And Into the Roaring Twenties

This blog has been fairly quiet of late as I've been working on my dissertation, which needs to be at the Open University offices in Milton Keynes on the 9th January, so ideally posted by Monday 6th at the latest. Pretty much everything else has slid - my reading is all bits of things at the moment (the one relevant chapter in a tome) and I don't think I've walked for more than 30 minutes together for months.

It's been great fun to do and I've learnt a lot, but I won't be sorry when it's done.

So. As is now traditional here is the complete alphabetical list of all the books I read in 2019:

A History of the World - Andrew Marr

A Man Lay Dead -Ngaio Marsh

A Pocketful of Rye - Agatha Christie

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

A Spaniard in the Works - John Lennon

After the Funeral - Agatha Christie

Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie

Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh

Blood on the Tracks - Edited by Martin Edwards

Boredom -Sandi Mann

Breadline Britain -Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack

Bullsh*t Jobs - David Graeber

Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie

Civilization and it's Discontents - Sigmund Freud

Clover - Susan Coolidge

Colour Scheme -Ngaio Marsh

Cotton Comes to Harlem - Chester Himes

Curtain, Poirot's Last Case - Agatha Christie

Death and the Dancing Footman - Ngaio Marsh

Death at the Bar - Ngaio Marsh

Death in a White Tie - Ngaio Marsh

Death in Ecstasy - Ngaio Marsh

Death of an Airman - Christopher St John Sprigg

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

Died in the Wool - Ngaio Marsh

Dubliners - James Joyce

Enter a Murderer - Ngaio Marsh

Evil Under the Sun - Agatha Christie

False Scent - Ngaio Marsh

Fashion on the Ration - Julie Summers

Grave Mistake - Ngaio Marsh

Hawthorn and Child - Keith Ridgway

How to Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen

How to Think - a guide for the perplexed - Alan Jacobs

In Other Words - Jhumpa Lahiri

Jambusters - Julie Summers

James Joyce - Letters

Lies Sleeping - Ben Aaronovitch

Lord Edgware Dies - Agatha Christie

Merry Hall - Beverley Nicholls

Mortal Engines - Philip Reeve

Mrs Dalloway -Virginia Woolf

Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie

Murder in Piccadilly- E C Bentley

On Being Ill - Virginia Woolf

On Guerilla Gardening - Richard Reynolds

Overture to Death - Ngaio Marsh

Panic - Michael Lewis

Paradise News - David Lodge

Problem at Pollensa Bay - Agatha Christie

Psychogeographies - Merlin Coverley

Robinson - Muriel Spark

Round about a Pound a Week- Maud Pember Reeves

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders - John Mortimer

Somebody At the Door - Raymond Postgate

Spinsters in Jeopardy - Ngaio Marsh

Surfeit of Lampreys - Ngaio Marsh

The Bad Child's Book of Beasts - Hilaire Belloc

The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

The Fun of Getting Thin - Samuel G Blythe

The Gender Games - Juno Dawson

The Golden Fleece - Muriel Spark

The Golden Spiders -Rex Stout

The Good Immigrant - Nikesh Shukla

The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch

The Happiness Equation – Neil Pasricha

The Last Days of Detroit - Mark Binelli

The Mistletoe Murder - P D James

The Nursing Home Murder - Ngaio Marsh

The Seven Sisters - Margaret Drabble

The Status Seekers - Vance Packard

The Ungreen Park - Gill Brason

The View from the Cheap Seats - Neil Gaiman

The Visitors Book - Sophie Hannah

The Way We Eat Now - Bee Wilson

This Boy - Alan Johnson

This is Not the End of the Book - Umberto Eco and Jean Claude Carriere

Three Guineas - Virginia Woolf

Vintage Murder - Ngaio Marsh

What Katy Did Next - Susan Coolidge

What Money Can't Buy - Michael J Sandel

What the Grown Ups Were Doing - Michele Hanson

As with last year there are lots starting with 'Death' because murder mysteries are my go-to palate cleanser. Only 83 books in total, which is fewer than last year but not very different from 2017, when I did the first half of this MA I'm doing (I took 2018 off).

32 are non-fiction, just three down on last year, and the exact same amount as the year before. 

Of all books read 31 were by men and 49 by women although I actually read slightly more non-fiction by men (17 men, 13 women, and 3 with both). 

Two books in translation, and even of those one was by a writer who originally wrote in English, so that's something to work on.

There were loads of excellent books though. 

Five of the best are: Three Guineas, The Good Immigrant, The Last Days of Detroit, Round About a Pound a Week and Jambusters. I can't recommend any of these books highly enough, really, but The Good Immigrant and Round About a Pound a Week can share first place, I think. 

The Gender Games was also great, and although there was a little tmi at one point there was a clear heads up to skip that chapter if you preferred. Hawthorn and Child, which is the fiction stand-out for me was also very, very good but at the same time very disturbing. 

Next year I'm hoping to resume my reading the 80s schtick and finally polish off Stephen King's Dark Tower.  Wish me luck.

Happy New Year! 

This is my cousin's dog. I just borrow her. 

She is allowed on the bed at home, but in this instance is actually on mine,
probably wondering why we've stopped walking  (answer: for tea).