I love the end of the year because I get to read everyone’s Best Books list – and I get to make my own. I’ve usually got a good idea what will be at the top of the list, but it’s only when going back through my reading that I decide which will make the full top ten.
This year, I think the top four could have been in any order. They were all a delight. But you know me – I don’t like the ‘in no particular order’ sort of list. Be brave and rank things, people! So here is my top ten, with the usual rules I give myself – no re-reads and no author can appear twice.
10. Miss Carter and the Ifrit (1945) by Susan Alice Kerby
The Furrowed Middlebrow series from Dean Street Press is my favourite thing from the past few years in publishing – and this book was more or less made for me. A spinster is surprised when an enthusiastic and slightly chaotic ifrit – a sort of genie – turns up to do her bidding. A very funny clash of worlds.
9. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955) by Brian Moore
This had been on my shelves for seven years, and I’m so glad I finally read it. In a claustrophobic boarding house, Judith Hearne arrives with a picture of Jesus to hang above the bed, and a world of loneliness and frustrated hope. It’s a melancholy, perfectly observed novel with a subdued humour below the surface.
8. Turn Back The Leaves (1930) by E.M. Delafield
I read this for the 1930 Club and found it one of EMD’s most enjoyable novels. It has none of the humour that laces most of her work, but is rather about the clashes of a Catholic family when various members fall in love outside The Church.
7. Molly Fox’s Birthday (2008) by Deirdre Madden
A beautifully written novel about a single day in the life of a director house-sitting for her famous actress friend – though largely made up of flashbacks and recollections.
6. The Wells of St Mary’s (1962) by R.C. Sherriff
I can’t get enough of R.C. Sherriff – having read all the ones Persephone have republished, I got this one about a small village where a neglected well proves to have miraculous healing properties – and how this leads to murder…
5. Notes Made While Falling (2019) by Jenn Ashworth
This memoir-in-essays starts with a traumatic birth and the psychological damage it caused, and ranges over topics as various as Mormonism, Agatha Christie, Freud, and Virginia Woolf. The whole thing is united by brilliant, insightful writing.
4. The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie (1982) by Charles Osborne
What fun I had reading this one! Osborne goes through each of Christie’s works in turn, giving the context from her life and the initial reception, as well as his critical opinion of the book. Even better, there are no spoilers.
3. All The Lives We Ever Lived (2019) by Katharine Smyth
This books explores Smyth’s grief at her father’s death through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. She writes about Woolf extremely well, and about her own family with honesty. I think you probably have to love Woolf to love this – but I do and I did.
2. O, The Brave Music (1943) by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
I read this novel twice this year, and I’m sure I’ll read it many times more. It’s a coming-of-age story that feels like it comes from the same world as I Capture the Castle, with the same freedom and uncertainty and love.
1. The Book of William (2009) by Paul Collins
I wasn’t expecting to love this book so much when I picked it up – prompted by Project Names. And yet, once I started, I fell completely in love. Collins traces the history of Shakespeare’s First Folio from its first printing to its rising and falling popularity over the centuries. Fascinating and often funny, I’d heartily recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the Bard of bibliophilia.
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So, there we go! Seven different decades represented and, more surprisingly for me, two books that were published this year. Another year where non-fiction comes out on top, which seems to have become a habit for my end of the year lists – though six novels in the top ten.
Full stats for my year’s reading will be coming soon – I’m still hoping to finish at least one more before the year is over!
As always, your list is my favourite. (My own will be up tonight – I have to work today and wasn’t quite as organized as in years past.) I have read not a single one of these, though I’ve added a few to my reading list through the year as you’ve written about them. I’m particularly intrigued by O, The Brave Music – any book that demands to be read twice in a year is one worth tracking down!
Happy New Year, Simon, and all the best for 2020.
I have been waiting [im]patiently for yours to appear, Claire – looking forward to it!
Your no.1 choice really was a surprise. I was expecting to see the Blythell book or maybe Alice by Dean Street Press.
Happy New Year!
Happy new year! Bythell’s book was at no.11, and Alice by Elizabeth Eliot was definitely in consideration.
Sorry Simon – I just *can’t* do a list, but I have gone for themes and publishers and favourites! And there probably *is* one outstanding read of the year. Glad to see the Osborne book in your list – I rate it very highly!
Happy New Year! :D
Definitely one I’ll be going back to – in fact, I read a Christie on New Year’s Eve and should go and re-read the section on it.
Sounds like a lot of joyful reading this year: I hope the next year is filled with as many (or more) good reading experiences for you. I’ve added O, the Brave Music to my TBR…whenever someone says that they’ve read a book twice in a short period of time (I’m a big fan of rereading but the temptation to read something new is always strong too), it stands out!
Excellent! I am a very infrequent re-reader, particularly so close, so it is definitely an accolade :)
Many thanks for sharing; Judith Hearne is sitting on my TBR shelf (with many others!) so will attempt it this year following your recommendation. I’ve been mady reading (and offloading) lots of stuff I was given and didnt particularly want to read…however have had some brilliant books too.
Joint first:
The Centaur…John Updike. If you think Updike’s all endless affairs, this one isn’t. It’s am utterly moving, engrossing family story in smalltown New England.
The Crime of Father Amaro…Eca de Queiros. 19th century Portugese writer, who’s up there with any of the ‘greats’ as he recreates a gossipy little town, a very flawed bunch at the Catholic church, much scheming and jealousy…
Also massively enjoyed:
A Book of American Martyrs…Joyce Carol Oates
His Only Son…Leopoldo Alas
Chronicle of Youth…Vera Brittain
Burmese Days…George Orwell (which I’d always assumed to be a memoir but is actually a brilliant novel)
Happy New Year! xx
Thanks for those great suggestions! I haven’t read any Updike, and haven’t heard of that one, so maybe I should start there.
The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie! Oh, that does sound interesting. You always have such unique books on your lists! Thanks and here’s wishing you a wonderful 2020 with lots of fantastic books! (PS: I’m publishing my review of an Ursula Orange book because you recommended her on one of your posts.)
Oh Ursula Orange is fab! Glad it led you to pick her up :)
A brilliant selection, though I have read only one of them, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne which is excellent. Miss Carter and the Ifrit is definitely one I will be reading soon, this is the second best of list I have seen it on. Happy New year to you.
It was on Jane’s too, wasn’t it? What a marvellous thing Furrowed Middlebrow is – and thank you for reviewing lots of them so temptingly.
I read The Book of William way back when it first came out, and it has had staying power in my mind. He covers so much, in such a lively way!
Oh nice! Yes, a real unexpected treasure.
Oh woe, I can’t possibly rank mine. I’ve wimped it, and done them in alphabetical order.
Haha! I understand others don’t share my compulsion ;)
Thanks for a fun year of blog reading, podcast listening and TBR list exploding. The Osborne was super fun and sparked a Christie marathon (day 65 of a story/novel per day in publication order – so many blah short stories in the early years as she developed her writing and plotting skills!). I like my top two for such different reasons, I can’t choose: Lettice Cooper’s National Provincial and E.F. Benson’s The Worshipful Lucia.
Oh wow, that’s an amazing amount of Christie! I thought I’d somehow missed a Mapp and Lucia title, but see that you guys got a different title. What fun that series is.
I love these best-of-the-year lists too, always such a pleasure to browse – and it’s lovely to see Judith Hearne in your selection, a personal favourite from recent years. What I remember most about that book is how brilliantly Brian Moore was able to capture the inner life of this tortured soul, a truly exceptional piece of characterisation. The Deirdre Madden sounds wonderful too. I recall making a note of it when you reviewed it a while back, so I’ll have to see if I can track it down.
Wishing you all the best for the year ahead, Simon. I do enjoy your blog, not least because you tend to read such a lot of books from the 20th century. A reader after my own heart.
The Moore is so good, isn’t it? Your review definitely prompted me to pick it up off my shelves. I do hope you enjoy the Madden too :)
Great list!
Thank you for the inspiration :)
Thanks Ward!
Happy New Year, Simon. It’s many years since I read Judith Hearne and you have reminded me now how wonderful and heart-breaking it was. You were possibly in your pram when the movie was released (1980s from memory) but if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth seeking out. Maggie Smith … couldn’t be better casting! Now I want to see it again!
Happy New Year, Mary! I have the movie tie-in edition but haven’t seen it yet – I was, indeed, 2 years old when it came out. But Maggie Smith is a wonder and it’s perfect casting!
A great list and I hope for at least one of them for my birthday! I have done my list now – and one of the last two books I finished in the year has made it on. I need to check what I was reading at the end of 2018 as we both distinctly recall me staying up to see the new year in, reading frantically!
Haha! If I read something truly wonderful in the final days of the year then I postpone finishing, so it doesn’t mess up my end of year rankings…
Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne was in strong contention for my favourite book of 2019 – I bought it completely by accident never having heard of it or the author. But it was outstanding. Have you read anything else by him? I’m keen to find more .
Karen
PS -am impressed by the creativity of that image at the top of the post
It’s fun, isn’t it? SOme online collage maker did it for me!
I haven’t read anything else by Moore yet, but do have a couple of his.
Happy New Year Simon! I bought and read The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie on your recommendation in 2019 and really enjoyed it too. It was clear that the author has a real affection for Christie and her works. Reading it also made me want to read/re-read more of her books…so I did! :D
Hurrah! Lovely news.
I haven’t been reading much lately but maybe I’ll set some time aside and check on of these out
Mum and I read Molly Fox’s Birthday and we both enjoyed it. I am interested in reading more of the author’s books. The cover was lovely too, I remember. We read it ages ago – it was a very memorable book which I have never forgotten.
Ooh, The Wells of St. Mary’s sounds wonderful! And it’s reminding me that I have one or two Persephone books that I need to read myself — purchased in your presence, if I recall correctly. I continue to be so glad they exist as a publisher. They do amazing work.