Rebeki ROOTs anew in 2025

Last year my thread languished at the bottom of the page (or beyond), but I'm cautiously optimistic that I can do a better job of keeping it updated this year. In spite of that, I had an excellent year of ROOTing in 2024, reading 37 of my own books. Unfortunately it also turned out to be an excellent year for buying books, so my TBR number barely shifted. Thinking positively, at least it didn't go up!

This year, I will keep my ROOTing goal at 30 so that I'm not discouraged from reading longer books. Ideally, I'll read more books that have been sitting on my shelves for a number of years, but my policy is also to read new acquisitions as soon as possible, so we'll see how that works out. Since I've already bought a book in 2025 (oops), my starting TBR number is 128.

Happy ROOTing everybody!

Standout books of 2024

Fiction:
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St Aubyn
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
The Doll by Bolesław Prus
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Non-fiction:
Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

ROOTs read in 2025

1. Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (bought in 2024)
2. The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna (bought in 2024)
3. El descontento by Beatriz Serrano (bought in 2024)
4. Les années by Annie Ernaux (bought in 2024)
5. Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym (bought in 2013)
6. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso (Christmas present 2024)
7. The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning (bought in 2011)
8. A Wreath for the Enemy by Pamela Frankau (bought in 2023)
9. The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning (bought in 2011)
10. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (birthday present 2024)
11. Good Material by Dolly Alderton (Christmas present 2024)
12. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning (bought in 2011)
13. A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters by Barbara Pym (bought in 2020)
14. A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym by Hazel Holt (bought in 2017)
15. Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido (birthday present 2024)
16. Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen (bought in 2025)
17. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (reread)
18. Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka (bought in 2008, abandoned halfway through, but still off the shelf!)
19. Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (bought in 2025)
20. The Fraud by Zadie Smith (Christmas present 2024)
21. The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith (bought in 2023)
22. Adulthood is a Gift by Sarah Andersen (birthday present 2025)
23. Melmoth by Sarah Perry (bought in 2024)
24. The Gorse Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton (Christmas present 2014)
25. Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth (bought in 2024)
26. Temples of Delight by Barbara Trapido (bought in 2025)
27. Saturnin by Zdeněk Jirotka (bought in 2025)
28. A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous (bought in 2012)
29. Juggling by Barbara Trapido (bought in 2025)
30. Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (bought in 2025)
31. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May (bought in 2025)
32. Summer Before the Dark by Volker Weidermann (bought in 2024)
33. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (reread - first read as a child; this edition bought in 2017)
34. The Travelling Hornplayer by Barbara Trapido (bought in 2025)
35. I’ve Got Time by Paul Loomans (bought in 2025)
36. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (birthday present 2025)
37. Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin (bought in 2020)
38. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (bought in 2025)
39. Bilgewater by Jane Gardam (bought in 2025)

Non-ROOTs read in 2025

1. The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett (borrowed)
2. A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce (borrowed)
3. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (borrowed)
4. The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (borrowed)
5. The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick (borrowed)
6. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (borrowed)
7. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (borrowed)
8. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (borrowed)

Hi Rebecca. Good to see you back for another year of ROOTing. Happy New year and best wishes to you and yours.

Glad you are back with us!

Glad to see you’re back with us, and that Kairos made an impression. That’s on my wishlist...

>5 connie53: Thank you, Connie. I wish the same to you and your family!
>6 cyderry: I’m glad to be here. Thank you, Chèli, for all you do to make this group happen!
>7 MissWatson: Thank you, and I hope you will enjoy Kairos as much as I did, although “enjoy” is possibly the wrong word for it. Have you read anything else by Jenny Erpenbeck? I haven’t yet, but I have Go, Went, Gone on my shelves, and I hope to get to it sooner rather than later.

I have just finished my first ROOT of the year: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. It is, of course, the book where Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton meet, but it’s really Bob Burgess’s book. I love Bob.

>1 Rebeki: kind of a newbie here, the way I see it, and this has taken me time to grasp, is it's more about reading and if we meet the challenge that's an extra bonus. Good Luck for this year and Happy Rooting

>10 AnishaInkspill: Thanks, Anisha, yes, there’s no pressure in this group. Some people will meet their goal and some people won’t, and some will far exceed it! And that’s all fine. As you say, it’s about enjoying the books on our shelves, and cheering each other on. I hope you enjoy being in this group.

Personally, I like the satisfaction of meeting a goal I’ve set myself, so I try to choose a target number that’s high enough to give some momentum to my reading, but low enough that it doesn’t cause me any stress. For me, the real challenge is not accumulating quite so many books throughout the year!

>9 Rebeki: How lovely! I really enjoyed Olive Kitteridge - this sounds delightful.

>8 Rebeki: I have read Visitation and The End of Days so far, and they were both impressive.

>2 Rebeki: Nice list!
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Strout but have some catching up to do. And I'm glad to see the Erpenbeck praise, I have Visitation to ROOT.

>12 Cecilturtle: It was! A friend recommended that I read The Burgess Boys first to get maximum enjoyment out of Tell Me Everything and I think that was good advice, but it would be delightful no matter what.

>13 MissWatson: That’s really good to hear. I have some exploring to do!

>14 detailmuse: Thanks! Having some catching up to do with Elizabeth Strout is a nice problem to have!
Interesting to see that we all have/have read different books by Jenny Erpenbeck. If Visitation ends up being a 2025 ROOT for you, I’ll make sure to check out your comments.

I've heard lots of good things about Elizabeth Strout's books, I keep meaning to pick them up, but my enormous TBR has so far guilted me out of it! Maybe when I'm retired...

>17 Jackie_K: Keep on hoping, Jackie. I meant to read more now that I'm retired but that did not happen. Things keeping getting in the way of reading.

But I found 2 translated books by Jenny Erpenbeck on my digital shelves. On my Kobo they go.

>17 Jackie_K: I don’t know whether this is a helpful comment or not, but I find Elizabeth Strout’s books to be quick reads, so I’m fairly sure you can slot them in with your existing TBR ;) They’re also an excellent antidote to a reading slump!

Since I was last here, I’ve finished a ROOT and a non-ROOT. The former was The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna. I read The Year of the Hare last year and was intrigued enough to pick up another book by Paasilinna. Both books have in common a misunderstood, fugitive protagonist and a remote northern Finnish setting. Neither fully grabbed me emotionally, but I appreciated their quirkiness.

The non-ROOT was the lightweight The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett, which I bought for my husband as a Christmas read. It’s probably best read with the plot and characters of The Appeal more firmly in your mind than they were in mine, but it was still a fun read.