At the end of each year I have a lovely time
choosing my top books of the year… but so many get missed off those lists. What
I’ve decided to do for 2014 is get into quarterly instalments. So, now March is
gone and spring is here (albeit a weird, misty Spring in Manchester – the air
choked with Arabian sand and smog) and I can decide what my top ten reads of
the year so far have been…
I’ve read 48 books so far this year, and it’s
tricky whittling even this number down. But here are the ten:
TOLSTOY AND THE PURPLE CHAIR – Nina Sankovitch
(beautiful memoir about reading and grief)
FAN GIRL – Rainbow Rowell (Fabulously romantic,
soapy hymn to Fan Fiction and early days at uni)
ADVENTURES WITH THE WIFE IN SPACE – Neil
Perryman (Memoir of a man afflicted by Who, mercilessly inflicting it on
spouse.)
DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL – Armistead Maupin
(Rightfully indulgent final segment of multi-volume polymorphously delightful
literary soap opera.)
THE GOLDFINCH – Donna Tartt (A hefty thriller
about fine art and friendship.)
COLD SERIAL MURDER – Mark Abramson (Second in a
sexy cosy crime series set in San Francisco.)
THE NEW ARRIVAL – Sarah Beeson (Moving memoir
about discovering your vocation and nursing in the 1970s.)
THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J FIKRY – Gabrielle
Levin. (Splendid eccentric ensemble cast centred around bookshop and a
mysterious orphan.)
A PLACE TO CALL HOME – Carole Matthews (An
edgier feeling to Carole’s spring romance – it’s all about pursuit, sanctuary
and new love.)
LIFE AFTER LIFE – Kate Atkinson (A family saga
about reincarnation and second, third and fourth chances.)
What I find surprising about the list is that
they’re all either brand new titles – or they’ve been published in the past
couple of years. This, in the year when I’m supposed to be reading all the old
books I’ve got clogging up the house.
Also – and I don’t know if this is interesting
or good or bad or both – but six out of ten of these I read as e-books on my
ipad. I blame my poor eyes and loving the giant print and the sepia pages. The
ones I read as actual books I read as large hardbacks or copies with lavishly
large print.
Lots of memoir here – almost a third of them.
And lots of bookishness – bookshops, writers and the literary games and
allusions of Kate Atkinson.
Anyhow – that’s me during this long, curious
winter. That’s the best of what I’ve been curled up with. How about you?
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