I had good intentions to blog all my reading in 2019. I didn't make it through February. Oh well.
The grand total this year was 36 books - which is a low number for me. But my work schedule this year was brutal and when I would get home I often found I didn't want to read. I read only one book in each of May, June and October and I read no books in September. I only read two books in each of February, April, November and December.
Mysteries - 15 Books.
As usual my reading this year was heavy on mysteries. My go-to relaxation genre is historical mysteries but I sometimes branch out to the present day. And I love mysteries that are part of a series.
I started out the year with the new Ian Rankin novel, "A House of Lies", which continues his series set in Scotland featuring (now retired) detective John Rebus. I actually managed to blog about that one.
One of my favorite authors, Charles Todd, sets his novels in the years immediately following World War I. He published two books this year: "The Black Ascot", a continuation of his Inspector Rutledge series, which I read in February and "A Cruel Deception", a continuation of his Bess Crawford Series, which I read in October. I usually enjoy Inspector Rutledge more than Bess, but this year I found Bess's case, set in France while the Paris peace talks are occuring, more interesting.
April brought me the next book in Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" series: "The American Agent." I like this series but am still disappointed it moved into the World War II era rather than stay in the 1920s post-World War I period. I also read "The Golden Tresses of the Dead" by Alan Bradley, part of the continuing saga of Flavia de Luce and her family. As Flavia gets older, she is finding that perhaps her sisters are not quite as bad as she imagined.
Another of my favorite series is the Amy Leduc series by Cara Black. Set in Paris in the 1990's, each novel takes place in a different portion of Paris. This one was "Murder in Bel-Air" and I read it in July. Any worries that making Amy a single mother would stunt her style have come to naught. Her adventures are just as enjoyable. And she still wears her Chanel red lipstick.
August was a big month. I read (i) "A Better Man" by Louise Penny, the next book in her Inspector Gamache series that takes place in Quebec, (ii) The Stone Circle" by Elly Griffiths, whose main character is an archaeologist, and (iii)" Invitation to Die" by Lindsey Davis, who sets her stories in the Rome of the Emperor Domitian. August also saw the return of Kate Atkinson's detective, Jackson Brodie, in "Big Sky." I am a big Kate Atkinson fan and have loved her recent stand-alone literary fiction. But it was nice to see Jackson again. Denise Mina's "Conviction" is probably more of a crime novel than a mystery but I'm including it here. And while Laura Lippman writes mysteries, I think "Lady in the Lake" was more of a straight novel than a mystery or a crime novel. But I put it here. And I really enjoyed it.
Amy Stewart's "Miss Kopp" series is another favorite. Stewart bases her novels on a real person who lived and worked in New Jersey. In November I finally read "Kopp Sisters on the March", set in the United States during World War I. It was very much a transition book and I hope that Miss Kopp will be able to transition to war-intelligence work as she wants to. That would be a great next book in the cycle.
In December, I read another of the Lindsey Davis series, " A Capitol Death" which involved deaths near the Capitoline Hill in Rome. I finished the year with John Le Carre's latest novel, "Agent Running in the Field" which is technically a spy thriller but I'm lumping in with the mysteries. No better end to the year than Le Carre's prose.
All in all, it was a good year for mysteries. There wasn't one that I didn't enjoy.
Other Fiction - 18 Books
My year in literary and other fiction was a little more mixed.
I started my year with "Early Work" by Andrew Martin, "Assymetry" by Lisa Halliday and "Milkman" by Anna Burns. I blogged about them. I still think "Milkman" was one of the best books I read all year.
In March I read "The Friend" by Sigrid Nunez, a story about a woman, her ex-lover and his dog. It didn't have nearly enough dog. I also read "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. I enjoyed it but wasn't as wowed by it as everyone else seemed to be. It definitely seemed like a first novel for the author. Her secondary characters seemed thin and sometimes she seemed to be stretching things for plot-purposes. But her descriptive prose is unmatched. I also read "Hild" by Nicola Griffith which is a work of historical fiction that takes place in the seventh century. I think it is part of a planned trilogy. I had mixed feelings about it (good writing about a period I knew little about but undeveloped secondary characters) and I'm not sure I would read the sequels.
In May I read "Queenie" by Candace Carly Williams, the story of a young black woman in London who keeps dating white men (it's more complicated than that). I enjoyed it but I really think I was too old for it. I kept thinking how glad I was to be past the angst of my 20s.
"Night Film" by Marisha Pessl was my June reading. What a weird novel. I read to the end but I didn't like it.
July found me reading "Once Upon a River" by Diane Setterfield which was a ... strange ... story. This is the second novel by Setterfield I've read and I like the way she writes but I never quite believe her ... strange ... stories. I also read "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng, which may have been my second favorite book this year. I should have read it when it came out in 2017. I also read Rachel Kushner's "The Mars Room" of which I remember next to nothing. (I'm shocked by that, but even googling to read a summary doesn't refresh much of my memory). And then there was
"The Whole Town's Talking" by Fannie Flagg. It was typical Fannie Flagg but I didn't hate it.
August was my big reading month. My favorite read of the month was "Evvie Drake Starts Over" by Linda Holmes. It combined a nice writing style with baseball. I feel sure it will be made into a movie. Which I will go see. "Fleishman is in Trouble" by Taffy Brodesser-Akner was another good read, although I didn't care for the story as much as the writing style. "There There" by Tommy Orange was a critics pick but I didn't enjoy it at all. Maybe there was too much real life gun violence this year for me to want to read about fictional gun violence. I don't know where I got the recommendation to read "Everything Under" by Daisy Johnson. I'd probably read another of her books even though I didn't care much for the plot of this one (which is based on the plot of Oedipus). I finished the month with Jane Gardam's "A Long Way From Verona." You can never go wrong with Jane Gardam.
The last book of literary fiction that I read this year, which I finished in November, was "Inland" by Tea Obreht. I don't know what to say about this. It had really good reviews and I continually felt that I SHOULD like it, but every time I put it down I would not pick it up again for days, sometimes weeks. Part of the problem was that I was so busy at work. But part of it was that I just didn't really care what happened to the characters. So I'd say it was a "fail" for me.
Miscellaneous - 3 Books
"The Misunderstood Mission of Jean Nicolet" by Patrick J. Jung, which I blogged about it.
"The Oddysey" translated by Emily Wilson. I read this very slowly and finished it in March. Of course I already knew the story but it was nice to read a woman's translation.
"I Love to Watch" by Emily Nussbaum, a collection of essays about TV.
That's it for 2019. I could make a resolution to read more (and blog more about the books I read) but I don't want to promise myself more than I will really do. But I do hope that I find more time to read in 2020.
