As always, I’m saving my books of the year for the 31st, and you’ll get my book stats (my favourite post) on the 29th, but today as in previous years I’m sharing my blogging highlights, including all those reading weeks, months and challenges I took part in over the year. You’ll also find a book group summary, DNFs and CGSs, and some brilliant new authors I discovered below too. Alongside my blog posts have been my reviews for Shiny New Books, some of which I’ll mention here too. This year I’ve added a monthly stats line which reveals fewer 10/10 reads this year (although I had plenty of 9s).
Where did 2024 go?
JANUARY: The year begins, as always, with some reading resolutions. You’ll have to wait until my stats post to see if my plan to concentrate on the TBR whenever possible worked! While I didn’t formally run Nordic FINDS this year, I did make an effort to read a few books by Nordic authors. My Watchlist write-up of my pre-Christmas viewing concentrated on Series 3 of the so-brilliant Slow Horses.
Books read: 10, blog tours: 4, 10/10 reads: 0.
FEBRUARY was the 4th #ReadIndies month hosted by Kaggsy and Lizzy and 6 reviews qualified. Jan-March is the Japanese Literature Challenge, hosted by Dolce Belezza, and I read Kawabata’s Snow Country which I didn’t really warm to, whereas Matsumoto’s Point Zero was rather good – he’s seen as one of the great popularisers of crime fiction in Japan. February contained my first, and probably only two poetry reads of the year, Modern Fog by Chris Emery and Tristan / Yseult by Harry Bonelle were very different from each other and both good.
Books read: 10, blog tours: 4, 10/10 reads: 2.
MARCH: Is marked by the longlist announcement of one of my favourite prizes – namely The Dylan Thomas Prize – I read Camilla Grudova’s short stories The Coiled Serpent from the list. It’s also Reading Ireland month hosted by Cathy and I read two novels by Flattery and Nolan. It was also the month I read a book that I thought could be my book of the year – but I’m not letting on here.
Books read: 11, blog tours: 3 + 1 at Shiny, 10/10 reads: 2.
APRIL had just one reading challenge in the 1937 Club hosted by Simon and Kaggsy – I revisited and updated an old review of Ali and Nino by Kurban Said for it. The month’s reading was dominated by two splendid NF books – All You Need is Love: The End of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, and The Blues Brothers by Daniel De Visé, and I got my review of Orbital by Samantha Harvey in at Shiny before the Booker longlist was announced.
Books read: 8, blog tours: 4, 10/10 reads: 2.
MAY was quiet on challenges, but heavier on blog tours. Our book group read Bear by Canadian author Marian Engels – a book guaranteed to provoke a good(!) discussion.
Books read: 8, blog tours: 6, 10/10 reads: 0.
JUNE of course sees the start of 20 Books of Summer, as always hosted by Cathy, which I cheat at mercilessly although all books are from my TBR, managing to read 8 books and reviewing 5 of them. It also marked the return of ‘Reading the Meow’ hosted by Mallika of Literary Potpourri, and I read Boxes by Pascal Garnier!
Books read: 11, blog tours: 2, 10/10 reads: 0
JULY: I added another 5 to my 20 Books of Summer. With 13 read, that left me an achievable remainder for August! My only 10/10 read this month was Sinead O’Connor’s memoir Rememberings, read to celebrate the anniversary of her untimely death, a wonderfully witty and painful memoir full of love. Changing tack, one of my other hobbies apart from reading is doing jigsaws, and I wrote a feature on it (the first of more, perhaps?)
Books read: 10, blog tours: 4 + 1 at Shiny, 10/10 reads: 1
AUGUST is #WITMonth – Women in Translation, and I read 2 French novels for it: Kids Run the Show by Delphine De Vigan and Nothing is Lost by Cloé Mehdi – both gritty, dark and very much giving two different state of the nation views! I finished my 20 Books of Summer in style by adding in an extra four titles from the TBR! I also caught up with Stu‘s Spanish & Portuguese Reading Month with a novella by Andrés Barba.
Books read: 15, blog tours: 1, 10/10 reads: 2
SEPTEMBER is always a busy month for me – back at school – tired in the evenings, so less reading done. I reviewed three excellent books for Shiny, including Rare Singles by Ben Myers which was very close to a 10/10 but not quite and Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes, trans Frank Wynne, an e-mail epistolary novel no less. The main highlight was that I launched Paul Auster Reading Week II for Feb 3-10 2025 – for more info click through.
Books read: 7, blog tours 2, 10/10reads: 0
OCTOBER While still busy at school, October was more settled and I got more reading done. Blog tours included two Nordic books – the new Antti Tuomainen – getting laughs out of saunas, and Lilja Sigurðardóttir‘s latest ‘Áróra Investigation’ story. Then there was the story of the hamper and the book inside it… In between, I started a new series of themed archive posts in ‘Five feat…’ Surrey and Trains being the first two, and I read an excellent Maigret for Simon and Kaggsy’s 1970 Club. Nonfiction November always encroaches slightly into the end of November, and I started my involvement with a review of NF read since last time. The month was capped off by a superb spy novel set in Bahrain – The Peacock and the Sparrow by I S Berry.
Books read: 11, blog tours: 4, 10/10 reads: 0
NOVEMBER is a super-busy month with some big month-long themes: notably Nonfiction November, hosted by five different bloggers – I took part in weeks 1 which began last month, then weeks 2 (hosted by Frances), 3 (hosted by Liz ) and 4 (hosted by Rebekah) with themed posts, and some of those nf reads were short so just happened to fit into … Novellas in November, hosted by Rebecca and Cathy. Most of my reads this month fitted one or other of these tags. Additionally, there was German literature month, hosted by LIzzy and a novella squeezed in for that, and finally Norway in November hosted by Dolce Belezza and a final novella for that too. However, my most anticipated read of the month didn’t disappoint – Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway. I also got to see Robert Powell and Elizabeth Garner at Blackwell’s discussing her father’s latest collection of essays, memoir, poems and stories, Powsels and Thrums. Finally, I decided it was time for a re-read of Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco and announced Echoes of Eco II in case anyone cares to read along with me.
Books read: 14, blog tours: 3, 10/10 reads: 3
DECEMBER had no blog tours and only one reading challenge in Dean Street December hosted by Liz for which I read the final Elvis mystery by Daniel Klein. I achieved my Goodreads target of 120 books read.
Books read (up to 26th): 7, blog tours: 0, 10/10 reads: 2
Book Group
My full Book Group page is here with the list of what we’ve read this year. After finishing our last round of ‘Book Assocation’ we returned to an A-Z of flora & fauna for subsequent choices – books pitched had to be associated with, feature, or have in the title an animal or plant beginning with the requisite letter – then we do a random pick. Our December meeting is always ‘Book Group Curry Night’ and over our popadoms, we discussed our favourite reads of the year. Josephine Johnson’s Pulitzer-winning Now in November just about came out top, it was my favourite. However, we all agreed that the most memorable book – for all the wrong reasons – was Bear by Marian Engel!
The DNFs and CGSs.
I had no DNFs this year until December when I finally had one! I did have one CGS, (Couldn’t Get Started) which was Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter – the rest of our book group largely enjoyed it – I will try it again another time.
The Biggest Disappointments
Another book group choice – Some Tame Gazelle – Barbara Pym’s debut novel was just tedious. Also E C Featherstone’s My Rude Awakening – an effectively self-published narrative memoir, had some good bits, but just had too much explicit sex in it for me!
The Brilliant Discoveries
Mainly hanks to Orenda and Corylus books, I read loads of new to me crime/thriller authors, mostly in translation, many of them Nordic! Shout-outs go to Óskar Guðmundsson, Agnes Ravatn, Joachim B Schmidt, Elsa Drucaroff, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Teresa Solana.
Favourite Covers
And to finish with today, for one reason or another, be it colours, wittiness or design, fox xmas decos or cat’s eyes, these are some of my favourite covers from books read this year.
I always welcome your Watchlist posts, Annabel. They’ve often come in very useful. Pleased to see the Falling Animals hardback cover as one of your favourites. The paperback version is woeful!
A most striking cover and a contender for my best of list too.
Looks like a brilliant year to me, Annabel! Are you doing Nordic FINDS (formally or informally) in January??
I do have one Nordic book in the Jan pile, but it’ll be informal again this year, as I concentrate on the Eco.
What a great reading year you had. Challenges, book tours and the rest. I always would like to have a goal for my reading, but never really manage. More spur of the moment reading. I wish you another good reading year in 2025.
Happy reading for 2025 to you too. I keep saying to myself to do fewer blog tours, but my preferred sources for these are coming up with such good offers, it’s hard to say no – I’ve got 5 for January plus my Umberto Eco readalong! The challenges are often more spontaneous which makes for a better balance.
Wow, I’m hugely impressed by how much you read, manage or contribute to – you’re an inspiration, Annabel!
What an excellent round-up that you’ve clearly put a lot of work into. Lots of lovely challenges there!
Thanks Liz. It’s my third year of this format so a little quicker to do now.