This year I read 47 books; six were non-fiction and more than half (26) were audiobooks. Of the “print” books, most were on kindle, which is much easier for me to read than paper books. Three of these books had the pandemic as an important backdrop and each of them spoke of it in ways that I connected to. A good year of reading. Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman. I have listened to...
I read 46 books this year; eight were non-fiction, half as many as last year. This end-of-the year look at what I’ve written about the books reminds me that this was a year of wonderful books that have brought such joy to my life. About a month after my cataract surgery in August of 2021, I was comfortable reading again. I have found in the last year that books in print are much harder to...
This year I read 43 books, fewer than usual. Though I recovered quickly from cataract surgery, I wasn’t comfortable reading for a month. I read 16 non-fiction books; perhaps the higher percentage of non-fiction this year and last will continue. Intimations by Zadie Smith. The author wrote this short book of essays in May 2020 and noted that many books would be written about the pandemic. In...
This year I read 54 books, a few more than usual. There were periods when I could not read, finding myself too irritable and critical, and I gave up on a few books I am sure I would have loved in a different time. I read more non-fiction this year than usual (18) and find to my surprise that nearly half of my favorites are non-fiction books. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. While the first...
As I have in recent years, I read 50 books this year. Here are my favorites: The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay. This is an impressively told story demonstrating that privilege can give a person the power to harm others while intending to help them. The setting is Bangalore and Kashmir; I came away with the knowledge that understanding what has happened in that region is hard to come by. An American...
When three of my January reads made the favorite books list, I knew it was going to be a long list this year. Of my thirteen favorite books, five are by Australian writers. I read 50 books this year. Mr. Hogarth’s Will by Catherine Helen Spence. An Australian wrote this 1865 book in a writing style reminiscent of Jane Austen with the political sensibility of Ezra Klein, or perhaps...
I have now dropped the designation of 10 favorite books for the year as I usually have a larger number. This year I chose 11 of the 50 books I read. Four on my favorites list were among the ten books by Australians. As always these are books that I read this year, not necessarily published in 2017. The Boy Behind the Curtain by Tim Winton. I found this audiobook so appealing that I...
These are my favorites of the books I read in 2016. I read 50 books this year and 11 were by Australian writers. My initial list of favorites began with 17 titles and it was painful to reduce it to 11. The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra. Whenever I read my post about this book again, I am flooded with respect for this writer and with memories of the searing artistry of this book...
These are my my favorites of the books I read in 2015. I read a total of 48 books in 2015 and seven were by Australian authors. No. 4 Imperial Lane by Jonathan Weisman. This is the first novel for this political reporter for the New York Times, but you cannot tell it is a debut work. There are multiple plot lines and multiple settings in time and place, none of which was the present. The...
These are books I've read in 2014, not necessarily published this year. I read 47 books this year, of which 16 were by Australian authors. The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis. A successful and revered Israeli government minister flees with his young mistress when their affair is uncovered. They return to Russia where each grew up and land by chance in the household of the man who...