I make a list of my Favorite Books of the Year minutes before the mirror ball drops on New Year’s Eve.  There’s a lot of pressure, because my husband and I each get only five slots on our shared Top 10 list. Here’s a preview of what I may choose this year, but I’m still reading.

1.  Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh.  An initiation into the excruciatingly bad habits of journalists when a confused nature writer becomes a war correspondent, due to a mix-up at the paper. There is no war but it doesn’t stop the jaded reporters from filing copy, which incites the conflict. A brilliant satire.

2.   Ten Pollitt Place, by C. B. H. Kitchin.  Read my review here.

3.  Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life, by Brigitta Olubas.  Read my review here.

4.  Blue Skies, by T. C. Boyle.  A brilliant, believable dystopian novel, set in the very near future.  Read my review here.

5. Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel.   A lyrical dystopian novel that cuts between time, space, and a pandemic.  

6.  For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain, by Victoria Mackenzie.  A spare, lucid novel told from the perspectives of two medieval religious writers, Julian of Norwich and Margery of Kempe. 

7.  Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell.  A charming and poignant novel about the female residents of a small English Village.

8.  The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, by Jeff Goodell.  Read my review here.

9.  The English Experience, by Julie Schumacher.  A charming academic satire. Read my review here.

10.  The Clergyman’s Daughter, by George Orwell.  A masterpiece. Read my review here.

Happy Books for Christmas! And tell me about your Top 10 list.