This year I have done reasonably well with the number and spread of books I have read – mainly historical fiction, some classic fiction, a few non-fiction and some literary fiction including a handful definitely outside my comfort zone.

This list, naturally, does not include the number I have started but not finished which were quite a few. If I am not hooked by page 50, or I am happy to go to bed without my nightly reading fix, it is time to give up on a book – time is too short and there are far too many good books out there to spend time plodding through those I do not enjoy. It is worth persisting to page 50 though. With Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan, I was ready to give up by page 48 but then the tiger appeared and I was well and truly hooked.

The books I would recommend most highly of those I have read this year are
Do not say we have nothing : a novel by Madeleine Thien

The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken (Few reviews and none that don’t completely give the plot away.)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Spoiler)
Disclaimer by Renee Knight
His Bloody Project : Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Wife’s Tale by Christine Wells

Other books read this year (in no particular order) –
The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
Once were Warriors by Alan Duff
Satin Island : a Novel by Tom McCarthy
Sunshine on Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Behind the Sun by Deborah Challinor
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill
The House at Riverton : a Novel by Kate Morton
Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted by Alan Duff
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs
Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel
The Golden Dice By Elisabeth Storrs
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd
The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Life Class by Pat Barker
Nelly Dean by Alison Case
Sleeper’s Castle by Barbara Erskine
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Toby’s Room by Pat Barker
Noonday by Pat Barker
The Cursed Child by J K Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne
The Library of Unrequited Love By Sophie Divry
1914 Poetry Remembers edited by Carol Ann Duffy
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwen
A Woman So Bold by L S Young
Still she wished for Company by Margaret Irwin
A Room with a View by E M Forster (Spoilers)
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
All that man is by David Szalay
A Bluestocking in Patagonia by Anne Whitehead
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon
By the Sword by Alison Stuart

And now, having looked through that list, I think it is time to find myself  another Alexander McCall Smith and see what Bertie has been up to.