This year’s total, give or take, was 126 (not counting some rereads and some physical books for which I can’t use the library’s lending history as a substitute for my lousy memory). Of these, 60% were fiction and 40% non-fiction.

My favourites for the year as listed below.

FICTION

Strong-minded Old (and oldish) Women, mostly nuns and witches

Learwife, J. R. Thorpe

You Let Me In, Camilla Bruce

Matrix , by Lauren Groff

Lolly Willowes, by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Italian Classics

Lampedusa, by Steven Price – which is about the writing of

The Leopard, by Guiseppe di Lampedusa

Comfort Reads

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, and To be Taught, if Fortunate, all by Becky Chambers

Sarah Hall (her own category)

Burntcoat and Sudden Traveler

Fascinating Structure

Trust, by Hernan Diaz

Extravagant Language and Imagination

Popisho, by Leone Ross

Bad Fairies

Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo

NON-FICTION

War (I had clearly read a Twitter thread of recommended war books)

With the Old Breed, by E.B. Sledge

Street Without Joy, by Bernard B. Fall

Recent Russian History

Second-Hand Time, by Sveltana Alexievich

The Future Is History, by Masha Gessen

Sheer Outrageous Fun (Sex, Music, Novels, Alcohol, Broadway, Bad Marriages and more)

Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers, by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green

The World Is an Amazing Place

An Immense World: How Animal Senses reveal the hidden realms around us, by Ed Yong

Artists are Assholes

Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, An Address Book, A Life, by Brigitte Benkemoun

Grief and Love

Lost & Found, by Kathryn Schulz

The Past Is More Complicated than You Think

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings, by Neil Price

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, by Camilla Townsend

You are More Complicated Than You Think

Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, by Anil Seth

Book I hated the Most

What we Owe the Future, by William MacAskill