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I always wait until New Year’s Eve to compile my best reads of the year, because you never know when something brilliant will sneak in, do you? As it happens, this year has had lots of Very Good Reads, and even some Very, Very Good Reads, but nothing that is likely to enter my all-time favourites pantheon. So I love all twelve of the books on the list, and a good many that didn’t quite make it, but I didn’t have a life-changing book this year.

But, as I say, these 12 books are all wonderful! As usual, I have excluded re-reads and can only include an author once. The links take you back to the original reviews…

12. The Familiar Faces by David Garnett (1962)

I haven’t read the first two volumes of Garnett’s autobiography – I went straight for the one where he becomes an author, because that is the stage of his life I am most interested in. As it happens, and as the title perhaps implies, this is more about portraits of people he knew, often very gossipy, including Dorothy Edwards, T.E. Lawrence, and George Moore.

11. The Painful Truth by Monty Lyman (2021)

When my friends publish books, I try to read them – or at least buy them. But it’s no hardship when they are as brilliant as my friend Monty’s. His previous book was about the skin; this one, on pain, is even better. Which four-letter word ending in ‘in’ will be next?? Vein? Shin?? Anyway, Monty writes about a wide range of issues to do with pain that are fascinating and, above all, compassionate. I don’t read much popular science, but if more of it was like this then I would.

10. Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell (1928)

Rachel and I read a couple of Persephones for an episode of Tea or Books?, and it helped me get Brook Evans off the shelf where it’s been for many years. I love Glaspell’s spare, insightful prose, and the way she shows us a moral dilemma that works it’s way through three generations of a passionate, unhappy family.

9. Ignorance by Milan Kundera (2002)

The first of several Top Books that I read during A Novella A Day in November – I wrote ‘Like most of Kundera’s novels, the plot is a simple thread through the centre of the book – but what makes the book so wonderful are the tangents, the reflections, the aleatory connections between fictional characters and moments in time.’ Translated by Linda Asher, this is another Kundera success for me.

8. Murder Included by Joanna Cannan (1950)

It was great fun to race through a murder mystery in a single day. This is on here partly because it was fun and pacy, with an enjoyable irritating detective, but also because it has a beautifully simple and clever twist in its solution.

7. Three To See The King by Magnus Mills (2001)

You never quite know where you are with Mills, and never more so than with this parable(?) about a man living in a tin house in a desert, miles from his nearest neighbour. His life starts to change when a friend of a friend turns up and moves in – and then rumours come of a charismatic man changing lives in the distance. Mills is so brilliant at making something eerie without being at all evident why it feels that way.

6. Love in the Sun by Leo Walmsley (1939)

This autobiographical novel tells of a man and his partner who have left Yorkshire for Cornwall, escaping some sort of ignominy. They have almost no money and craft a makeshift life in a rickety house in a cove. Walmsley writes about this corner of Cornwall with such tender love and clarity, and the novel is a slow-paced, winding joy.

5. The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning (1930)

A reprint from Dean Street Press that is getting a lot of love, The Invisible Host is curiously close to the premise of Agatha Christie’s later And Then There Were None. A group of strangers have been beckoned to a penthouse, each believing that a party is being thrown in their honour – whereas, in fact, they are going to be killed off, one-by-one, while a gramophone gives them instructions and warnings. The mechanics can be a little graceless, especially compared to Christie’s book, but it is still a brilliant read.

4. The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson (2021)

I didn’t get around to blogging about this one, which I listened to as an audiobook, but I do encourage people to seek it out. Casey Wilson is one of the funniest people alive, and stars in my favourite ever sitcom, Happy Endings. I’ve followed her work ever since, and was so delighted when she came out with a collection of essays – they are enormously funny, about bizarre moments in her life to date, but also very poignant: the loss of her mother, and Wilson’s grief, are front and centre.

3. Things That Fall From the Sky by Selja Ahava (2015)

Ahava’s novel won the EUPL prize a few years ago, and I read a translation by Emily and Fleur Jeremiah. It’s about people who experience extraordinary events – whether an ice berg falling from the sky, winning the lottery multiple times, or being struck repeatedly by lightning. I wrote, in my review: ‘the prose and characters that Ahava has created seem both dreamlike and vividly real – I don’t really understand how that combination is achieved, but it is done with astonishing consistency and assurance. I loved spending time in this world, and the way Ahava balances genuine pathos with a fairytalesque surreality is truly wonderful.’

2. Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons (1936)

The beginning of my year had a lot of books but not all that many brilliant ones, which is perhaps one of the reasons I was so blown away by Gibbons’ novel, which I read for the 1936 Club. Miss Linsey and her father move to be nearer relations – rather reluctant relations – but the short novel encompasses enormous amounts more, with my favourite bit being a satire on Bloomsbury parents. There’s also a lot of heart, particularly in one character’s memories of a wartime romance.

1. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson (2006)

Finally, here is an ode to keeping books on the shelf for years – and then discovering how wonderful they are. I bought this well over a decade ago, and its moment came in 2021. This novel of a farming community in Ontario in the 1930s and 1950s is beautifully immersive, and deserves comparison to Marilynne Robinson’s work. Lucky me, there are still a couple of her books I haven’t read – and I predict at least one of them will be a contender for next year’s best books list.

It’s been a terrible year, but it’s been a great reading year. I always wait until December 31st before I let myself compile this list – and going through the year’s reading, picking out the best books for a shortlist, is one of my favourite book-related moments of the year.

Often I already have a vague idea of which books will make the cut, but sometimes things leap out as reminders of wonderful times. This year, I couldn’t keep it just 10 – and there were another half dozen I’d have been happy to see on a Best Of list.

As always, I have firmly ranked – every year I hope for fewer ‘in no particular order’ lists on blogs! – and have excluded re-reads. That meant missing off Tension by E.M. Delafield, which I loved but apparently read in 2005. Each author can only appear once, otherwise Michael Cunningham would have taken up two places.

Each link goes to the original review. Without further ado…

12. Strange Journey (1935) by Maud Cairns

A body-swap comedy from the 1930s, where a lower-middle-class woman and an upper-class woman swap places. Cairns keeps it from getting stale by having them go back and forth a number of times – and, eventually, meet.

11. Told in Winter (1961) by Jon Godden

A beautifully written, dark, and atmospheric novel about a playwright, his male servant, a devoted dog, and the young actress who arrives to change things forever. So psychologically interesting. Rumer Godden is better remembered, but her sister deserves to be known too.

10. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) by George Orwell

A novel about poverty, pride, stubbornness, books, and class – all done with Orwell’s wonderful prose, totally unshowy and yet totally beautiful.

9. The Stone of Chastity (1940) by Margery Sharp

The first of two Furrowed Middlebrow titles that will appear on this list – Sharp’s comic novel is about a professor investigating the legend of a stepping stone on which unchaste women will stumble. A brilliant premise for a completely delightful novel. Even more to my liking than The Nutmeg Tree, which I also loved this year.

8. The Snow Queen (2014) by Michael Cunningham 

I wasn’t sure whether to include this or Flesh and Blood, but ultimately went with the more compact novel. Cunningham has such a gift for creating a real group of real people, and sprinkling it with magic. Here, a group of New Yorkers live, love, and lie to each other in the early 20th century.

7. Sally on the Rocks (1915) by Winifred Boggs

A total gamble on an unknown author that paid off – Sally is drawn back to her home village at the prospect of financial security in marrying the curate. The novel is a feminist crie de coeur about the moral standards applied to women, while also being witty and like a 1910s Cranford.

6. Doctor Thorne (1858) by Anthony Trollope

I only wrote a paragraph about this novel, which took me nearly a year to finish: “The plot is about secret inheritances and couples who might not be able to marry because of poverty, but the plot is dragged out and (especially in the second half) very predictable. What makes this wonderful is Trollope’s delightful turn of sentence, and the leisurely and assured way he takes us through each conversation, reflection, and narrative flourish. A protracted joy.”

5. Tea at Four O’Clock (1956) by Janet McNeill

A 1956 Club choice that I’ve owned for more than 15 years, hitherto unread. As it opens, Laura is returning from her sister’s funeral – free for the first time. Until her ne’er-do-well brother turns up, that is. A beautiful novel, in which even the suspect characters end up being (by the reader) understood and thus forgiven.

4. Inferno (2020) by Catherine Cho

An extraordinary memoir of post-partum psychosis. Cho writes brilliantly – about this, but also about domestic violence, fear, and love.

3. A House in the Country (1957) by Ruth Adam

How fictionalised is this memoir? Unclear, but this Furrowed Middlebrow about moving into an enormous mansion with seven friends is charming and funny, even when we learn in the opening sentences that the whole thing goes terribly wrong.

2. Business as Usual (1933) by Jane Oliver and Anne Stafford

The novel we’ve all loved this year, right? If you’re among the few yet to get hold of it – like me, you might be sold simply by its being a novel in letters about running the book department of a thinly-disguised Selfridge’s. It’s every bit as delightful as it sounds.

1. Jack (2020) by Marilynne Robinson

I was toying up between this and Business As Usual, but while Business As Usual is a charming wonder, Jack is an extraordinary masterpiece. The fourth in Robinson’s Gilead series, though can be read as a standalone, Jack is a prequel to Home, seeing Jack falling in love with Della. She is African-American, and their relationship is illegal in their state. Nobody writes like Robinson, every sentence a tiny marvel – and even more marvellous that she doesn’t edit or re-draft. What a gift to writing, and the character portraits in this novel will stay with me forever. Even more incredible, Jack went from being someone I hated in Gilead to someone I love here – while recognisably exactly the same person.

It’s that time of year – where bloggers look back over the books they’ve read during the past twelve months to pick their favourites. I always look forward to – reading the lists that other people compile, and choosing my favourites.

This year, I’ve managed to keep it ten – even though that meant leaving off some books I really liked by notables like Elizabeth von Arnim, Vita Sackville-West, Muriel Spark, Ivy Compton-Burnett, E.H. Young, Elizabeth Bowen… basically, the list could have been much longer. And the top book – well, it’s not the one I’ve been telling everyone it would be, because I hadn’t remembered my favourite book of the year had slipped into the first few days of 2016, rather than the last few of 2015.

My usual self-imposed rules apply – no re-reads and only one book per author. Click on the title to take you to the review!

10. Daisy’s Aunt (1910) by E.F. Benson

A frivolous, funny, and entirely delightful novel that reminds me that there’s so much more to E.F. Benson than the (wonderful) Mapp and Lucia books.

9. Poor Relations (1919) by Compton Mackenzie

This was a lovely surprise – one of the books I took with me to Edinburgh, and an extremely funny and sharp book. Another author to explore more…

8. Over the Footlights and Other Fancies (1923) by Stephen Leacock

A return to one of my favourite authors was a definite success – and makes me glad that I kept off making my list until the end of the year.

7. Greengates (1936) by R.C. Sherriff

I only just finished this one, and haven’t reviewed yet – but the next episode of ‘Tea or Books?’ podcast will cover it. For now, I’ve linked to Rachel’s review of this observant, gentle, rather beautiful tale of a couple entering retirement.

6. Americanah (2013) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I wasn’t sure which Adichie book to choose – I’ve read three of hers in 2016 – but it’s this one which has stayed with me the most. Her novel of Nigerian ex-pats in the UK and US is thoughtful, poignant, and brilliantly told.

5. Terms and Conditions (2016) by Ysenda Maxtone Graham

I’m far from the only person who’s fallen in love with this Slightly Foxed offering – an anecdotal history of girls’ boarding schools 1939-1979.

4. The Museum of Cheats (1947) by Sylvia Townsend Warner

I’ve not read any of Warner’s short stories before, but absolutely loved her touch with these when I read the collection during the #1947Club. (#1951Club to come in the spring!)

3. Cider With Rosie (1959) by Laurie Lee

This was the first book I read especially for ‘Tea or Books?’, and I’m so glad I did! This charming memoir is rightly beloved by many.

2. The Lost Europeans (1958) by Emanuel Litvinoff

The novel I thought would be the top one on my list – a brilliantly written portrait of two men trying to come to terms with Germany and their pasts after the Second World War.

1.The Lark (1922) by E. Nesbit

Once I’d remembered that this was one of my first reads in 2016, how could anything else come top of my list? It’s rare to read a novel this funny, joyful, and charming – about two young women setting up a flower shop, and their witty adventures. Even better – it’s coming back into print from Scott and the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint at Dean Street Press!