Books read 2019
I missed my usual post last year because of being laid up with a broken collarbone after a car accident. Somehow it knocked me out of my groove and I haven't got back to posting at all, which is a shame. I'll try to post more in 2020.
The accident did however mean that I spent Christmas and January mostly lying on the sofa, reading and watching daytime TV. I read 125 books in 2019, and in no particular order, these were my favourites. The comments are brief notes that I made at the time to remind myself - apologies if some of them are bathetic.
Best SF&F
N Lee Wood Looking for the Mahdi - Middle eastern politics with replicants.
PERRY Sarah Melmoth - Set in Prague, a careful examination of guilt and responsibility
CHO Zen - Sorcerer to the Crown - Entertaining romp, with a very forward heroine
WALTON Jo Farthing - Cosy Nazism in England. Spine-chilling. Some slightly annoying americanisms - due to publisher no doubt
MCCARRY Sarah All our Pretty Songs - A retelling of the Orpheus myth. Novel and touching.
MILLER Madeleine Circe Circe exiled from the halls of her Titan family struggles to make a life for herself on Aiaia. Myths retold from the view of the outsider. Very engaging and I liked it a huge amount better than her first book.
KAY Guy Gavriel Children of Earth and Sky Feelgood story about Venice and Dubrovnik and pirates and Istanbul at the time of the siege of Vienna.
LEE Yoon Ha Ninefox Gambit Breathtaking ride through a universe whose realities are determined by calendrical mathematics.
ELLIOTT Kate Buried Heart Third in a YA trology. I thought it wrapped up really well, giving secondary characters their own stories.
HARDINGE Frances A Skinful of Shadows. Ghosts in the English Civil War. Terrifying and humane. I could never guess what was going to happen next.
Best fiction
PETERS Elizabeth Crocodile on the Sandbank Thoroughly enjoyable and Egyptian archaeology seems realistic. Amelia ought to have known where Caesar was assassinated, however.
RENAULT Mary The Mask of Apollo (Reread) Very plausible description of actors and acting in Ancient Greece. Little reference to music however, and Nikeratos does not mention singing arias.
BARKER Pat The Silence of the Girls - The Iliad retold from the point of view of the captive women in the Greek camp. Harrowing.
SAUNDERS KateThe Secrets of Wishtide - Detective story set in 1850s. Entertaining, historical setting very plausible. Options for women living in poverty explored with sensitivity. She doesn't seem to have written more - why not?
ROONEY Sally Normal People - Conor's mother cleans Marianne's mother's house. Marianne is bullied at home and at school. Can they construct a relationship? Crystalline prose, fresh writing.
BURNS Anna milkman We are in Belfast during the troubles, inside the head of middle sister, an eighteen-year old girl who is being stalked by milkman, a paramilitary on the side of the "renouncers" as opposed to the "supporters of the state"
GRIFFITHS EllyThe Stranger Diaries - Modern school gothic in the vein of Carole Goodman. Excellent
HARPER JaneThe Lost Man Nathan's brother Cam is found dead of thirst in the outback, below the grave stone of a legendary figure. Gradually the family dynamics come to light. Compelling
MOSS Sarah Ghost Wall - Students doing bronze age reenactment, but then the adults decide to replicate a sacrifice. Seriously creepy. Reminded me a lot of The Owl Service
EVARISTO BernardineThe Emperor's Babe A black girl living in Londinium, is married to an elderly senator, meets and falls in love with the Emperor Septimius Severus. Supported by her childhood playmate Alba and Venus, a transexual. Boiling over with life, but can it end happily? In verse.
Best Non-Fiction
Harry Ayres Horace and me - Engaging look at Horace's poetry through his life and wine
SWEETMAN David Mary Renault a biography
PRYOR Francis Britain BC - Monumental
NICHOLSON Adam The Mighty Dead (Why Homer Matters) Interesting - has a theory that the roots of the story are in tribes from the steppes arriving into the med at around 2,000-1,800 BC. Honour culture. Troy a pre-established city but they speak the same language.
MACFARLANE Robert The Wild Places The man is clearly a nutter, spending nights out in the mountains in storms.
WINN Raynor The Salt Path An elderly couple lose everything and decide to walk the South Coast way, wild sleeping and living from month to month on tax credits. Moving, gripping and humorous (Moth, the husband, keeps being mistaken for Simon Armitage)
The accident did however mean that I spent Christmas and January mostly lying on the sofa, reading and watching daytime TV. I read 125 books in 2019, and in no particular order, these were my favourites. The comments are brief notes that I made at the time to remind myself - apologies if some of them are bathetic.
Best SF&F
N Lee Wood Looking for the Mahdi - Middle eastern politics with replicants.
PERRY Sarah Melmoth - Set in Prague, a careful examination of guilt and responsibility
CHO Zen - Sorcerer to the Crown - Entertaining romp, with a very forward heroine
WALTON Jo Farthing - Cosy Nazism in England. Spine-chilling. Some slightly annoying americanisms - due to publisher no doubt
MCCARRY Sarah All our Pretty Songs - A retelling of the Orpheus myth. Novel and touching.
MILLER Madeleine Circe Circe exiled from the halls of her Titan family struggles to make a life for herself on Aiaia. Myths retold from the view of the outsider. Very engaging and I liked it a huge amount better than her first book.
KAY Guy Gavriel Children of Earth and Sky Feelgood story about Venice and Dubrovnik and pirates and Istanbul at the time of the siege of Vienna.
LEE Yoon Ha Ninefox Gambit Breathtaking ride through a universe whose realities are determined by calendrical mathematics.
ELLIOTT Kate Buried Heart Third in a YA trology. I thought it wrapped up really well, giving secondary characters their own stories.
HARDINGE Frances A Skinful of Shadows. Ghosts in the English Civil War. Terrifying and humane. I could never guess what was going to happen next.
Best fiction
PETERS Elizabeth Crocodile on the Sandbank Thoroughly enjoyable and Egyptian archaeology seems realistic. Amelia ought to have known where Caesar was assassinated, however.
RENAULT Mary The Mask of Apollo (Reread) Very plausible description of actors and acting in Ancient Greece. Little reference to music however, and Nikeratos does not mention singing arias.
BARKER Pat The Silence of the Girls - The Iliad retold from the point of view of the captive women in the Greek camp. Harrowing.
SAUNDERS KateThe Secrets of Wishtide - Detective story set in 1850s. Entertaining, historical setting very plausible. Options for women living in poverty explored with sensitivity. She doesn't seem to have written more - why not?
ROONEY Sally Normal People - Conor's mother cleans Marianne's mother's house. Marianne is bullied at home and at school. Can they construct a relationship? Crystalline prose, fresh writing.
BURNS Anna milkman We are in Belfast during the troubles, inside the head of middle sister, an eighteen-year old girl who is being stalked by milkman, a paramilitary on the side of the "renouncers" as opposed to the "supporters of the state"
GRIFFITHS EllyThe Stranger Diaries - Modern school gothic in the vein of Carole Goodman. Excellent
HARPER JaneThe Lost Man Nathan's brother Cam is found dead of thirst in the outback, below the grave stone of a legendary figure. Gradually the family dynamics come to light. Compelling
MOSS Sarah Ghost Wall - Students doing bronze age reenactment, but then the adults decide to replicate a sacrifice. Seriously creepy. Reminded me a lot of The Owl Service
EVARISTO BernardineThe Emperor's Babe A black girl living in Londinium, is married to an elderly senator, meets and falls in love with the Emperor Septimius Severus. Supported by her childhood playmate Alba and Venus, a transexual. Boiling over with life, but can it end happily? In verse.
Best Non-Fiction
Harry Ayres Horace and me - Engaging look at Horace's poetry through his life and wine
SWEETMAN David Mary Renault a biography
PRYOR Francis Britain BC - Monumental
NICHOLSON Adam The Mighty Dead (Why Homer Matters) Interesting - has a theory that the roots of the story are in tribes from the steppes arriving into the med at around 2,000-1,800 BC. Honour culture. Troy a pre-established city but they speak the same language.
MACFARLANE Robert The Wild Places The man is clearly a nutter, spending nights out in the mountains in storms.
WINN Raynor The Salt Path An elderly couple lose everything and decide to walk the South Coast way, wild sleeping and living from month to month on tax credits. Moving, gripping and humorous (Moth, the husband, keeps being mistaken for Simon Armitage)