This may not have been a fabulous year for me personally, but it was a great reading year. I had very few reading slumps and enjoyed a bumper number of good books. Above all it was the year for non-fiction, so much so that I’ve had to introduce a range of categories to cover all the books I feel obliged to mention. Let us look back fondly.
Best Literary Fiction
Louise Erdrich – The Round House
Siri Hustvedt – The Sorrows of an American
Best Innovative Fiction
J. R. Crook – Sleeping Patterns
Best Historical Fiction
Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall
Best Debut Novel
Beatrice Hitchman – Petite Mort
Best Quirky Cute Novel You Can Read In An Afternoon
Alexis M. Smith – Glaciers
Best General Fiction
Maggie O’Farrell – Instructions for a Heatwave
Harriet Lane – Alys Always
Amanda Smyth – A Kind of Eden
Best Contemporary Crime
Stella Rimington – The Geneva Trap
T. V. LoCicero –Admission of Guilt
Best Golden Age Crime
Elizabeth Daly – Somewhere in the House
Best Crime That Managed To Be About More Than Crime
Attica Locke – The Cutting Season
Best Poetry Collection
Kaddy Benyon – Milk Fever
Best Creative Non-Fiction. Category: Nature
Kathleen Jamie – Findings
Neil Ansell – Deer Island
Best Creative Non-Fiction. Category: Memoir
Jennie Erdal – Ghosting
James Lasdun – Give Me Everything You Have; On Being Stalked
Kathryn Harrison – The Mother Knot
Best Creative Non-Fiction. Category: Completely Uncategorizable
Maggie Nelson – Bluets (my favourite post of the year)
Stephen Grosz – The Examined Life
Best Non-Fiction That Brought Self-Illumination
Kathryn Schultz – Being Wrong
Susan Cain – Quiet
Special Award for Services to Existentialism
(I will never tire of watching that)
Tales from the Reading Room 
Great list and so organized!
It’s the only time in the year that my reading IS organized! 🙂 I’m decided – no more plans, I never keep them!
This looks like an excellent reading year! I also read and enjoyed Petite Mort and Alys Always this year, and Ghosting and The Cutting Season a little while back. As someone who’s worked in the book world for many years I particularly enjoyed Ghosting. Jennie Erdal writes beautifully. I have her novel sitting on my TBR shelves. I do hope that next year will be as good for you personally as this reading year has been for you.
Hurray! So glad we agreed on so many books. I absolutely loved Ghosting. I don’t have a copy of her novel though; hmmmm, must see about that! And thank you for the very kind wishes. 🙂
I love that cat too! What a variety you’ve read! Having a sneaky look at your currently reading, I’m intrigued by the Colette which I hadn’t heard of – looking forward to your review!
Colette review before Christmas, that’s for sure! I enjoyed it. And oh Henri – he is such a delight.
So many great finds! And I agree about Henri.
A friend of Henri is a friend of mine! 🙂
Great list…it had me scribbling down book titles that I now want to read in 2014. Thanks!
You’re welcome – I very much hope you’ll find something you love!
Inspirational! And so enticingly presented. Here’s to better times in 2014 for your extra reading life
Oh why thank you, that is so very kind!
Wow–I’m in admiration of the way you categorized your best books list. I found it so much more interesting to investigate, with lots of opportunities to delve deeper into your blog.
I think The Examined Life is special, too.
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
Thank you, what a lovely comment! And I’m so delighted you enjoyed The Examined Life. Quite possibly the very best book I read this year, I think.
awesome list.
🙂
Yay for good reading years! This one has not been so hot for me–reading and otherwise, but I did have some very good moments! I really liked Petite Mort, too, and am happy to see Elizabeth Daly on your list. I really must read Hilary Mantel’s books, and I have Ghosting on your recommendation and look forward to reading it! That video is hilarious and made me laugh–it’s so very true (the closed cat door was great!)–and I was really due for a good laugh!
Henri makes me laugh every time! I’d love to know what you think of Ghosting – I really did enjoy that one. And I’m so glad you liked Petite Mort. Elizabeth Daly is such a find – I love her. If you come across any more wonderful Golden Age crime writers I don’t know about, I hope you’ll tip me the wink! 🙂 Here’s hoping we both have a MUCH better 2014, and that the reading gods smile on us too.
What a fabulous list. Lots on my wishlist from there! And to top it off with Henri too – J’adore ce chat.
Yay for Henri l’adorable! 🙂 I’m looking forward to your best of year list too – at least, you will do one, won’t you?
Of course – but I’m holding off for that ‘between Christmas and New Year’ period.
I had a bad reading year, I’d say but some of the books that will make my best of are on yours too (because I discovered them here) 🙂
I’ll apply a similar categorization, I think.
Well I am so glad to have bucked the trend occasionally! Last year wasn’t a great reading year for me, so it was a great relief that this one was better.
The Bears are trying very hard to pretend that you are not a cat person because they are very definitely not cat Bears. Still I am relieved that not even you are purrfect!
So few Bears are, are they? Must be something to do with the claws (and the demands for attention). Let’s sell it to the Bears in whatever way is best – I don’t want to be in their bad books! 🙂
I like Henri, the cat with ennui. Have you see Sad Cat Diary? Very funny.
Oh that IS funny! Thank you for the link! 🙂
I must read Wolf Hall keep hearing people raving about it. Only thing is I find Tudor England scary.
I liked Alys Always but found the end disappointing. It was clever and stylish, but I thought it could have been a *great* book as well as those two more contained things. Although maybe fitting from such a contained character.
Wolf Hall won’t make you think the Tudor age was any less scary! 🙂 But it is a good book. I can understand you not liking the end of Alys Always. The book chose not to do the climactic thing – which felt in some ways more chilling to me – but I can quite see why it might disappoint.
The Henri video is great!
My reading year hasn’t been as great as other years but now it’s time to look forward to great reads in 2014!
Loved reading your list as a lot of those are new to me titles.
I’m so glad you like Henri! Shame about your reading – will you post a ‘best of’ list anyway? Like you, I do love culling titles for next year (as if I needed any more suggestions of what to read!!!).
You reminded me that I wanted to read Petite Mort. Love the ‘completely uncategorizable’ category.
Would love to know what you make of Petite Mort! And I confess the uncategorizable kind are my favourites!
Love the cats. Great list. Not my best year for reading, but can’t always be. Lots of ladies on your list, I think, which is representative of writers and readers, a situation not often reflected in more the ‘official’ reviews, though it is no doubt just chance here. Hope next year is better for you. Now better add to my future reading list.
Do you know, I half noticed on the predominance of women, thought to comment on it and then forgot all about it! So I’m very glad you’ve reminded me. Yes, it was Ladies’ Year this year, though as you say, that’s entirely by chance. Here’s hoping your reading year is better, and mine is just plain better in 2014! 🙂
You made my reading year very special! 🙂
Dark Puss, our readalong was a highlight of the year for me, too. Here’s to many more shared reads in 2014! 🙂
Great lists. I’m torn between Louise Erdrich’s The Round House and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch for best literary fiction.
I haven’t read the Donna Tartt yet though I intend to – I’m delighted to know you enjoyed it so much. Also really pleased you loved the Erdrich too. What a writer she is!
A best of list with December just half over? What if you read the best book yet before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st? These are the things that keep me up at night 😉 A nice list and a good year of reading. I hope 2014 is both a good reading year and a good personal year!
Heh, I am sympathetic to all reading sensitivities, although that’s not a particular bugbear of mine. I’ve got four books currently on the go, all good but none that would make the list. Then I doubt I’ll a) read that much between now and New Year and b) that it will be more than comfort reading. And if a miracle happens and I do come across a fabulous book, it can be added to next year’s list. It can all be sorted! 🙂
A great reading year by the sounds of it. And those categories are impressive. I also loved the Grosz and the Hustvedt. And Henri too of course. 🙂
Yay for Grosz and Hustvedt. I do hope shrink lit becomes a trend – I will be all over it if if does! French cats with Existential angst, too. See, we like all the sophisticated things. 🙂
Oooh, a fascinating list.
On your recommendation, I read ‘Alys Always’ and thought it very good; unlike Denise I liked the ending too. Hmm, I might write about it. It’s a disillusioning insight on literary London though (although it’s fiction! So not necessarily true!).
Oops, my first sentence looks almost sarcastic now it’s posted, I didn’t mean it to be! I do like me a good end-of-year book list but newspaper ones are often full only of what’s been published that year. I think I’d like to read the Crook and the Ansell most of all.
Dear Helen, your comment sounded delightful, as your comments always do. But I’ve often gone back to a comment I’ve left and thought, ooh crikey, does that read wrong? and been worried about it. You need never fear here. You make me laugh far too often! I’m so glad you liked Alys Always and I’d love to read your review, if you’re considering writing one (equally, managing to do anything at this time of year is pretty miraculous, so…) And yes, do read Neil Ansell and Sleeping Patterns – two remarkably different books but each brilliant in its own way.