I’m posting my Favorite Books of the Year list a week early.
I’ve read so many lists that I feel behind, though I’m ahead of myself. I’ve read the 100 Notable Books of the Year list, dozens of Best Books of the Year lists, some behind paywalls so I only see the top of the list, and even Books That Almost Made My List lists. On my list, all the fiction writers are dead, but only one of the four nonfiction writers is dead. I’m not quite ready for the 21st century, though we’re a quarter of the way through.
I hope you had a good Christmas and Happy Reading! I plan to read some more lists… seriously.
FAVORITE FICTION (in no particular order)
Kingfishers Catch Fire, by Rumer Godden
The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot, by Angus Wilson
The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith
Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh
The Corner That Held Them, Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope
The Underground Man, by Ross MacDonald
The Moonlight, by Joyce Cary
Cecilia, by Frances Burney
Don’t Tell Alfred, by Nancy Mitford
FAVORITE NONFICTION (in no particular order)
The AI Con, by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
The Good Word and Other Words, by Wilfrid Sheed (essays)
The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes
Electric Spark: The Engima of Dame Muriel Spark, by Frances Wilson
I do love a good list, although they definitely have added to my piles & piles of unread books (from yours, I’ve added both the Carey & Wilson novels, assuming I can find them!). Totally agree about Warner’s Corner — it’s a magnificent novel; can’t understand why it’s not more widely read (think it’s one of those books that’s more admired than read, maybe?) I read very little non-fiction, but I do have a copy of Electric Spark, which I hope to get to, as the reviews were so fantastic and I’m extremely fond of dear Dame Muriel so very interesting novels.
There are so many good books out there! I don’t know what to do from my lists made from lists, but I still keep adding titles. Somebody wrote in a review of Electric Spark saying it did everything a biography should. Yes! Don’t people read The Corner anymore? I agree, it’s her best.