I didn't join any TBR challenges but created a list from my shelves that I wanted to make sure I read in 2016.
Here's how I did.
- Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel - I finally read this wonderful book. One of the best of 2016 for me.
- Blonde, by Joyce Carol Oates - about Marilyn Monroe, good but oppressive. Glad when I finally finished this long book.
- The Perfect Summer, by Juliet Nicolson - about the summer of 1911, part of my WWI reading project and a wonderful non-fiction.
- Eventide, by Kent Haruf - one of my new favorite authors, this second book in his Holt, CO series was excellent.
- The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles - finally read this masterpiece, but still haven't seen the movie!
- Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson - good but oppressive, very creative with marvelous writing.
- Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett - simply breathtaking. Loved it, including the wrenching ending.
- Operating Instructions, by Anne Lamott - okay, but not as much a fan of Lamott as I thought I was.
- Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives: The Industrial Resolution in Lancashire, by Sue Wilkes - fascinating look at the world my mother's family lived in.
- What Angels Fear, by C.S. Harris - first in a historical mystery series, featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, a nobleman who fought in the Napoleonic wars. Really good, but never did a blog post on it. Plan to read the next in the series in 2017.
Here's what I didn't finish...
- Time and Chance, by Sharon Kay Penman - next up chronologically in her wonderful historical fiction series, the continuing story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine - currently reading this and loving it!
- The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton - started it but didn't care for the characters, not sure if I will resume.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini - I loved The Kite Runner, which was on my TBR Pile list in 2015, and loved it. I hope to read this in 2017.
Nice list and wrap-up. The Hosseini book is pretty bleak bleak but worth reading, not as great as The Kite Runner but good. Happy New Year.
ReplyDeleteYou started with an interesting list of books. Congratulations on getting through most of them.
ReplyDeleteI could not even begin to put together such a list. It would be monstrously long.
Well done! Personally, I think if one has read one Kate Morton book, one has read them all. They are fairly formulaic. I read the Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours and liked TDH more than TFG.
ReplyDeleteYou did really good! Congrats on reading so many from your TBR pile. That's always one of my bookish goals; and I always seem to fall short in achieving it. :) Maybe because I keep adding books to the pile.
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