Author: joannathenomad

Here are all the books I’ve read this year. I finally managed to join a new book club towards the end of the year, too! Those books that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and those that really disappointed me are marked with !

Fairy Tale — Stephen King !

Once Upon a Tome — Oliver Darkshire

Uncle Paul — Celia Fremlin*

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept — Elizabeth Smart !

The Marriage Portrait — Maggie O’Farrell

Trespasses — Louise Kennedy*

The Woman’s Voice — Patsy Rodenbergh

Freckles — Cecilia Ahern

Down Cemetery Road — Mick Herron

The Crane Wife — C J Hauser

The State of Affairs — Esther Perel

To The Lions — Holly Watt*

The Satsuma Project — Bob Mortimer !

The Man Who Died Twice — Richard Osman*

The Great Reformer — Austen Ivereigh

Wintering — Katherine May

Half of a Yellow Sun — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*

Full Dark House — Christopher Fowler

The Dry — Jane Harper*

Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell

Sensemaking — Christian Madsbjerg

The Book Boy — Joanna Trollope

The Exiles — Jane Harper

Passing — Nella Larsen*

Columba — Prosper Mérimée

Vladimir — Julia May Jonas

Maybe You Might — Imogen Foxell

West — Carys Davies

As ever, I’ve listed below everything I’ve read this year — with the long overdue return to real life, there are fewer books here than in previous locked-down years. Those that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and those that really disappointed me are marked with !

A Most Wanted Man, John le Carré

Current Intelligence, David Charlwood

The Mission House, Carys Davies

The Shelf, Helly Acton*

The Shack, William P Young

Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman

Bitter Orange, Claire Fuller

Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Demain, Guillaume Musso

Magpie, Elizabeth Day

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Catherine Gray* (again!)

The Guest of Night, Lucy Underwood-Healy

Fatherland, Robert Harris*

The Party Crasher, Sophie Kinsella

The Instant, Amy Liptrot

Couples, John Updike

A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch

Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson

Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan

After I Left You, Alison Mercer

Treachery, S J Parris

The Ramage Hawk, John Pilkington

The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker

Death in the Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa !

When I Hit You, Meena Kandasamy

The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles

The Passion, Jeanette Winterson

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

Suez Crisis 1956, David Charlwood

The Woman in the Window, A J Finn

The Silver Thread, Kylie Fitzpatrick

The Yacoubian Building, Alaa Al-Aswany (in translation) !

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie

The Couple at the Table, Sophie Hannah

Slow Horses, Mick Herron*

On Writing, Stephen King

The Liar’s Dictionary, Eley Williams

A Ruinous Wind, John Pilkington

As ever, I’ve listed below everything I’ve read in reverse chronological order. Those that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and those that really disappointed me are marked with ! (though there are far fewer of them this year!)

Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris*
Middle England, Jonathan Coe
Capital, John Lanchester
Ordinary People, Diana Evans
The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri
The List and The Drop, Mick Herron*
Begotten, Not Made, Pat Higgins*
The Blue Castle, L M Montgomery
Property, Valerie Martin
Spook Street, Mick Herron*
Luster, Raven Leilani
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Her, Harriet Lane
I Think I Might Be Autistic, Cynthia Kim
The Woman Next Door, Cass Green
Hold Your Tongue, Deborah Masson
He Said/She Said, Erin Kelly*
Becoming Strangers, Louise Dean*
Written in Blood, Diane Fanning
It’s Not Always Depression, Hilary Jacobs Hendel
The Perfect Marriage, Jeneva Rose!
The Source, Sarah Sultoon
The Shallows, Nicholas Carr*
Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
The Ikigai Journey, Hector Garcia
Developing Your Intuition: A Guide to Reflective Practice, Talula Cartwright
How Women Rise, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith*
Love Your Impostor, Rita Clifton
The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington
Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind, Nancy Kline*
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
Christmas Days, Jeannette Winterson
Deep Work, Cal Newport*
Grit, Angela Duckworth*
Cultural Misunderstandings, Raymonde Caroll
The Islandman, Tomas O Crohan
Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning
The Lost Man, Jane Harper*