Looking back on what I've blogged about in the last year, I've had a chance to catch up with some amazing books, as well as to discover some talented writers like Curtis Sittenfeld.
Here's a list of favorites, along with links to my posts about them:
The Raising by Laura Kasischke
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
And then there were some books that almost made the best of the best list. I enjoyed them, but not quite as wholeheartedly as the others:
The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (Amazing narrative voice in an utterly chaotic and violent world.)
Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid (I loved her decision to relocate the action to the Edinburgh Book Festival. I just wasn't as impressed by her translation of the Gothic.)
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
One last book that I enjoyed, but didn't quite love, was Alice McDermott's Someone. I appreciated the quietly observant narrative voice, and the fact that it was an absorbing book where very little happened. It starts to fall apart, though, in the last quarter when McDermott starts bringing in more dramatic plot points, as though she felt like she needed to speed up the action for the conclusion.
As for the so-so, or even terrible, books, I've already had my say about them.
Now I'm just wondering what I should read next...
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