Books Read in 2010

• My usual reference post of what I read in 2010, in reverse order, with links to the reviews.
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• 56. Charitable Getting by Sam Starbuck
• 55. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
• 54. A Proper Education for Girls by Elaine diRollo
• 53. In Chancery by John Galsworthy
• 52. All Clear by Connie Willis
• 51. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
• 50. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• 49. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• 48. The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier
• 47. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
• 46. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds
• 45. Evelina by Frances Burney
• 44. Grammar is a Sweet, Gentle Song by Erik Orsenna
• 43. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• 42. Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
• 41. Blackout by Connie Willis
• 40. Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
• 39. The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
• 38. At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
• 37. George Knightley, Esquire: Charity Envieth Not by Barbara Cornthwaite
• 36. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
• 35. The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
• 34. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Eliabeth Taylor
• 33. Amanda by Debra White Smith
• 32. The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman
• 31. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
• 30. Perfect Happiness by Rachel Billington
• 29. Interworld by Neil Gaiman
• 28. Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton
• 27. Mr. Knightley's Diary by Amanda Grange
• 26. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey
• 25. Classic Shorts: Eight Stories for Summer by DailyLit
• 24. Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff
• 23. The China Garden by Liz Berry
• 22. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
• 21. The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
• 20. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• 19. Emma by Jane Austen
• 18. Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
• 17. Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
• 16. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
• 15. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
• 14. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
• 13. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
• 12. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• 11. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
• 10. The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham
• 9. Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
• 8. The Man of Property by John Galsworthy
• 7. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
• 6. Bluestockings by Jane Robinson
• 5. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
• 4. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• 3. A Sensible Life by Mary Wesley
• 2. Charitable Getting by Sam Starbuck
• 1. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Best Books 2010

It seems to always turn out that some of my favourite books are completely obvious, and some take more thought. Both last year and this year, my favourite nonfiction and two of my favourite fiction books were obvious, and the third fiction was not so obvious.

Nonfiction
Bluestockings, by Jane Robinson - This is a wonderful, wonderful book, full of fascinating, hilarious, and infuriating anecdotes about very real women who just wanted the right to learn things. Read my original review here.

Fiction
Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis - I know these are two books, in a physical sense, but I don't think they were originally intended to be separate, and they are one story. One giant, glorious story. I read 350 pages of All Clear in one day because I literally couldn't put it down. I learned more about World War II here than I ever did in school. Connie Willis really does just keep getting better. Original reviews are here and here.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson - I loved this book. It dealt with all sorts of important issues, and it did so the more effectively because it was such a good story on its own. Original review here.

The Post-Office Girl, by Stefan Zweig - This was a beautiful and very sad book. While the other books on this list are here because I loved reading them so much, this one is here because I think it's important that it be here. Not that it was not a good reading experience, because it was, but it was not the same kind of experience that more lighthearted books were. Read the original review here.

Second Best Books 2010

I only ever have three or four books that I can call my very favourites, but I read a lot of wonderful books, so it seems unfair to leave them out of my end of the year round-up. Here are my second favourite books, in reverse chronological order of when I read them.

A Proper Education for Girls, by Elaine diRollo - A late addition, but a worthy one. This was a very colourful, very admirable historical novel, which I quite enjoyed reading. Full review here.

Evelina, by Frances Burney - This is perhaps the only 18th century novel I've ever read, and my fondness for it was wholly unexpected. It was a lovely read. Full review here.

A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster - I'm a little surprised this didn't make it onto the Best Books list, but my memory of it seems to have faded too much. But it was another unexpectedly wonderful read, and I'd like to read it again some day. See here.

Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley - A lovely little story, and a thoroughly bookish one. Full review here.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe - Historical, fantastical, academic--in short, all my favourite themes in a book. See here.

The Man of Property, by John Galsworthy - Caught my attention so well that I'm just beginning the last book of the Forsyte Saga. Wonderfully written, and an intriguing story. See here.

And tomorrow, you'll hear about my favourite books.

End of year meme

I realize December isn't half over, but I was drawn in by the lure of a good meme (stolen from my 2008 self).


-How many books read in 2010?
52, so far.

-Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
44 fiction, 8 nonfiction

-Male/Female authors?
19 male, 33 male (some of the authors are counted twice, this is just how many books I read by each gender)

-Favourite book read?
You'll have to wait a couple weeks for my official favourite post. I have at least 4 favourites.

-Least favourite?
Perfect Happiness, by Rachel Billington. Terrible Emma sequel.

-Oldest book read?
Much Ado About Nothing. No ancient Greeks this year, I'm afraid.

-Newest?
Probably All Clear, that came out in October.

-Longest book title?
George Knightley, Esquire: Charity Envieth Not.

-Shortest title?
Emma again, same as last time I did this meme.

-How many re-reads?
Three--two Jane Austen and 84, Charing Cross Road. I can't believe I didn't reread Tam Lin; I know I started it.

-Most books read by one author this year?
Three each from Helene Hanff and Dorothy Sayers.

-Any in translation?
Grammar is a Sweet, Gentle Song and The Little Prince. Both French, huh.

-And how many of this year's books were from the library?
31. I embraced my library obsession this summer.

Books read in 2009

Here's my usual reference post of what I read in 2009. I seem to organize these differently every year, but this way works as well as any. I read 66 books in 2008, and 52 in 2007, so I'm a book less than last year but still better than the year before. Which seems pretty good given that this year I was trying to graduate and get through my first quarter of college.

• 65. The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton (fiction)
  
• 64. Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple (fiction)
  
• 63. Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes (fiction)
  
• 62. Indians! by Arthur Kopit (play)
  
• 61. Biography: A Game by Max Frisch (play)
  
• 60. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (fiction)
  
• 59. Offending the Audience by Peter Handke (play)
  
• 58. The Caretaker by Harold Pinter (play)
  
• 57. Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (play)
  
• 56. Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (fiction - Greek)
  
• 55. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (fiction - mystery)
  
• 54. The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (play)
  
• 53. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (play)
  
• 52. Medea by Euripides (play)
  
• 51. The Balcony by Jean Genet (play)
  
• 50. The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco (play)
  
• 49. The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder (play)
  
• 48. The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'neill (play)
  
• 47. Six Characters in Search of An Author by Luigi Pirandello (play)
  
• 46. The Good Person of Sichuan by Bertolt Brecht (play)
  
• 45. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (fiction)
  
• 44. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (fiction)
  
• 43. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson (nonfiction)
  
• 42. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare (play)
  
• 41. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (fiction - reread)
  
• 40. Helen by Euripides (play)
  
• 39. Farthing by Jo Walton (fiction - mystery)
  
• 38. Nameless by Sam Starbuck (fiction)
  
• 37. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (fiction - short)
  
• 36. The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett (fiction - short)
  
• 35. On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad (fiction)
  
• 34. The Queen and I by Sue Townsend (fiction)
  
• 33. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard (fiction)
  
• 32. Poems by Wilfred Owen (poetry)
  
• 31. Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield (fiction)
  
• 30. Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (fiction - young adult)
  
• 29. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (fiction - mystery)
  
• 28. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (fiction)
  
• 27. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy (fiction)
  
• 26. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (fiction)
  
• 25. The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell (nonfiction - biography)
  
• 24. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (fiction - fantasy)
  
• 23. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (fiction)
  
• 22. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (fiction)
  
• 21. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice (fiction - reread)
  
• 20. Lady Susan by Jane Austen (fiction - short)
  
• 19. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin (nonfiction - biography)
  
• 18. The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (play)
  
• 17. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce (fiction - young adult, reread)
  
• 16. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)
  
• 15. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (fiction - mystery)
  
• 14. Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce (fiction - young adult)
  
• 13. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (fiction - children's)
  
• 12. The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley (fiction)
  
• 11. The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer (fiction)
  
• 10. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (fiction)
  
• 9. Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea (nonfiction)
  
• 8. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (fiction)
  
• 7. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (fiction - short)
  
• 6. Sonnets From the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poetry)
  
• 5. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (fiction - mystery)
  
• 4. Beowulf by Anonymous (poetry)
  
• 3. King Richard III by William Shakespeare (play)
  
• 2. The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (fiction - young adult)
  
• 1. Nurk by Ursula Vernon (fiction - children's)
  

Books of the Year 2009: Fiction

It was much more difficult choosing favourite fiction for 2009 than choosing nonfiction, plays, or short fiction. I suppose this is partly because I've read more fiction, or that I'm much less likely to read a novel I don't really like than a play or something short I don't like. Really, it was the last book on my list of three that gave me trouble, the other two were rather automatic. What I think distinguishes these books is that they're the ones I wrote the longest posts about. I had a lot to say about them, lots of ideas and impressions, and some very incoherent emotional or subconscious reactions to them, which I attempted to work through by writing. I read all of these books since September, which makes me wonder if they're on the list just because I remember them better. But I'm sure about the first two. I knew when I read them they'd be on the list.

There's little more I can say about these books than I said the first time around, since they're so dependent on impression and they are bigger than anything I could say in a paragraph. So I'll just leave you with the links to the original posts, and the urging that you read these books.

The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt. I'm so glad I own this now. All three of these books are in my possession, which strikes me as fitting for my favourites. Original post here.

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. Original post here.

Someone at a Distance, by Dorothy Whipple. I think it may be a given that if I read a Persephone book it goes on this list. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day was on my list last year. Original post here.

And Happy Hogmanay! (This is me indulging in my joy in amusing Scottish holidays.)

Books of the Year 2009: Nonfiction, Short Fiction, and Plays

I read 4 books of nonfiction this year, but my favourite is clear. I read 18 plays, mostly for school. Four of my reads I consider short fiction. I'm kind of arbitrarily deciding how many favourites I get in each section, it's just how many seem to fit there--one nonfiction, two short fiction, three plays.

Nonfiction
The Mitford Girls, by Mary S. Lovell, would definitely be in the running for most enjoyable book in any category this year. It is 529 pages but I absolutely sped through it. I forget how much I love biographies, but this was biography at its best, giving both a picture of its subjects' personalties and a clear view of their place in history. I found it completely fascinating. Original post here.

Short Fiction
The Lady in the Van, by Alan Bennett, doesn't quite count as fiction at all, because it's a true story and is mostly made up of Alan Bennett's diary entries about Miss Shepherd, the woman who lived in her van on the author's door step for 20 years. Despite its truth, though, I'm including it here because it is a story, and isn't comprehensive the way nonfiction would be. It was one of those stories that induced compulsive reading aloud, and I loved it. Original post here.

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, is kind of a given for good short fiction. It's one of those books that is an experience to read, because it's so evocative and intuitive. I'm sorry I never really wrote a post about it; I would have liked to revisit my initial reactions. But I know it was good.

Plays
It feels somehow like cheating to include The Real Inspector Hound, by Tom Stoppard, since I didn't just read it, I produced it and costumed it and assistant stage managed it. But all that aside, it is a good play. It's one you sort of have to read more than once to get the full meaning out of, because it has so many layers. It's very good fun, and I can't resist theatre about theatre.

The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee, is a short, contained play. What I liked was the language, something about the two characters' expressions, the way it rolled. I don't know that I would have expected this to be the one play out of the thirteen from my comparative literature class that I liked best, or even that it absolutely is the best, but it's one I know I'll remember.

What can I say about Shakespeare's King Richard III? It always feels odd somehow to put a Shakespeare play on a list like this. But I suppose there's some Shakespeare I wouldn't put on this list, so putting Richard III here works. I thought he was a fascinating character, historically accurate or not, and this play does have some really great lines.

Books of a Year 2009 - The Second Rank

I'm waiting on posting my actual books of the year, because I want to do a lot of reading over the break and I don't know whether I'll read something that merits a place on the list. I do have a list in the making, though, and in that process I've come up with another list, of books that have faded from my memory a little (which is why they're not on the best books list), but which I wanted to remind myself of because I did like them very much.

On Borrowed Wings, by Chandra Prasad, was the story of a girl who dresses as her brother to go to Yale in 1936. I'd forgotten this, but from my post about it in August, it dealt very interestingly with questions of gender.

Marking Time was the sequel to The Light Years, by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Both books were quite excellent, but I especially liked how Marking Time expanded on what we already knew about the characters and made them all even more interesting. It was, also, a well-done view of World War II. I originally posted about it here. I need to get around to reading the rest of this series.

Nameless, by Sam Starbuck, is very near and dear to me, being one of the 2,500 the dedication mentions. As I said in my original post, it was originally published online, giving readers the opportunity to critique and improve it. It is a very self-contained, lovely story. I need to reread it some time.

The Story of a Marriage, by Andrew Sean Greer, cropped up by chance in February (which was a very long time ago, it seems). According to my review of it, it was very good at evoking images, of San Francisco especially, and associations, and I found it slotting very nicely into my own life and thoughts at the time I read it.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, was one I got for my birthday with no previous knowledge of it. It's translated from French, and conveyed very interestingly both French and Japanese ways of looking at the world. All the characters were quite interesting, too. My original post was here.

Looking back on what I read this year, I find there are definite trends. All of these books have somewhat of a mood in common. And Marking Time was World War II, On Borrowed Wings pre-war, and The Story of a Marriage post-war. I've read a lot of other books set in that era this year, too.

I wonder what sorts of trends I'll see in my reading next year.

Books Read in 2008

Here is my rounded up and organized list of books I read in 2008 for reference, so I can take them off the sidebar and put my 2009 books on instead.

Fiction
66. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
65. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
63. The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute
62. Emma by Jane Austen
61. Grendel by John Gardner
59. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
58. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
57. Pure Dead Batty by Debi Gliori
55. Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina
54. The Things they Carried by Tim O'Brien
51. The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald
50. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
49. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
48. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
47. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
46. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
45. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
44. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
43. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
42. Le Ballon Rouge by Albert Lamorisse
41. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
40. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
37. Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
36. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
35. Versailles by Kathryn Davis
34. The House With the Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
33. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
32. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
31. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
30. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
27. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
26. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
25. Once Upon a Time in the North by Phillip Pullman
24. Beloved by Toni Morrison
23. March by Geraldine Brooks
19. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
17. Little Women by Lousia May Alcott
16. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
15. The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards
14. Only Human by Gareth Roberts
13. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
12. Jacob’s Room by Virginia Wolf
11. The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
10. The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards
9. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
8. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
6. Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
5. The Light-Bearer’s Daughter by O.R. Melling
4. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1. Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton

Plays
64. King Lear by William Shakespeare
60. Mr. Pim Passes By by A.A. Milne
52. All My Sons by Arthur Miller
29. Lysistrata by Aristophanes
22. Equus by Peter Shaffer
20. The Bacchae by Euripides
3. ‘night Mother by Marsha Norman

Nonfiction
56. Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
21. So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid
18. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
7. American Orientalism by Douglas Little
2. The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey

Poetry
53. Poems by Oscar Wilde
39. Narrative Poems by C.S. Lewis
38. A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman
28. Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll

I'm rather pleased with it, really, especially with how many plays and books of poetry I read. I'd like to read more nonfiction, but that's a better showing of it than usual, so that's all right.

End of Year Meme

At some point I mean to write up a post about books I got for Christmas and books I read over Christmas, but for now I have an end of the year meme thieved from Stuck in a Book.

-How many books read in 2008?
63, so far.

-Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
7 Non-fiction, 56 fiction

-Male/Female authors?
31 male (some counted twice because I read more than one book by them), 35 female

-Favourite book read?
See this post.

-Least favourite?
Probably March by Geraldine Brooks. I couldn't stand the character; he never changed at all, and the writing felt very forced and falsely 19th century. I could mention American Orientalism, which was incredibly dull, but that was for a class (well, so was March, but a different kind of class).

-Oldest book read?
Lysistrata takes the cake, written by Aristophanes in 411 BCE. It just beats The Bacchae, which is from 405 BCE.

-Newest?
Endymion Spring was read in advance proof, but it was probably published by the time I read it. There might be one newer.

-Longest book title?
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Just as predicted.

-Shortest title?
Jane Austen's Emma.

-How many re-reads?
Just one--Tam Lin, which I read at least once every year.

-Most books read by one author this year?
I didn't read more than two by any one author, but I did two of Khaled Hosseini, Nancy Mitford, Connie Willis, C.S. Lewis, and Justin Richards.

-Any in translation?
3--The Summer Book, Lysistrata, and The Bacchae, so far as I am aware.

-And how many of this year's books were from the library?
17. Far less than usual, because of all the Senior Lit books got from school, and the fact that I've been reading a lot of things I already own.

My favourite books of 2008

The time has come, the walrus said, to choose my favourite books out of all that I read in 2008. Admittedly the year's not quite over and I may well read something to add to the list, but I'm making it now all the same. These are not necessarily the best written books, or the best constructed or the most interesting, but they are the ones that stand out when I go down the list of all I've read. They are those I enjoyed the most (with one or two exceptions, just to keep the list short). We have one nonfiction and five fiction.

Nonfiction
Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern - I made mention of it here, but I guess I never got around to writing up anything definitive about my thoughts on finishing this book. Originally I had planned to choose the best book overall of the year, and this one did spring to mind, but then I decided there were too many good books to just pick one. I loved it, because it smelled of books and history and other lovely things, and I had to force myself to read it slowly.

Fiction (in backwards chronological order)
Grendel by John Gardner - This was read for my Senior Lit class, and I hear a lot of the people who read it for this class have hated it, but I loved it. It sounded of Beowulf, it rolled like Beowulf, it was cold and ugly and sometimes beautiful, and it made me think. At some point I'll write up a full post about it.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson - I know it's been said, but this book is lovely. I posted about it here.

Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina - This was also read for Senior Lit, and was one of those books that I never would have read otherwise. It's historical fiction, but not just in the sense that it's set in a historical time period--it is also based on very particular historical events. I loved it for the balance between the fictional characters' stories and the real events, and there is a post about it here.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - I suspect this is cropping up in lots of "Best of" lists, but at least it really is deserving. I made a not terribly coherent post about it here, but it combined many of my favourite things--letters, books, history, quirky goings-on, and romance--to be very nearly perfect.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice - I read this before I started blogging, so my initial thoughts about it are not preserved, but I loved it entirely. It looks from the cover rather unfortunately like chick lit, and in some ways it is, but I know there are men out there who would enjoy it. It is not, at least, as frilly as chick lit usually is. It is set in England in the 1950s, just as Elvis Presley is beginning to make his mark on the world, and includes the usual crumbling old mansion, all sorts of lovely characters, and a lot of other things. It does a fabulous job of capturing youth, and will probably become one I'll reread more than once.

Not much to speak of

So, I finished The English Patient a couple days ago, and it was lovely. It has added to my interest in World War II England an interest in Italy and North Africa of the same era.

I have now moved on to The Enchanted April, which is a pretty little book but not terribly striking, especially as I've already seen the movie and the movie doesn't appear to have changed much. I think now that they've got to Italy it might be more interesting, certainly in terms of the descriptions. It just occurred to me this is the second book in a row I've read that's set in Italy.

At present I am attempting to do some reading and some writing in order to get my novel out of my head so that I can start editing it. I've started a list of things that I already know need writing or adding in or expanding upon or changing, and I'm sure a rereading of it will just add more things to my list. But I'm really looking forward to my editing. I'm attempting to write some short stories in the meantime, but I find short stories way more difficult to write than novels, at least in first draft, and way more difficult to come up with plots for. But I would like to get better at them. I'm looking forward to reading Katherine Mansfield's Stories, since I don't read a lot of short stories and it's probably a helpful thing to do in preparation for writing them.

The books of 2007

This is mostly for my own reference purposes, but here is a list of all the books I read in 2007.

Novels
Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë)
The Playmaker (Thomas Keneally)
Chocolat (Joanne Harris)
The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde)
Some Tame Gazelle (Barbara Pym)
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield)
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)
Codex (Lev Grossman)
Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions (Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott)
The Mao Game (Joshua Miller)
Gods Behaving Badly (Marie Phillips)
These Three Remain (Pamela Aidan)
Bridget Jones's Diary (Helen Fielding)
The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Helen Fielding)
Shoe Addicts Anonymous (Beth Harbison)
Tam Lin (Pamela Dean)
Thomas the Rhymer (Ellen Kushner)

Children's Books/YA Books
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Ann Brashares)
Carrie’s War (Nina Bawden)
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Tithe (Holly Black)
Pure Dead Trouble (Debi Gliori)
Love Rules (Dandi Daley Mackall)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
The Railway Children (E. Nesbit)
The Slippery Map (N.E. Bode)
The Secret Country (Pamela Dean)

Plays
The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)
The Tempest (Shakespeare)
The Recruiting Officer (George Farquhar)
Our Country's Good (Timberlake Wertenbaker)
As Bees in Honey Drown (Douglas Carter Beane)
Over the Checkerboard (Fred Carmichael)
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare)

Nonfiction
The Professor and the Madman (Simon Winchester)
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (Anne Fadiman)
Letters to a Young Poet (Rainer Maria Rilke)
No Plot? No Problem! (Chris Baty)
Rereadings (ed. Anne Fadiman)
The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary (Gilliver, Marshall, Weinver)

Poetry
Selected Poems (T.S. Eliot)
Poems (John Keats)
Renascence and Other Poems (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
Wessex Poems and Other Verses (Thomas Hardy)