Books of the year

 

   Looking back on the reading year, here are my highlights (all links are to posts on the books).

 

Favourite novels:

    The Horseman, Tim Pears

    The Lark, E. Nesbit

    The Fortnight in September, R.C. Sherriff

    La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman

 

Best biographies/autobiographies:

    Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery, Henry Marsh

    The Country Child, Alison Uttley

    The Last Englishman: The Life of J.L. Carr, Byron Rogers

    I Was A Stranger, John Hackett

 

Other outstanding non-fiction:

    In the Artist's Garden, Ronald Blythe

    Waiting for the Albino Dunnock, Rosamond Richardson

 

    I haven't read a great deal this year - my slow-ish pace is deliberate - but the books listed above would stand out in a much larger crowd, I think.

    There is another title which deserves to be included but I've omitted it because as yet there's no post on it and it requires more than a mention in passing; perhaps I'll come back to it another day.

Comments

[Mary]

I always enjoy your lists and as I've only read the new Pullman, the Alison Uttley (many, many years ago!) and the Sherriff (an old favourite), thank you for these suggestions that will keep me going well into 2018!

[Cornflower]

Glad they sound appealing, Mary!

[Lory @ Emerald City Book Review]

The Lark and I Was a Stranger were also favorites of mine this year. So many good books from the past that beg to be rediscovered, as well as all the fascinating new ones. Well, we must just keep reading as much as we can...

[Cornflower]

Indeed we must, and glad we have some favourites in common, Lory.

[Toffeeapple]

I adored the Sherriff and read it again as soon as I had finished it.

As you know, the Pullman is waiting for me though I have, in a way, started to dread it, does that make sense to you? But I will have a homemade cake from my daughter to help me cope.

[Cornflower]

I do understand the dread, but I think (and very much hope) that all will be well.

[Deborah Vass]

I always look forward to your end of year round up and have discovered many treats in past years. The Rosamund Richardson has been requested ( you won't be surprised!), as has Philip Pullman, which I too am a little anxious to read...but in an excited way!

[Fran H-B]

Plenty here for my lists, and hoping for one or two under the tree in a few weeks. I have read the Henry Marsh, which I enjoyed greatly, along with The Country Child. A copy of that was peeping from my stocking one Christmas many years ago. I spent most of Boxing Day reading it.

[barbara scott]

I'm interested to know about J.L. Carr as I so loved A Month in the Country. One of my favorite books of the year is directly because of you. "Trio."