As the Three Wise Ducks bring gifts of oil, dynamite and a first aid kit to a baby owl in a canoe, watched over by a flock of rabbits, goats, deer and sea creatures, while a little devil lurks in nearby trees, we will be opening pressies and eating coconut ice.
Another reading year comes to a close with the now obligatory round up of all the books I have read this year (or strictly since the last roundup in December 2011, War and Peace had been on the go since 2010). I am a terribly nostalgic person and like thinking back to the books I enjoyed. So 63 books, thirteen of them audiobooks. Most unexpected read of the year was 22/11/63 by Stephen King which I loved, but I think the best of the year has to be The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville. I have loved all the Orange prize winners and have yet to be disappointed by anything that has come from either the long or short lists.
War and Peace by Leo Tostoy
At Paradise Gate by Jane Smiley
So Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
How it all Began by Penelope Lively
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewyka
Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
So He Takes the Dog by Jonathan Buckley
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
11/22/63 by Stephen King
There But For The by Ali Smith
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
15 Days Without a Head byDave Cousins
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
The Finishing School by Muriel Spark
Nothing to do but Stay by Carrie Young
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
The Sealed Letter byEmma Donoghue
Canal Dreams by Iain Banks
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
This is Paradise by Will Eaves
The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
Home By Marilynne Robinson
How to Breathe Under Water by Julie Orringer
26a by Diana Evans
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Walking Home by Simon Armitage
Dog by John Hegley
Herland by Charlotte Gilman Perkins
I Have Waited and You Have Come by Martine McDonagh
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamada Ngozi Adichie
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Out of Breath by Julie Meyerson
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
A Pale View of the Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Poems Before and After by Miroslav Holub
The Secret Intensity of Every Day Life by William Nicholson
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Quiet by Susan Cain
On Trying to Keep Still by Jenny Diski
Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
A Mile of River by Judith Allnatt
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
On Writing by Stephen King
The Diary of Frida Kahlo
Unthinkable skies by Juliet Wilson
I am in awe. I used to look forward to our kids growing up so we would have more time to read and talk about what we were reading. And rather unfortunately my brain has stopped working. I guess it is a good thing I have your blog to read instead. :)
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