There's two and a bit days left of the year it's time to have a look back and see what I've acheived.
And other than writing a blog post every day of the year, I have also managed to consume 52 books over the year. Yep, somehow I've managed to get through a book a week. Part of this is because I've taken up listening to audiobooks - they're a great way to get more bang for your buck - and I listen to these when I'm walking, on public transport and. in the car. I've also started making a commitment to read/listen to four books a month. It makes a difference.
Anyway, here are some of the highlights of this year's books:
Best Non-Fiction:
Hands down, that has to be Clementine Ford's How We Love.
This memoir-cum-life instruction manual is truly extraordinary in it's generosity of spirit. It's equal parts funny, smart, enlightning, heartbreaking and engaging, as Ford takes us through some of the loves of her life - Her mother, her son, some of her exes... I found myself nodding, screaming at her, laughing and cringing at myself. The people to whom I've recommended this have all thanked me. It's nothing like her other two books - Boys Will Be Boys and Fight Like a Girl. This is far less angry and much more reflective. I listened to this, with the author reading her words (free as a part of the Audible catalogue). I can's recommend this enough.
Other standouts:
- The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
- A Promised Land by Barack Obama
- Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes
Best Literature:
Oh, this is a toss up - as I read some great stuff this year. But I can't just say one book. There are two which looking at this list I have to talk about.
The first is Maggie O'Farrell's much lauded Hamnet.
This is the story about Shakespeare, so of course I'm going to love it - or more to the point, it's the story of Shakespeare's wife and his son Hamnet, who died at the age of eleven. Next to nothing is known about Hamnet, but O'Farrell fills in the blanks. The writing is incandescent, the story gentle, yet hard hitting. You are immediately transported back to England in the early 1600s. Stunning book.
The other book I need to call out is Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.
"Twelve very different people, mostly black and female, more than a hundred years of change, and one sweeping, vibrant, glorious portrait of contemporary Britain. Bernardine Evaristo presents a gloriously new kind of history for this old country: ever-dynamic, ever-expanding and utterly irresistible."
This book delves into womanhood like no other. It was fascinating. What I loved most was the characters, interwoven, all different, yet all with a very distinct voice. I listened to this one too - and would love to read it again on paper / kindle. In my opinion, this was better that it's co-winner, Margaret Atwood's The Testaments - which was still very good, but this was better.
Also rans:
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
- Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
- The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
Best Australian Book
Another tough call, but I'm giving this to The Performance by Claire Thomas.
"As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play.
Margot is a successful professor, preoccupied by her fraught relationship with her ailing husband. Ivy is a philanthropist with a troubled past, distracted by the snoring man beside her. Summer is a young theatre usher, anxious about the safety of her girlfriend in the fire zone.
As the performance unfolds, so does each woman's story. By the time the curtain falls, they will all have a new understanding of the world beyond the stage."
This was phenomenal - three women watching one play, looking at their life. So much happened in this little book. It was though provoking and fascinating - and I delved into Billie Whitelaw's autobiography after this to get a few more insights into Samuel Beckett. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but being a theatre geek, it won me over from the first page.
Also rans:
- A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing by Jessie Tu
- All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
- After Story by Larissa Behrendt
- New Animal by Ella Baxter
- Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
- Honeybee by Craig Silvey
From the "Why has this sat in my bookshelf for so long?" list.
Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant.
I've read a lot of Ishiguro this year. Never Let Me Go is one of my favourite books. I'm half an hour away from finishing Klara and the Sun, which is also sublime. I also read The Remains of the Day this year and really enjoyed it.
But this was an absolute fizzer. Part Arthurian myth, part travel story, it was slow, annoying and I was left wondering just what the point of it was. It ended up being taken straight to the street library after I finished it. The writing is lovely, but it was pointless - and I'm not sure why it's been lauded. Oh well.
Other books I didn't like that much:
- Toni Morrison's Beloved (Obscure and depressing)
- Andrew Sean Greer's Less (was better off where it was, propping up the couch)
Best Audiobook:
Oh, that goes to the Audible version of Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
It has a full cast, a different person playing every member of the band. A great book. A great way to take this novel in. It really is superb.
My other favourite listens were:
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (read by Carey Mulligan)
- Piranesi by Susana Clarke (read by Chiwetel Ejiofor)
- The Wool Hall Trilogy - unabridged - read by Ben Miles - and the only way I'd ever get through all of it - I couldn't do this trilogy on paper.)
And my guilty pleasure:
I read four of the Bridgerton novels. Please don't tell anybody I've done this - they're fairy floss - but they are fun.
I wonder what next year will bring me in the way of reading.
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