1. The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan - A story about people in a lifeboat after being shipwrecked, the dynamics of the relationships and politics, what happened when they didn't get rescued straightaway, etc. The novel focuses on one female passenger and the part she played, or didn't. This was an interesting story, with a highly unreliable narrator (which always adds some tension) and a lot of grey areas in terms of morality (which I also like). Well done, I think.
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen - about 50 pages. Hated it. Didn't warm to any of the characters, and found the tone a bit smug - I could tell the author thought his characters were great, even when (or perhaps especially when) they were going to act like dickheads. I gave up reading that sort of thing (except the occasional crime fiction novel) when I left university.
2. Skylight Confessions, Alice Hoffman - I like Alice Hoffman a lot, but there are some of hers which I like better than others. Not sure why, perhaps some feel a bit more realistic (despite the magic) - this one I thought was super. If you like magical realism and its related books at all and haven't read Alice Hoffman, do give her a try.
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows. A litte gem of a novel - very sweet and well formed and just compelling. Due to its epistolary nature, it reminded me of 84 Charing Cross Road, which I also love (though Guernsey... has a lot more story to it, and is fictional).
4. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff - a re-read, of course. Couldn't not read it again after being reminded of it in the above book. This is such a quick but lovely story (and the film with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft isn't bad either).
5. The Dressmaker, Kate Alcott - totally unintentionally, another story about people's behaviour in lifeboats after a shipwreck (this time, The Titanic). A different focus here, as the main character is a servant and isn't involved in the dubious behaviour (other than being employed by the perpetrator) or even in the lifeboat in question. This was a nice historical novel, a little predictable, but enjoyable to read.
6. This is Not a Novel, Jennifer Johnston - of course, it IS a novel. I really like Jennifer Johnston. She's under-rated, I think (at least by the general public, perhaps not by the critics), and is very good at observing human nature. Her books are frequently short, but always well-crafted and interesting.
7. The Beginnger's Goodbye, Anne Tyler - another old favourite, though again, some of hers I don't like as much as others. Recently, I've been less impressed with her novels - some of them have felt a bit samey - but I think this one was excellent - back on form. She is still writing the kind of intimate portrait of a relatively ordinary life which she does so well, but this one felt quite fresh and new to me, as opposed to a couple others I've read recently (Digging to America, Noah's Compass). Don't get me wrong - I don't think her books are ever BAD, just a few of them seemed not to sparkle as much... Sparkle's back in this one!
8. Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch - the latest in the series about Peter Grant, a detective in the special section of the London police which deals with magic. This was good, and lots of things were set up here for future books in the series (but without it being too annoying). Aaronovitch is very clever in his story telling, and I love his tone. Great fun to read.
The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls, Lousie Tondeur - 50pp or so. Not sure why this one didn't grab me - it probably should have, given the style and topic and whatnot, but it just didn't.
9. Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris - another in the Sookie Stackhouse southern vampire series. This don't make any pretence to be anything other than what they are - well-written, enjoyable, entertainment.
10. The Facts of Life, Patrick Gale - I really like Patrick Gale - he does the family saga sort of novel very well. It's never quite what you expect, although it neither does he spend all his time trying to shock you.
11. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, T.E. Carhart - I don't read a lot of non-fiction but occasionally I enjoy a nicely written, not too detailed book about something interesting. This was definitely in that category and it's not something I'd ever think I'd enjoy a book about - a piano shop, pianos, history of pianos, how pianos work, and so on. Except that it's not really about that - it's only a little about that - it's also about people, of course. Anyway, I really enjoyed this.
12. The Time-Traveller's Wife, Audrey Neffenegger - a re-read. I'd been thinking about re-reading this for a while, and then we had a friend to lunch and happened to talk about it a bit in passing, so I had to read it again. I love it - even the third time around - but I know people sometimes find it a bit hard to follow the chronology (my advice - don't try too hard, it will all come together, I promise).
A Discover of Witches, Deborah Harkness - 50pp (I don't always read only 50 pages of books I give up on, but that's my way of saying I read enough to see what it was like, but didn't like it enough to carry on). This didn't grab me. I kind of liked the idea, but the writing was a bit shallow and facile.
12. A Trick of the Light - Lousie Penny - a crime novel which a visiting friend left me a while ago to try out - it's the latest in a series, and I thought it was very well constructed with interesting characters (though I've missed some back story - didn't really harm the mystery, but I'm sure there are things which would be better explained had I read the prior novels). Decided to get the series out of the library and catch up with it.
13. The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages, Sophie Hardach - I thought this was a good story, with a lot of interesting bits about the Kurdish communities in the UK (though not too much info...) but I did feel that the fact that the author tried to be a bit clever with revealing some of the central information in the story (which I guessed straight away anyway) made the start of the novel a little clunky.
14. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga - it's a funny thing about Booker Prize winners - sometimes I really like them and sometimes I don't (Orange Prize, for me, is more consistently a winner). This book was nothing at all like I expected it to be - that said, I don't know what I expected, but this was different. But very readable and I enjoyed it.
15. Still Life, Louise Penny - the first in the series mentioned above. A nice mystery. I was fairly certain who the murderer was, but that was only because it was someone who I thought would have been mentioned a lot in the previous one I read, but wasn't.
16. Flowers Stained with Moonlight, Catherine Shaw - the second in a series I read the first of at the end of October or so, set in Cambridge in the late 19th century. As with the first, some of the plot focuses around mathematics (though not so heavily as in the first one). I'm not finding this one quite as compelling as the first, but it's still a solid story. Haven't quite finished it yet, but expect to in the next few days.
17. (Out of Order, no photo) - Fire, Kristen Cashore - just realised that I have somehow left this off my list - not sure when I read it, but it was after the first one (October) and before the third one, which is my first book for January. Not exactly a sequel to Graceling, in fact, it's set beforehand, but it's in the same world and lands, and has some character overlap. Excellent fantasy - looking forward to the third in the series (which does come after the first one, though again, not precisely a sequel).
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