YOUR BEST BOOKS OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR (2018)

Of the books you read in 2018 which were your best reads? And care to tell us why? (This is a great way for newbies to get to know us, and we them!)

Here's my 2018 list of favorites. I couldn't cut it down to just 10. These were all books that stuck with me long after I read them. The writing, ideas, and characters all drew me in.

Fiction
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky
Love that Dog
Halsey Street
Go, Went, Gone
Happiness
A Catalog of Birds
Fight No More
The Friend
Red Clocks
Home Fire

Nonfiction
We Were Eight Years in Power
Becoming
The Library Book

My favorites for 2018, in no particular order:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
White Houses by Amy Bloom
Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Kristin Lavrandsdatter by Sigrid Undset
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
The Witch Elm by Tana French
A re-read of Glass Houses by Louise Penny and her new one
Kingdom of the Blind
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

And, the discovery of a couple of new series which I have been enjoying:

The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths- the first book is The Crossing Places
The Mrs Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman- the first book is The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax

Great list, Colleen. Transcription came close to being one of my top reads as well. I loved the character of Juliet.

One of the pleasures of writing reviews of books is to look back over the previous year and rediscover the pleasure you had from reading those books. Here is my list of the books that I rated at 5 stars with a link to my reviews.

The Shepherds Calender by Edmund Spenser 1579
A classic pastoral setting for this poem of many voices
https://www.librarything.com/work/2027450/details/150314374

The Complete essays, Michel de Montaigne 1580
What possibly could a Renaissance French essayist have to say about how I live my life?https://www.librarything.com/work/15610/details/158253854

Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso 1580
This translation by Edward Fairfax in 1600 makes Tasso's epic poem dance on the page. https://www.librarything.com/work/51613/details/159518891

The Old Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney 1580
'This idle work of mine" proves to be a delightful romance in a pastoral setting https://www.librarything.com/work/1330134/details/163442610

Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney 1584
Love poetry in sonnet form produces some absolute gems
https://www.librarything.com/work/1212092/details/163879007

Eighty Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Not many fairies, but stories told with an undeniable charm, some quite dark https://www.librarything.com/work/3150270/details/152169205

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 1814
The story of Fanny Price - steady, respectful, dutiful and gracious.
https://www.librarything.com/work/10107/details/160301446

The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A E Van Voght 1950
science fiction - 4 stories linked together featuring memorable aliens.
https://www.librarything.com/work/138430/details/150903300

The Demolished man Alfred Bester 1953
classic science fiction - a fast paced story set in the 24th century featuring the super rich and their telepaths
https://www.librarything.com/work/4079879/details/152413971

Walking in the shade Volume 2 of my autobiography by Doris Lessing
The 78 year old author looks back on her life as a writer and activist
https://www.librarything.com/work/255348/details/150000701

Skulls of Istria by Rick Harsch 2018
If other contemporary writers were as good as this I might read more
https://www.librarything.com/work/17985579/details/157926039

My notes about the books I've read tend to be as simple as 'This was excellent' so for now I've simply listed the books and I may add the reason later.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
The Boy on The Bridge by M R Carey
The Long Good-bye by Raymond Chandler

I try to keep my "best of" list brief, so there are several other books I loved, but here are the best of the best:

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - if I had to pick just one book, it would be this one. So much carried between the covers of this book about loss, the AIDs crisis, love and what trauma does to us.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman - I really enjoy Batuman's writing.

The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky - every so often a novel is written so that I feel as though I'm existing in the protagonist's head.

Kudos by Rachel Cusk - the final and best of her trilogy about a writer.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry - old-fashioned in feel and structure, this one was just a lot of fun.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh - Moshfegh creates unsympathetic protagonists like no one else writing today.

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks - a novel about the Paris of immigrants and the working class by a master.

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea - the literary equivalent of a rambunctious family reunion.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra - a superbly structured story about a village doctor set over four days that illuminates the turmoil in Chechnya.

Best Books of 2018

I did this list for the LT 2018 List, the titles above the line. Those below the line were in the running for the top five and I didn’t want to let them go, so I am glad the number on this list is more flexible.

Last year I was still reading books that came out because of the various anniversaries of WW I and II, which started in 2014. I am drawn to the role of women in the wars and in the Resistance. I expect this will continue. I am now reading Felix Francis, a carryover from Dick Francis. I am looking forward to Sujata Massey next title in her new legal series. I will also return to the Fifty Books You Should Read List.

I posted a short note with each title I list so if you want to know more look at my Club Read 2018 entries. I also did reviews of some of these titles. I am just going to add brief points to the titles below.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky,, Mark Sullivan - This is about a 17 year old Italian boy/man. It is based on a true story and interested me because little is written about Italy and those opposed to the war were caught between the Facisits and the Germans.

The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins - I Read this because it is the first (?) mystery written and is listed in Fifty Books You Should Read. If published today I think it would be shorter as Collins does run on at times. But the way it is told by the various people is fascinating and amazing that it actually solves the mystery.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson - Racism and the class structure is alive still in England and told so well in this ‘light romance.’

Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation, Susan Williams - I Read this because of my interest in Botswana, my parents lived there from 1971-1975 and I was there for 3.5 months in 1974-75. I saw the movie “A United Kingdom” on Netflix based on the book. Briefly the hier to the chiefdom of the Tswana in the Bechuanaland Protectorate went to England to read law at Oxford and in 1948 he met and married a white woman. For nearly six years different party-led governments in England succumbed to pressure from South Africa and refused to let Khama’s and his wife to return to his country where his marriage had been accepted by the people.

The Frenchman’s Daughters, Paul Sinkinson The Frenchman was an engineer killed following Dunkirk and his three teenage daughters escaped to England to work with the Free French. The details of their two years of training before being returned to France are fascinating.
—————
The Honest Spy, Andreas Kollender A German soldier works against his leaders

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith A Dutch woman artist gains a place in the Royal Society.

The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey A legal mystery in 1921 Bombay which introduces solicitor Perveen Mistry. This is the first in a new series by Massey. Her previous series featured Japanese American antique dealer Rei Shimura.

Collected works of Dick Francis I can write a lot about the novels of Francis, and did last year. I think he is dismissed as a writer of mysteries about horses when he is so much more. I am starting 2019 by re-reading in order the tiles his son, Felix, wrote following the death of Francis. He had written with his father prior to that.

It was difficult making the 2018 list. In 2017 certain titles stood above but not so much last year. I often found it difficult to find something to read, my mind couldn’t settle on something, the limitations of the library’s e-book and large print collection, money for Kindles and eye problems. Some of these will continue but I do have a January date for the cataract surgery which will help overall. I look forward to what I will discover!

>6 rhian_of_oz::
The Alice Network was on my 2017 list, as was a Nevil Shute,A Town Called Alice. If you haven’t read it try it, it starts in the South Pacific in WW II and moves to England and then Australia.

>3 NanaCC::
I am glad to see Mrs. Pollifax on your list!

>8 pmarshall: I have that Sujata Massey here in the pile, an arc I picked up at the bookstore. I read the first seven or so of her Rei Shimura series when they first came out in the late 90s, early otts. Easy reads, a bit formulaic, but she always had something interesting in each book.

>9 pmarshall: I loved A Town Called Alice due mostly to the history lesson it provided. Like you I am really drawn to women's experiences during and between WW1 and WW2. I see you've read Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - I would also recommend Rose Under Fire.

My best books of 2018:

FICTION

The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Family Moskvat by I.B. Singer
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy
Sorry by Gail Jones
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt

NONFICTION

Collusion by Luke Harding
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky
Dark Money by Jane Mayer
A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

Favorite books of 2018:

Muriel Spark, The Comforters
J.T. Glisson, The Creek
Magda Szabo Katalin Street
Edna O'Brien, The Little Red Chairs
Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Madeline Miller Circe
Paul Harding Tinkers
Jonas Jonasson, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

I rated them all 4 1/2 *s -- I guess I like a bit of imperfection in my masterpieces.

Best Books of 2018:

Finished In Search of Lost Time by Proust – an epic lifetime reading experience

Newer Books: (* = my “super favorites”)
*A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
*The Snow Child by Ewoyn Ivey
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
*Circe by Madeline Miller
*Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Moon Tiger by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Nonfiction:
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Women and Power by Mary Beard

Rereads favorites – these were all on audio books and I liked rereading that way:
Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jennifer, still impressed by your Proust reading. Sorry, silly. Some day...

A try at a best list.

Biblical stuff: For my biblical theme, where I read all the Apocrypha and almost finished the New Testament:

- The best was Matthew, with an underlying almost graspable real human narrative
- The most intriguing were 1 Maccabees and 2 Esdras. 2 Esdras is a book more people need to read and wonder about.
- The oddest was maybe John, with it's wonderful opening.
- And the worst were the pointless Wisdom of Solomon (or Book of Wisdom), and Pauline Epistles, may I never read them again.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I read almost everything him and it was pleasure. He switched writers at some point. His early works openhearted and masterful. His later works are meticulous and read wonderfully, but he conceals himself. I preferred the early works.

- my favorite was his Collected Novellas and, slightly less so, his Collected Stories. These collections are almost entirely earlier works, and, as a whole, are an experience.
- his most universal work is, I think, Love in the Time of Cholera
- The odd fast paced One Hundred Years of Solitude is a must
- and I'll note his take on his early life, Living To Tell The Tale, and a kind of lost book pulled from Rapunzel, Of Love and Other Demons, and, finally, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, which has left some kind of impression on me.

Some classics:

- relished A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, and read by Juliet Stevenson
- and I stumbled happily through Omeros by Derek Walcott
- and I won't forget The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
- and it's always a good year if I can fit is some Shakespeare. I read Macbeth and The Winter's Tale, both for the first time

for the rest, you know, the normal books, these were my favorites:

- I highly recommed Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Deborah G. Plant, especially if read by Robin Miles
- and I won't forget To the End of the Land by David Grossman
- and I'm still processing and rethinking everything after listening to How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan (who reads it himself)
- and I'm permanently scarred by the masterful take on suburban emptiness in Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
- and I really appreciated the insight from Chasing Hillary by Amy Chozick, (who reads it herself)
- and I was actually wowed by the life of Bolívar : American liberator by Marie Arana
- and I was really inspired by Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene Cooper, (read by Marlene Cooper Vasilic), a book on Liberia
- and I'll note the poetic and somehow memorable look at the Senegalese fishermen in Fisherman's Blues : A West African Community at Sea by Anna Badkhen

Somewhere I created a list of my favourite reads of 2018, but now I can't find it. Perhaps it was in that ill fated thread that had disappearing posts. Anyway, another go at it. Should I find the previous list, it will be interesting to see if the two match.

2018 wasn't a big year in quantity (50), but was a good year in quality.

Best Fiction - there seems to be a strong international influence here

Katalin Street by Magda Szabó
La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas
Mazurka for Two Dead Men by Camilo José Cela
Doruntine by Ismail Kadare
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (reread of a reread of a reread...)

Best Nonfiction

Winter Sea by Alan Ross
Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra
The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

>18 SassyLassy: If you read it in English, do you happen to remember who translated La Reine Margot? I downloaded a kindle version of this that was virtually unreadable, I think due to the translation. I'm sure there must be better out there!

Hm, I thought I had posted to this already.... anyhoo, copied from the 2018 thread:

Fiction in no particular order:

Scribe by Alyson Hagy (2018)*
Warlight by Mcihael Ondaatje (2018)
The Mountain: Stories by Paul Yoon (2017)
H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker (2017)
Small Country by Gael Faye (2018)

*although I'd also recommend The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (2018) and West by Carys Davies (2018) for immersive story-telling.

Poetry

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (2019) for its power.
The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy (a 2018 reprint of her first collection as UK Poet Laureate) for it's playfulness.

Crime Fiction

Out of Bounds and Broken Ground by Val McDermid (Scotland, Karen Pririe series)
Ordeal, When it Grows Dark, and Closed for Winter by Jørn Lier Holst (Norway, William Wistling series)

Nonfiction

Call Them By Their True Names: Essays by Rebecca Solnit (2018)
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (2018)
Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard (2018)

>19 japaul22: I did read it in English, but the touchstone wants it in French. The edition I read was from OUP, published in 2009. The credit for the translation was somewhat convoluted, but basically it was an 1846 translation by David Bogue, "modernized and revised against the standard French text" , ed Claude Schopp by David Coward, who also wrote the introduction.

It read well in translation and I really enjoyed it, see here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/279800 at 68.

Apparently not only I dropped out from the face of LT in the second half of the year but I also did not read as much as usual - ended up with 57 books for the year (first time since I had been keeping track to be under 100...). And most of the books were later entries in long-running series or by authors I know and expect a lot from - and these are very hard to recommend. I did read more magazines that usual though - I need to keep a better track of those.

The highlights:

The Great Passage by Shion Miura - A love letter to the process of putting together a paper dictionary. Books like that is why I still read contemporary novels now and then.

The Book of Emma Reyes - a view into Colombia of the 20s and 30s from the eyes of a child (albeit told by the grown up child) in a series of letters. I am not entirely sure how much is a memoir and how much is fiction but I am not sure I care.

Weeping Waters by Karin Brynard - a crime novel, originally written in Afrikaans. It was not without faults and it could get too gruesome in parts but the picture of South Africa was worth the read. I really hope they translate more of these...

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon - another crime novel, this time written by a Native American author and set around a reservation in Minnesota.

Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic - a crime novel again, this time set in Australia with a deaf detective as the lead. The style reminds me of Garry Disher a bit and not only because of the location of the story. Although I am not sure if I would not call them complementary more than the same.

I also enjoyed the two SF novellas I read: Hutchinson's Acadie (Space opera) and Ian McDonald's Time Was (time travel) - both could have been much longer and developed into novels but both work on their own as well. And Steve Hamilton's Night Work proved yet again that he is a great story teller - regardless if he is writing installment X from his long running series or publishing a standalone novel (but then I think that this book makes more sense if you had read the early installments of the series - they are not connected but the language is the same and you can see him growing as an author).

And I am off to a better reading year (I hope) :)

I love looking at everyone's "best of " lists for 2018.
Here's mine.

Here are mine in no particular order or category or restricted number.

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston biography
Women Talking by Miriam Toews fiction based on a true crime
I am I am I am by Maggie O'Farrell short stories
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright non fiction
Educated by Tara Westover memoir
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah memoir
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie fiction
Dark Star Safari Paul Theroux travel writing

An honourable mention given for Bibliophile an Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount. What a great book this is giving endless ideas for a TBR pile.

I've done several "best of" lists in different bits of LT already, and I don't want to copy and paste all that yet again, so I'll try the old trick of dividing it up into logical categories. I seem to have finished 170 books in 2018.

Best Laundry novel:
Zola's L'Assommoir wins here, with some very impressive washing and ironing, and a ludicrous (but also rather glorious) water-fight between two of the main female characters.

Most fruit and veg in one book:
No question here, either, it's M. Zola again, with Le ventre de Paris, a book that can easily feed a city of a million inhabitants.

Best novel about sisters looking for husbands:
In case you think I set these categories up with the winners already in mind, let me tell you that a Japanese entrant sneaked into this category by deviously pretending to be Scottish. But The Makioka sisters doesn't have anything to prove, it's a fantastic book.

Funniest Muriel Spark impersonation:
I spent a lot of time this year following Stevie Smith's excellent advice to "take Muriel out". Although Ali Smith made a very good showing in this category, particularly with the wonderful There but for the, in the end I had to award the prize to the lady herself, for The ballad of Peckham Rye.

Longest African novel:
No competition here: even Nobelists like Doris Lessing and Wole Soyinka had to make way for for the amazingly eccentric Tanzanian entrant, Mr. Myombekere and His Wife Bugonoka, Their Son Ntulanalwo and Daughter Bulihwali: The Story of an Ancient African Community by Aniceti Kitereza, which is even longer than its title.

Best long narrative poem:
A hard-fought category, as ever, but Ovid's Metamorphoses (in the Charles Martin translation) won out over stiff competition from Wordsworth and others. Admittedly, Ovid probably manipulated the jury by including so much more sex and violence than Old Willy...

Best Mexican tennis novel:
Purists might quibble about this award, as I've decided to give it to a book dealing with real tennis, not lawn tennis. But Alvaro Enrigue's Muerte Súbita is just such a bizarre idea that I couldn't help giving him the prize.

Best Argentinian Schubertiad:
El viajero del siglo by Andrés Neuman does some amazing things with themes from Winterreise. You don't have to be a Schubert fan to appreciate it, but you probably will be by the time you get to the end of the book.

Best new(ish) novel by someone I already admire:
Tricky - I can't decide between Gehen, ging, gegangen, The Sparsholt affair, El monarca de las sombras, A long way from home and Así empieza lo malo. All really excellent.

Biographee I would most like to meet:
John Drury's Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert conveys the author's affection for his subject in terms that can't help making you share it. Unlike J.M. Coetzee's Scenes from provincial life: Summertime, which makes it clear that the author really disapproves of his subject, John Coetzee...

Heaviest history book:
Jonathan Israel's The Dutch republic : its rise, greatness, and fall, 1477-1806 turned out to be a wonderful read, despite nearly tearing my arms out of their sockets.

...I could go on, but I won't.

>24 thorold: I thought Music at Midnight was wonderful too. Even prompted me to go on a micro-pilgrimage to Bemerton to see his church. One day, with luck, I’ll get to Nicholas Ferrars’ retreat at Little Gidding.

And what was that Argentinian Schubertiade? I see there are translations. Straight onto the wishlist it goes.

>23 mdoris: Glad to see that Barracoon made it to someone else's list!

I put more detail in the 2018 thread on this, but I've somehow managed to delete that from my Talk view. In short, my very best reads were:

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
The Sea House by Esther Freud
My Struggle: Book 4 by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Beloved by Toni Morrison

Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande was a very important read I felt. Enjoyable is probably a stretch given the subject matter, but it wasn't terrifying as I'd expected and gave a lot of food for thought for difficult times.

>20 avaland: Yes I read Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard too and it could easily have made my "best of" list as well.

My favorite books of the year, or books that have stuck with me in one way or another:

FICTION
Circe by Madeline Miller
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
French Exit by Patrick deWitt
The All of It by Jeannette Haien
Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
The Game of Kings (Lymond Chronicles, 1) by Dorothy Dunnett
Improvement by Joan Silber
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

NONFICTION/MEMOIR
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr
Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter
Mean by Myriam Gurba

A few disappointments, but no true stinkers.

>29 lisapeet: The most recent issue of Publishers Weekly lists Circe as their book of the year.

I had two 10 star books, completely different.

State of Resistance by Manuel Pastor. As California goes, the rest of the US follows, socially and politically (roughly 30 year delay). Pastor goes through California's descent into racial politics in the 80s (Prop 187, Rodney King Riots, police brutality issues) and brings us to where we are today -- a mixed bag. Highest inequality in the nation, yet progressive social issues and embracing of immigration. He ultimately outlines a 10 point plan to keep California moving forward, but also bring the nation along. Whether you want that or not, his analysis is fascinating --particularly for someone like myself who lived through all of it, yet didn't put the isolated pieces into the cohesive that Pastor did. I heard him speak last year at the LA Times Fesival of Books (largest book festival in the US, all free, in LA) and he was brilliant. His book is as well.

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn. I'm not big into Star Wars novelizations but OMG, this was a ten star. If you have any interest in Star Wars, the animated Clone Wars series, or even just reading sci fi about a brilliant tactician, pick this up. You don't need to know anything about Star Wars, believe it or not, to love. Thrawn is finally an Empire Admiral, who is not a caricature of pure evil. He's so very much more (and not necessarily evil at all). The end sets up for more sequels.

>30 avaland: SO many reviewers raved over it—I was half resistant to the hype and half worried that I wouldn't like it. I probably wouldn't have even owned a copy had not there been either a glitch or very clever marketing ploy on Amazon where, for about half a day, the hardcover was listed at $2.35 the day before the book dropped. And god knows I can't resist a baaaahgain (said in my best yenta-at-Loehman's voice). I'm so glad I did, too. It was a delightful book and I've already bought three or four copies as presents for friends.

In the beginning of 2017 I had some fairly major life changes and it whacked my reading time and energy. I read a fraction of the books I used to read, and I abandon books quickly if they aren't working for me. This means that on some level I like all 29 books* I read last year A LOT.

*Lowest number since I started keeping track around 1998, but I did read several very long books, including A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz, which I liked, but which took me 6 months to get through.

The one that stands out the most was The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, by Rumer Godden. It was written in the early 60s and I had so many problems with it, but somehow I loved the atmosphere (maybe I just REALLY wanted to be in the Italian Lakes when I read it).

Other books I really enjoyed on some level:

Fiction

At Hawthorn Time, Melissa Harrison
Perfume, Patrick Suskind
Summer of the Bear, Bella Pollen
Up at the Villa, W Somerset Maugham
Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
The Perfect Nanny, Leila Slimani
Gorsky, Vesna Goldsworthy
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters
The Detour, Gerbrand Bakker

Non-fiction

The Reindeer People: Living with Animals & Spirits in Siberia, Piers Vitebsky
The Alps: a Human History From Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond, Stephen O'Shea
Mental TrapsL the Overthinker's Guide to a Happier Life, Andre Kukla (re-read)
The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben

>15 japaul22: How is it that I didn't realize Lucy Worsley wrote a Jane Austen book? I watch her videos on YouTube sometimes. Off to add that to my wishlist ....

>17 dchaikin:

I always find the range of books you read to be so interesting. If I could sit down and talk to you in real life we'd have great discussions about the Bible, I think. I read the entire thing as a teenager because it's the only thing my parents would let me read in church. I liked the parts they don't usually mention.

Thanks for reminding me about How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. I need to read that soon. Last week I woke up really early and I was casually scrolling through Facebook and saw that Pollen is coming to Vancouver next month and ran downstairs and asked my husband (who was having his quiet time with coffee) "Hey! Do you want to go see Michael Pollen? The tickets are only $19!" -- he looked at me like I was nuts and also, why was I making any noise that early in the morning --- "You know, 'Eat food, not too much, mostly plants' guy." And so I'm pretty excited to go see Micheal Pollen. I have a bit of a crush on him, but he's not as cute as my husband so I won't fangirl too much.

>30 avaland: The most recent issue of Publishers Weekly lists Circe as their book of the year.

I don't pay much attention to the latest books. I like things to sift through the hype and I'll look at what's come out the other end -- and I'm seeing Circe coming at me from all directions. Might have to read this one.

>35 Nickelini: Lucky you going to see/hear Michael Pollan. He is my hero. I think he amazes. I wish he had been appointed the head of the Food and Drug Administration way babk when. I must get to How to Change your Mind.

>36 Nickelini: That’s me, also. I also find myself thinking of all the worthy authors and books neglected because so many are reading the same books 😜.

Went through my list, and I'd say these would rate highest of my last year's reading:
Coromandel sea change - Rumer Godden (random year-end pick, husband had picked this one up, and I loved it!)
Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens (of course there's drama and sad bits, but a lot of the charades in this just cracked me up)
The woman in white - Wilkie Collins
The passage - Justin Cronin (the rest of the trilogy also, but I thought 1 was best)
The lathe of heaven - Le Guin (I know lots of people, for some reason, really dislike this one of hers, but I think they're nuts and it was great)
Night Watch series - Sergei Lukyanenko (I'd read 1-4 before, reread along with 5-6, still super love, though I wish the series ending had been a bit different)
Earthsea series - Le Guin (okay technically I haven't finished the whole series yet, I read the 1-4 omnibus, got the GORGEOUS complete new Saga Press omnibus a couple mos back when it was released, but I know I will love it all, it's Le Guin, after all)
Evelina - Fanny Burney
My father’s name - Lawrence P. Jackson
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy

>35 Nickelini: it could be a terrific conversation. It does seem religious convention naturally overlooks all the best stuff...but literature doesn’t...

Enjoy Pollan. The food stuff was good, but this is quite different. Left me thinking a lot.

>37 mdoris: hope you get to and enjoy HtCYM

>39 .Monkey.: I didn't realize that Night Watch went beyond the two books. I read the first ages ago, it seems, and we have DVDs of both those first movies.

>41 avaland: Oh yeah, the first four were out in Russian before number 1 was even translated to English ;P (1998-2006). The last two came out later, 2012 and 2014 (2013 & 2016 in English), those ones I sat waiting and waiting for when they'd finally be available in translation, haha. Also, the second movie isn't even based on the second book, though they gave it that title, lol. The books are all split in 3, and the 2nd movie deals with parts from the first that weren't in the first movie (and iirc, the first movie had some things from 2, too). xP