- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Anna Karenina by
- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (non-fiction; my review)
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (graphic novel - my review)
- Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
- Interpreter of Maladies (stories) by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Wild Life by Molly Gloss (my review)
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
- Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (my review)
- The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell (non-fiction; my review)
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
- Mrs. Palfrey at the
- At Mrs. Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire (my review)
Disappointed in:
- The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich – I love Erdrich's writing and couldn’t wait to dive into this. I thought it was great until the last 50 pages or so and IMO it just fell apart.
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (audio) - overrated. Much of it was about Krakauer.
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson – silly story, not all that well written.
- The Gathering by Anne Enright – bleak novel, good writing, just not a good read. Much attention to male body parts. This won the Booker Prize – there's no accounting for taste.
Waste of natural resources:
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – I really do not understand the fuss about this book. I’ve been told it’s much better in its original Portuguese.
- Digging to America by Anne Tyler – I am apparently NOT an Anne Tyler fan. I thought this was dreadful.
- Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (Early Review book) – this was an appallingly bad book.
- Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
- The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
###
12 comments:
A great wrap-up! I just bought Mudbound and am glad to see you enjoyed it too. I hope to read it after Orange July (I wonder if Mudbound was released in the U.K. Maybe a future winner?).
I love how you end your posts with ###. The PR girl in me smiles and wonders if people know what the ### mean.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Jill
###
One of the things I love about readers is how different we all are. There are books that you've loved that I loved as well, but equally there are some there that I loathed. And the same is true of those you disliked. Thanks goodness we're all different.
Great list and I have also got some of your best reads on my favourites. I do like Anne Tyler though I agree that Digging to America was a bit thin, in comparison with her other books. Nevertheless, I like her style. Anna Karenina, absolutely great and on my to re-read list for the Russian Challenge!
Personally, I just applaud you for finishing War and Peace. That right there would have taken me six months to read. As it is, I'm reading a much shorter (only 522 pages) book in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe and it's already taken me a month to get 120 pages.
LOL Jill -- mostly I started doing it to create a little space between the last line and the post info.
table talk -- curious what books you felt differently about!
seachanges-- I'm not sure what I'm missing with Tyler, some people love her writing. What is it about her style that you like?
readingfool - it did take me a few months to read War and Peace, but I read other things as well. Not sure that was wise, I got out of the flow and sometimes had a hard time getting back to it. Still, it was a great read.
Great wrap up, Terri! I actually love Anne Tyler books (although I have not yet read Digging to America...but, as you know, it is on my shelf TBR!)
I was hoping to read 100 books this year but am doubtful now I will make it. I'm okay with that though. It was a wild sort of dream anyway. :-)
You have read some wonderful books so far this year. Many of those you list are ones I hope to read in the future.
Great list...and kudos to making it to the half way point. I am just under the mark. I need to step up if I'm gonna make a hundred by years end.
Keep up the good work! =)
Great job! I loved several of your favorites you mentioned--especially Hugo Cabret!
I'm catching up with reading the Sunday Salon posts! I'd hoped to read 100 books this year too but at the half-way stage I'd only got to 44 - still not too bad.
Like others who've commented I've read and loved some of the books you've read.
I agree about The Alchemist - in my view it's a very slight book, obviously I'm too shallow to appreciate it! But I did like Digging to America, although I've only read a few of Anne Tyler's books most of which I haven't liked much.
I have The Gathering but have hesitated about reading it because it does sound very bleak - I can't say the attention to male body parts is encouraging me to start it!
I loved Anna Karenina and War and Peace.
That is a great list of books to have read in half a year! Congrats!
And yes, the Wimbledon final was COMPLETELY worth not reading for - I literally thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest!! It was such a great match!
That's quite a list! Like you, I'd highly recommend The Road, Interpreter of Maladies, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and anything by Tolstoy or Atwood.
I was disappointed in Miss Pettigrew lives for a day but enjoyed Digging to America. It's simply written, but I believed in its characters and all their ups and downs.
Post a Comment