My 2016 in books so far…
A sixth form student asked me which books I’d read so far this year and could I list them for her – so here you go. Hope I’ve not forgotten anything. The list comprises fiction and non fiction I have read since new year and doesn’t include things that I have needed to read or re-read for English teaching, such as novels, poems, short stories, non-fiction texts, web texts, articles, essays and reviews – or blog posts, poems, magazines, journals and papers that I have read outside of this. And the list doesn’t include my own novel, published on 3rd March this year or the series of features I have written this year – or the poems or the bits of research I’ve been doing for the next book or the books I’ve read to or shared with the kids! Actually, all that adds up to a lot, now I think about it! But here’s the list you asked for, Sasha. And it’s fun to see what people read: you’ll see there are a couple of Horrible Histories in there. I love Horrible Histories. x
The Loney: Andrew Michael Hurley
Galaxy: Explore the Universe, Planets and Stars (Collins). I pinched this from one of the kids and plan to read a great deal more on the subject now that I’m clear what a neutron star is…
1.2 Billion: Mahesh Rao (short stories)
It’s All in Your Head: Suzanne O’ Sullivan
Reasons to Stay Alive: Matt Haig
The Seven Storey Mountain: Thomas Merton
The Death of the Heart: Elizabeth Bowen
Playthings: Alex Pheby
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing: Eimear McBride
Horrible Histories – Henry VIII and his Wicked Wives and Cut-throat Celts
The Outsider: Colin Wilson
Orlando: Virginia Woolf
The Last Act of Love: Cathy Rentzenbrink
Cloud Nine: Alex Campbell
Depression: The Way Out Of Your Prison: Dorothy Rowe (read for the third time!)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: Karen Joy Fowler
Our Mutual Friend: Charles Dickens (second reading) and Great Expectations (a third)
The Story of Blanche and Marie: Per Olov Enquist
This Book is Gay and Mind Your Head: James then Juno Dawson
The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath (second reading)
Crap Towns. The 50 Worst Places to Live In The UK (ed. Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran).
The Beckoning Silence: Joe Simpson
How Novels Work: John Mullan
Lost at Sea. The Jon Ronson Mysteries: Jon Ronson
Talking About It Only Makes It Worse: David Mitchell
The Buried Giant: Kazuo Ishiguro
Dear Stranger: Various (Penguin/Mind – and this was a re-read).
I tend to dip into recipes and food writing a lot and my two favourite cookbooks so far this year are Mamushka: Recipes From Ukraine and Beyond: Olia Hercules; My Kitchen Year: Ruth Reichl.
