Writers who impressed me this year include Helen DeWitt, Percival Everett, Claire North, Elif Batuman, Rivka Gelchen, Carys Davies, George Saunders, and Suzette Mayr.

• 23 were borrowed from the public library
• 2 have Canadian authors
• 9 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 13 are ebooks

• Perrin, Valérie. Fresh Water for Flowers
• Mayr, Suzette. The Sleeping Car Porter
• Chou, Elaine Hsieh. Disorientation
• Everett, Percival. Dr. No: a novel
• Foley, Lucy. The Paris Apartment: a novel
• Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry: a novel
• Sanders, George. Liberation Day: stories
• Murakami, Haruki. Novelist as a Vocation
• Winman, Sarah. Still Life: a novel
• Everett, Percival. The Trees: a novel
• Henry, Emily. Beach Read
• Powers, Richard. Bewilderment: a novel
• Powers, Richard. Orfeo: a novel
• Wilson, Kevin. Now Is Not The Time To Panic: a novel
• Everett, Percival. Telephone: a novel
• Ellis, Warren. Nina Simone’s Gum
• Tevis, Walter. The Queen’s Gambit
• Strout, Elizabeth. The Burgess Boys: a novel
• Ayoade, Richard. The Book That No One Wanted To Read
• Strout, Elizabeth. Amy and Isabelle: a novel
• Smith, Ali. Companion Piece: a novel
• Davies, Carys. West: a novel
• Marche, Stephen. On writing and failure, or, on the peculiar perseverance required to endure the life of a writer
• Galchen, Rivka. Everyone Know Your Mother Is A Witch
• Davies, Carys. The Mission House: a novel
• Porter, Max. Shy: a novel
• Link, Kelly. White Cat, Black Dog: stories
• Hay, Elizabeth. Snow Road Station: a novel
• Friedman, Elyse. The Answer to Everything: a novel
• Batuman, Elif. The Idiot
• Godden, Salena. Mrs Death Misses Death
• Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
• Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings
• Everett, Percival. I Am Not Sidney Poitier: a novel
• Wells, Martha. Witch King
• North, Claire. House of Odysseus
• Ayoade, Richard. Richard Ayoade Presents: The Grip of Film by Gordy LaSure
• Aoyama, Michiko. What you are looking for is in the library: a novel
• Henry, Emily. Happy Place
• Wells, Martha. System Collapse
• Driver, Minnie. Managing Expectations: a memoir in essays
• Rovelli, Carlo. White Holes
• Everett, Percival. Assumption
• DeWitt, Helen. The Last Samurai

My reading numbers are down again this year. Too many out of town obligations, I guess. But at least I read some wonderful books and not too many duds. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews on each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year include W.G. Sebald, Gwendoline Riley, Claire-Louise Bennett, and Chinua Achebe. Special mention for Muriel Spark, seven of whose books I devoured this year happily.

Stats from my 2022 reading list:
• 23 were borrowed from our public library
• 5 have Canadian authors
• 7 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 10 are ebooks

Books read in 2022 (51):

● Whittall, Zoe. The Spectacular: a novel
● Fraser, Jackie. The Bookshop of Second Chances: a novel
● Heiny, Katherine. Early Morning Riser: a novel
● Le Tellier, Hervé. The Anomaly: a novel
● Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
● Vila-Matas, Enrique. Mac and His Problem
● Spark, Muriel. The Ballad of Peckham Rye
● Spark, Muriel. The Finishing School
● Bennett, Claire-Louise. Checkout 19
● Spark, Muriel. Loitering With Intent
● Tyler, Anne. French Braid: a novel
● Spark, Muriel. Aiding and Abetting
● Gardam, Jane. Crusoe’s Daughter
● St. John Mandel, Emily. Sea of Tranquility
● Spark, Muriel. The Abbess of Crewe
● Humphreys, Helen. And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, The Writing Life
● Spark, Muriel. A Far Cry From Kensington
● Kawakami, Hiromi. People From My Neighbourhood
● Barnes, Julian. Elizabeth Finch
● Natsukawa, Sosuke. The Cat Who Saved Books
● Rovelli, Carlo. There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness and other thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World
● Modiano, Patrick. Sundays in August
● Austin, Emily. Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead: a novel
● Henry, Emily. Book Lovers
● Lipscomb, Benjamin J.B. The Women Are Up To Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Sunday Philosophy Club
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
● Runyon, Damon. Guys and Dolls and other writings
● Snyder, Carrie. Francie’s Got a Gun
● Sean Greer, Andrew. Less Is Lost
● McCall Smith, Alexander. The Right Attitude to Rain
● McCall Smith, Alexander. Emma: a modern retelling
● Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn
● Coll, Susan. Bookish People: a novel
● Riley, Gwendoline. My Phantoms
● Henry, Emily. The Love That Split The World
● Walter, Jess. The Angel of Rome and other stories
● Kawakami, Mieko. All The Lovers In the Night: a novel
● North, Claire. Ithaka
● Spark, Muriel. The Comforters
● Nunez, Sigrid. Salvation City: a novel
● Nunez, Sigrid. What Are You Going Through
● Strout, Elizabeth. Lucy by the Sea
● Riley, Gwendoline. First Love: a novel
● Drnaso, Nick. Acting Class
● Maass, Donald. Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling
● MacLeod, Alexander. Animal Person: stories
● Ignatieff, Michael. On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times
● Vandermeer, Jeff. Hummingbird Salamander

My reading numbers in 2021 are down a bit compared to the previous year. Not to worry, they bounce back. And I still had a good year of reading with very few weak books read and only one true dud. As per usual I’ve posted short reviews of each of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Writers who impressed me this year included Patrick Süskind, China Miéville, George Saunders, Jon McGregor, John Berger, and Muriel Spark. And a special mention goes to Martha Wells, whose Murderbot Diaries novellas were a wonderful distraction.

Stats from my 2021 reading list:

• 40 were borrowed from our public library
• 6 have Canadian authors
• 6 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 2 were being reread
• 5 are ebooks

Books read in 2021 (55):

• Ewen, Paul. Francis Plug: Writer in Residence
• Kingwell, Mark. On Risk
• Setiya, Kieran. Midlife: a philosophical guide
• Dillon, Brian. Suppose A Sentence
• O’Farrell, Maggie. Hamnet & Judith
• Bennett, Claire-Louise. Pond
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
• Smith, Zadie. Intimations: Six Essays
• Berger, John. Here is where we meet
• Kinsky, Esther. River
• Leilani, Raven. Luster: a novel
• Murata, Sayaka. Earthlings
• McEwan, Ian. Machines Like Me
• Miéville, China. The City & The City
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
• Pratchett, Terry. The Colour of Magic
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
• Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and The Sun
• Robinson, Eden. Return of the Trickster
• Wilson, Kevin. Nothing To See Here
• Bernhard, Thomas. The Loser
• Saunders, George. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
• Walschots, Natalie Zina. Hench
• Williams, Eley. The Liar’s Dictionary
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect
• St. Aubyn, Edward. Double Blind
• Kawakami, Mieko. Heaven: a novel
• Wells, Martha. The Murderbot Diaries: Fugitive Telemetry
• North, Claire. Notes From The Burning Age
• Cusk, Rachel. Second Place
• Weir, Andy. Project Hail Mary
• Toews, Miriam. Fight Night
• Süskind, Patrick. The Pigeon
• Bechdel, Alison. The Secret to Superhuman Strength
• Rovelli, Carlo. Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
• Segal, Lore. Shakespeare’s Kitchen
• Nunez, Sigrid. The Friend
• Porter, Max. The Death of Francis Bacon
• Calvino, Italo. Last Comes the Raven and Other Stories
• Alexis, André. Ring
• Mills, Carolyn Huizinga. The Good Son: a novel
• McGregor, Jon. Lean Fall Stand
• Austen, Jane. Persuasion: An Annotated Edition edited by Robert Morrison
• Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
• Erpenbeck, Jenny. Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces
• Smiley, Jane. Perestroika in Paris
• Kawaguchi, Toshikazu. Before the Coffee Gets Cold: a novel
• Strout, Elizabeth. Oh William!: a novel
• Bordas, Camille. How to Behave in a Crowd: a novel
• Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. Eileen: a novel
• Modiano, Patrick. Young Once
• Spark, Muriel. The Girls of Slender Means
• King, Lily. Five Tuesdays in Winter: stories

2020 was a very unusual year for reading. For everyone. When our local public library was forced to close its physical doors in late March, I was motivated to switch to their digital offerings. I had read a few ebooks in the past, but was unimpressed and hadn’t bothered with them for years. Now, for a time, ebooks became my mainstay. Our local independent bookseller, Words Worth Books, was also forced to shut its doors. However, they were soon up and running with a safe collection system via the back door of the store. Select your books online, place your order, pay, and when you come to collect just ring the doorbell and step back six feet until a staff member brings your books to you (wearing a mask, of course). Remarkably, as business after business in Waterloo fell under the weight of the pandemic, our bookstore has survived. So far.

One of the other features of 2020 has been podcasts. One of my favourites is the BBC podcast, A Good Read, in which host Harriet Gilbert and two guests share their selection of a good read and then proceed to have a lively discussion. I’ve picked up numerous excellent suggestions for my reading list from this podcast. One, which rather surprised me, was for a high-concept thriller call The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, a pseudonym of Catherine Webb. The story was so strange and almost philosophical (despite clearly being a thriller) and all of the participants equally enthused about it. So I put that in my first closed door order at Words Worth Books back in the spring. And I’ve ended up reading all of the Claire North novels over the course of this year. What fun!

Highlights of the year included books by Lily King, Richard Ayoade, Cees Nooteboom, Max Porter, Jess Walter, and Claire North. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing.

Stats from my 2020 reading list:

• 49 were borrowed from our public library
• 10 have Canadian authors
• 2 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 5 are non-fiction
• 19 are ebooks

Books read in 2020 (79):

• Braithwaite, Oyinkan. My Sister, The Serial Killer
• Kawakami, Hiromi. The Ten Loves of Nishino
• Pratchett, Terry. The Bromeliad: Truckers, Diggers, Wings
• Tomes, Susan. Speaking the Piano: Reflections on Learning and Teaching
• Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers
• Morgenstern, Erin. The Starless Sea: a novel
• Oyamada, Hiroko. The Factory
• Simsion, Graeme. The Rosie Project
• Porter, Max. Lanny: a novel
• Aronson, Elliot and Tavris, Carol. Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts
• Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris. Roadside Picnic
• Bank, Melissa. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
• Headley, Maria Dahvana. The Mere Wife: a novel
• Nooteboom, Ces. The Following Story
• Han Kang. Human Acts: a novel
• Groff, Lauren. Florida
• Hay, Elizabeth. All Things Consoled: a daughter’s memoir
• Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and three stories
• Iyer, Lars. Nietzsche and the Burbs: a novel
• Tawada, Yoko. The Emissary
• Gini, Al. The Importance of Being Funny
• Alexis, André. Beauty and Sadness
• Ross, Leone. Come Let Us Sing Anyway and other stories
• Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs
• St. John Mandel, Emily. The Glass Hotel
• Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest
• Nneka Arimah, Lesley. What it means when a man falls from the sky: stories
• Lim, Thea. An Ocean of Minutes: a novel
• Irani, Anosh. Translated From The Gibberish: seven stories & one half truth
• Evaristo, Bernadine. Girl, Woman, Other: a novel
• O’Neill, Joseph. Good Trouble: stories
• Offill, Jenny. Dept. of Speculation
• Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
• Sloan, Robin. Sourdough: a novel
• O’Brien, Edna. The Country Girls
• Babiak, Todd. The Empress of Idaho: a novel
• King, Lily. Writers and Lovers: a novel
• O’Neill, Joseph. The Dog: a novel
• Rooney, Sally. Conversations With Friends: a novel
• Smith, Ali. Spring: a novel
• Polek, Nicolette. Imaginary Museums
• Murata, Sayaka. Convenience Store Woman: a novel
• Ford, Richard. Sorry for Your Trouble: stories
• Rooney, Sally. Normal People: a novel
• Vandermeer, Jeff. The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance
• Choi, Susan. Trust Exercise: a novel
• Offill, Jenny. Weather: a novel
• Barker, Emily Croy. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic
• North, Claire. The Sudden Appearance of Hope
• Gailey, Sarah. Magic for Liars: a novel
• Li, Yiyun. Must I Go
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. Death in Her Hands
• Tyler, Anne. Redhead by the Side of the Road
• Bergman, Ingmar. The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography
• Ferrante, Elena. The Lying Life of Adults
• Chiang, Ted. Stories of Your Life and Others
• North, Claire. Touch
• North, Claire, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
• Choo, Yangsze. The Night Tiger
• Chiang, Ted. Exhalation: stories
• Walter, Jess. The Cold Millions: a novel
• North, Claire. The Gameshouse
• DeLillo, Don. The Silence: a novel
• North, Claire. The End of the Day
• Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi
• North, Claire. 84K
• Evans, Danielle. The Office of Historical Corrections: a novella and stories
• North, Claire. The Pursuit of William Abbey
• Thammavongsa, Souvankham. How to Pronounce Knife: stories
• Dimaline, Cherie. Empire of Wild
• Smith, Ali. Summer: a novel
• Rosoff, Meg. The Great Godden

My reading numbers are down for 2019. Only 56 books read this past year. In part that was due to a variation in reading habits — for example, spending a long time dipping into a large collection of essays on jazz, which I didn’t read in whole and thus didn’t count. In part it was due to having a few months where I barely read at all. However, it didn’t feel like a bad reading year because so many of the books that I read were excellent. And very few were bad (and none were awful).

Highlights of the year included books by Ben Lerner, Don DeLillo, Anna Burns, Max Porter, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner. But also highly regarded were works by Pat Barker, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod, Erika Swyler, Daniel Pennac, Antonio Damasio, David Salle, Colm Tóibín, Jessie Kanelos Weiner, André Alexis, Meg Rosoff, Jesmyn Ward, Rachel Kushner, and George Saunders. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing. I’m confident that 2020 will be an even better year for reading.

Stats from my 2019 reading list:

• 25 were borrowed from our public library
• 13 have Canadian authors
• 5 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
• 0 were being reread
• 13 are non-fiction
• 0 are ebooks

Books read in 2019 (56):

• Saunders, George. Fox 8: a story
• Kushner, Rachel. The Flamethrowers
• Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing
• Rosoff, Meg. Good Dog, McTavish
• Peterson, Oscar. A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson
• Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance
• Homes. A.M. Days of Awe: stories
• Li, Yiyun. Where Reasons End: a novel
• Swyler, Erika. The Book of Speculation: a novel
• Barris, Alex. Oscar Peterson: A Musical Biography
• Plett, Casey. Little Fish: a novel
• Russell, Karen. Swamplandia!: a novel
• Baker, Dani. Macarons and Murder
• Alexis, André. Days by Moonlight
• Weiner, Jessie Kanelos and Moroz, Sarah. Paris in Stride: An Insider’s Walking Guide
• Tóibín, Colm. Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce
• Salle, David. How To See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking about Art
• Gros, Frédéric. A Philosophy of Walking
• Callanan, Liam. Paris By The Book
• Fowler, Christopher. Full Dark House
• Pennac, Daniel. Le Roman d’Ernest et Célestine
• Damasio, Antonio. The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
• Miller, Tom. The Philosopher’s War
• Pennac, Daniel. L’oeil du loup
• Swyler, Erika. Light From Other Stars
• Porter, Max. Grief is the Thing with Feathers
• Arrou-Vignod, Jean-Philippe. Le professeur a disparu
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
• Gopnik, Adam. A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
• Burns, Anna. Milkman
• Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Fleishman Is In Trouble
• Crummey, Michael. The Innocents: a novel
• Ewen, Paul. How to be a Public Author by Francis Plug
• Cusk, Rachel. Coventry: essays
• Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca
• Barker, Pat. The Silence of the Girls
• Baker, Carleigh (compiler), Hernandez, Catherine (compiler), Whitehead, Joshua (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 31
• DeLillo, Don. The Angel Esmeralda: nine stories
• Lerner, Ben. The Topeka School: a novel
• Robinson, Eden. Trickster Drift
• Eisenberg, Deborah. Your Duck is My Duck: stories
• Lerner, Ben. Mean Free Path
• Tannahill, Jordan. Liminal
• Westover, Tara. Educated: a memoir
• North, Ryan. How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
• Skibsrud, Johanna. I Do Not Think That I Could Love A Human Being
• Bernhard, Thomas. Wittgenstein’s Nephew
• Strout, Elizabeth. Olive, Again: a novel
• Smith, Zadie. Grand Union: stories
• Kaufman, Andrew. The Ticking Heart
• Rosoff, Meg. McTavish Goes Wild
• Patchett, Ann. The Dutch House
• Aylett, Steve. Lint
• deGrasse Tyson, Neil. Letters From An Astrophysicist
• Ferrante, Elena. Incidental Inventions
• Yoshimoto, Banana. Kitchen