Lady Demelza's Year in Books 2017

Hello dear readers, I hope you are enjoying your New Year's Eve celebrations. I am getting back on track with publishing my book list in a timely fashion. I'm afraid it's quite paltry pickings this year. I've had a lot going on. Not to mention the discovery of streaming services and binge-watching...

I've linked the title of each book to its page on Goodreads, so you can click through and quickly get an idea of what kind of book it is.

1 Glad No Matter What by SARK 2010
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman 1997
Wise Children by Angela Carter 1991
The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler 2014
The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland 2013
6 The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories by Roald Dahl 1982
7 The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 2000
8 Gypsy Cante: Deep Song of the Caves selected and translated by Will Kirkland 1999
Caught in a Story: Contemporary Fairytales and Fables edited by Christine Park and Caroline Heaton 1992
10 Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes 2016
11 Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith 2016
12 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood 1976
13 The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cook 2012
14 The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben 2016, translated by Susanne Simard
15 Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett 2011
16 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 1976 (re-read)
17 Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson 2006 (re-read)
18 The 100 by Kass Morgan 2013
19 Day 21 by Kass Morgan 2014
20 The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 2017
21 The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith 2017
22 Homecoming by Kass Morgan 2015
23 The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 2017
24 The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night by Jen Campbell 2017

The best book I read this year was Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson. Well hello, it's Jeanette Winterson. And she manages to explain the nature of space, time, reality and quantum physics in a kids' book. Clearly a winner. I would also like to recommend The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, a juicy Victorian Gothic novel, packed full of some wonderfully delicious sentences. I'll be looking out for more of her work.

The crappiest books I read this year were the first three of the The 100 series by Kass Morgan. I can't blame the books, I knew they were teenage romance trash when I got into them. The thing is, they are set in a post-apocalyptic world, and I just love me a post-apocalyptic world. I got through with a lot of letting my eyes glaze over and skim past all the mooshy nonsense, and enjoyed the science fiction aspect. Still, after three of these, I couldn't face the fourth, and gave up on the series. Always remember, life's too short to read crappy books.

And I pray to the gods of literature, please, please help me to get my reading mojo back in 2018. This booklist is totally insufficient for a Lady's intellectual and cultural needs. I want more!

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