Just a list for now -
I gave up competitive reading last year or the year before. By competitive reading I mean staying on top of at least the Booker, Giller and Governor General's award short lists reading, and ensuring I'd read all the year's Big New Books in a timely fashion. It was stressing me out - I felt like my reading was being directed by malevolent algorithms designed by publishers and colluded with by librarian hold requests. In other words, I was driving myself nuts and for what - a leisure activity?
Luminous this year: Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, which I wanted never to end; Miriam Toews' All My Puny Sorrows; and Ben H. Winters' dystopian trilogy beginning with The Last Policeman. I have a real aversion to those dystopian tales so it's a huge compliment to Winters' writing and his characterization that I read all three in the series.
(Just added: Robinson and MacLeod plus two more of the Ian Hamilton Ava Lee series - January 4, 2015. N.B. There are two 'started but not finished titles that should be included - Susan Delacourt's Shopping for Votes and Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan's Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out About Canada's Failing Democracy.)
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod (reread on the news of his death)
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - Ian Hamilton
The Two Sisters of Borneo - Ian Hamilton
Back When We Were Grownups - Anne Tyler (reread)
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan - Ian Hamilton
Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life - Trevor Cole
Boy, Snow, Bird - Helen Oyeyemi
Just One Evil Act - Elizabeth George
Small g - Patricia Highsmith
The Wildfire Season - Andrew Pyper
Emancipation Day - Wayne Grady
Fault Lines - Nancy Huston
The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir
When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley
Let Me Be Frank with You - Richard Ford
Benediction - Kent Haruf
The Emperor's Children - Claire Massud
The Last Life - Claire Messud
Digging to America - Anne Tyler
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Orenda - Joseph Boyden
The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout
The Shadow Girls - Henning Mankell
Bedtime Story - Robert J. Wiersma (reread)
Medicine Walk - Richard Wagamese
The Bear - Claire Cameron
The Land of Dreams - Vidar Sundstol
The Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny
The Last Policeman - Ben H. Winters
Evergreen - Rebecca Rasmussen
Hell Going - Lynn Coady
Countdown City - Ben H. Winters
World of Trouble - Ben H. Winters
Corduroy Mansions - Alexander McCall Smith
All My Puny Sorrows - Miriam Toews
Dead Politician Society - Robin Spano
Death Plays Poker - Robin Spano
The Second Deadly Sin - Asa Larsson
Until Thy Wrath Be Past - Asa Larsson
A Treacherous Paradise - Henning Mankell
A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Standing in Another Man's Grave - Ian Rankin
Trespass - Rose Tremain
Mount Pleasant - Don Gillmor
The Child's Child - Barbara Vine
All That Is - James Salter
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (reread)
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt (reread)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Helpless - Barbara Gowdy
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
The Betrayers - David Bezmozgis
Photo: You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. - Colette
No idea where I got this ornament, but I laughed when I read the quote. As long as I do them with enthusiasm, then.
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