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threeplusfireI read a lot this year. More than years previous. A lot of random things. I picked up books in the library because I was browsing a letter of the alphabet for authors or because I liked the cover. (Or in the case of Good Christian Bitches because the cover was so horrible and funny.)
Best books I read this year:
Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt - a lovely, beautiful novel about growing up.
Complication by Isaac Adamson - an author I enjoy writing a mystery set in a city I love.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - family drama, beautiful art.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick - sobering history.
You Are One of Them by Elliot Holt - Cold War paranoia and the weird magical places of memory.
Ash by Malinda Lo - reinventing Cinderella.
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon - Think Downton Abbey but better, snarkier.
Long Live The King by Fay Weldon - the second in the series, more snark, more wonderful.
Most favorite book of the year:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
This book is so beautifully written it makes me want to cry with envy. It's also an excellent story about lives twirled together by geography and happenstance and war. It is exquisite. I ended up buying a copy of this after I returned my library copy because I know I will want to read it again.
Worst books I read this year:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - I was surprised by how boring and flat this was. I've liked some of his other work. It just didn't work for me.
Dracula in Love by Karen Essex - you know a book is unbearable when even vampire sex scenes won't make it worthwhile. Seriously terrible.
Out of the 252 books I read this year:
135 were written or edited by women
14 were non-fiction
74 were graphic novels/manga volumes
Best books I read this year:
Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt - a lovely, beautiful novel about growing up.
Complication by Isaac Adamson - an author I enjoy writing a mystery set in a city I love.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - family drama, beautiful art.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick - sobering history.
You Are One of Them by Elliot Holt - Cold War paranoia and the weird magical places of memory.
Ash by Malinda Lo - reinventing Cinderella.
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon - Think Downton Abbey but better, snarkier.
Long Live The King by Fay Weldon - the second in the series, more snark, more wonderful.
Most favorite book of the year:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
This book is so beautifully written it makes me want to cry with envy. It's also an excellent story about lives twirled together by geography and happenstance and war. It is exquisite. I ended up buying a copy of this after I returned my library copy because I know I will want to read it again.
Worst books I read this year:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - I was surprised by how boring and flat this was. I've liked some of his other work. It just didn't work for me.
Dracula in Love by Karen Essex - you know a book is unbearable when even vampire sex scenes won't make it worthwhile. Seriously terrible.
Out of the 252 books I read this year:
135 were written or edited by women
14 were non-fiction
74 were graphic novels/manga volumes