As we all know, life can get pretty busy and stressful. This past year has been especially so for me and let’s just say if I had a better prescription for Valium, I would’ve been keeping the pharmacist busy. So when I sat down to list my top books of the year, I realized I had begun many but finished few. Due to no fault of the author – many I started were very good (or seemed to be starting out well) – I just didn’t finish them for various reasons. Can anyone guess what one of my New Year’s resolutions is going to be?
Hunting and Gathering by Anna Galvada – good writing about damaged people with threads of hope woven in, that will hopefully be tied together when I do finish it.
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – and it’s a trilogy, ack!
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin – opened up a world so unknown to me.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave – one of the best opening chapters I’ve read in a while.
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay – why no one has optioned this for a movie, I don’t understand…of course the ending could stink.
Timothy, or, Notes of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg – come on, with a title like that…
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer – a part of WWII I’ve not read about before.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender – magical realism and food? Win-win.
The last two are mysteries from authors I always enjoy that I haven’t yet deluded myself into thinking I’ll make the time:
Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch and Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indriaasen
Enjoy – but don’t tell me about any of the endings!
—Julie
Read it or Weep 