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| Photo courtesy of Oprah Magazine |
The New York Times
The New Yorker
The Washington Post
Publisher's Weekly
And I have read
ZERO
Not a single book. Ouch! Not that this is unusual for me--I tend to run a year or two behind the times, assuming I get there at all. One of my personal top ten books of 2019 was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which made lists in 2017!
I give myself a tiny pat on the back for actually having bought ONE of the listed books for this year, Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo, which is also the co-winner of the Booker Prize. It is, in fact, next up on my reading list.
There were others that piqued my interest; The Club, by Leo Damrosch, a nonfiction book about Boswell and Johnson; Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, another nonfiction, this one about Northern Ireland and the Troubles; Black Leopard, Red Wolfe by Marlon James, a fantasy novel inspired by African mythology; Strangers and Cousins, a comedic novel by Leah Hager Cohen; and The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy.
I won't take bets on whether I'll get to any of them any time soon, but they will at least be on my radar.
REDS and readers, I challenge you! Have you read any of these listed books, or books from other BEST lists? If you have, what do you recommend? And if not, do any tempt you?
(I haven't dared look at the MYSTERY lists. I'm afraid I would bury my head under my to-read pile...)
Phew! I was beginning to panic!
ReplyDeleteI’ve read John Grisham’s “The Guardian” [listed in best mysteries from the New Washington Post] and Alex Michaelides’s “The Silent Patient [from Publisher’s Weekly’s. Mystery and Thriller list]. I have Ruth Ware’s “The Turn of the Key” [also mentioned in the Washington Post’s mystery/thriller list] somewhere in my to-be-read pile, but as far as those lists are concerned, I haven’t read any of their “best of the year” books. . . . .
Who makes these lists, anyway? None of the books I enjoyed the most are here. :(
The lists by the four sources you listed, Debs, are seldom ones from which I read. Of course, with 99% of my reading being mystery and crime, the fiction lists are especially untouched by me. Occasionally I'll hit upon one, but not often. I have enjoyed all the mystery/crime lists coming out by my fellow bloggers, and I'm happy when I've read some of what they count as their favorites. My list for The Reading Room, my blog, will be out by Monday. I'm trying to finish up some 2019 reading this weekend. I actually enjoy that other mystery/crime readers have some different books than I do on my favorites' list, as it encourages me to explore those I haven't read.
ReplyDeleteCheer up, Deb. Kate Atkinson's Big Sky made the Washington Post's Best Thrillers and Mysteries List, so there's one you've read. I haven't even gotten to that one yet, and it came to me from a source I trust far more than I do these lists. I was intrigued to note that only a handful of books made more than one list, which tells you how subjective the whole enterprise was.
ReplyDeleteI did love Big Sky. That would definitely make my BEST list for the year, mystery or otherwise.
DeleteI forgot about Kate atkinson, add that to my list too. No one said we couldn't have 11, right?
DeleteI don't even try. I can barely get through my TBR pile of books friends have written!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm usually reading back list, right now I'm in my 2013 TBR. Really the only one from those lists that intrigues me is "Yellow House" by Sarah M Broom. I've heard the author talk about it a couple times in podcasts and it sounds interesting, and different from my usual fare.
ReplyDeleteI thought that sounded interesting, too.
DeleteI've read none of the books on the links in the blog, however, when I clicked on the thriller and mystery link, I read two of the books on the list.
ReplyDeleteI pay no attention to lists. My top reads for 2019 include: Ann Cleeves, The Long Call, Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing, and SJ Rozan, Paper Son. I read as a writer, learning how to establish place as a character (thank you, PD James) and insert my protagonist into the setting.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, The Long Call was one of my favorites this year.
DeleteMine, too!
DeleteDelia Owens is a phenomenon. 70 years old, debut novel, on the NYT best seller list for something like 60+ weeks now, usually in first place and never dropping below third, and has outsold in hardback the combined 2019 sales of Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and someone else whose name escapes me. Probably the Bible. Reminds me of Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell.
DeleteThe Long Call was one of my favorites, too. I keep thinking Where the Crawdads Sing is one of those books I "should" read, just as I "should" eat kale. Am I wrong? Am I missing something extraordinary?
DeleteGigi, you need a certain mindset to read Crawdads. Owens is a naturalist and her best writing is about the birds, plants, and marshes of coastal Carolina. Her plot is not well organized, and moves from almost a meditative languid pace to a brisk, one chapter summing up the Marsh Girl's adult life. She was abused by her father, which was also predictable. And there wasn't one snake or alligator in the whole book, though it's the Carolinas.
DeleteGigi, I wasn’t impressed at first, but as it went along, I got all wrapped up in it. Yes she was abused by her father and yes that was predictable. Just like it is with so many girls. Sad that abuse is predictable isn’t it.
DeleteI don't even have to look at the list to know I haven't read any of them. I don't really look at those sources. But I do take recommendations from Kristopher and Dru Ann. I've read several on their lists from this year, a few more are still in the TBR pile, and I just added a couple more. This is why I never get to everything on my TBR pile. =)
ReplyDeleteI've decided I can't die until I've read all my books. So now I'm immortal, right?
DeleteI've read none of the books listed but I don't care for lists and I don't choose books from lists.
ReplyDeleteI don't even choose from bestsellers in display, I firstly buy the books from authors that I love ( Reds are included here ) and then books presented in this blog or in Bolo Books blog.
The other books come from my public library and are not always recently published. So what ? They are good books.
I haven't read any of them either but I don't feel bad about it at all! On one of the best mystery lists I have read one, Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware and I did not like it at all. But probably anyone who liked books like Gone Girl and other "girl" books would like it.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to finish a Ruth Ware book.
DeleteSo far, we are a bunch of rebels, I think!
ReplyDeleteI will read almost anything, including cereal boxes. Still, nothing on these lists appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteShalom Reds and readers. I looked at the lists. A few months back, one of my websites (probably a library site) offered a free first chapter preview of the book, No Visible Bruises. I read it and put a hold on it on the library site. I think I took it off the hold list after taking stock of my TBR which has been threatening to drown me.
ReplyDeleteI finished reading or listening to 10 books total this last year. Somewhat off my usual pace. They were not all published in 2019.
1. Steve McQueen, by Greg Laurie. (3 stars)
2. Maid, by Stephanie Land (4 stars)
3. Spies of No Country, by Matti Friedman (5 stars)
4. The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish (4 stars)
5. There Was an Old Woman, by Hallie Ephron (4 stars)
6. Word to the Wise, by Jenn McKinlay (4 stars)
7. Jewish in America, by Richard L. Rubin (4 stars)
8. Tevye the Milkman, by Sholom Aleichem (5 stars)
9. Trust Me, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (4 stars)
10. Five-Carat Soul, by James McBride (4 stars)
The authors are five men and five women. The books are six fiction and four non-fiction. Four of the books are about Jewish topics (2 fiction, 2 non-fiction). Spies of No Country as a paperback was given to me as an Advance Reader Copy by the Jewish Book Council. My stepmother gave me the copy of Jewish in America, having bought it at signing/lecture. (She thought it would be of interest to me because the author taught at Swarthmore College.) I own a hard copy and an audio copy of Trust Me. The rest I own or borrowed from the library as audio or e-books.
Five stars means I consider it either a classic (must read) or a page-turner that I could hardly put down. Four stars means I enjoyed the book thoroughly and would recommend it. Greg Laurie’s book about Steve McQueen was a good book, but nothing to write home about.
Tevye the Milkman, I sought out because I was listening to a series of lectures about this work, given by renowned scholar Ruth Wisse at the behest of the Tikvah Center.
This year I started several books without finishing them. I think they were all good books. I just got distracted. They are still on my TBR list.
David, I have The Weight of Ink on my Kindle but haven't got to it yet. I thought it sounded good.
DeleteI'm very impressed by your record keeping. I always say I'm going to keep track of the books I read during the year and then I get busy and forget. Maybe this year!
I use Goodreads to keep track. (Although, I think Amazon bought them several years ago.) I think my mother would have liked The Weight of Ink.
DeleteI read "The Nickel Boys". That's it! And I read 54 books this year.
ReplyDeleteThere are SO MANY BOOKS! I have in my TBR Trust Exercise and Nickel Boys and Solitary. Does “in the pile” count?
ReplyDelete( And delighted that THE MURDER LIST has made several “Best of” lists for which I am endlessly endlessly thrilled and delighted! Oh—it makes me SO HAPPY!)
But the literary lists make me so....unworthy. As if I didn’t do my homework. :-)
Jay, I read The Weight of Ink this year, too. It was a good read.
ReplyDeleteDespite having read well over 150 books this year (fewer than usual, because of the new house), I have not read a single title from any of the "best" lists. Heck, I just finally got to The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey two weeks ago. (Well worth the wait.) The closest to a current bestseller I've read is The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. Wow, what a story. Riveting.
My recordkeeping this past year was nonexistent, largely because of the way both Kindle and Nook organize titles. It's not easy to list "read" or "unread" books in any cohesive fashion, which really makes no sense, since it's all electronic. It should be easier, right? And since we moved in the middle of the year, my normal way of keeping track of physical books I've read has gotten all muddled, too.
Surprisingly, I found that I have read, or reserved, or acquired nearly all the books on the Toronto Public Library's list of most checked-out/reserved books in their catalogue this year.
ReplyDeletehttps://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/bookbuzz/2019/12/what-toronto-read-in-2019.html
I read a bit more than the average person, and I never write nor do anything else that is useful. So here's my list from the lists Debs posted:
ReplyDeleteDISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips ***** If you can read just one book, make it this one.
GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER ***** by Bernadine Evaristo It didn't win the Booker for nothing.
My own list, excluding Jungle Reds, because, well, just because I won't play favorites. These are in no particular order. If I include one written before 2019, it's because 2019 is when I read it and it's MY list!
THE SACRAMENT, Olaf Olafsson *****
YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY, Steph Cha *****
UNSPEAKABLE THINGS, Jess Lourey *****
THE GIVER OF STARS, Jojo Moyes *****
THE DUTCH HOUSE, Ann Patchett *****
OLIVE, AGAIN, Elizabeth Stout *****
THE INSTITUTE, Stephen King ****************
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, Nina Stibbe *****
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, Oyinkan Braithwaite *****
CARI MORA, Thomas Harris *****
I chose these books because they are ones I shall read again. They resonated with me at one level or another. And if you haven't read the newest Stephen King, THE INSTITUTE, stop what you're doing and read it right now. It ranks up there with THE STAND and THE SHINING in my opinion.
My reading is eclectic, maybe 2/3 mysteries and the rest "literary" -- hate that term -- novels, with a few non-fiction tossed in, too. At present I'm into Olaf Olafsson, a male and Icelandic version of Liane Moriarty. No sh*t, Sherlock.
Thanks so much for this, Ann! I will add Disappearing Earth to my must-reads. And since I've never been able to get through a Stephen King novel, maybe I should give him another try with The Institute...
DeleteGiven that, outside of a Firefly or Star Trek prose novel or a graphic novel like Star Power and the Mystery of the Zel Gux Dynasty, all my reading is done in the mystery or thriller genres I didn't bother to even click the links. You know the stuff isn't going to be anything I read.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to really read any Mystery Best of lists either. Okay, I briefly glanced at Oline Cogdill's and the Bolo Books one. But I try not to pay attention so as not to affect my own year end list if we have books in common. Not that there is ever many. And since we still have four days left before the end of the year, I'm still reading!
So my list isn't done!
Deborah, I am embarrassed to say that I have read ZERO of these books. I am surprised that WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING was not on the list. I want to read THE CLUB, a nonfiction book about Boswell and Johnson. The Leah Hager Cohen book sounds interesting. I think her parents or grandparents were deaf? And her father went to high school with Ralph Lauren (he's among my favorite designers because his clothes fit me and it's rare to find clothes that fit!)
ReplyDeleteThe BEST MYSTERY novels of 2019 are all of the Mystery Novels by ALL of the Jungle Reds this year! I also loved The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear. And A Better Man by Louise Penny. Loved the new Bibliophile mystery by Kate Carlisle. And the Pearl Dagger by L.A. Chandlar. A Cruel Deception by Charles Todd. Fatal Cajun Festival by Ellen Byron. Lila MacLean mystery by Cynthia Kuhn. Greenfellas by Lopresti. There were many, many wonderful mystery novels from Left Coast Crime conference, though I cannot recall which books were published in 2019.
Looking at the three (Washington Post requires a subscription) Best of 2019 lists, many are new to me books! I had seen one or two of these books at the library. I heard of a few of these books through Bookstagram.
My list is not done!
Diana
And Body in the Library by Marty Wingate. I love her Potting Shed series too.
DeleteDiana, I think Where the Crawdads Sing was on last year's list.
DeleteI read that one this year, too.
Zero for me, too, but I love these Best Of lists because it alerts me to books I wasn't aware of before. I tend to read more critically acclaimed nonfiction than fiction. One of the issues I often have with Very Serious Fiction is that it's... well, serious. Depressing. I want to get lost in a good novel and wind up feeling happier at the end - especially these days!
ReplyDeleteYes, Julia, that's my issue, too. Just reading the news every day is bad enough without adding to it. And I always wonder why books that are grim and depressing are given more literary weight...
DeleteAmen, sisters!
DeleteI've already commented above about the lists and my upcoming list, but I have a question for all of you about a book. It's a book I'm excited about reading, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I even gave it as a Christmas present to my son-in-law without reading it. Kaye Wilkinson Barley, my dear friend and friend of the Jungle Reds blog, recommended it. It won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is The Overstory by Richard Powers. Author Ann Patchett says of it, "The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels period." I have a real affection for trees, so it naturally appeals to me, and with Kaye's recommendation, I'm fairly sure I'll love it. Have any of you read it yet? Here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/039335668X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34QHQIW2ZTTNS&keywords=the+overstory+richard+powers&qid=1577556374&s=books&sprefix=the+over%2Caps%2C201&sr=1-1
ReplyDeleteKathy, I would have sworn I'd bought this book on Kindle or Audible, but apparently I didn't. I have now ordered the paperback. It sounds amazing!
DeleteSeveral people, whose opinions I value, have loved it. I hope we do, too, Debs. Please let me know when you get to it, and I'll do the same.
DeleteThat would be fun, Kathy!
DeleteIt is rare I have read books at are on other best of lists. Honestly, very few interest me most of the time anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe exception, of course, is my list, which I haven't compiled yet. I've always read all the books on that list, and they always interest me. :)
Mark, that is the best kind of list!
DeleteI just read Eleanor Oliphant this year as well. Clearly, I, too, am behind. The one I'm interested in is Nothing to See Here but I'll probably read it in a year or two, because there's so many books so little time!
ReplyDeleteJenn, I looked at the Romance list on WP and there were quite a few books that sounded good!
DeleteI'm out of the loop, too - and my TBR pile is sky high. I just read an article about the year in publishing and one of the things they said, which accounted for a mediocre year in terms of sales, is there were no BIG books. No big Crawdads or Educated or Hidden Figures or Becoming... It's bad for all of us, since big books float a lot of little boats for publishers.
ReplyDeleteI don't bother with lists since I read mostly mysteries and romance with a few science fiction or fantasy. The autobiographies that I read like Michelle Obama's and Elton Johns' are often on the Sunday newspaper lists. I did read Where the Crawdads Sing because our senior club picked it for a book club. I found the part where she was a child very uncomfortable to read as she was abandoned by everyone. It was good but not anything I would have picked on my own.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any either. I did start two books from these lists-- on earth we're briefly gorgeous and the nickel boys-- but didn't finish. I wasn't in the mood for them, but will try again. I mostly read mysteries and historical fiction and I'm in no hurry to read the newest books.
ReplyDeleteI've been keeping up with the books I read since September 1992, when the first one I recorded was "Gone to Soldiers" by Marge Piercy. Then I added them to a WORD table so I could sort by author, title, or date. I liked that I could print it out to take to the library so I wouldn't check out something I had already read. (Yes, I'm getting old and forgetful!) Many times, I forgot to take the printed list with me, so I was thrilled when I discovered Evernote because I could sync to my phone which was always with me. It's probably overkill, but I still use Goodreads as well because I like to read the reviews by other people, and sometimes put in my 2 cents. I also like that it keeps up with my stats. I read 124 books in 2019 and 141 in 2018. Not that it's particularly relevant, but I'm a retired school librarian. I don't choose books from lists, but prefer to happen upon them in the library or have them recommended by friends or folks like Jungle Reds.
ReplyDelete