Summing up 2017: Reading
Dec. 30th, 2017 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amelia_petkovaSharing some of the books I read this year and my thoughts on them!
The Light Princess by George MacDonald: A princess is cursed to float about in the air. My favorite part is the princess's evil aunt's eyes that literally change color according to her mood.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: I listened to a great audio book of this. It's done entirely in script format so I don't know if the actual book is very different. Eartha Kitt voiced Kaa the snake!
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I loved the concept of this but wish I liked the actual book more. I just think I don't care for James's writing style.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Care by Fannie Flagg: Another audio book winner. The accents were so great and I loved the characters, both in the present day and in the "past" sections of the story. Idgie and Ruth are so great together and I was crying by the end of the book. I really need to watch the whole movie adaptation at some point.
Irish Earth Folk by Diarmuid MacManus: I'm always a sucker for books of folktales and folklore, and the fact that this book's focus is on a certain geographic area and all the stories are connected to people that either the author knew or are told by friends of friends made it especially interesting.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Time travel to the Middle Ages and our protagonist accidentally ends up in the period of the Black Death. A great book and totally heartbreaking in parts.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale: True crime about the murder of a child in Victorian England. So, so good and I really need to write a longer post about it because the events were a major inspiration for...
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: Great mystery novel. I'm still surprised that I enjoy Collins so much, given that he was major buddies with Charles Dickins and and I couldn't stand Dickens when I had to read him in high school.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: One of the only dystopia/post-apocalyptic novels I've really enjoyed and wanted to re-read.
A Desperate Fortune by Susanne Kearsley: Not my favorite Kearsley novel that I've read--I'm not as into Jacobins as she is--but I still liked it a lot. Notable for having a heroine with Asperger's who's treated well by the story, though I can't say how accurate the depiction is.
The Duchess by Amanda Foreman: A biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A very fascinating woman who got married way too young, was really good at politics, and had an astounding gambling problem.
The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald: I liked this one just as much as The Light Princess. I've had a copy of this book for years but never got around to reading it until now. Curdie is clearly the most capable character in the entire book.
Lud-in-the Mist by Hope Mirrlees: A 1920s fantasy novel that I partly liked so much because the style is so different from current fantasy. Also, fairy fruit that makes people act unnaturally is a major part of the plot and I'm always up for that.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: Takes place in present-day Australia and Victorian England. A woman finds out that she was abandoned and then adopted as a child and tries to find out her origins. It took me a little while to get into things, but by the time I'd gotten halfway through the book I didn't want to put it down.
The Mabinogion, Sioned Davies edition: I love it so much! I'm really glad that this is the version I had when I finally got around to reading these stories.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson: Turned out to be a lot different from the film version. A light, quick novel that's completely delightful and Miss Pettigrew has the wonderful time she's long deserved.
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich: The first of Erdrich's novels I've read and I definitely want to read more of her works.
The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander: Historical fiction about Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia and the Russian Revolution. The Kitchen Boy was the first Alexander novel I read and this one is just as good.
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley: Notable in that it's as much about the Georgian period as Jane Austen. I knew a fair bit about her already from the Austen class I took in college but I learned a lot more from this book.
Arrowood by Laura McHugh: A young woman returns to her family's home where her baby sisters disappeared when she was a young child. Very Gothic.
Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly: First novel in a mystery series set in County Cork, Ireland. I wish it had been more about bog bodies, but otherwise I liked it.
The Light Princess by George MacDonald: A princess is cursed to float about in the air. My favorite part is the princess's evil aunt's eyes that literally change color according to her mood.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: I listened to a great audio book of this. It's done entirely in script format so I don't know if the actual book is very different. Eartha Kitt voiced Kaa the snake!
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I loved the concept of this but wish I liked the actual book more. I just think I don't care for James's writing style.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Care by Fannie Flagg: Another audio book winner. The accents were so great and I loved the characters, both in the present day and in the "past" sections of the story. Idgie and Ruth are so great together and I was crying by the end of the book. I really need to watch the whole movie adaptation at some point.
Irish Earth Folk by Diarmuid MacManus: I'm always a sucker for books of folktales and folklore, and the fact that this book's focus is on a certain geographic area and all the stories are connected to people that either the author knew or are told by friends of friends made it especially interesting.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Time travel to the Middle Ages and our protagonist accidentally ends up in the period of the Black Death. A great book and totally heartbreaking in parts.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale: True crime about the murder of a child in Victorian England. So, so good and I really need to write a longer post about it because the events were a major inspiration for...
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: Great mystery novel. I'm still surprised that I enjoy Collins so much, given that he was major buddies with Charles Dickins and and I couldn't stand Dickens when I had to read him in high school.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: One of the only dystopia/post-apocalyptic novels I've really enjoyed and wanted to re-read.
A Desperate Fortune by Susanne Kearsley: Not my favorite Kearsley novel that I've read--I'm not as into Jacobins as she is--but I still liked it a lot. Notable for having a heroine with Asperger's who's treated well by the story, though I can't say how accurate the depiction is.
The Duchess by Amanda Foreman: A biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A very fascinating woman who got married way too young, was really good at politics, and had an astounding gambling problem.
The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald: I liked this one just as much as The Light Princess. I've had a copy of this book for years but never got around to reading it until now. Curdie is clearly the most capable character in the entire book.
Lud-in-the Mist by Hope Mirrlees: A 1920s fantasy novel that I partly liked so much because the style is so different from current fantasy. Also, fairy fruit that makes people act unnaturally is a major part of the plot and I'm always up for that.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: Takes place in present-day Australia and Victorian England. A woman finds out that she was abandoned and then adopted as a child and tries to find out her origins. It took me a little while to get into things, but by the time I'd gotten halfway through the book I didn't want to put it down.
The Mabinogion, Sioned Davies edition: I love it so much! I'm really glad that this is the version I had when I finally got around to reading these stories.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson: Turned out to be a lot different from the film version. A light, quick novel that's completely delightful and Miss Pettigrew has the wonderful time she's long deserved.
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich: The first of Erdrich's novels I've read and I definitely want to read more of her works.
The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander: Historical fiction about Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia and the Russian Revolution. The Kitchen Boy was the first Alexander novel I read and this one is just as good.
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley: Notable in that it's as much about the Georgian period as Jane Austen. I knew a fair bit about her already from the Austen class I took in college but I learned a lot more from this book.
Arrowood by Laura McHugh: A young woman returns to her family's home where her baby sisters disappeared when she was a young child. Very Gothic.
Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly: First novel in a mystery series set in County Cork, Ireland. I wish it had been more about bog bodies, but otherwise I liked it.
