Comparing my record book with my Goodreads shelves, I find I read 92 books this year. As always, that number includes novellas, Kindle Singles, individual long poems, et cetera. Twelve titles, however, were cover-to-cover re-reads of books I had previously read. Highlights there included re-acquainting myself with Jane Eyre after many years, and re-reading my two favorite Booth Tarkington novels, The Magnificent Ambersons and The Turmoil. A couple of childhood favorites were also on that list: Little Women (for a read-along at The Edge of the Precipice) and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess.
You can see my full list here, but here’s the main highlights:
Rather to my surprise, there’s only one “classic” novel on my list for this year, Anthony Trollope’s The Warden, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m delighted at the prospect of many more Trollope novels to work my way through. My other forays into the classics came in the categories of plays and poetry. I continued my journey through Shakespeare with Macbeth and Hamlet. Other plays read included the absolutely charming Quality Street by J.M. Barrie, and Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman, which I felt was rather better than the movie version, being more restrained and less whack-you-over-the-head-with-its-message. In poetry, I enjoyed G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse and fell in love with Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” but must admit I bogged down midway through his Idylls of the King. I don’t know quite why; I didn’t dislike it, but it doesn’t seem to have the same rhythm and flow of his other poems I’ve read. I was also enchanted by a volume of letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, which left me with a resolve to explore both of their work. So far I’ve just read Elizabeth’s beautiful Sonnet 43.
2015 became The Year I Finally Got My Hands on Angela Thirkell’s Books. I’d wanted to read Thirkell for years, having once randomly picked up a later book in her Barsetshire series and loved it, but my library system had a slim selection and none of the early titles in the series. But they’re now being released on Kindle—hooray! Besides High Rising, which made my top-ten list, I read Wild Strawberries, Summer Half and August Folly, with Summer Half being my favorite of those.
I find I didn’t read many short stories this year. Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald was local-color “research” for writing a Jazz Age story, and was as mixed a bag as I usually find Fitzgerald. I did read a couple of Western collections: The Western Writings of Stephen Crane, which held a couple of impressive pieces and a number of merely interesting ones, and New Hope by Ernest Haycox, a collection that showcases two distinct styles: light pulp fiction and “serious” short fiction—the latter quite good. Didn’t read too many other Westerns, but Partners of Chance by H.H. Knibbs, The Man Called Noon by Louis L’Amour and Stand to Horse by Andre Norton were decently good.
History-wise, I read two books on World War II in the Philippines, We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman and Rescue at Los Banos by Bruce Henderson; and circling back to the book and film that first piqued my interest in the subject, Behind the Scenes of They Were Expendable by Lou Sabini and Nicholas Scutti. (I leave the nonfiction subtitles to fend for themselves this year.) In theology, I was introduced to the works of G. Campbell Morgan, which are brilliant and which I highly recommend; so far I’ve read his books on the gospels of Luke and Mark. Other nonfiction was mainly bookish miscellany: Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon, Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James, and a couple of literary-themed Kindle Singles, I Murdered My Library by Linda Grant and Disappearing Ink by Travis McDade. Also How the West Was Written, Vol. 3: Frontier Fiction Glossary by Ron Scheer, which is terrific both as a reference book and a glimpse into history.
I read quite a decent amount of mysteries, highlights being The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey, Death of an Airman by Christopher St. John Sprigg, and Five Passengers to Lisbon by Mignon G. Eberhart. Somebody at the Door by Raymond Postgate was a technically impressive and interesting mystery rather spoiled by distasteful elements in the story; The Nameless Thing by Melville Davisson Post was as unusual and philosophical as Post’s books usually are, and Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy Sayers was an amusing though uneven collection of short stories. Mainly to be enjoyed by those who are already die-hard fans of the Lord Peter series.
I disappointingly hit on just-middling entries from two favorite authors this year, My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart and Railroad West by Cornelia Meigs. But I did find some good ones from both new and familiar authors! To wind up, a selection of novels and novellas in varying genres that I particularly enjoyed: Howards End by E.M. Forster, The Aviator by Ernest K. Gann, King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard, The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, Pied Piper by Nevil Shute, The Prince of Fishes by Suzannah Rowntree, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, and Come Out of the Kitchen! by Alice Duer Miller.
Sounds like you got in a lot of good reading, both research and non-research! I always love reading your lists because you seem to have an uncanny ability to ferret out books no one else thinks to read, and then tell all the rest of us about them. I also like that you read The Little White Horse, because I did too and it felt very You of Me, reading an obscure title like that.
Like Rachel, I love following your reviews and seeing your book lists: you have great taste, which is especially nice when I'm in need of something new to read. XD I'm particularly interested in picking up "Greensleeves" after reading your review; although I loved "The Golden Goblet" and "Mara: Daughter of the Nile," I was turned off by another McGraw book I read ("The Money Room" – I can't remember anything about it, but for some reason I thought it was boring) and would like to give her another try.
Were the World War II books research for a novel, or just for fun? And if you've already answered that, please pardon me, because I've been doing an awful job this semester keeping up with blogs (read: I've hardly even looked at blogs).
I see I've got a reputation to keep up now as a scavenger of obscure books. Good thing I've got plenty more on my to-read list! 🙂
The WWII books were just for fun…though coincidentally I am planning the beginnings of research for a WWII novel, but not set in the Philippines. That's been a semi-secret I've only briefly hinted about, so I don't think you missed anything there.