Category: Memes

Jo at The Book Jotter  is running this meme again this year to summarise six months of reading, sorting the books into six categories – you can choose from the ones Jo suggests or come up with your own.

Here is my version for 2014, with links to my posts on the books where appropriate. I’ve only listed each book in one category, although some of them could have gone in more than one. I’ve not listed the books in order of preference:

• Six books I loved (there are more books in the other categories I could have included here):

1. The Dance of Love by Angela Young – review to come later
2. A Whispered Name by William Brodrick
3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Crucible by S G MacLean
5. The Office of the Dead by Andrew Taylor
6. The Potter’s Hand by A N Wilson

• Six historical novels:

1. The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (historical fantasy 5th century Britain)
2. The King’s Evil by Edward Marston (1666)
3. The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter (1940s and 1971)
4. Pictures at an Exhibition by Camilla Macpherson (1940s and present day)
5. Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody (1922)
6. The Witch’s Brat by Rosemary Sutcliff (12th century England)

• Six Crime Fiction books:
  

1. In the Woods by Tana French
2. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie 
3. Death Under Sail by C P Snow
4. Vengeance by Benjamin Black 
5. The Cabinetmaker by Alan Jones
6. No Stranger to Death by Janet O’Kane 

• Six authors I have read before:

1. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
2. Not Dead Enough by Peter James
3. Playing With Fire by Peter Robinson 
4. They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie 
5. The Time Machine by H G Wells 
6. North Sea Cottage by Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen

• Six new authors to me:

1. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
2. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers
3. Tantalus by Jane Jazz 
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 
5. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing 
6. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 

• Six authors I read last year €“ but not so far this year and their books I have yet to read

1. Barbara Kingslover (Flight Behaviour)
2. Kate Morton (The Secret Keeper)
3. Ruth Rendell (Put on by Cunning)
4. Josephine Tey (Miss Pym Disposes)
5. Jane Gardam (I have three of hers to read)
6. Iris Murdoch (The Unicorn)

I’ve taken part in this meme a couple of times in the past. So I when I saw it again on Irene’s blog, she found it on Carrie’s blog, I thought I’d have a go too.  Here are my answers using the titles of the books I’ve read so far this year.

In school I was: Quiet 

People might be surprised I’m: The English Spy

I will never be: The Hobbit

My fantasy job is: Searching for the Secret River

At the end of a long day I need: The Hand that First Held Mine

I hate it when: Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Wish I had: The Kashmir Shawl

My family reunions are: A Time of Gifts

At a party you’d find me with: The Birthday Boys

I’ve never been to: The Black House

A happy day includes: Wildwood: an Journey Through Trees

Motto I live by: Not the End of the World

On my bucket list: Treasure Island

In my next life, I want to be: Cat Among the Pigeons

Jo at The Book Jotter started this meme last year to summarise six months of reading, sorting the books into six categories and she’s done it again this year. Here is my version for 2013, with links to my posts on the books where appropriate:

Six books I have enjoyed, not including Crime Fiction:

1. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang (non-fiction)
2. The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
3. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
4. After Flodden by Rosemary Goring
5. Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville
6. The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland

Six Crime Fiction books I’ve enjoyed:

1. The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean
2. Dead Water by Ann Cleeves
3. The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves
4. The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards
5. Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
6. Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter by Ruth Rendell

Six authors new to me:

1.  Roger Deakin – 
2. Carola Dunn
3. Julia Stuart
4. Peter May
5. Julius Falconer
6. Patrick Leigh Fermor

Six authors I have read before:

1. David Lodge
2. Agatha Christie
3. J T R R Tolkien
4. Charles Dickens
5. Erle Stanley Garner
6. Kate Morton

Six Books ongoing reading or books on hold, which I’ll be getting back to €¦

1. Charles Dickens: Life by Claire Tomalin
2. Agatha Christie: an English Mystery by Laura Thompson
3. Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor
4. The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg
5. Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
6. Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

Six books that were not as good as I’d expected:

1. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Airs and Graces by Erica James
3. Small Kindnesses by Fiona Robyn
4. The Daughters of Fire by Barbara Erskine
5. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
6. Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé by Joanne Harris