November 2025 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

November 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

Thank goodness we have books to get us through the rough patches! November had its highs and lows, but I managed to read 16 books last month. See any here you’ve read or want to? 

My Life as a Man (1974) by Philip Roth. This was a mobius strip of a book. It starts with two short stories featuring a Nate Zuckerman prototype. The second part is a novel about Peter Tarnopol, the author of the two stories, which turn out to be based on his (also fictional) life. Both the Tarnopol and Zuckerman are alter egos of Roth, so it really spirals around itself. Only Roth could pull of a stunt like this. 

Highland Fling (1931) by Nancy Mitford, her first novel. Although not as polished as her later novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, this was a fun country house romp reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh or Anthony Powell.   

The Devil’s Advocate (1959) by Morris West was an undercover gem. I loved it! It is the story of a terminally ill priest assigned to investigate the possible sainthood (ie: play the Devil's advocate) of a man who died in the war in an Italian village. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1959.

Persuasion (1817) by Jane Austen, my final reread in celebration of her semiquincentennial.

Brazil (1994) by John Updike. This was an odd one about star crossed lovers in Brazil. There's a cross country adventure, gold mining, cannibals, and a fantastical twist that turns the story on its head. Add a lot, lot, lot of graphic sex to confirm that this one was not for me even though Updike is one of my favorite authors. Apparently, when you are as successful as him, you get to experiment.  

Shake Hands Forever and A Sleeping Life, both in The Third Wexford Omnibus by Ruth Rendell. These are books nine and ten in her Inspector Wexford series, which I like more and more as I work my way through it.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. This short book was the last in a boxed set of Thoreau’s major works. I finally finished the others, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, and The Maine Woods, so, being a completist, I reread this one.

L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home by David Lebovitz. I always enjoy a good expat memoir and this one adds cooking (with recipes) and a disastrous home remodel, so it was extra fun.

Girls in Their Wedded Bliss (1964) with Epilogue (1986) by Edna O’Brien. This is the sad, final book in her Country Girls Trilogy. 

Falstaff (1976) by Robert Nye. This 1975 book of historical fiction has been on my TBR shelf for years. It is the fictional autobiography of Shakespeare’s beloved comedic character. His picaresque adventures were highly entertaining. Not only did he participate in the historical highlights of the 1400s, he met other Shakespeare characters along the way. But the sex talk was over the top. It went from bawdy to downright raunchy to sometimes pornographic. A little went a long way and a lot went too far. I’m glad I read it but it’s not for the faint of heart. The book is on Anthony Burgess's list of 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939, a Personal Choice.

The Complete Stories (1999) by Evelyn Waugh. I was in a readalong group on Instagram that read all Waugh's fiction over the last two or so years, one every other month. We finished with the short stories. I loved the entire experience.

The Green Knight (1993) by Iris Murdoch, a typically delightful shaggy tale by one of my favorite authors.

The British Baking Book: The History of British Baking, Savory and Sweet (2020, US Ed.) by Regula Ysewijn. This was interesting and there are several recipes I'd like to try, but is Britain really so obsessed with dried fruit and candied peel?

Ivanov (1887) and The Seagull (1896) by Anton Chekhov are not in the picture above because I forgot. I’m trying to read more classic drama and I'm glad I read these, but I can't say they are favorites. 

My Top Ten Books of 2022 -- BOOK LIST

 

MY TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022

I don’t usually choose my Top 10 reads of the year. That feels like asking me to chose my favorite cat. Or favorite grandchild. (Well, actually, I could do that. But don’t tell anyone!)

But I thought I'd try something new this year and give a go at making a list of my ten favorite books of the past year. I did not have all ten handy, having read a few with my ears and loaned a couple out. So instead, here you have a picture of my newly tidied up reading corner, now that I put away the Christmas decorations.

Here’s the list of my favorite ten books I read in 2022, in the order I read them. I don't think I could put them in order of preference -- that would be asking too much! See any of your own favorites here?

• Katherine by Anya Seton, a classic of historical fiction. It was the first (full) book I read in 2022 and it stuck with me. 

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, which I gave a couple people for gifts because I loved it so much. It is a charming novel about grown up siblings dealing with the fallout of the ne'er-do-well brother blowing their inheritance. 

• The Word is Murder, the first in Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne Investigates series. I quickly gobbled up the other two and have the new, fourth book on hold at the library. 

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, which I listened to twice because he reads the audiobook himself and it is fantastic.

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth was very clever and made me think.

• Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler was a reread for me but so good it sparked a Chandler binge.

• The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger was a surprise I found hidden on my TBR shelf, a gift from a bookstagram buddy.

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater was my first Slater book and now I’m hooked!

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith was excellent, simply excellent. I can't believe it took me so long to get to this clever, intricately-plotted story. 

• Call it Sleep by Henry Roth is a forgotten classic I put off reading because I thought it would be boring. On the contrary! It is so, so good and will become a book I proselytize for.

The complete list of the 111 books I read in 2022 is here. You can find links to the my annual book lists under the tab at the top of the page called Reading by Year. 

What were your favorite books of 2022?

The TBR 22 in '22 Challenge -- My Wrap Up Post

 

TBR 22 IN '22 CHALLENGE

My Wrap Up Post

COMPLETED

Sign up for the TBR 23 in '23 Challenge here!

The TBR 22 in '22 Challenge was simple -- read 22 books off your TBR shelf in 2022. You could pick them ahead of time, like I did, pick them as you went, or any combination you like. Or pick ahead of time and then switch! The only "rule" is that the 22 books had to be books you owned before January 1, 2022.

Here is the list of the 22 book I read for the challenge, in alphabetical order by author, not the order in which I read them:

• These Ruins are Inhabited by Margaret Beadle, a memoir by an American living in England in the 1950s

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow, on my Classics Club list

• Atlantic High by William F. Buckley, Jr., the second of his four sailing memoirs. I read the first one last year and planned to read them all but didn't get to them. 2022 will be the year I finally do. 

• Racing through Paradise by William F. Buckley, Jr., the third of the four

• Windfall by William F. Buckley, Jr., the last one

• The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakow, on my Classics Club list

• The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble, on my Classics Club list

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award

• Rat Race by Dick Francis, on my Classics Club list

• Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon

• French Women Don't get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

• The Wall by John Hersey, on my Classics Club list

• The Bostonians by Henry James, on my Classics Club list

• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin

• When She was Good by Philip Roth, on my Classics Club list

• Zuckerman Unbound by Philip RothThe Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth

• The Masters by C. P. Snow is the fourth book in his Strangers and Brothers series, which I started years ago and want to finish. This one is on my Classics Club list because it won the James Tait Black Prize in 1954.

• If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler, on my Classics Club list

• God Save the Mark by Donald Westlake, which won the Edgar Award and is on my Classics Club list

• Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson, a campus novel on my Classics Club list

 

Book List: Books Read in 2022

BOOKS READ IN 2022

Every January, when I remember, I post a list here on the blog of the books I read the prior year. I keep track of the books I read on LibraryThing. 

Here's the list of the 111 books I read in 2022, in the order I read them.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

• Murder at the Castle by M. B. Shaw (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Katherine by Anya Seton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano 🌹🌹🌹

• The Bostonians by Henry James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lolly Willowes: Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Atlantic High: A Celebration by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Dangling Man by Saul Bellow 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Island of Gold by Amy Maroney 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 🌹🌹🌹

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris (reviewed here)🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hope of Heaven by John O'Hara 🌹🌹🌹

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The House in Good Taste by Elsie De Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Champagne Widows: First Woman of Champagne, Veuve Clicquot by Rebecca Rosenberg (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹

• The Falls by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol 72 (Winter 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Family Business by S. J. Rozan (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• These Ruins are Inhabited by Muriel Beadle 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Essentially French: Homes With Classic French Style by Josephine Ryan 🌹🌹🌹

• Little Big Man by Thomas Berger 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble 🌹🌹🌹

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Rat Race by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• When She was Good by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Trio by William Boyd 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lucky by Marissa Staples 🌹🌹🌹

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Galileo's Daughter - A Historical Memoir Of Science, Faith, And Love by Dava Sobel 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Love is Blind by William Boyd 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from My Italian Mother-in-Law by Katherine Wilson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Racing Through Paradise: A Pacific Passage by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Blue Moon by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Long Way Home by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Broken Harbor by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Annotated Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham 🌹🌹🌹🌹 (5 for the book, 3 for the annotations) 

• Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Masters by C. P. Snow 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 73 (Spring 2022) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Reservoir by David Duchovny (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 74 (Summer 2022) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 🌹🌹

• Windfall: The End of the Affair by William F. Buckley, Jr.  🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder at Hazelmoor (aka The Sittaford Mystery) by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor 🌹🌹🌹

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Under Dog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Literary Life by Larry McMurtry 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• What to Read and Why by Francine Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The High Window by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Black Cat by Martha Grimes 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Airframe by Michael Chrichton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Death in a Tenured Position by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O'Reilly  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Call it Sleep by Henry Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Lists of Note: An Eclectic Collection Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-rose rating probably doesn't mean that here. My system is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me, its technical merits, and whether I would recommend it to other people.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read).

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. So I give a lot of four roses because I might really like a book, but it didn't knock my socks off. And while I'd recommend it to someone who likes that genre -- mystery, historical fiction, food writing, whatever -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked me for a "good book.".

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend.

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. Lessons in Chemistry is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved that book. I found it cartoonish and intolerant. 

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists.

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.

2022 Audiobook Challenge -- My Wrap-Up Post

 THE 2022 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

WRAP-UP POST

COMPLETED

I blew past my challenge goal of reading 50+ audiobooks this year! I've read 63 books with my ears in 2022 and will probably finish 65 before the the new year. See list below.

CHALLENGE

Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About host a popular audiobook challenge every year, although 2022 was only the second time I participated. I signed up at the Marathoner level to read 50 or more audiobooks in 2022. 

I love reading with my ears! I download audiobooks from the library to my phone using the Libby app and listen all the time. In good weather, I like to walk to work, which gives me a good hour of audiobook reading in a day. I also listed when I drive, cook, fold laundry, and do other chores. In 2021, I read 131 books and 70 of them were audiobooks. 

One thing I started doing in 2022 was to combine my love of audiobooks with my desire to clear book books off my TBR shelves. I went through my TBR list, found which ones were available as audiobooks from the library, and put them on my Libby wishlist. It may seem odd to listen to the audiobook when I have the physical book already, but I have soooooooooo many book books on my shelves that it would take me years to get to all of them. If I can free up shelf space (and brain space) by reading a book with my ears and getting rid of the paper book, I'm happy. 

MY 2022 AUDIOBOOKS

Here is the list of books I read as audiobooks in 2022, in the order I read them. Do you see any of your own favorites here?

• Katherine by Anya Seton (TBR shelf) 

• The Bostonians by Henry James (TBR shelf) 

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym (TBR shelf) 

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw 

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow (TBR shelf)

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris 

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park (Book Club) 

• The Falls by Ian Rankin (TBR shelf) 

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Book Club) 

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (TBR shelf, reread) 

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 

• Little Big Man by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf) 

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (TBR shelf)

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 

• Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty 

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (National Book Award)

• Trio by William Boyd

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaac 

• Lucky by Marissa Stapley (Book Club) 

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (TBR shelf) 

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci (Book Club) 

• Only in Naples by Katherine Wilson 

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (TBR shelf)

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black 

• Blue Moon by Lee Child (TBR shelf)

• The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

• Broken Harbor by Tana French (TBR shelf)

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

• Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard (TBR shelf)

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Book Club) 

• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

• Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (TBR shelf) 

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Book Club)

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty 

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (TBR shelf)

• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (TBR shelf)

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Victober)

• The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor (TBR shelf)

• The Underdog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz (TBR shelf)

• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron

• Literary Life: A Second Memoir by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf)

• What to Read and Why by Francine Prose

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater (TBR shelf)

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (TBR shelf)

• Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick (TBR shelf)

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith (TBR shelf)

• One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (TBR shelf)

• The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier (buddy read)

The Counterlife by Philip Roth -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

After our cold, rainy spring, summer is finally here in Portland. Of course, by next week, we will all complain it is too hot. That’s a ritual of Oregon life.

But it is beautiful this week. And I am so looking forward to Book Club tonight because it is the perfect evening for dinner outside, drinking pink wine, and chatting about books with my IRL book friends.

Are you in a book club? How do you pick the books you read and how often do you meet? We meet every other month and rotate hosting alphabetically by last name. The hostess picks the book for the next meeting. 

Fortunately, I remembered to post my Book Beginnings on Fridays post before I left for Book Club. Please join me to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week -- of just a book that caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Ever since the family doctor, during a routine checkup, discovered an abnormality on his EKG and he went in overnight for the coronary catheterization that revealed the dimensions of the disease, Henry’s condition had been successfully treated with drugs, enabling him to work and to carry on his life at home exactly as before.

-- The Counterlife by Philip Roth, winner of the 1987 National Book Critics Circle Award.

I'm reading this one now and love it. It's the fifth of nine Nathan Zuckerman books. It starts with the idea is that Zuckerman's younger brother needs heart surgery. Then there are alternate versions of where the story goes from  there -- Henry dies during surgery; he survives but leaves his family and moves to a kibbutz in Israel's West Bank; it's really Nathan who needs the surgery and he dies; Nathan marries a fourth wife and moves to England. There might be another version, but that's as far as I've gotten so far. It's very clever.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please leave the link to your Book Beginning post in the Linky box below. If you share on SM, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Counterlife:

Down in the living room, he worked his way through the clan, accepting their sympathies, listening to their memories, answering questions about where he was living and what he was writing, until he had made his way to Cousin Essie, his favorite relative and once upon a time the family powerhouse. She was sitting in a club chair by the fireplace with a cane across her knees.

All-TIME Best 100 English-Language Novels -- BOOK LIST

ALL-TIME BEST 100 ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NOVELS

In 2005, TIME Magazine critics Richard Lacayo and Lev Grossman picked the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923, the year TIME began publishing. Lacayo offers a thorough explanation of their process on the magazine's website, along with descriptions of each book.

As Lacayo said in his article, "Lists like this one have two purposes. One is to instruct. The other of course is to enrage." Everyone can argue about books they think should have made this list and others that should have been left off. 

Personally, I'd prefer seeing Mary McCarthy, Barbara Pym, and Penelope Lively on this list and jettison Pynchon, Kosinski, and DeLillo. I've read 88 of the 100 books on this list so far, but I may never finish all 100. I know I'm never going to read Infinite Jest, for example. And I will probably never read Gravity's Rainbow. 

How about you? What are your thoughts?

Here is the complete list in alphabetical order, with notes if I've read it, it's on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook from my library. 

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (reviewed here) FINISHED

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (reviewed here) FINISHED

American Pastoral by Philip Roth FINISHED

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser FINISHED

Animal Farm by George Orwell FINISHED

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara FINISHED

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume FINISHED

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) FINISHED

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien TBR SHELF

Atonement by Ian McEwan FINISHED

Beloved by Toni Morrison FINISHED

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood TBR SHELF

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler FINISHED

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood FINISHED

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy FINISHED

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder FINISHED

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth FINISHED

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller FINISHED

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger FINISHED

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess FINISHED

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron FINISHED

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen FINISHED

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon FINISHED

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (discussed here) FINISHED

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West FINISHED

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather FINISHED

A Death in the Family by James Agee FINISHED

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED

Deliverance by James Dickey FINISHED

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone FINISHED

Falconer by John Cheever TBR SHELF

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles FINISHED

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing FINISHED

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin FINISHED

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell FINISHED

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck FINISHED

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon ON OVERDRIVE

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald FINISHED

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers FINISHED

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene FINISHED

Herzog by Saul Bellow FINISHED

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson FINISHED

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul FINISHED

I, Claudius by Robert Graves FINISHED

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace ON OVERDRIVE (but 56 hours!)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison FINISHED

Light in August by William Faulkner FINISHED

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis FINISHED

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov FINISHED

Lord of the Flies by William Golding FINISHED

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien FINISHED

Loving by Henry Green FINISHED

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis FINISHED

The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead ON OVERDRIVE

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (reviewed here) FINISHED

Money by Martin Amis (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy FINISHED

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf FINISHED

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs FINISHED

Native Son by Richard Wright FINISHED

Neuromancer by William Gibson ON OVERDRIVE

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro FINISHED

1984 by George Orwell FINISHED

On the Road by Jack Kerouac FINISHED

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey FINISHED

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (I finished as much as I could stand) FINISHED

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov FINISHED

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster FINISHED

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here) FINISHED

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth FINISHED

Possession by A.S. Byatt FINISHED

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene FINISHED

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark FINISHED

Rabbit, Run by John Updike FINISHED

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow FINISHED

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett FINISHED

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates FINISHED

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles FINISHED

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (reviewed here) FINISHED

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson TBR SHELF

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth TBR SHELF

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford FINISHED

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre FINISHED

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston FINISHED

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe FINISHED

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee FINISHED

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf FINISHED

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller FINISHED

Ubik by Philip K. Dick ON OVERDRIVE

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch FINISHED

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry FINISHED

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise by Don DeLillo ON OVERDRIVE

White Teeth by Zadie Smith FINISHED

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (reviewed here) FINISHED

NOTES

Updated October 26, 2023. This is a repost of the list I first posted back in 2009. The links needed refreshing. 

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winners -- BOOK LIST

PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honors the "best published works of fiction by American permanent residents in a calendar year." 

National Book Award winner Mary Lee Settle, with help from her friends, organized the award in 1980 as a peer-reviewed competitor of the National Book Award. They allied themselves with the Ineternational PEN organization (Poets, Editors, and Novelists) and named the award after William Faulkner who donated his Nobel Prize money to fund the award.

I am not going to keep updating the winners after 2021. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I may focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

Here is the list of all the winners, with notes if I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook on Overdrive from my library. So far, I've only read 14 of the winners.

2021 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw ON OVERDRIVE

2020 Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis ON OVERDRIVE

2019 Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi ON OVERDRIVE

2018 Improvement by Joan Silber ON OVERDRIVE

2017 Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue ON OVERDRIVE

2016 Delicious Foods by James Hannaham ON OVERDRIVE

2015 Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish

2014 We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler FINISHED

2013 Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

2012 The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka ON OVERDRIVE

2011 The Collected Stories by Deborah Eisenberg

2010 War Dances by Sherman Alexie ON OVERDRIVE

2009 Netherland by Joseph O'Neill ON OVERDRIVE

2008 The Great Man by Kate Christensen TBR SHELF

2007 Everyman by Philip Roth FINISHED

2006 The March by E. L. Doctorow ON OVERDRIVE

2005 War Trash by Ha Jin TBR SHELF

2004 The Early Stories: 1953-1975 by John Updike TBR SHELF

2003 The Caprices by Sabina Murray TBR SHELF

2002 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (reviewed here) FINISHED

2001 The Human Stain by Philip Roth (reviewed here) FINISHED

2000 Waiting by Ha Jin FINISHED

1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham FINISHED

1998 The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor FINISHED

1997 Women in Their Beds: New and Selected Stories by Gina Berriault TBR SHELF

1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford FINISHED

1995 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson FINISHED

1994 Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth FINISHED

1993 Postcards by E. Annie Proulx FINISHED

1992 Mao II by Don Delillo FINISHED

1991 Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman

1990 Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED

1989 Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter FINISHED

1988 World's End by T. Coraghessan Boyle

1987 Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley TBR SHELF

1986 The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor

1985 The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff

1984 Sent for You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman

1983 Seaview by Toby Olson TBR SHELF

1982 The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley

1981 How German Is It = Wie Deutsch Ist Es by Walter Abish TBR SHELF



NOTES

Updated July 3, 2025. 

This is a redo of the list I first posted in 2010. The links needed a refresh! 

 

National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award Winners -- BOOK LIST

The National Book Critics Circle presents annual awards for books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. The NBCC Awards started in 1975.

I confess I bear a grudge against the NBCC fiction Award for inflicting some of my least favorite novels on me, including Being Dead, All the Pretty Horses, and Song of Solomon. On the other hand, I only read Americanah and Motherless Brooklyn because they are on list and I love both of them.

I decided to not keep updating the winners after 2021. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I may focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

This is the list of the NBCC fiction Award winners through 2021, with notes about whether I've finished the book or not. So far, I've read 33 of the winners. I've also noted it a book is on my TBR shelf or available as an audiobook from my library. Those notes help me keep track. 

2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers ON OVERDRIVE

2020 Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell FINISHED

2019 Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat ON OVERDRIVE

2018 Milkman by Anna Burns FINISHED

2017 Improvement by Joan Silber ON OVERDRIVE

2016 LaRose by Louise Erdrich FINISHED

2015 The Sellout by Paul Beatty FINISHED

2014 Lila by Marilynne Robinson FINISHED

2013 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie FINISHED

2012 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain FINISHED

2011 Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman

2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan FINISHED

2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here) FINISHED

2008 2666 by Robert Bolano TBR SHELF

2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz FINISHED

2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai FINISHED

2005 The March by E.L. Doctorow ON OVERDRIVE

2004 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (reviewed here) FINISHED

2003 The Known World by Edward P. Jones FINISHED

2002 Atonement by Ian McEwan FINISHED

2001 Austerlitz by Winfried Georg Sebald FINISHED

2000 Being Dead by Jim Crace FINISHED

1999 Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem FINISHED

1998 The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro TBR SHELF

1997 The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED

1996 Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault TBR SHELF

1995 Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin FINISHED

1994 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields FINISHED

1993 A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines TBR SHELF

1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reviewed here) FINISHED

1991 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley FINISHED

1990 Rabbit at Rest by John Updike FINISHED

1989 Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED

1988 The Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee TBR SHELF

1987 The Counterlife by Philip Roth FINISHED

1986 Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price FINISHED

1985 The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler FINISHED

1984 Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich TBR SHELF

1983 Ironweed by William Kennedy FINISHED

1982 George Mills by Stanley Elkin TBR SHELF

1981 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike FINISHED

1980 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard TBR SHELF

1979 The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan FINISHED

1978 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (reviewed here) FINISHED

1977 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison FINISHED

1976 October Light by John C Gardner TBR SHELF

1975 Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow FINISHED

NOTES

Updated March 20, 2024. This is a refresh of the list I first posted in 2012. 

The National Book Award for Fiction -- LIST

THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

The National Book Foundation has awarded the National Book Awards to American writers since 1950. The Awards currently honor authors in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People's Literature. There have been other categories in the past.

I am not going to keep updating the winners after 2021. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I plan to focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

I am working my way through the Fiction winners. So far, I've read 46 of the winners. The winners through 2021 are listed below, with notes about whether I've finished a book, it is on my TBR shelf, or it is available as an audiobook from the library on Overdrive.

How many of these have you read? See any favorites?

2021 Hell of a Book by Jason Mott FINISHED

2020 Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu FINISHED

2019 Trust Exercise by Susan Choi ON OVERDRIVE

2018 The Friend by Sigrid Nunez FINISHED

2017 Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward FINISHED

2016 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead FINISHED

2015 Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson ON OVERDRIVE

2014 Redeployment by Phil Klay ON OVERDRIVE

2013 The Good Lord Bird by James McBride ON OVERDRIVE

2012 The Round House by Louise Erdrich ON OVERDRIVE

2011 Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward FINISHED

2010 Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (reviewed here) FINISHED

2009 Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (reviewed here) FINISHED

2008 Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen TBR SHELF

2007 Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson FINISHED

2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers FINISHED

2005 Europe Central by William T. Vollmann TBR SHELF

2004 The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck TBR SHELF

2003 The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard FINISHED

2002 Three Junes by Julia Glass FINISHED

2001 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen FINISHED

2000 In America by Susan Sontag TBR SHELF

1999 Waiting by Ha Jin FINISHED

1998 Charming Billy by Alice McDermott FINISHED

1997 Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (reviewed here) FINISHED

1996 Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett FINISHED

1995 Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth FINISHED

1994 A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis

1993 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx FINISHED

1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reviewed here) FINISHED

1991 Mating by Norman Rush FINISHED

1990 Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (reviewed here) FINISHED

1989 Spartina by John Casey FINISHED

1988 Paris Trout by Pete Dexter FINISHED

1987 Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann ON OVERDRIVE

1986 World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow TBR SHELF

1985 White Noise by Don Delillo ON OVERDRIVE

1984 Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist TBR SHELF

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker FINISHED

1982 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike FINISHED

1981 Plains Song by Wright Morris TBR SHELF

1980 Sophie's Choice by William Styron (reviewed here) FINISHED

1979 Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien FINISHED

1978 Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle FINISHED

1977 The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here) FINISHED

1976 JR by William Gaddis

1975 The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (reviewed here) FINISHED

1975 Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone FINISHED

1974 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon ON OVERDRIVE

1974 A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer TBR SHELF

1973 Augustus by John Williams ON OVERDRIVE

1973 Chimera by John Barth TBR SHELF

1972 The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor TBR SHELF

1971 Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here) FINISHED

1970 Them by Joyce Carol Oates TBR SHELF

1969 Steps by Jerzy Kosinski

1968 The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder ON OVERDRIVE

1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) FINISHED

1966 The Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter TBR SHELF

1965 Herzog by Saul Bellow FINISHED

1964 The Centaur by John Updike (reviewed here) FINISHED

1963 Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers FINISHED

1962 The Moviegoer by Walker Percy FINISHED

1961 The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter

1960 Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth (reviewed here) FINISHED

1959 The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud FINISHED

1958 Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever FINISHED

1957 The Field of Vision by Wright Morris TBR SHELF

1956 Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara FINISHED

1955 A Fable by William Faulkner

1954 The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (reviewed here) FINISHED

1953 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison FINISHED

1952 From Here to Eternity by James Jones FINISHED

1951 The Collected Stories by William Faulkner ON OVERDRIVE

1950 The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here) FINISHED


NOTES

Updated October 26, 2023. This is a redo of the list I first posted in 2009. 

Hidden gems for me are Lord of Misrule, The Hair of Harold Roux, and Blood Tie.

RELATED POSTS

If you would like your related posts to be listed here, please leave a comment with links to your reviews of these books or the like and I will add them here.