I always wait until the new year to write up my prior year in books because it's sort of a tradition of mine to finish a book on New Year's Eve so I can start each new year with a new book. Last year I messed this up by starting a very long book on December 29, but this year I got back on track. I also slacked off on writing about the books I read last year, but this year I wrote about every single one, which I'm pretty happy about. Here is the list:
Thus Bad Begins, by Javier Marías
Life and Times of Michael K, by J.M. Coetzee
Augustus, by John Williams
To Each His Own, by Leonardo Sciascia
By a Slow River, by Philippe Claudel
The Proposal, by Jasmine Guillory
Pig Earth, by John Berger
Trick, by Domenico Starnone
The Accident, by Ismail Kadare
A Heart So White, by Javier Marías
Tristana, by Benito Pérez Galdós
The Time of the Doves, by Mercè Rodoreda
The Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman
The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing
Fludd, by Hilary Mantel
Probability Moon, by Nancy Kress
The White, by Deborah Larson
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Beauty Is a Wound, by Eka Kurniawan
Missing Person, by Patrick Modiano
Distant Star, by Roberto Bolaño
The She-Devil in the Mirror, by Horacio Castellanos Moya
Postcards from the Edge, by Carrie Fisher
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
Glory, by Vladimir Nabokov
Journey by Moonlight, by Antal Szerb
The Shape of Water, by Andrea Camilleri
The King of a Rainy Country, by Brigid Brophy
By the Ionian Sea, by George Gissing
The Invention of Truth, by Marta Morazzoni
The Wedding Party, by Jasmine Guillory
Zama, by Antonio di Benedetto
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam
Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford
Reef, by Romesh Gunesekera
Normal People, by Sally Rooney
84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
The View from Downshire Hill, by Elizabeth Jenkins
Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
Family Lexicon, by Natalia Ginzburg
Villa Triste, by Patrick Modiano
Winter in Lisbon, by Antonio Muñoz Molina
Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid
The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
Royal Holiday, by Jasmine Guillory
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
So, some stats: I read books from 18 countries this year (if we allow Homegoing for Ghana, which I still haven't decided whether I will allow myself in my world books project), plus Catalonia (I always feel I must distinguish Mercè Rodoreda from Spain since she wrote in Catalan). I read 22 books in translation, which seems a little low: usually it's closer to half the books I read, but I read a few international titles this year that were written in English (the Coetzee, Hamid, and Gunesekera, at a glance), which maybe accounts for the difference. I read 23 books by women, plus several more that were translated by women (something I started to think about earlier this year). This is maybe a little better than usual. I read three (or debatably four, if you include the Natalia Ginzburg) books of non-fiction - all memoirs - this year, which is very unusual for me. And I actually loved them all (the others are the Elizabeth Jenkins, the Helene Hanff, and the George Gissing, if you're wondering). Maybe I should read more in this vein. EDITED because I forgot one important stat: countries I haven't read before. I didn't do so great in this respect this year, but I got to Albania, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and China, plus Ghana with the caveat mentioned earlier.
My favorite book of the year is easy: Journey By Moonlight by Antal Szerb. Careful readers will have known this was coming, as I put it on my list of the ten best books I read in the last decade. Other highlights from the year include both the Modiano books (I went out and bought 2 more books of his just before the holidays - I can't wait to read more!); Normal People by Sally Rooney - I could not believe how good this was, even though I had heard so many good things about it!; Thus Bad Begins - I tweeted something to the effect that I was riding in a cab and suddenly remembered the twist in this book and gasped aloud; it was true; The King of a Rainy Country - I knew nothing about this book or its author and it turned out to be so good!; Augustus and The Song of Achilles, which I will pair as fictionalizations from ancient times; The Good Soldier, Homegoing, Trick ... okay, I'm stopping now. I read a lot of really good books this year!
