It's that time again! Time to excitedly tally up the books I've read this year, to mull over favorites, and think back to what was happening in my life around the time I was reading each book. (I can remember years better when I can look back and see what I was reading at a specific time.)
I have to say that this year my list is...not that impressive. A lot of things happened this year that were stressful and when I'm stressed I don't read very fast. I also did a lot of re-reading of books that I've read before, which I almost never do! I guess I've always felt sort of guilty doing that when I think about all the great books I haven't read yet. But this year it was so nice reading the new Murakami novel that I had to go back and read a few of his older books again, and it felt good. Sometimes you just have to read the books you're craving.
My favorites this year were Just Kids, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, State of Wonder, 1Q84, The Marriage Plot, and especially The Tiger's Wife.
What are some books you read this year?
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature by Alison Lurie
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #2: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino
Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
Villette by Charlotte Brontë (I don't know if this was a favorite but it's definitely one I keep thinking about)
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me compiled by Kate Bernheimer
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (another I wouldn't call a "favorite" but one I can't get out of my head)
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
The Twelve Chairs & The Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf & Yevgeni Petrov
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (Re-read. First read when I was 13 and I liked it to much better this time)
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (Re-read. First read in 2009)
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Re-read. First read in 2009)
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Woolgathering by Patti Smith
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Currently reading)
