Top Ten(ish) Books I Should Have Read in 2014

I always like trawling through the end of year lists of the best books. There's always many, many books in those lists that I meant to read during the year. Some I bought. Some I planned to read. But didn't. Some I hadn't really noticed, but then see them everywhere.

This year those books included two short story collections

Ceridwen Dovey- Only the Animals

Hilary Mantel-
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

Adult Fiction

Sonya Hartnett-
Golden Boys

Joan London-
The Golden Age

Evie Wyld-
All the Birds, Singing

Karen Joy Fowler-
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Elizabeth Gilbert-
The Signature of All Things

Nonfiction

Helen Garner-
This House of Grief
I read it in 2015 (see my review)

Helen Macdonald-
H is for Hawk

Don Watson-
The Bush

Tim Low-
Where Song Began

Young Adult

Alice Pung- Laurinda

A.J. Betts - Zac & Mia

And all the books I missed out on reading from the CBCA Shortlist 2014.

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme
from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Favourite 1001 Children's Books I've Read Before I've Grown Up (so far)

I'm an occasional Top Ten contributor. I'm not clever enough to think up a list each and every week, but occasionally a special list looms, and this week is one of those lists.

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme

 from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. 

A few years ago I set myself somewhat of a challenge. To read all 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. Yes, all 1001 books. That's a lot of books, even if many of them are picture books. Still, I'm over a quarter of the way through now! Time to see what my favourite of my 1001 reads have been so far.

The first six are easy. Massive standouts. Incredible books.

see my review

see my review

see my review

see my review

see my review

Beyond that it's a bit difficult. I could pick any number of books. Here are some I thought of today.

The Secret Garden
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Old Yeller
Thursday's Child
The Three Musketeers
I am Not Esther
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler

Top Ten(ish) Books I Read in 2013 (A Year in Books 2013)

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. 

It's always fun to look back on the reading year, and ponder the best of the year. A tradition I started in 2011, and continued in 2012. 

This makes three Top Ten Tuesday posts in a row! A personal best effort. 

This year I gave 11 books 5 stars on goodreads. 


My year started with a bang. Possibly my favourite book of the year. Lois Lowry's The Giver. 

David Weisner's Flotsam was a reread, still worth each and every one of its 5 stars. 

Janet Hunt's E3 Call Home is a great bird book. It seems I've been meaning to do a post about this one all year. 

Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing was a surprise package for me. It was fantastic. 

Jackie French made yet another appearance in my books of the year with A Day to Remember. 

It seems Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project was a favourite for pretty much everyone who read it, I was no exception.

Joan Lindsay's Australian classic Picnic at Hanging Rock was everything I hoped it would be. 

It's always a pleasure to read Sonya Hartnett. This year I read her stunning Thursday's Child. 

I also love a lost cat story. Caroline Paul's Lost Cat. 

Patrick Ness's incredible, moving masterpiece, A Monster Calls. 

I read two books by David Walliams this year, Billionaire Boy was certainly my favourite. 

Rick Gekoski Tolkien's Gown another gem that remains unblogged, but certainly worth searching out. As I suspect are his other books. 

4 Aussie titles

2 picture books

5 nonfiction/memoir titles

7 female authors

5 male authors

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. I've been a rather infrequent Top Tenner for some time. Most of the time I don't have time to participate, but occasionally I manage to check out the schedule before hand and get myself organised. This makes two weeks in a row!

I'm trying to tone down the book acquisitions, mainly due to the overflowing bookshelves filled with books that I haven't read yet. Still there are so many new books all the time that I want to read. I often give away books now once I've read to help this process- to the local library, local schools, or Lifeline for their fund-raising book fairs. 

Still I would be very happy to unwrap any of these gems.

I haven't read John Green yet.
I must fix that.

I've heard so much about this one.

I can never get through really thick doorstoppers
read from the library in time.
I'm too slow a reader, but I know it would sit
on the shelf a long time before I can get to it.

Another doorstopper.
I loved The Secret History so much.
I'm intrigued by this one. 

Although I haven't read The Casual Vacancy yet

Walliams is a genius, I want to read them all.
I will read them all. 

Rainbow Rowell was everywhere on
last weeks Top Ten New Authors lists

I've heard so many good things about this one
It sounds intriguing.

My Paris shelf definitely needs this one

There's always more to know about Paris

I do have to get better at reading books that were presents. I don't always get them read, and so Mr Wicker is reluctant to buy me books. I have to fix that. 

Merry Christmas to you. I hope it is filled with great books. And great bubbles.

26/12/13 Santa Update: Santa came through and brought The Fault in Our Stars and Burial Rites. And some mighty fine bubbles!

Top Ten New to Me Authors in 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly meme from the folks at The Broke and the Bookish. I've been a rather infrequent Top Tenner for some time. Most of the time I don't have time to participate, but occasionally I manage to check out the schedule before hand and get myself organised.

I've read lots of great new to me authors this year, and so this topic was perfect for me. Plus I really love an excuse to look back at the best books of the year, of course not all of those are new to me authors, but this year a great many are. I've linked to my reviews.

First off the fiction. Kids and adult.

My very first book of the year was a new to me author- and it was a corker! Lois Lowry's The Giver.

May brought two great new authors. Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls.

Deb Kandelaars' Memoirs of a Suburban Girl. 

In June I read one of the Australian books of 2013. Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project.

In August I finally read an Australian classic I should have read long ago. Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

In October I finally got to read David Walliams' first book The Boy in the Dress.

On the nonfiction side I was wowed by two books about books.

In March I read Susan Hill's Howards End is on the Landing.

And more recently Rick Gekoski's Tolkiens' Gown. I haven't blogged about it yet, but there will be some gushing to come.

I read two books about sugar and our modern diets that were very influential for me. Although I'm a long, long way from omitting sugar (really they mean fructose) from my diet.

I read the book that started the whole sugar ball rolling David Gillespie's Sweet Poison in March.

And I read Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar in September.

It's really been a great year for new to me authors.