For handy reference, here were my books of the month:
February - M. Atwood, The Blind Assassin
March - G. Orwell, Burmese Days
April - J. Crace, The Devil's Larder
May - M. Gellhorn, The Weather in Africa
June - R. Young, Electric Eden
July - G. Orwell, Coming up for air
August - J. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
September - A. Patchett, Run
October - A. Munro, Runaway
November - A. Sisman, Hugh Trevor - Roper
December - W. Dalrymple, Nine Lives
First, the numbers. Only a very slight improvement on last year's volumes. 90 books overall, against 85 in 2012. Both well down on the long term average (125), though I think we know who to blame for that. Next, the ratios: seven fiction BOTMs, and only one history. That's broadly reflective of the overall numbers, exactly two thirds of the reading was fiction and I only read five history books this year. That's obscene; and it's changing from now.
Despite all these novels, there was no real contest over fiction book of the year. Atwood's Booker prize winner was outstanding. Certainly the best I've ever read of hers. Suspenseful, clever, and enchanting. It makes me want to go back to some of her works I've rejected in the past. Even the ones about Women.
Non-fiction was harder, but came down to two: McPherson and Sisman. They were both monumental works, though of varying subjects. Even here though, while part of me would love to say the biography of don was better than the one of a war, it is impossible. Battle Cry of Freedom was magisterial. Though long, it rattled by, brilliantly anatomising the Civil War and especially the long term causes. I'd recommend it for reading to anyone save for two things. Firstly, anyone who is interested has probably read it, I'm not the first to point to its brilliance. Secondly, it may make Marxist determinists of young historians reading it. Consider how good it must be to trump that caveat.
