[books 2014] the rest
Yes, I know. Anyway, there's a couple more:
54. Haunted Highway: The Spirits of Route 66 by Elle Robson and Diane Freeman
Local ghost story collection my mother picked up for me on one of their winter trips to the southwestern US. None of the stories are particularly spooky, but a lot of the locations sounded really cool, so it infected me with the road trip bug.
55. The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse is always a bit hit and miss for me. Some of these stories (particularly the Breton folk tale inspired ones) are really spooky, but some of them are just chick lit with a ghost. I felt badly let down by the ones set in the Languedoc - one of my favourite places in the world, but the stories were particularly soppy. Glad I got this from the library.
56. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Tartt's The Secret History is my favourite book; The Little Friend is also really good. So I can't believe how long it took me to get round to this one.
I absolutely loved it. I didn't have as many opportunities to read it as I'd have liked but every time I picked it up I'd be sucked in and read 100 pages at a time.
Had lots of thoughts about it at the time but have been unable to put them coherently together.
57. In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 by Jenny Uglow
A social history of Britain during the Napoleonic wars, told mainly through the use of diaries and local publications, but also poetry and literature, which is the aspect I'm familiar with. Gives a really good picture of how British society at all levels was affected by the Napoleonic wars, through trade, instability in wages and prices, brutal repression of radicals.
This could have been dull (and a couple of chapters were, a bit) but overall it's fascinating and does its job really effectively. Makes me want to go read Wordsworth though, which is just Bad and Wrong.
Highly recommended
54. Haunted Highway: The Spirits of Route 66 by Elle Robson and Diane Freeman
Local ghost story collection my mother picked up for me on one of their winter trips to the southwestern US. None of the stories are particularly spooky, but a lot of the locations sounded really cool, so it infected me with the road trip bug.
55. The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse is always a bit hit and miss for me. Some of these stories (particularly the Breton folk tale inspired ones) are really spooky, but some of them are just chick lit with a ghost. I felt badly let down by the ones set in the Languedoc - one of my favourite places in the world, but the stories were particularly soppy. Glad I got this from the library.
56. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Tartt's The Secret History is my favourite book; The Little Friend is also really good. So I can't believe how long it took me to get round to this one.
I absolutely loved it. I didn't have as many opportunities to read it as I'd have liked but every time I picked it up I'd be sucked in and read 100 pages at a time.
Had lots of thoughts about it at the time but have been unable to put them coherently together.
57. In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 by Jenny Uglow
A social history of Britain during the Napoleonic wars, told mainly through the use of diaries and local publications, but also poetry and literature, which is the aspect I'm familiar with. Gives a really good picture of how British society at all levels was affected by the Napoleonic wars, through trade, instability in wages and prices, brutal repression of radicals.
This could have been dull (and a couple of chapters were, a bit) but overall it's fascinating and does its job really effectively. Makes me want to go read Wordsworth though, which is just Bad and Wrong.
Highly recommended