First off may I express my gratitude to those who support my endeavours to spread the book love. Thank you to the publishers who provide me with the majority of books I review. Thank you to the wider book community, particularly my fellow bloggers, who so generously and enthusiastically share and retweet my posts. Thank you to my readers – some 30,000 of you this year – I hope that you have enjoyed and found value in my words. Thank you to the authors who enrich our lives with their art.
I write my reviews immediately after finishing each book that I may capture how it made me feel. In selecting this list of favourites from the 170 or so titles that I read and reviewed in 2016 I am choosing based on lingering impressions – the books that stayed in my head. I have not provided summaries here but if you click on the title you may open my review.
It has been a good year for readers, which is perhaps just as well given all that has gone down in the wider world. I felt somewhat ruthless whittling my list down to just these few when there were so many others that I enjoyed. Each of these titles went deeper than simple pleasure, valuable though this is. The writing and stories burrowed inside and have remained.
In no particular order, my fiction Top 11:
- Little Egypt by Lesley Glaister (Salt Publishing)
- Feeding Time by Adam Biles (Galley Beggar Press)
- Untouchable Things by Tara Guha (Legend Press)
- Her Father’s Daughter by Marie Sizun (translated by Adriana Hunter) (Peirene Press)
- The Black Country by Kerry Hadley-Pryce (Salt Publishing)
- The Many by Wyl Menmuir (Salt Publishing)
- Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (translated by Nancy Forest-Flier) (Hodder and Stoughton)
- The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert (Aardvark Bureau)
- The Bird Tribunal by by Agnes Ravatn (translated by Rosie Hedger) (Orenda Books)
- The Nix by Nathan Hill (Picador)
- Epiphany Jones by Michael Grothaus (Orenda Books)
Non Fiction:
- Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker)
And just for fun, what every coffee table needs…
- Spoon’s Carpets by Kit Caless (Square Peg)
Please remember, should you choose to buy any of their books, it helps the small publishers if you order from them direct.
I wish you all a peaceful and happy 2017 enhanced by much good reading – sláinte.
I’m like you in that I review shortly after finishing a book and then base my favourites on those that linger, sometimes these aren’t books I initially gave five stars… but I do think it’s those books that stay with you after they’ve been put aside that deserve the accolades 😊
Some interesting titles I need to investigate, as well as some publishers. I look forward to what you’re going to tempt me with in 2017