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Monday, 7 January 2013

A reading year in review

Just to balance things out here's a review of my reading year. One goal was to read 12 new authors (i.e. not read before) and that was happily achieved. The list of new authors discovered is below. I keep a separate notebook to jot down all the books I read (more on notebookphilia here) and can tell you I read 46 books in 2012, though some of these were for research purposes.

Here are the 12 new authors:

Jan -  Tea Obrecht (The Tiger's Wife)
Feb -  Milly Johnson (An Autumn Crush - read for the longlist of Melissa Nathan Award)
Mar -  Matt Haig (The Radleys) you can read my review here
Apr -  Patrick Gale (Gentleman's Relish & Dangerous Pleasures, short story collections)
May - Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo)
June - Gabrielle Kimm (His Last Duchess & The Courtesan)
July -  Patsy Collins (Escape to the Country) you can read my review and interview with Patsy here
Aug - Jane Rusbridge (Rook) you can read my review here
Sep -  Jane Rogers (The Testament of Jesse Lamb)
Oct -  E. L. James (50 Shades of Grey) OK, yes I read THAT book, but purely for research purposes!
Nov - Sue Moorcroft (All that Mullarkey)
Dec - Ben Hatch (Are we nearly there yet?) you can read my review and interview with Ben here

And here are my top 5 reads of 2012 in reverse order:
The Radleys - Matt Haig
Rook - Jane Rusbridge
Life of Pi - Yann Martell
Patrick Gale - Gentleman's Relish & Dangerous Pleasures (I'm counting these as one as read back-to-back because I loved every single story)
Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies

All chosen because I thoroughly enjoyed them, quality of writing and the  stories lingered long after reading.

Hilary Mantel gets the top spot as I finally got to read this over Xmas holidays. I saved it deliberately expecting a real literary treat and wasn't disappointed. She may not be to everyone's tastes but I worship at the altar of her writing style and simply adore Mr Secretary. The second Man-Booker Prize was thoroughly deserved. Simply stunning and I was loathe to finish the novel and leave the Tudor world. Now awaiting the final installment of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, but sadly we all know how the story ends...

What were your favourite reads of 2012?
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8 comments:

  1. Sue Moorcroft7 January 2013 at 07:35

    Thank you for the mention, Tracy! :-) Hope you enjoyed All That Mullarkey.

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    1. TracyFells7 January 2013 at 08:07

      I really enjoyed it Sue. Will put a review on GoodReads and Choclit shortly. Loved Justin - an excellent hero, but believable and human too!

      Delete
  2. Patsy7 January 2013 at 09:41

    Thanks for mentioning me too, Tracy.

    (I'm reading All That Mullarkey at the moment.)

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    Replies
    1. TracyFells8 January 2013 at 04:11

      You're welcome Patsy - I really enjoyed Escape to the Country. Hope you like All that Mullarkey :)

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  3. Rosemary Gemmell7 January 2013 at 09:44

    Great list, Tracy - I've read a few of them and plan to read a few more! Wish I'd remembered to write down my list in the special little book notebook I was given another year.

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    Replies
    1. TracyFells8 January 2013 at 04:13

      Rosemary, I am an obsessive list ticker so keeping a log of books read is just another symptom of that madness!

      Delete
  4. Wendy's Writing8 January 2013 at 02:19

    Thank you for the list, Tracy - more reading to add to my kindle!

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  5. TracyFells8 January 2013 at 04:14

    You're welcome Wendy! Enjoy... And will I see you on Thurs for WSW first evening of 2013?

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