Tag: best books of the year

13th Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 8 Comments

When I started blogging, I decided to list my top ten books of the year at my anniversary instead of close to the calendar new year so that I would have reviewed a year’s worth of books. It’s that time again. My actual anniversary is tomorrow, but that’s not usually a book blogging day for me. This year for perhaps the first time, I haven’t had multiple books by the same author to choose between. Also unusual for me because I read so many vintage books, most the books on this list were published recently. Unusual for me, too, is that half the books are written by men.

I was only reviewing three books a week last year, so that made the list of Top Ten books a bit shorter than usual but a little easier to choose from.

It was really an excellent year for historical fiction for me. Of the ten books I chose, six are historical, one is dystopian, two vintage contemporary, and one contemporary fiction. Of the historical fiction books, one was set in the 18th century, one in the 19th century, three in the 20th century, and one spans the time between the 17th century and the present.

So, here they are, in the order that I reviewed them:

12th Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 12 Comments

Today I’ve been blogging for twelve years, which means it’s time for my anniversary post, where I list my top 10 books of this year of blogging. This year I found it much more difficult to pick this list than in previous years. Working from my Best of Ten list, I had several cases of more than one book by the same author that I had to choose between. I also didn’t have as many books that I was absolutely sure would end up in my top ten for the year as I usually do. (When I’m sure, I mark them in purple on my list.)

Of the books I’ve chosen, six are historical novels, three are vague as to time, and only one is clearly contemporary, but harks back to the 1970s (which some of us can remember). Eight are by women. This is an international group of novels. I’ve chosen books set in far northern Canada, islands off the coast of Denmark and in the Moluccas, France, Iceland, Michigan, Texas, and Ireland. My choices are by Canadian, Danish, American, Icelandic, Indo-European, French, and Irish authors. Seven of the books were written relatively recently, while three are older books. This year, all are novels.

So, in the order in which they appeared on my blog, here are my top ten books of the year:

  1. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
  2. The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
  3. The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
  4. Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
  5. The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût
  6. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
  7. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
  8. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
  9. The Child and the River by Henri Bosco
  10. Foster by Claire Keegan

11th Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 12 Comments

It’s my 11th anniversary for this blog, and as is my habit, I am using it to post my top ten books of the year. This year’s books are all fiction, which isn’t unusual. What is unusual is that six of them are historical novels, and a few others are partially historical. Only one is set in the current time (the other nonhistorical novels in the recent past). Of the historical novels, most are set in the 20th century, but one each is set in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Five of the books are by women, five by men, and two involve the supernatural. Four books are set in the United States, two in Scotland, and one each in Australia, Madagascar, France, and an island in the Indian Ocean off what would become Australia.

This year’s choice was difficult, because I read some really good books, but here they are, in the order in which I posted the reviews:

Here’s wishing you a year of happy reading!

10th Anniversary Post! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 18 Comments

Whoo hoo! It’s my 10th blogging anniversary! As is my habit, I am posting my Top Ten of the Year for this post. I make these selections from the Best of Ten lists throughout the year, and this year, some things stand out about those selections. For one thing, I had several repeat authors this year, Jess Kidd, Rumer Godden, Claire Fuller, and Maggie O’Farrell. Since I limit my Top Ten of the Year list to only one book by an author, that makes for some more difficult picking.

This year’s list is another mixed bag. Three of them are classic novels, written in the first half of the 20th century. Two are set at least partially in the future, and both of them strongly feature trees. One is a reworking of the Oedipus myth. One has a touch of the fantastic. Two are historical novels, and two are partly historical. One is a Pulitzer Prize winner. One is set in Kashmir, one partially in the Orient, one in Washington state, and one in Malaya and Australia. It was a great reading year.

Anyway, here they are, in order of when I reviewed them:

Ninth Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 25 Comments

Here it is my ninth anniversary for this blog, and as is my custom, I am posting my top ten of the books I reviewed this year.

This year is much more of a mixed bag than last year. I have selected a classic science fiction novel, several contemporary novels, several historical novels, a couple of older classic novels, and even one ghost story. Although a few nonfiction novels made it to my periodic best book posts, I selected all fiction books this time. I read one of the books on the list for the Literary Wives blogging club and another for one of my projects, the Booker prize project.

So, with no more ado, here is my top ten list, in the order that I reviewed the books:

Eighth Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 8 Comments

It’s that time of year again, my blog anniversary and the post in which I pick the ten best books I’ve reviewed this year. As always, it’s a difficult choice. Basically, it usually comes down to the ten books that are most memorable to me.

This year, most of the books were historical novels. There are lots of good ones around lately, but also I think maybe I’ve been reading more of them. No nonfiction, I’m afraid, although I have read some good ones.

So, with no further ado, here they are, in order of my reviews:

  1. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
  2. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
  3. Minds of Winter by Ed O’Loughlin
  4. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  5. The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley
  6. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
  7. Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
  8. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  9. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanigihara
  10. Milkman by Anna Burns

Top Ten Books for 2018-19!

~ whatmeread ~ 8 Comments

Cover for The Forty Days of Musa DaghSince it is my blog anniversary today, I follow my tradition of posting my top ten books that I reviewed during the previous year. This year was a difficult one, because I had three books by Dorothy Whipple appearing in my Best of Five series, and my rule is to select only one book by an author in my year’s top ten.

As usual, this is a mixed bag of books, combining one nonfiction and one short story collection with several classic books and only one contemporary one (if you don’t count multigenerational sagas). Historical novels feature quite heavily this year.

So, with no further ado except a comment that this year I decided to list them in backwards order from when they were posted, here are my top ten books for this year:

Cover for The Weight of Ink

  1. The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
  2. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel
  3. They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
  4. Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
  5. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
  6. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
  7. Coming into the Country by John McPhee
  8. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
  9. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
  10. Atonement by Ian McEwan

Sixth Anniversary! Ten Best Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 10 Comments

Cover for BenedictionIt’s that time again, the sixth anniversary of this blog and time to post my top ten picks of the previous year. As always, this is a difficult task. Although I try to evaluate books by their genre—that is, I’m not expecting the same things from mysteries or historical fiction as I am from literary fiction—what my judgment really boils down to is which books I found most affecting or impressed me the most.

This year’s list includes two nonfiction books, three classics, one speculative fiction, and two historical fiction books. I would also count at least six of the novels as literary fiction, including Kent Haruf’s last novel. So, here are my top 10 books from the ones I reviewed this year, in the order that I reviewed them:

Fifth Anniversary! Top Ten Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 12 Comments

Cover for History of the RainAs I do on all my anniversaries, today is the day I list the ten best books that I reviewed this year. This list is always difficult. I do not favor any particular genres but simply select the ten books I enjoyed most during the previous year. I won’t pick more than one book by the same author.

So, in no order except the one in which I reviewed them, here is my top 10 list!

Fourth Anniversary! 10 Best Books of the Year!

~ whatmeread ~ 14 Comments

Cover for The WakeAs on my previous blog anniversaries, here is my annual post of the 10 best books I read this year. As always, this list involves some tough choices. For example, if I read more than one terrific book by the same author during the year, I only pick one, and that choice may be fairly arbitrary.

These books aren’t listed in any particular order, just the order that I reviewed them. They can be from any genre and from any time period. There are some classics as well as new books on this year’s list. Again, unusually, this year’s list contains one nonfiction book (The Warmth of Other Suns) and one book of short stories (Family Furnishings).