TOO GOOD NOT TO MENTION
The problems with 'best' or 'most enjoyable' lists is that so many really good books get left off for minor reasons. Books that are just as good as the chosen ones but require a little bit extra concentration to read or books that are brilliantly written but perhaps you don't quite agree with their political message or just great books that you read early in the year and were pushed out by books read much later in the year. That happens with us over 60s as our memory falters. I find I can remember events and books I read 50 years ago but not something that happened 3 months ago.
So here are some more really excellent books that I read during the year.
Darkness Rising: Frank Tallis [review to appear on Euro Crime in 2009]
and last but certainly not least
What a lot of good books and I still haven't mentioned my five top of the year selections.
I will be back next year with an interesting Camberwell criminal connection, a review of a review that indicates the death of 'Liberal England', the quiz answers, a review of The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson, and my best five books of 2008.
I wish everyone a very Happy Healthy and hopefully Prosperous New Year.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 5:23 AM
4 Comments:
My word, Norman, I was mightily intrigued as to your top five after seeing your 6 to 11 list, and after seeing this I am like Maxine -- agog with curiosity. Your three lists together will be a splendid guide to books I have not yet read and qualify for my own tbr pronto list.
This is getting worse, in fact, Philip and Norman, as I haven't read either of the two you highlight here (or some of those in this list). I did read the first in this series by R Wilson, though, and although I quite liked it, the ratio of "length of book" to "my cup of tea" was a bit off, so I have not read more.
Roll on the Euro Crime list(s)!
Maxine, if 'Assassins' had been 250 pages shorter it might well have got into my top list. I loved A Small Death In Lisbon but had not read the earlier Javier Falcon books.
I agree Karen should post the secret lists ;O) and we then can see how our choices vary.
I greatly enjoy Wilson's novels, though a couple in particular could do with a bit of pruning, but I think the Falcon series should come with a caveat: Start with The Blind Man of Seville. The later ones, especially The Silent and the Damned, often allude to the events of the first, which can be annoying, but, far worse, there are a couple of points at which the essence of the story of Blind Man is given away. I still read it and enjoyed it, but the revelation of what lies behind the goings-on in the novel came as no surprise.
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