Welcome and Happy New Year! It’s a busy post today so let’s get on with it …
Best books of the year 2017 and reading round-up
I read 141 books in 2017 (up from 126 in 2016). 78 (77) were fiction and 63 (49) non-fiction and I didn’t finish 1 (6). 86 (84) were by women and 54 (42) by men, with 1 by both. I didn’t record the locations this time round. So more reading, which was probably bumped up by my down-time in May, and possibly more non-fiction by men.
Here are my top ten reads from 2017 (in order of reading, not merit):
Anna Kessel – “Eat, Sweat, Play” – brilliant book about women and sport
E. Nesbit – “The Lark” – glorious, delightful novel about two sisters trying to set up home and business together
Kory Stamper – “Word by Word” – essays from a dictionary-maker
Jess Phillips – “Everywoman” – the wonderful Labour MP’s life story and life lessons for us all
Francis Brett Young – “White Ladies” – man falls in love with house
Nick Baker – “Rewild” – helps us reconnect with nature (link leads to a short review linked to my Shiny New Books review)
Amber Reeves – “A Lady and her Husband” – I loved this story of a woman’s re-animation at the advanced age of [my age] when she has a Project
Simon Armitage – “Walking Away” – in which he walks in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall
Elois Jarvis McGraw – “Greensleeves” – how I loved this re-printed coming of age tale!
Bill McKibben – “Radio Free Vermont” – unputdownable satirical tale with a big heart and a positive message
Did you read any of these and love them as much as I did? Five fiction, five non-fiction; the non-fiction modern, the fiction mid-20th-century, with a Persephone and a Furrowed Middlebrow reprint among them – sounds about right!
State of the TBR January 2018
You will have hopefully already seen my TBR snapshots from 2017. And the Christmas Acquisitions. Here’s the full horror (the Pile has moved down to Mr Liz’s section of the shelves; it remains the same as always):
Just to be clear, the Rough Trade one used to be the end of the front shelf, so everything right of that used to be on the back shelf and has moved forward to join the front to fit the Christmas Haul in. Oops.
I’ve just finished “Happiness for Humans” by P.J. Reizin, a NetGalley read published this week which was a wonderfully fun and exciting tale of AI beings messing with human beings’ lives, a real page-turner.
I’m currently reading Matthew Syed’s “Bounce”, which is about the role of practice rather than talent in a whole range of achievements, with a lot about sport, and David Goldblatt’s “The Games” which is a rather large history of the Olympics, and very readable and interesting.
Next up have to be these two, once Iris Murdoch’s “The Sandcastle” (see below and my preview post) as they are to be reviewed for Shiny New Books. I am looking forward to getting into Gordon Brown’s autobiography and finding out more about virtual reality.
After all those, I hope I’ll get to this little section of non-fiction fun and important fiction, from Springsteen’s bio through Sue Perkins’ to living Danishly and unfrazzledly (that’s a word, right), finding out about islands and going into the history of the iconic Rough Trade record label and shop. I really hope I’ll get through a few of these as they’ve been taunting me from the shelf for a while now.
I only have seven books on my NetGalley TBR at the moment, and none due out soon – six from last year and one publishing in April this year. So I think I can concentrate on print books, although I did download some other things onto the Kindle …
First book of the year
Sheila over at Book Journey does a fun post at the start of each year where she has people send in pics of themselves with their first book of the year (I’m taking this as the first book I’ll be starting). Can you spot me in her post?
What are you reading first this year? Did you come to a nice stop at the end of a book and the end of the year? I failed mightily in that one!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Jan 01, 2018 @ 21:26:43
Oooh, a large TBR – I don’t feel so bad now! I very neatly finished a BLCC I got for Christmas on New Year’s Eve and today started “Locus Solus”, a review book, which is interesting in a Calvino/Perec/OuLiPo kind of way – I think it will take me longer than the BLCC to read though….. I might just have reserved a copy of The Sandcastle from the library to have a look at too…. 😉
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:12:42
Ooh exciting! It IS large, isn’t it. I haven’t counted the actual number – I daren’t. I was horrified enough to see some of the books at the front of this one peeping out from the back of the early shots of last year! Good luck with that one, too, sounds fun but a bit hard!
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Sheila (Book Journey)
Jan 01, 2018 @ 22:23:51
Eat Sweat Play sounds good… now I need to look for that one 😉
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:19:41
Oh it’s excellent, such a good and important read. Makes you think and makes you angry …
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Jane @ Beyond Eden Rock
Jan 01, 2018 @ 22:24:46
It’s lovely to see White Ladies on your list. I haven’t read any FBY for ages and it’s time I did.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:13:08
I read two FBYs this year, but White Ladies JUST edged out Black Diamond!
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FictionFan
Jan 02, 2018 @ 01:01:58
Looking forward to hearing what you think of the Gordon Brown book – I’m still swithering over that one. Not sure I’m ready to revisit the Blair/Brown saga yet…
Have a great year of reading – I’m sure you’ll be on top of that TBR in no time… 😉
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:13:48
I get the impression there’s more on the financial crisis than on Blair/Brown. Gulp. Have a great year, too! I might catch up on blog reading at some point, too!
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Rosepoint Publishing
Jan 02, 2018 @ 02:07:34
Fun post and pic for Book Journey! no, i messed up my year-end schedule, so now it looks like the one i finished in 2017 is my first of 2018. oops.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:29:03
Oh no! It’s so easy to do that, though. I ended the year with three unfinished and had to count The Sandcastle as the first one I’m actually going to start … Thanks for popping over and I hope you continue to enjoy my blog.
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Thomas
Jan 02, 2018 @ 02:46:06
Congrats on that impressive number of books read in 2017! I haven’t read that many books since before I started college, so I am both slightly jealous and entirely happy for you. I recognize some of the authors from your top 10 but no specific titles – however, I am still so excited to see The Hate U Give in one of the pictures you shared, and I cannot wait to read your thoughts on that one. As for the state of my reading, I started reading Pachinko By Min Jin Lee last night and have been loving it so far, so I am enjoying starting 2018 off with a book I really like. Yay for you and your consistent reading and how you inspire me to keep up my bookish habits. (:
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Thomas
Jan 02, 2018 @ 02:46:41
Oops – I meant to leave this comment as a separate comment, not as a reply to someone else’s comment – my apologies!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:15:18
I didn’t read that many in college and I remember not being able to read a proper book for months after finishing my English degree!! I am super-excited about almost getting to The Hate U Give, I have a small holiday coming up so might take it with me so I can concentrate on it. I have heard good things of Pachinko so hope I see a review of it from you. Happy reading and happy 2018! PS no, it’s fine, you commented top-level!
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Carianne Carleo-Evangelist
Jan 02, 2018 @ 03:11:48
“Did you come to a nice stop at the end of a book and the end of the year? I failed mightily in that one!”
Me too! I tried to sneak in a short one, but no. I tend to bridge the years and have made my peace with that. The fact that this year is utter crap is..well.. I’d normally have just been/be on a beach holiday and that’s when crap is welcome so. I take the 5th.
I like your roundup of top books, I missed a few of these even though I generally think I’m caught up. The Games looks great.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 08:17:16
Well looks like almost no one ends the year with the end of a book, so that’s OK (I’ve only done it other years by staying up very late!). I do a lot of posts so not surprised you missed the odd one. Thank you for all your support of the blog and my running book habit!
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Carianne Carleo-Evangelist
Jan 03, 2018 @ 17:04:00
I looked at the date. January 2017 was a travel.family nutso month and may have declared blog amnesty
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Brona
Jan 02, 2018 @ 09:03:16
Love the beanie!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 09:06:13
Ha – thank you – we got excited when we found we could get them in the running club’s colours!
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Brona
Jan 04, 2018 @ 11:21:11
It’s also Mr Books ALF footie team colours 🙂
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heavenali
Jan 02, 2018 @ 12:28:35
Gosh your tbr is looking healthy isn’t it. Some interesting things to read there. I enjoyed A Lady and her Husband too, such a good feminist novel I thought. Jess Phillips’s book is excellent too and I hope everyone reads it. So glad you loved The Lark so much. 141 books you’ve definitely had a very good reading year.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2018 @ 12:31:08
It is indeed looking healthy! I am looking forward to everything on it and I WILL get it down to one shelf some time this year … I’m glad you approved of my top ten choices (I need to do some blog reading catching up to see what everyone else has chosen).
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Kat
Jan 02, 2018 @ 18:52:14
Oh my goodness, I love The Lark and Greensleeves. To my knowledge, you’re the only person in the world who has read this. Your other books are new to me, but I know you have great taste.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 03, 2018 @ 07:35:00
Well I got the idea to read Greensleeves from someone (unless it was you, actually?). I just gave a copy to my best friend, so we can add her in, too. I loved it SO MUCH.
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Kat
Jan 04, 2018 @ 05:07:33
My friends and i grew up on “Mara Daughter of the Nile,” which I read so many times. I adored it. But Greensleeves is a completely different story of someone either like me, or who I might be someday. A Y.A. book, but they werent’ called that then, so I might have read it at 10 or at 16. Who knows?
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Liz Dexter
Jan 04, 2018 @ 08:21:00
Yes – when I was growing up, this might have been in the Teen section, which was one bookcase in the village library, no YA.
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Kat
Jan 02, 2018 @ 18:52:39
Oops, I meant you’re the only other person in the world who has read Greensleeves!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 03, 2018 @ 07:35:21
All good, knew what you meant!
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Naomi
Jan 08, 2018 @ 18:57:40
“White Ladies” and “Greensleeves” sound particularly good to me!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 09, 2018 @ 08:04:36
Both highly recommended; White Ladies might be harder to get hold of than Greensleeves, although there was a more recent reprint in paperback of many of the FBY novels.
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Hayley at RatherTooFondofBooks
Jan 13, 2018 @ 14:05:14
It sounds like you had a great reading year in 2017, and that you have some fab-sounding books lined up for 2018! I also have the Springsteen bio on my TBR and hope to read it this year. I’m intrigued by the Rough Trade book, I’m going to add that to my wish list. I love books about the music industry. Here’s to reading more great books this year!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 15, 2018 @ 09:31:45
It was good! I had to get the Rough Trade book second hand but there were a few copies around and it might be available from the library. At the moment I’m a bit stuck on a large review book and doing my Iris Murdoch for this month, but hope to get some good reading time in soon. Happy reading to you, too!
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Hayley at RatherTooFondofBooks
Jan 17, 2018 @ 17:25:29
I’ll have a look on second hand book websites to see if I can find a copy then, thanks. Hope you manage to get through the large review book soon, it can start to feel a bit daunting when you have a big review book to get through.
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