With my continued lesser readings I am not doing a lot of culling when making a list. So here’s a bit about what I read last year.

• Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante – An unreliable narrator, as her memory fails, reveals details of her life plus a mystery and darned if it isn’t totally compelling, I was won over by the form, the language, the characters, and the storyline.
• The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson – I dig a little quirk and this artsy family drama where the kids are forced to return home to deal with their unusual parents’ art/life projects hit the spot.
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach – College and baseball and love and other dramas collide as we take a closer look at lives that intersect through America’s favorite pastime, I enjoyed spending time with these characters.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy – Dark and depressing, the walk of a man and his son in a post-apocalyptic, is it hopeful?
• The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner – The author’s usual lovely language looks at a volunteer teacher in Namibia, telling about his love for the titled Shikongo but also shares through story snippets to portray a greater picture.
• In the Woods by Tana French – A detective gets a case that brings him back to his own childhood and we watch the investigation through the lens of what is happening and what has happened, this felt like a slight step up from my typical mystery literarily but still engaging tale.
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest byStieg Larsson – Yeah I wrapped these up, and happy to spend a little more time with our protagonists in these slightly oddly structured crime dramas.
• The Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz – Back again to visit my favorite SF detective family, who fortunately have enough odd family drama to keep them occupied whether they have cases or not.
• Sacred/Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane – I’ve still been enjoying a little walk through the backlog of detective team Kenzie and Gennaro, quick and likable page turners.

So my vow to read more may not have gone over all that well but I did stop reading at least one book I couldn’t get into, turns out a Pulitzer does not for me an enjoyable book make, no go for Tinkers by Paul Harding. And I should note I know both LaPlante and Orner from my days in grad school, kudos to SF writers.

What were some of your favorite reads this year?

My book backlog keeps growing and here is some fodder to think of for future purchases. My surveying tends toward the fictional and I’m clearly not all encompassing, for someone who is feel free to refer to this crazy list by large hearted boy.

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – NYT, FW
• At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon – FW
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson – Am, JM, LG/RJ, EW, NYT, Ti
• Lexicon by Max Barry – LG/RJ, Ti
• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton – FW, Am
• Never Go Back by Lee Child – JM
• Duplex by Kathryn Davis – FW
• The Circle by Dave Eggers – Am
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – LG/RJ, Ti
• & Sons by David Gilbert – FW
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert – LG/RJ, Am, JM, Ti
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg – LG/RJ, Ti
• NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – LG/RJ, JM, Ti
• Sea of Hooks by Lindsay Hill – PW
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini – EW, Am
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – Am
• Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai – FW
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner – LG/RJ, NYT, FW, Ti, SFG
• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri – LG/RJ, Am, Ti
• Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem – FW
• A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – PW, WP, SFG
• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride – FW, Am, PW, WP, SFG
• Someone by Alice McDermott – JM
• The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud – FW, Am, WP
• The Son by Philipp Meyer – EW, Am, WP
• The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty – EW, Am
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  – EW
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki – Am
• How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny – WP
• Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon – EW
• The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth – JM
• All That Is by James Salter – Am
• Tenth of December by George Saunders – LG/RJ, EW, NYT Am, MK, Ti, SFG
• Half the Kingdon by Lore Segal – FW
• The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis – EW, Am
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion – Am
• Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees – PW
• American Dream Machine by Matthew Spektor – FW
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – NYT, FW, Am, MK, SFG
• The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy – FW
• The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasques – Am
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – EW
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer – LG/RJ, EW, FW, Am, Ti
• The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell – Am
• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara – PW

AM – Amazon, EW – Entertainment Weekly, FW – Flavorwire, JM – Janet Maslin, LG/RJ – Lev Grossman and Radhika Jones for Time, MK – Michiko Kakutani, NYT – New York Times, PW – Publishers Weekly, SFG – SFGate, Ti – Time, WP – Washington Post