It’s that time again, number crunching and weighing up the good, the bad and the just ok.
Stats first: 104 books says Goodreads, 99 says my notebook. I don’t know why I bother. Every year there’s a discrepancy and this year it seems to be worse. Let’s say around 100, give or take somewhere.
The gender split is wider this year, I think. It’s usually around 60/40 but as you see above, this year is closer to 70/30 women to men. Other stats: 14 non-fiction, 14 rereads and 6 volumes of short stories.
And so to my choice of books this year. My reading theme was re-reads, books I’d had sat on the shelf that I planned to get back to at some point. This was as and when I fancied them and was a haphazard process. But my top five books, the ones that wowed me the most are:
Middlemarch – George Eliot
So many lists talk about books published this year. I seem to read fewer and fewer newly published books. I reread this in April and it remains the best book I’ve read this year. It’s pacier than you think it will be, it has huge humour and insight into the human condition and it spares no one in talking about foibles and mistakes made by passion or greed. It’s a great English novel. I may have to reread it every year.
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
And so to a great American novel, a retelling of a great English novel. Knowing this was based on David Copperfield was very helpful when I read it, as there were times when it felt so sad and bleak that the only thing to keep me reading was the knowledge there would be a happy ending. It is a stark look at the huge problems in the US from the drug trade, the legal and unchallenged routes into addiction and the total lack of support or regulation from the state in helping its own citizens. A terrific book, deserves all the plaudits.
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
I am late to loving Ann Patchett but fully committed to her. Her latest book is a quiet reflective look at a life that seems unremarkable but is made fascinating in the telling. The theme throughout is the great American play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, which addresses similar themes of ordinary lives rendered beautiful. Patchett set this during the Covid lockdown and uses the enforced family time to tell a history. It’s entirely built on character and quiet acts of love.
Idaho – Emily Ruskovich
I was surprised at this, a reading group choice but I keep thinking about it, even though we read it in early summer. Ostensibly about a terrible crime committed by one woman against her youngest child, it never dwells wholly on the horror of the crime itself but instead on the impact it made on others: the child’s father, his second wife, the first wife’s prison cellmate and a few otherwise peripheral souls. It’s a subtle psychological exploration of crime without any of the tawdry voyeurism that the genre can attract.
Somebody’s Fool – Richard Russo
The third in the Sully trilogy and the man himself has died, leaving his son Peter, his grandson Will and his friend Rub trying to get on without him. As with all great books, the supporting characters are strong enough to carry a story along without someone as boisterous and chaotic as Sully, and the town of North Bath is as troubled as ever. Understated on this side of the pond, Russo is one of my favourites.
A special mention to Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt which I keep spotting on the shelf and thinking was good, even though I can remember little of it; In the Blink of An Eye by Jo Callaghan which I did read last year but was published this year and is doing great things – I’m so glad as she deserves all the accolades; and Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron which was raw and honest and tough at times to read but I love her as much as her sister and am so glad she’s still with us.
What I’ve noticed this year is how much more I enjoy American novels to British ones and I can’t quite put my finger on why this is. But there seems to be a depth to American novels that I can’t find in English ones – where is our equivalent of someone like Ann Patchett, for example? Or Anne Tyler or Barbara Kingsolver? A lot of the English market appears to be dominated by thrillers – which I don’t read – or quirky books, which are alright but light. I need to seek out wider reading than the front tables in shops and find the ones of real interest – they don’t have to be bleak, in fact I’d rather they weren’t, but I do want some kind of meaning. I’m also happy to take recommendations so throw them my way.
In the meantime, my reading theme for next year is going to be to try and tackle the huge pile of unread books in the house. But instead of being random and useless about it, I’ve compiled them into a spreadsheet and will pick the next read using a random number generator. Let’s see how it works.
Moments of Pleasure
2024 – walking around Madrid, eating from their street food markets, seeing Guernica, enjoying their lovely street signs and general ambiance. The generosity behind the spectacle that is ABBA Voyage. Tears at hearing Shakespeare quoted at the end of seeing Hamnet at The Garrick.
Susan E Barsby 