It's All Right, I'm Not Famous: Books of 2008

[callmemadam]

I see I’ve read 131 books this year. A lot of crime and a sorry want of non fiction; some excellent new novels and some old favourites. Robert Goddard, Hazel Holt and Katie Fforde are all well established authors whom I’ve discovered for the first time. I really like Hazel Holt’s Sheila Malory, with her love of Siamese cats and Charlotte M Yonge. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Alexander McCall Smith. Scotland Street is perhaps my favourite series so the prize would go to The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. Top crime series would be Kate Atkinson’s trilogy about Jackson Brodie, which starts with Case Histories.

Amongst older books read for the first time, Sisters by a River by Barbara Comyns astonished me and I also liked Our Spoons Came from Woolworths. Special mentions also for A Very Long Engagement, Sebastien Japrisot; Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday; The Unfortunates, Laurie Graham; Digging to America, Anne Tyler; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer; Sputnik Caledonia, Andrew Crumey; The Clothes on their Backs, Linda Grant; Summertime, Raffaella Barker; What Was Lost, Catherine O’Flynn.

In 2009, I shall be carrying books around in this cool bag, a present from huskyteer.



Thanks to my photo, it's hard to see where the quote is from; it's Erasmus.

Comments

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

You've got me beat by about 100 there. I blame the internet.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Ha! I wouldn't have guessed that many but they were all listed. You read mightier tomes than I do.

[lethe1]

Same as sloopjonb here. Mightier tomes? Um, no. Still, I did a lot better than last year, when I only read 9 books.

This year's favourite is What Was Lost, so thank you for your review which made me check it out. I read it from the library, but now I want a copy of my own to have and to hold and to re-read.

Do you know the title of the book in between Case Histories and When Will There Be Good News?

And can the Alexander McCall Smith books be read out of order? My library only has a few titles. Thanks for your help.

I covet the bag.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked What Was Lost! I thought it was great.

The middle book is One Good Turn.

I think the McCall Smith books, that is, The No.1 Ladies, Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels are best read in order as they are really chronicles.

The bag is mine, mine, mine!

[cornflowerbooks.livejournal.com]

131 leaves me miles behind!
Love the bag (and the Warsaw Concerto).

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It's not a competition! I love the bag, too and as for the Warsaw Concerto, I saw that Dangerous Moonlight was on television and it put the theme in my head.

[ramblingfancy.livejournal.com]

Love the bag! 131 and managed to move too! Very impressive!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

The bag is neat! It would take three very large paperbacks or several smaller ones. If I took a better photo I could use it as an icon.
Strange, I didn't think I'd read much this year! You read much faster than I do :-)

Books read

[(Anonymous)]

You've read almost 100 more than I! I finished 38 in print version. I may need to give up writing a blog and reading others. :<) I share your taste in books - just about every one you mentioned I've either read or am interested in.

Re: Books read

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great to meet people who share your interests?