Favourite reads of the year and reading resolutions!

[Judy]

As we draw towards the end of 2016, just wondering which books were your personal favourites that you read during the last 12 months?

Were there any writers you discovered for the first time who are now favourites, whether crime authors or from other genres?

Also, do you have any reading resolutions for 2017?

[Judy]

Answering my own questions, I haven't made a list of my favourites of the year yet, but I do have some reading resolutions for 2017.

I will be carrying on with my personal challenge to read a book set in each European country, and I'm also hoping to read more of the books which I have all round the house/on my Kindle but haven't got round to actually reading yet!

[Betsy]

Looking at my books for the year, I had very few 5-star rated, but I had many that I did enjoy. The following are a few of those:

Cross of Iron - W. Heinrich
City of Thieves - D.Benioff
Midnight Dog of the Repo Man - R. McCann
Rough Riders - M. Gardner

[Deborah]

I had a disappointing reading year. Six months of not being able to read at all. :( just getting back to it. Looking forward to a better one.

[Susan]

Reading resolutions - to take less books for review and get started on my enormous backlog of personal reads. To try to take one series, that I haven't read before, and finish it. Maybe continuing with P D James, or picking someone new - I haven't decided yet.

Top 10 Fiction Reads 2016

The Allegations
Ragdoll
Rattle
Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars
When She Was Bad
The Crime Writer
The Silence Between Breaths
The Woman on the Orient Express
The Dying Detective
The GIrls



Top 10 Non-Fiction Reads 2016

Hero of the Empire
Blitzed
Beyond the Tiger Mom
Unleashing Demons
Caught in the Revolution
A A Milne: His Life
A Very English Scandal
The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland
A Very Expensive Poison
Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend, 1936

[Judy]

Deborah wrote: "I had a disappointing reading year. Six months of not being able to read at all. :( just getting back to it. Looking forward to a better one."

Sorry to hear that, Deborah - hope you have a good reading year in 2017. :)

[Judy]

Betsy wrote: "Looking at my books for the year, I had very few 5-star rated, but I had many that I did enjoy. The following are a few of those:

Thanks for sharing your best reads of the year, Betsy. I've just been looking up the details of them - they all sound interesting and City of Thieves sounds great, about teenagers during the Siege of Leningrad. I will look out for it.

[Judy]

Susan, I've read very few of your top choices of the year but remember liking the biography of A.A. Milne. I definitely want to read Summer Before the Dark, after enjoying everything I've read by Stefan Zweig so far.

[Susan]

I have heard good things about City of Thieves - certainly a novel I need to get around to reading too.

[Judy]

I've just been looking back over my reads of the year, and I can see I will need to make a reading resolution to write reviews of more titles rather than just doing star ratings! I fear I made the same resolution for 2016 and failed to keep to it, but maybe will do better this time.

Far and away my favourite (non-group) detective story read was finally making it through all of the Sherlock Holmes canon - fantastic and I will definitely revisit in the future! I'd also like to read some non-Holmes books by Conan Doyle and some Holmes stories by others.

The Golden Age detective authors I loved discovering for the first time this year included Patricia Wentworth- so far I've only read some of her early books published by Dean Street Press, but hope to get on to Miss Silver soon! - Nicholas Blake, J.S. Fletcher and E.R. Punshon. Also enjoyed discovering present-day authors including Linda Stratmann and Hans Olav Lahlum.

[Judy]

Difficult to choose, but I've made a list of 10 new-to-me books for 2016 which I really liked (in no particular order!) Some of these grew on me after I'd finished them, as I found myself thinking about them a lot.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (I'd read some of these before but not all of them!)

The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Jarboe Russell

The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker by Janet Groth

A Penknife in My Heart by Nicholas Blake

Jennie Gerhardt by Theodore Dreiser

The Poisonous Seed by Linda Stratmann

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey

[Jill]

In 2017 I intend to read has many paper books as I can, in order to free up some space.

[Betsy]

Judy wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Looking at my books for the year, I had very few 5-star rated, but I had many that I did enjoy. The following are a few of those:

Thanks for sharing your best reads of the year, Bets..."

I certainly enjoyed it. I generally read mostly non-fiction or mysteries, but that book was touching. Made me grateful for what I have.