Bibliography, 2019

Disappointingly, despite a very strong first eight months (averaging just shy of ten books a month), the back third let me down (seven book average) and I ended the year on slightly less reading than last year. And a lot more fiction, which accounted for over half of the reading, though I had pretty poor returns in terms of quality. BOTMs were not reflective of this reading at all. Five were fiction (from 56 fiction books read); six were cultural (from 26) and one lone historical work (from 15).

For this and other reasons, this makes fiction in particular hard to discuss. I found all the fiction listed below worthwhile, and I'd add recommendations for a string of Science fiction and fantasy  Susan Copper's Dark is Rising series, Jemisin's science fiction trilogy, and Addison's The Goblin Emperor also good. So, for the second year running, the monthly system has let me down. Jemisin's opener, The fifth season, was exceptional. Imaginative, different, and fully fleshed out, it took a great premise and executed brilliantly. They are garlanded with multiple awards for a reason.

Also like last year, fiction and non-fiction were from the same month as the non-fiction winner. Here, I had an embarrassment of riches. I would heartily recommend all my non-fiction BOTMs. In fact, I've already bought them for people. But Bob Stanley's Yeah Yeah Yeah was never in doubt. Its scope and range are vast; yet for such a long book it retains a lightness of writing without sacrificing its seriousness. It's a masterpiece.

Finally, as a coda. It's now 2020. So for the decade past:

• This year's non-fiction may be a masterpiece, but it, and others, lose to Eminent Victorians (from 2012). It is fine-tuned for my interests, though I defy anyone not be enthralled by it. 
• For fiction, Gilead (from 2015) is the best book about Calvinism I've ever read. It may be the best novel I have ever read. 

Books of the Month:
January: B.Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah (2013)
February: A. Kurkov, Death and the penguin  (1996)
March: D. Levy, The cost of living (2018)
April: P.G.Wodehouse, Mike and Psmith  (1908)
May: J. Jeffs, Sherry (6th ed) (2016)
June: Y.N. Harari, Sapiens (2011)
July: W. Goldman, Adventures in the screen trade (1983)
August: A.A. Gill, Pour me (2015)
September; A. Maalouf, The rock of Tanios (1993)
October: B. Wilson, The way we eat now (2019)
November: D. Lessing, The grass is singing (1950)
December: W. Self, Umbrella (2012)

Bibliography, December 2019

BOTM: W. Self, Umbrella (2012)

DeWitt, The Sisters Brothers (2011)
A.D. Millers, Snowdrops (2011)
A. Moore, The lighthouse (2012)
A. Munro, The moons of Jupiter (1982)
L. Sciascia, The council of Egypt (1963)
J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (2016)

I've been reading old Booker shortlists again, and, though mixed, they do reliably throw up quality. Best of them, and I hate saying this, was Umbrella. It's a swirling chaotic novel, but, with the exception of the fourth fifth, tightly done. It is stream of consciousness, but it does it well. Early dispatches from the controversial 2011 shortlist indicate that the criticism is genuine - you wouldn't have seen Self's modernism on the previous year's list - and that's a shame.