A Book List

This is a list of all the great books I’ve read this year.

In no particular order:

1. Donna Tartt, “The Goldfinch” – a great novel that will probably take you some time to read, but which is totally worth it. See my review of it, if you want to.

2. Elizabeth Jane Howard’s “Cazalet” series – if you haven’t read this, or even heard of it, it’s one of those big, sweeping family sagas that goes across five books (the fifth one of which has only just been brought out). If you have a lot of spare time on your hands then I highly recommend this one.

3. Margaret Atwood, “Maddadam” – actually I was a little bit disappointed with this one, but I thought I’d better include it anyway because it’s Margaret Atwood and because it is the long awaited conclusion to her sci-fi (ish) trilogy.

4. Matt Haig, “The Humans” – a funny, sad and touching book about being an alien on planet Earth and trying to understand human life. If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t belong here and no one else could possibly understand you, read this book.

5. Gavin Extence, “The Universe vs. Alex Woods” – an entertaining read with a good ironic streak and a sad ending.

6. Michael Chabon, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” – this book is the best thing I have ever read that had anything remotely to do with comic books. It’s about the ascendancy of two Jewish comic book creators in New York around the time of the Second World War. Basically they are called upon to design a rival for Superman, which they succeed in doing against a backdrop of wartime worries and unseen atrocities. It’s a great book, honestly.

7. Ruth Ozeki, “A Tale For The Time Being” – I wanted more from this in the end, and would have liked it to go on a bit longer, but the story had me gripped all the way through and, I have to say, I think it was worth reading. It’s about a Japanese girl who sends her diary out into the world in a Hello Kitty lunchbox, sort of like a message in a bottle, to be found by another woman on the Canadian coast. Cue the obsessive reading of the diary and the need for said finder to locate the girl so she can a) give it back to her and, b) make sure she’s ok. It’s an interesting read, certainly, and has a lot to say about the nature of time and the medium of writing. It also references Marcel Proust quite heavily.

8. Ransom Riggs, “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” – what can I say, this one’s just plain weird. The next instalment is out next year and I can’t wait to read it.

9. Susan Hancock, “The Peastick Girl” – I read this one as a review copy and thought it was great. Very subtle story about a woman with psychological problems. Very well written.

10. Edwina Preston, “The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer” – Also a review copy. Great if you loved things like Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus” or if you love anything that features a travelling circus of any description.

11. Charles Dickens, “Martin Chuzzlewit” – Ok this is a long one, but it’s a classic and I love the characters. I read it very easily and would quite happily have gone back to the beginning when I finished it and started again, but I had other things to move on to, not least . . .

12. Charles Dickens, “Our Mutual Friend” – whose characters are not as rich as the ones in “Martin Chuzzlewit”, in my own opinion, but which still has a highly compelling story and which kept me hooked up until the end.

13. Marcus Sedgwick, “She is Not Invisible” – This is a new book, out this year, and it’s written for children, but it has a complex structure that hinges on the number 354, and which tells the story of a blind girl and her little brother who go all the way from the UK to America on their own in order to save their dad who they know to be missing. It’s a great story, well told and I highly recommend it to everyone.

14. Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., “Kick Ass” – I LOVED this! I don’t really go in for comic books much, you know the sort of superhero, traditional comic strip stuff, but graphic novels about superheroes can sometimes be really cool and “Kick Ass” just has a bit of a twist on what we think of as the traditional superhero story. It plays with the clichés a little bit and, really wonderfully, it gives most of the action to the girl character, Hit Girl, who I love completely; I think she rocks. There is also a sequel (or prequel, I’m not quite sure), all about Hit Girl, which is also fabulous and I think there will be more out next year.

15. David Jason’s Autobiography – Ok so, if you’re outside the UK, you might not know what this is, or who David Jason is – but then again, you might if you have BBC America or something. He’s a very famous television actor and more prominent in comedy than anything else. He’s also a national institution in the UK and he’s finally written a book all about his life as he is now, I think, in his early 80s and has something of a story to tell. He’s great and the book is great, so much so that I spent hours reading it and found that I’d lost half a day (which, for someone who usually gets bored with autobiographies by about page 20, is pretty good going).

16. Neil Gaiman, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” – This was a weird one. But I love Neil Gaiman and all his books are pretty weird in some way or another. I’m not sure I totally understood the plot, because I read it very quickly, but I think it’s supposed to be semi-autobiographical and, in true Gaiman style, it keeps you reading to the end.

17. R.J. Palacio, “Wonder” – This is a short book for kids that kept me gripped all the way through. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s an inspiring story of the kind that doesn’t make you feel sick or humbled, but which really makes you feel the necessity to recognize brilliant people for who they are and not what they look like. This is a story about a boy who has had to have several facial reconstructions following a birth defect. He goes to school, finally, after being home-schooled for some years, and is treated largely as you might expect him to be treated by the other kids. It’s a coming of age story that is really all about overcoming the cruelty of school, with a bit of a twist thrown in. The ending is uplifting as well.

18. Stephen Chbosky, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” – Ok, I read this purely because I was going to watch the movie and I thought that I should check out the book first. I didn’t expect to like it just because it’s all about the teenage years and how hard it is to be a 17 year old etc. etc. But, boy was I surprised! This is a gem of a book that had me turning the pages so fast I think I got paper-cuts on my fingers. I read the whole book in one sitting and loved it. It’s witty, it’s got great dialogue, the character dynamic just works. (And yes, I saw the film and thought that was great too, but this book was SO much better than any movie!) It’s a must read. I promise you.

19. Marian Keyes, “The Mystery of Mercy Close” – Chick-lit, as they call it, is not something I generally read. (I went through a phase of reading it in my teens and then, snobbishly, turned my back on it forever in order to pursue higher things.) But Marian Keyes is a writer that I LOVE (emphasis there) with a passion because she’s just so bloody witty. Her writing is smart, clever, funny, and addictive. If you haven’t read her before then you won’t know, but you must try her books. This one here is the last book to complete a set of five (I think it’s five anyway) that cover the lives of the fictional Walsh sisters. I first read “Watermelon” (the first of the five) when I was about 14 and, even though it was really meant for grown-up women with all its sexual references and its context of post-marital-break-up, I howled with laughter and cried at the sad bits all the same. I really think she’s worth reading, so go, read!

And finally,

20. Bryan Talbot, “Grandville Mon Amour” – This is another graphic novel, very well drawn and just, brilliant to read. It’s about a detective in Victorian England – who also happens to be a badger with a shady past and a broken heart. It’s beautiful to look at and has a great story. Kids will love it, too I think, but, speaking as a grown-up, I couldn’t put it down!

Ok I’m going to stop at 20 now, because I think it’ll just go on and on otherwise, but just let me say that there have been some great books around this year, and I have read plenty that were great (new or old), across this twelve month span of 2013. I’m really looking forward to next year now so that I can get cracking on all the new stuff that’s going to come out and, although the highlight of this year for me has to be Donna Tartt’s new book – the likes of which we probably won’t see again for at least another decade because she is a painfully slow writer it seems – I think next year is going to be great.

Let me know on Twitter what you’ve been reading this year (@Authorlady2013); if you like my choices, or agree/disagree with my appraisals of them. I’m interested to know what you think of this year’s books and maybe you’ll tell me what you’re excited to read next year.

Have a good one guys