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Hilary Mantel, Ben Miles
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Thomas McNamee, Bob Reed
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Thomas McNamee
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Mary Stewart
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Hilary Mantel

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2015 Reading Recap

The Secret Life of Winnie Cox - Sharon Maas The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q - Sharon Maas The Skeleton Road - Val McDermid The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien Joseph Fouché: Bildnis eines politischen Menschen - Stefan Zweig A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel The Gods of Guilt - Michael Connelly Face Off - David,  Various,  x Baldacci Moriarty - Anthony Horowitz Hogfather (Discworld, #20) - Terry Pratchett

No fancy graphics and no astounding numbers – in fact, rather average numbers for me, these days – but anyway, here we go:

 

Total Number of Books Read:

68

– including rereads
– but excluding my current read, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell (which is bound to take me all the way to the end of the year).

 

 

Rereads:

21

 

                         Including my annual Christmas revisitings:

 

                         Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

                         Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors

                         Arthur Conan Doyle: The Blue Carbuncle

                         Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

                                                 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

 

A Christmas Carol - Charles DickensThe Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle - Arthur Conan DoyleThe Nine Tailors - Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth GeorgeHercule Poirot's Christmas - Agatha ChristieAdventure of the Christmas Pudding (Poirot) - Agatha Christie

 

 

The Year's Top Reads

                    Sharon Maas: The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q.

                                         The Secret Life of Winnie Cox

                     J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit (reread)

                     Val McDermid: The Skeleton Road

                     Hilary Mantel: A Place of Greater Safety

                     Stefan Zweig: Joseph Fouché

                     Andrew Nicoll: The Secret Life and Curious Death of Miss Jean Milne

                     Anaïs Nin: Henry and June

                     Michael Connelly: The Gods of Guilt

                     David Baldacci (ed.), Various Authors: Face-Off

                     Anthony Horowitz: Moriarty

                     Terry Pratchett: Hogfather (begun Dec. 2014)

 

 

Breakdown of Ratings:

  10

   10

   18

   23

   6

   1

 

 

Average Rating

Including Christmas rereads: 3,94

Excluding Christmas rereads: 3,87

 

 

Books Shelved as Favorites:

25 

Of these, new reads: 14

Rereads: 11 – including 5 Christmas rereads

 

 

Breakdown of Shelves:

(Note: Virtually all of my books are shelved in multiple ways)

 

Nobel Prize Winners: 1

1001 Books: 6

Classics: 46

Short Fiction: 37

Theatre: 3

Poetry: 2

Mysteries and Crime Fiction: 44

– American: 3

– British: 41

Fantasy: 2

Romance: 4

20th Century & Contemporary BritLlit: 16

20th Century & Contemporary America: 1

Canada & Canadian Literature: 1

Germany & German Literature: 1

France & French Literature: 5

Italy & Italian Literature: 1

Scotland: 6

Eastern Europe: 1

Russia: 2

California & Southwestern USA: 1

Down Under (= Oz & NZ): 1

Orient & Asia: 2

– India & Indian Subcontinent: 1

– Southeast Asia: 1

Africa: 1

Historical Fiction: 8

Key Historic / Period Elements or Setting (in contemporaneous fiction): 5

Nonfiction: 7

– History: 4

– Politics: 1

– Memoirs - Biographies - Letters - Diaries: 4

– Essays - Addresses - Lectures: 3

– Art & Architecture: 3

– Travel: 1

– Reference: 1

Humor - Comedy - Satire: 6

Children's & YA Literature: 1

Cats: 1

Anthologies: 1

 

So, not one of my most diverse and international reading years, it would appear – lots of classics, lots of mysteries and crime fiction, and predominantly British literature.  But on the plus side, in their vast majority good or even great reads, which ultimately is what's most important!