. It was as if the stars had aligned – the winner was announced on his 90th birthday (I think it was his 90th anyway), and it was a late masterpiece of a book that no one expected from him. He’s expressed his fear that he won’t get to complete another book before he goes to the great book group in the sky – fingers crossed that doesn’t happen, but if Treacle Walker is to be his last book it will have been a fantastic full stop on his career.
It’s only been in the last couple of years I have revisited his work and brought myself up to speed, and it’s been a fascinating career. He started out as a relatively straightforward children’s fantasy author (Elidor is like the working class Narnia) and has been getting weirder, more cryptic and more adult with every book since. Boneland, about a decade ago, was him revisiting the boy hero of his first book (The Weirdstone of Brisingamen), and finding a tortured adult, traumatised by what he went through in his childhood adventures. A chilling story.
Sorry to go on about him, but I dearly love his writing. Unlike me waffling on, Alan Garner has a real way with words: economical, short and direct, he knows just what to say to conjure a mood in as few words as possible, and leave enough gaps to really fire up your imagination.
Garner sounds interesting, especially Boneland! But I guess I’d have to read the first book to fully understand it.
Treacle Walker is one that I’ve thought about reading, just because I’m intrigued by how polarizing it was.
@arthur-cowslip
walking and wildlife and places
Suggest you investigate (if you haven’t already) the James Rebanks books, and Bella Bathurst’s ‘Field Work’ for brilliant insights into the people who inhabit and make their livings from all of that.
Also, have you tried Roger Deakin’s ‘Waterlog’?
Not really heard of any of those, but on the strength of your recommendation I’ll add them to my ‘to read’ list.
My most favourite fiction reads were all re-reads (American Tabloid, English Passengers, Star of the Sea). None of my new-to-me reads blew my socks off. I think my favourite would be Jonathan Coe’s ‘Mr Wilder & Me’. I liked its mash up of fact and fiction and found it a very easy, interesting read, if a little lightweight and forgettable. Perfect for beach reading in the summer.
As regards non fiction, David Baddiel’s ‘Jews Don’t Count’ and Serhy Yekelchyk’s ‘Ukraine’ are the only two I remember reading. Both managed to be concise and thought provoking.
Re-reading seems to be becoming a much more enjoyable pastime for me. Especially books I read and loved many years ago. Though I have ordered a couple of Booker prize winners recommended by Locust and still haven’t got round to reading B.S. Jonson’s ‘The Unfortunates’, which I bought after someone here recommended it eons ago, so that theory might well change over the coming weeks.
I hardly ever re-read anymore, although I love it. But I don’t feel I have the time to “waste” on books I’ve already read when there are so many great books out there that I haven’t read yet, and many more being published every year!
I figure that I’ll have nothing else to do but re-read my library of books when I’m retired, because I no longer will be able to afford buying books then!
But having started to use an e-reader in combination with finding Project Gutenberg to download from means that I’ll sneak some re-reads in from now on (because the classics I haven’t read before tends to be novels that I’m not that interested in reading anyway).
Mainly non fiction, often following the Baillie Gifford prize shortlists in recent years.
My undoubted favourite was Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi. Memoir of growing up in Albania during the collapse of communism. It has funny moments, some sad and a couple of shocks. I had to stop myself reading it in a day.
Also Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. A shocking account of the Sackler family and the marketing of painkillers. It should make anyone furious to read what happened.
Best buy from a charity shop was I blame Dennis Hopper by the actress Ileana Douglas. A very funny account of her childhood and career.
Thank you for reminding me, I’ve meant to buy that Lea Ypi book!
The Lea Ypi book is a real winner. You’ll love it, Locust.
I also went to see Ms Ypi when she gave a talk at Kulturhuset, and she was really interesting and entertaining.
I always think that I should go to Kulturhuset more often, but it just never happens. Mostly, of course, because everything interesting tends to happen when I’m at work, which is the downside of being a creature of the night.
I’ve been challenging myself to do 50 books this year & should achieve that number when I finish my current book this evening. Some of the books i’ve enjoyed most this year are;
Letters To Michael (a father writes to his son 1945-1947) by Charles Phillipson. – Possibly the most gorgeous book (edition & content wise) that I own
American Overdose by Chris McGreal
How We Live Now by Bill Hayes
On Bloody Sunday by Julieann Campbell – This is a really tough read but is excellently done.
The Sound Of Being Human by Jude Rogers – I really loved this book
The Premonition by Michael Lewis
America Over The Water by Shirley Collins
Bodies (Life & Death in Music) – Ian Winwood
Held In Contempt (What’s wrong with the House of Commons) by Hannah White
Scoops by Sam McAlister
Sing Backwards & Weep by Mark Lanegan
Faith, Hope & Carnage by Nick Cave / Sean O’Hagan – I adored this one
Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright
The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
The C86 Kids by Nige Tassell
The one book I have read this year & really hated was Verse, Chorus Monster by Graham Coxon. I also read Likely Lad by Pete Doherty this year but still found GC to be the most unsufferable of people. It was in the charity shop within 10 minutes of me finishing it.
I’ll see if I can find the Wainwright one, didn’t know she had written a book!
really enjoyed the Mark Lanegan book … a hard read at times but so honest
Deccie Must Die by Caimh Mc Donnell and This Charming Man by his alter-ego C.K. McDonnell. If you like crime books with lots of violence and laugh out loud humour you really need to try the 7 part Dublin Trilogy by Caimh, no really…
having finished the Miki Berenyi book currently enjoying Faster than a Cannonball 1995 and all that by Dylan Jones … reliving one of my favourite times of my life and then have the new Saint Etienne book ‘How we used saint etienne’ to live’ next on the pile
An odd reading year for me.
I can’t recall when I last started but failed to finish so many books, & I’m sure it was me, not them.
I have a hunch that for some reason of late I’m only able to lose myself in a book when I’m outside in a camping chair, so it’s Summer or nothing.
That said, my faves were ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ by Anthony Doerr
‘City Of Wonders’ by Eduardo Mendoza
‘The Salterton Trilogy’ by the incomparable Robertson Davies.
Really hoping to get my reading groove back on in 2023.
The Doerr book is on my shelf, but the right moment haven’t arrived yet. It’s not alone on that shelf…
I picture your bookshelves positively groaning given your prodigious reading habits, Locust!
I’m now a firm fan of Doerr, having been transported by ‘All The Light we Cannot See’, which definitely wasn’t a fluke.
His latest made me decidedly anxious over the fate of Constantinople & its inhabitants, which isn’t something I feel myself expressing very often!
Well, I do have a lot of bookshelves, and I do keep most of the books I buy, but if I don’t enjoy a book that much, or if I buy some book on a whim and realise after a year that I’m never going to want to read it, I tend to give away lots of books to my neighbours.
I put around twenty books in a box in the building’s entrance with a sign of Help yourselves, and they’re gone within an hour or two.
Time for another box again soon, before Christmas – the unread ones can easily be given as Christmas presents, so my Christmas unhaul usually vanishes within the first half hour! 🙂
I read a lot. Goodreads tells me that I’ve finished 126 books so far this year, so this is going to be a far from exhaustive list, but some highlights were
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman – a near future ecological rant / satire that at different times put me in mind of William Gibson, Iain Banks and Neal Stephenson
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks, which I have written about elsewhere on this site
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan, a terrifically moving examination of male friendship
The Hollows by Daniel Church – horror novel set in an isolated Peak District village full of ancient family secrets, unstoppable monsters and Lovecraftian Elder Gods. So far up my street it’s practically knocking on my door.
Coming To Berlin by Paul Hanford – non-fiction about immigrant and expat life in that city, viewed through the prism of club culture
Bad Actors by Mick Herron. Everybody loves Slough House, don’t they?
lots of PG Wodehouse, from which I shall pick, somewhat arbitrarily, Jeeves & The Feudal Spirit as my favourite. Has anyone ever written finer sentences?
The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett. In 1643, a group of Parliamentarian soldiers mysteriously disappeared in a supposedly haunted wood. Four hundred years later an all female group of archaeologists venture in to discover what happened to them…this was like Alan Garner writing Picnic At Hanging Rock, with a big dollop of the movies The Descent and The Ritual.
All The Seas Of The World by Guy Gavriel Kay – probably the best living writer of fantasy. No wizards or dragons, just a sideways version of fifteenth century Italian history. Superb.
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne -maybe my favourite novel of the year, it’s told as three parallel stories set 1,000 years apart. The past is set in the late stages of the Maya people in Belize in 1012; the current timeline follows a young woman from Minnesota as she searches for her roots in that country in 2012; and the future takes us to 3012 and a nomadic, highly fluid, society where only eight million people have survived economic and climate disaster and society has radically transformed. It’s massively ambitious, with loads of interesting ideas crammed in – if you ever wanted a book that combines Mayan myth and history, explorations of anarchy and gender, reincarnation and the weight of past lives, dissection of the tourist gaze and rejection of Western capitalist perspective, plus a jaguar ripping someone’s face off, then this is the one for you.
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman – non fiction about an escape from East Berlin during the Cold War.
Islands Of Abandonment by Cal Flynn, more non fiction, this time a travelogue of places humans have abandoned.
Sea Of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel. She’s great.
The Little House by Kyoko Nakajima a Japanese take on The Remains Of The Day
also want to second the mention of Caimh MacDonnell above, had a lot of fun with his books this year. Think having lived in Dublin may help, but they’re terrifically entertaining none the less.
Tunnel 29 was also a marvellous BBC Radio drama.
Mayflies is very very worth reading.
Yeah – another thumbs-up for Mayflies from me.
I must try to find that on BBC Zoundz…
Not to be confused with BBC Zounds, which consists entirely of programmes about medieval knights.
Gadzooks!
Some interesting recommendations there, Kid, I’m taking notes.
Impressive stats, I’ve only finished 108 books so far this year – but that is more than last year, when I only read 78, I believe. Not much time to read in December, so I’m guessing that I’ll end up on 110 or 111.
Thankfully, very few of them were bad, and I only DNF:ed two books. 🙂
Bloody hell that’s an impressive haul! I have killed myself getting to my number so hat duly doffed for reading that much.
I have the Andrew O’Hagan on my shelf so will bump this up the list
lots of PG Wodehouse, from which I shall pick, somewhat arbitrarily, Jeeves & The Feudal Spirit as my favourite. Has anyone ever written finer sentences?
I suspect not. I can’t think of another author that I have re-read so often; and with such relish (with the possible exception of JRR Tolkien).
“Her voice was cold and hard, like a picnic egg”
….from his review of Florence and the Machine
Can’t match @kid-dynamite for output. Here’s my part one:
Books published in 2022:
Christopher Tsiolkas’s 71/2 is a slippy ‘writers block novel’, an overt homage to the Fellini film 81/2 and a book in which Sweet Thing by Van Morrison plays a big part. Really enjoyed it. Julian Barnes’ Elizabeth Finch and Ian McEwan’s big baggy Lessons are both competent new works by two authors whose style is so established you will know if these are for you or not. Aged 25 I would be McEwan over Barnes, as I get older it’s the reverse. Japanese ‘Convenience Store’ writer Sakaya Murata has written a short story collection – Life Ceremony – which is surprisingly strong on the body horror and gross out angles.
Book of the year by a country mile is Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout. Strout has created in less than twenty years the world of Amgash: a series of interconnected lives which has become one of the most loved in contemporary fiction. I was blown away reading My Name is Lucy Barton at the start of 2022 in a way that few writers new to me have done, through the sheer quality of her prose and her character insights. Only Richard Ford with The Sportswriter perhaps gave me the same charge. I’ll merely observe that unlike Gary Schteyngart’s unwieldy Country Friends, Strout has written the first great pandemic novel which weaves the events of 2020-1 seamlessly into the further lives of Lucy and William. Don’t read this before at least reading ‘My Name Is…’ or some of its subtle power will be lost, but if you’re new to Strout I envy you.
Brummie book of the year from our leading contemporary writer is Eden by Jim Crace. He has talked about retiring from novels, and this has a late work elegance and timeless quality. A ‘what if the garden of Eden was real’ take, it explores the oppressive nature of all utopias.
Strout is on my list, I’ve heard so many good things about all of them.
A very reliable cookbook series – Rukmini Iyer’s Roasting Tin The 30 minute one is great for cooking during the week, great flavours.
Sam Phillips – The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll, by Peter Guralnick. Packed with anecdotes about Howlin Wolf and the early days of Sun, and his huge influence on rock and roll.
Suggs – That Close – patchy, with some funny stories, but not much of a light shone on Madness, or songwriting.
Best story – about being in a TV show which had booked a speciality act – But who could forget Bernie Clifton? Yes, Bernie turned up one time, you know, the fella riding the out-of-control ostrich, with his pretend legs flying around. Well, Bernie turned up to the studio in a car on his own. The producer said, ‘’Ere, Bernie, where’s the ostrich?’ Bernie said, ‘Oh, that? The ostrich? I’ve moved on, that’s my old act, I don’t do that any more, I’m more stand-up, these days.’ The producer said, ‘Bernie, I booked you and an ostrich. No ostrich, no fucking fee.’ Well, Bernie looked up, defiant for a second, before saying, ‘All right, I’ll go and get him out of the boot.’
My favourite book of the year – The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives by our own, our very own Jude Rogers.
A great read. It is emotional, thoughtful, and insightful on the magic of music, with some interesting analysis on why music hits us so hard and why it resonates so deeply. A heartfelt story of a life in love with music.
As an example, on the Flying Pickets – “Around 1984, Welsh men were not known for expressing deep emotions one-to-one. They didn’t do this at work or at home or over pints in the workingmen’s club, but when you stood near them on a Sunday as an organ struck up the opening bars of a hymn, or saw them standing together on a stage in a welfare hall, shoulder-to-shoulder, about the sing the Elijah or Messiah, you know what was going to happen. Their chests would expand in one collective breath, songs acting on them as defibrillators”.
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell.
A fascinating analysis, with many digressions, of how bombers were used in war – terrifying and inhumane, of course.
Massive Pissed Love: Nonfiction 2001-2014 by Richard Hell
Dark, wry, insightful – an excellent collection of his non-fiction work, great on films, on the Velvet Underground vs. The Rolling Stones, on friends he lost along the way.
Not necessarily a book to read all in one sitting, but excellent for dipping in to
I’ve given myself a cookbook ban…own too many already and don’t really cook from recipes, and they’re very expensive. But I do love the food porn aspects of a good cookbook!
@locust
Get your cookbook socks warmed at abebooks.com old chum! 2nd hand bargains galore.
I love the River Cottage books – here’s one of the best of them, yours for price of a coffee from a poncy cafe:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22536633864&searchurl=isbn%3D9780747598404%26n%3D100121503%26sortby%3D20&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image3
I liked the Roasting Tin so much I bought two roasting tins.
We tend to oscillate between zero heat meals (in Foxy Towers this is a.k.a. ‘MFS’ – More F*cking Salad) and full fan oven roasts – there’s a huge free range chicken sitting in the kitchen right now (it’s already dead) that will get the full nuking this very evening in time for the Strickly semis. We’ll have the drumsticks tonight, and the rest of the bird over the next two days accompanied by some sort of imaginative and tasty variety of MFS.
Chez Fentons, we have a dish named NRA. No, not those trigger-happy wingnuts, the National Rifle Association.
Not Rice Again.
On here, ATM seems to mean Ask The Massive. Caused me consternation at first, I can tell you.
M’mmmm…FPA…
I love Suggs, but Cathal would write a more interesting book, especially if he ends it with his stint as M*rr*ss*y’s manager. Was Chas Smash tripping when he appeared on Tiswas? Enquiring minds want to know.
Couple of good reads that spring to mind:
Vashti Bunyan – Wayward
An absolutely charming memoir from the JADDH. The bulk of the book deals with her trip by horse drawn caravan from Englandshire, up to Donovan’s* place in Skye. It’s quite a read. There are some pretty grinding physical and emotional hardships described, all without the faintest trace of self-pity. There are lovely descriptions of people and places along the way, as well as an account of 60s culture. In a surprise development, men often act like complete arseholes and the lack of anger in this memoir is, in some respects, the most remarkable thing about it. VB’s story is brought pretty much up to date in the final section (Spoiler: happy ending). One of life’s good eggs, I think.
Jim White – Incidental Contact
Another great – though very different – read. If you are a devotee of JW’s live shows, it will be impossible not to read this in the man’s voice; he writes pretty much like he talks. Which in his case is a good thing. The book jumps around in time, containing stories from his past – surfer, model, NY taxi driver and finally professional musician, tying certain experiences to certain songs. The style veers from the realistic to the surreal and back again – possibly a reflection of his mental health at various points. There’s a general thread of weird synchronicity running through it, the best example being the multiple appearances of David Byrne. Loved it. I am a huge Jim White fan but I don’t think that’s necessary to enjoy this marvellous book.