The time has come to choose my stand-out books of the year, which aren't equivalent with my favourite books of all time. I tend to expect the unexpected while scrolling through each year that's just been. Last year, two Dickens novels appeared on my list. This year neither of his picks made the cut. In fact, I read several so-called 'greats' which left me fairly cold. The first half of the year was sparse for ticks, so I'm glad the second half held more. I often find a good share of kids' or YA fiction on my list, which doesn't surprise me. My ranking criteria is based on pure enjoyment and memorability, along with quality. Here goes.
1) Orley Farm
Anthony Trollope was part of Charles Dickens' peer group, and amazingly easier to read. This is a compelling court case drama which I ripped through in no time. We readers are cleverly coerced to hope that the guilty defendant will win her case, because the self-righteous plaintiff is as nasty as hell. Trollope plays around with his readers' headspaces, wanting us to see justice averted. The narrator has a very wry sense of humor, which makes his interjections very cool.
This romance featuring a disgruntled and heart-torn Huckleberry Finn in his late twenties helped hook me on the concept of fanfic, which I've strongly taken off with this year. He experiences one of his legendary conscience issues, this time concerning an overbearing young spinster and an exuberant little boy. It turns out Widow Douglas has left Huck a most surprising legacy in her will, which becomes a bone of contention. I hadn't read any historical romance for a long time. This made me realize that I've missed it.
The author, Heather Williams, has done a painstaking amount of research to present a sequel to Farmer Boy in the spirit of Laura Ingalls Wilder herself. She takes Almanzo Wilder through his mid teens, still presenting him as the modest, compassionate, and courteous boy who won our hearts in the Little House series. Those gap years which incorporate his early to mid teens are now covered, and they were pretty eventful.
This is a lovely tale playing out against the backdrop of Torminster, a great cathedral town based on Elizabeth Goudge's own home city of Wells. We have Jocelyn, a young injured soldier who's talked into setting up a bookshop on the main street, and stumbles upon some intriguing marginalia written by the former tenant, a bitter, down-and-out poet named Gabriel Ferranti. The inhabitants of Torminster always celebrate ancient church celebrations with great flair. I feel that Goudge puts the holy back into holiday.
It's the lesser known sequel of Emil & the Detectives, which I also read this year. This quirky plot takes place in a German, coastal holiday town. Emil and his friends aim to help a young acrobat who they believe will be cast off by his father, because he's grown too big to perform. More interestingly, Emil grapples with the unexpected curveball of gaining a new stepfather. Philosophy is woven nicely into these stories.
6) Longbourn
I'd started my fascination with fanfic by this time, which is why I read this book. Jo Baker's focus on the Bennet family's servants is clever indeed, as the events of Jane Austen's famous classic play out in the background. Two radically different lifestyles orbit together beneath the same roof, and the romance between Sarah the housemaid and James, the new young footman, is a fun, sometimes angst-ridden read.
I can't pass by Jean Lee Latham's fictionalized biography of 17th century mathematician and astronomer, Nathaniel Bowditch. As a teenager, he perceived the urgent need for an accurate encyclopaedia of navigation, so went ahead and wrote one, which is still being used to this day. Latham embodies the devoted lengths some authors are prepared to work. She studied Bowditch's work in great depth before even putting pen to paper. Her book helps keep alive the memory of a great, dedicated genius whose work was vital.
This is a very cool autobiography written by Wilde's younger son, Vyvyan, who describes what it was like for him and his brother to be child pariahs in the Victorian era, caught in the shockwaves from the aftermath of his father's famous trial. His reflections shine the light on a bygone era and the mindsets of its people.
Willa Cather tells the tale of Thea Kronborg, a small-town girl who grows up to become one of the most celebrated opera singers of her generation. Thea's dedication to her art shows that talent, as well as being a gift, is also a burden that demands everything its possessor has to give. And we readers are challenged to re-think how readily we're prepared to praise the work of creative folk across the board.
10) The Pale Horse
Not often do I add an Agatha Christie mystery to the stack, but this one is surprisingly chilling and eerie. Dame Agatha departs from Poirot and Marple to use a young pair of amateur sleuths who find themselves almost too deep into something that seems to be supernatural as well as criminal. It's fascinating and unnerving with some excellent dialogue sequences and a wow factor to the solution.
I look forward to more good reading throughout 2025.
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