Books Read in 2024: BOOK LIST

 

BOOKS I READ IN 2024

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

Here's the list of the 177 books I read in 2024, in the order I read them. I've never read so many books n a year before this. I credit the jump to my work finally slowing down a bit. Maybe when I really retire, I'll read even more, which I would love. I added a notes, which I haven't done in the past but might continue. It helps me remember the book. 

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

• My Almost Cashmere Life by Margie Adams, my first TBR 24 in ’24 book of the year. A memoir about the end of a dysfunctional but long-term marriage. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers, a fantastic campus thriller. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, for a bookstagram readalong of all Waugh’s books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Quentins by Maeve Binchy, a major feel-good book. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope, the first book in his six-books Palliser series, which I read as part of a bookstagram readalong. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription by William F. Buckley, Jr., my favorite title of the year. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, a reread for me and another bookstagram readalong. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. A rallying cry for long-form reading and other intellectual pursuits. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Rather be the Devil by Ian Rankin, from his John Rebus series, which I love but want to wrap up. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury, a crazy trip through the Soviet Block. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Beartown by Fredrik Backman, more serious than his other books I’ve read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier, a fascinating slice of recent history. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin, another Rebus book. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz was a favorite! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Aunt Dimity Goes West by Nancy Atherton is a book I picked up on a whim. I love a cozy mystery but struggled with this one because . . . ghosts. What the heck? 🌹🌹1/2

• Books Make A Home: Elegant Ideas for Storing and Displaying Books by Damian Thompson was a gift from my husband and exactly my cup of tea. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier. Historical fiction about DDM’s own great, great, great grandmother, an infamous London courtesan. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling is a sweet little book about daily observations. A friend gave it to me so I spent a pleasant rainy afternoon with it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. A rollicking, ribald adventure. I loved it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books by Nina Freudenberger was my second cup of tea from the same pot. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. After three attempts to read this one, I finally finished it. I know I’m in a very small minority, but I found this one almost impossibly slow and couldn’t hack the mystical, vague atmosphere. 🌹🌹🌹

• Slow Horses by Mick Herron. I finally started this amazing series. I can’t wait to read them all. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder in Clichy by Cara Black, from her Aimée Leduc series set in Paris, one of the many mystery series I’m trying to finish. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• My Kind of Place by Susan Orlean, travel and general nonfiction essays from an amazing writer. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto, a thoroughly enjoyable book club pick. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Foster by Claire Keegan, another book club pick. 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle, a wine-themed cozy mystery set in Marseille. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, the second Palliser book and one I liked very much. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David, food, restaurant, and travel essays from England’s Julia Child. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead by Charles Murray, a common sense guide to adulthood. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 81, Spring 2024, which I list to keep track of which ones I’ve read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Carry. A classic about the artist life, but there’s a reason you don’t see it around. The protagonist is highly unlikeable, which made the book a slog. 🌹🌹

• The Way We Lived Then by Dominick Dunne, a delightful memoir (with snapshots) about Dunne’s life in Hollywood in the 1950s and ‘60s. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux, about his 1978 train journey from Boston to Patagonia. 🌹🌹🌹

• Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell was my first book by him but won’t be my last. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin, which left me with only one more John Rebus book. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Habits of the House by Fay Weldon, the first of a historical fiction trilogy similar to Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Long Live the King by Fay Weldon 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The New Countess by Fay Weldon 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier, my least favorite DDM book. 🌹🌹

• His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle, which brought me closer to the end of the Sherlock Holmes series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Songbook by Nick Hornby, the only author I like enough to read a 20+ year old book about pop music. 🌹🌹🌹

• Silverview by John le Carre, his last book. Not as grim as some of his earlier books (I’m still traumatized by The Spy Who Came in from the Cold). 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Snow in April by Rosamund Pilcher. I’ve only read The Shell Seekers so I was happy to come back to read more by her. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The King of Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling, which won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 1967. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Reivers by William Faulkner, his last novel, winner of the 1963 Pulitzer Prize, and way more accessible than other Faulkner books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Dead Lions by Mick Herron, the second in the Slow Horses series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Pocketful of Poseys by Thomas Reed, a somewhat complicated but charming family story. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Death and the Conjurer by Tom Mead, an entertaining start to his "locked room" mystery series featuring magician turned sleuth Joseph Spector. 🌹🌹🌹

• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, a medieval adventure and highlight of my year. Loved it! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes. I enjoyed everything about this creative historical mystery and Fellowes is definitely a new favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Julius by Daphne du Maurier. A well told story about an unlikeable protagonist. 🌹🌹🌹

• Winter Count by Barry Lopez. Brian Doyle named this one of the 20 Greatest Oregon Books Ever, so I was surprised that none of the essays in this classic book of nature writing have a connection to Oregon other than Lopez himself. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer, a fast-moving, pre-smart phone, financial caper. 🌹🌹🌹

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which I enjoyed, but not as much as I thought I would. 🌹🌹🌹

• Still Life by Sarah Winman, a contender for my favorite book of the year. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead, the second of three locked room mysteries set in 1930s London. 🌹🌹🌹

• After All These Years by Susan Isaacs. Her books are always fun. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh. Loved! Basil Seal’s scheme to make money by (repeatedly) selling off three refugee children (with their complicity) was the funniest thing I read all year. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier. Her first novel, which I liked more than I expected. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable. Fun armchair travel and I learned about antique furniture. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin. With this, I have read all his John Rebus series, until he writes another. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury. Fascinating! My husband also read it and thought it was terrific. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Light of Day by Eric Ambler, the 1964 Edgar Award winner. My first Ambler but not my last. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Warming Up Julia Child: The Remarkable Figures Who Shaped a Legend by Helen Horowitz Lefkowitz. I love all books about Julia Child. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Real Tigers by Mick Herron, Slow Horses book three. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Sideways by Rex Pickett, my book club read before we went on a winery field trip. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George, one of her more shocking and grisly Lynley/Havers mysteries. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Third Man by Graham Greene, the novella he wrote before writing the screenplay for the movie. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene, an eerie novella about a little boy with bad parents.  🌹🌹🌹

• Loser Takes All by Graham Greene, an extremely clever gambling story. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• William F. Buckley Jr.: The Maker of a Movement by Lee Edwards, a quick biography. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Messenger by Megan Davis, a dual-timeline thriller set in Paris that wasn't my cup of tea because I don't really like stories about teenagers. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Stranger House by Reginald Hill, my introduction to this author and I loved it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope, the third Palliser novel and a reread for me. Makes a good standalone. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah, one of her earlier books, very sweet. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Vacationers by Emma Stroud, a wonderful summer read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny, my introduction to his Cape Weathers series, which I now want to explore further. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead, the third in his Joseph Spector series. 🌹🌹🌹

• The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, which I found engrossing, especially the W. Somerset Maugham storyline. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Castle Dor by Arthur Quiller Couch and Daphne du Maurier. She agreed to finish this historical novel when her friend "Q" died, but should have passed. It is dry and slow. 🌹🌹

• Into the Boardroom by D.K. Light and K.S. Pushor, which is dated, but a good introduction for someone like me trying to learn more about business. 🌹🌹🌹

• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. So good but so sad. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. This is his first book, semi-autobiographical, and a charming glimpse of life in post-war England. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis, a group read on bookstagram and part of my effort to read all his books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal by Melissa Jacoby. For work, obviously, but still fascinating. And she cites one of my briefs in the Boy Scout bankruptcy case! 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. This was a book club pick and I loved it. It was my first McBride book but won’t be my last. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh. This is the first in his Sword of Honor trilogy and I had a great time reading it my bookstagram group. It is also on my Classics Club II list. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope, the fourth Palliser novel. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Heat Wave by Penelope Lively. Just perfect. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• J by Howard Jacobson, a story of dystopian antisemitism that was good, but a little murky.🌹🌹🌹

• The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett was a fun little bon bon, although not as delightful as I had anticipated. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Dark Vineyard by Marin Walker, the second in his Bruno, Chief of Police series. I am diving into this one now that I wrapped up a couple of other series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Spook Street by Mick Herron, the fourth in his Slough House series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz. This was a book club read and I thought it was fantastic. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Now in November by Josephine Johnson, a Dust Bowl drama that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1935. Not my cup of tea but I’m trying to read all the winners. 🌹🌹

• The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis is excellent. Part of my quest to read all his books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch, an excellent example of her novels. It ticks all the Murdoch boxes. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I finally read this classic chunkster and loved it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I’ve wanted to reread this American classic for a long time and enjoyed it even more than when I read it last in college. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The New Men by C.P. Snow. One of the more readable books from his dry as dust Strangers and Brothers series, but definitely one I’m just happy to have finally finished. 🌹🌹🌹

• Black Diamond by Martin Walker, book three in his Bruno, Chief of Police series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• James by Percival Everett is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, Huck’s runaway slave companion. Excellent, although I wasn’t wild about the ending. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Things I Don’t Want to Know: On Writing by Deborah Levy, the first in her memoir trilogy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy, the second in the trilogy, was a gift from a friend and I was so happy to finally discuss it with her. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler has put me in the mood to read more of her books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Last Chance in Paris by Lynda Marron. A heartwarming novel, set in Paris, that weaves together several storylines. Loved it! 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• In Five Years by Rebecca Serle is a clever romcom set in New York but too much magical realism for me. 🌹🌹🌹

• Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull is the kind of ex pat memoir I devour, always with delight. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Crowded Grave by Martin Walker, the fourth Bruno book. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything is Funny, Nothing is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together by Kat Timpf. I can’t say I’m a big fan of stand-up comedy, but this book was interesting and funny. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've now finished my project of reading all the Sherlock Holmes books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh, the second in his Sword of Honour Trilogy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware was a surprisingly good vintage novel about newspaper journalism and alcoholism. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope, the fifth book in the Palliser series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud was a book club pick because one of our members is moving to Morocco. I hear the movie is better than the book. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Rendezvous and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier. I never like short stories as much as novels. 🌹🌹🌹

• Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy is wonderful, just wonderful. Both my book clubs read it and loved it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Scandinavian From Scratch: A Love Letter to the Baking of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by Nicole Accettola. I read it cover to cover, just like a regular book. Now I’m inspired to try new things for my holiday baking. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Antonin Scalia is a collection of Scalia’s public speeches. It was really very good and not too lawyer wonky. I saw him speak once and he was an excellent, entertaining public speaker. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, a reread for me of an all-time favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, No. 83, Autumn 2024. I always love the Foxed Quarterly journals. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George is the prequel to With No One as Witness. Too much social commentary and no mystery, so it fell flat for me. 🌹🌹

• The Devil’s Cave by Martin Walker. I’m racing through his Bruno series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. I read this for Victober and adored it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• I’ll Take the Back Road by Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, a vintage memoir about moving to a Vermont farm. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• London Rules by Mick Herron, number five from his Slow Horses series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The End of the Battle by Evelyn Waugh, also called An Unconditional Surrender. The final book in his Sword of Honour Trilogy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, my second Victober book and a terrific Victorian melodrama. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, a surprisingly engaging nonfiction comparison of planned and market economies that deserves its status as an economics classic. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Breaking Point by Daphne du Maurier, short stories. 🌹🌹🌹

• Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier, more short stories. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Resistance Man by Martin Walker, more Bruno, number six. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, the last book on my TBR 24 in '24 list and an Austria book for the European Reading Challenge. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Living Color: A Designer Works Magic with Traditional Interiors by Gary McBournie. I’m trying to read all my coffee table books. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Three Men and a Maid by P. G. Wodehouse, an accidental reread because it has alternate titles, but just as enjoyable the second time. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong, a vintage mystery in the American, hard-boiled tradition. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, another vintage mystery and my Classics Club “spin” pick with The Classics Club. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison was sad but engrossing. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Turret Room by Charlotte Armstrong, another vintage mystery. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Doll by Daphne du Maurier, the last DDM book with my bookstagram readalong group. We will wrap up with a biography in early 2025. 🌹🌹🌹

• The Cheesemaker’s Daughter by Kristin Vukovic. A terrific family story and my Croatia book for the European Reading Challenge. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope, the last of the Palliser novels and my favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, the new Jackson Brodie mystery. Loved it! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. A perfect plane read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The New Bohemians Hand Book: Come Home to Good Vibes by Justina Blakeney. Definitely artsy-fartsy-hippie-dippy-woo-woo, but I enjoyed it. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Children Return by Martin Walker, the seventh Bruno mystery set in France. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Death and Croissants by Ian Moore, the first book in his comic mystery series, also set in France. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Leaves of Grass (Vol. I) and Democratic Vistas by Walt Whitman. I loved the exuberance of the poems and the insight of the essay. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler, part of my project to read all her books. I found this one particularly charming. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Joe Country by Mick Herron, the sixth Slough House book. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater, which I read to kick off the holiday season. It involves too many raisins, currants, and other dried fruits for me to love it unconditionally. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten. An odd collection of short stories that counts as my Sweden book for the European Reading Challenge. 🌹🌹🌹

• Object: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe, the best memoir about the effects of child sexual abuse I’ve read, and I read a lot of them for my work. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Real Estate: A Living Autobiography by Deborah Levy, which I loved. The final book in her memoir trilogy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford by Barbara Cooke. More academic than I expected. 🌹🌹🌹

• Promise Me by Jill Mansell. A cute, romantic story set in the Cotswolds. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder in the First Edition by Lauren Elliott, which kicked off my project of reading only Christmas books in December but was too cozy for me. 🌹🌹1/2

• A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry, my first of her Christmas novellas set in the late 1800s. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Christmas in London by Anita Hughes, a fun romcom. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Fatal Winter by G. M. Malliet, featuring ex-MI5 agent, now Anglican priest, Max Tudor. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber. Too fluffy for me. 🌹🌹1/2

• Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan, an entertaining homage to the Golden Age of mysteries. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan. My first Morgan book, and I enjoyed it so much I read others right away. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Christmas Legacy by Anne Perry, another historical novella. I like these more than I expected. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Christmas Party by Kathryn Croft. A made-for-audible Christmas thriller, formulaic and heavy on atmosphere, but fun. 🌹🌹🌹

• Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham was no holiday, but was well-written and made me think. 🌹🌹🌹

• A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan. My favorite of the three Morgan books I read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bruno and the Carol Singers by Martin Walker. A short novella featuring Bruno at Christmas. 🌹🌹🌹

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. A must read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg was 100% charming and I loved it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Christmas Homecoming by Anne Perry, which mixed Christmas and Dracula. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Christmas Revelation by Anne Perry. Another of her historic Christmas novellas. 🌹🌹🌹

• There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes. This vintage mystery featuring detective John Appleby was denser than I expected but highly entertaining. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk appealed to my Bavarian heritage. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• One More for Christmas by Sarah Morgan. Another good one, this one set in the Scottish Highlands. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson. A vintage mystery with quirky humor and an intricate plot. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

I now use 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.

Book List: Books Read in 2023

BOOKS READ IN 2023

Every year, usually in January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. My master list of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Here's the list of the 139 books I read in 2023, in the order I read them. Usually, I read 100 - 110 books in a year. I don't know how I finished 30+ more in 2023.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

1. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (abridged*) 
3. Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch 🌹🌹🌹🌹
4. Know Your Style: Mix It, Match It, Love It by Alyson Walsh 🌹🌹🌹
5. The Big Four by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹
6. The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹
7. Slightly Foxed: String is My Foible, Vol. 76 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
8. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
9. Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
10. A German Requiem by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹
11. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy 🌹🌹🌹🌹
12. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
13. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott 🌹🌹🌹
14. The King's General by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
15. Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
16. The Waste Land & Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
17. The Maid by Nita Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹
18. The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
19. Hill House Living: The Art of Creating a Joyful Life by Paula Sutton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
20. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark 🌹🌹🌹1/2
21. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Grof 🌹🌹🌹🌹
22. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
23. Oregon Confetti by Lee Oser 🌹🌹🌹
24. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister 🌹🌹🌹1/2
25. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
26. Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
27. Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
28. The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
29. Even the Dead by Benjamin Black 🌹🌹🌹🌹
30. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
31. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹
32. Winston Churchill: Painting on the French Riviera by Paul Rafferty 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
33. A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
34. Slightly Foxed, A Date With Iris, Vol. 25 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
35. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne 🌹🌹🌹1/2
36. Trailing: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
37. April in Spain by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹1/2
38. Five Flights Up: Sex, Love, and Family, from Paris to Lyon by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
39. The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade 🌹🌹🌹1/2
40. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
41. Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
42. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
43. The Holy Bible, King James Version 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (duh)
44. On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing by Katherine Dunn 🌹🌹🌹
45. In the Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
46. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
47. Dragons & Pagodas: A Celebration of Chinoiserie by Aldous Bertram 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
48. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
49. So Big by Edna Ferber 🌹🌹🌹🌹
50. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud 🌹🌹🌹🌹
51. A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and Beast by M.F.K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
52. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz 🌹🌹🌹
53. Glass Houses by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
54. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
55. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 🌹🌹🌹🌹
56. Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
57. The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
58. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
59. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane 🌹🌹🌹🌹
60. Slightly Foxed: Beside the Seaside, Vol. 75 by Gail Perkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
61. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
62. Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
63. Horse by Geraldine Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
64. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
65. Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹
66. Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
67. Trouble for Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
68. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
69. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
70. Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
71. The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion 🌹🌹
72. Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes 🌹🌹🌹🌹
73. A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker 🌹🌹🌹🌹
74. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
75. Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹
76. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
77. The Sellout by Paul Beatty 🌹🌹🌹
78. A Better Man by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
79. French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton 🌹🌹🌹
80. Slightly Foxed: Laughter in the Library, Vol. 77 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
81. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu 🌹🌹🌹🌹
82. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
83. S. by John Updike 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
84. Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
85. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 🌹🌹🌹
86. Three Fires by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
87. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 
88. Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter 🌹🌹
89. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
90. Prisoner of Brenda: Curses, Nurses, and a Ticket to Bedlam by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹 
91. Snow by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
92. Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
93. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders 🌹🌹🌹🌹
94. After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley 🌹🌹🌹🌹
95. All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
96. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
97. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron 🌹🌹🌹🌹
98. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
99. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹
100. He Said He Would Be Late by Justine Sullivan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
101. A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
102. Tom Lake by Ann Patchet 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
103. Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser 🌹🌹🌹
104. Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy 🌹🌹🌹1/2
105. Exit Music by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
106. Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Mugham 🌹🌹🌹
107. One More Seat at the Rounds Table by Susan Dormady Eisenberg 🌹🌹🌹1/2
108. Mating by Norman Rush 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
109. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
110. The Chosen by Chaim Potok 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
111. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
112. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
113. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
114. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 🌹🌹🌹🌹
115. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean 🌹🌹🌹🌹
116. The Collected Poems by W. B. Yeats 🌹🌹🌹🌹
117. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
118. The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
119. The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹
120. Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
121. Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
122. In Search of a Character: Two African Journals by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹
123. A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
124. A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
125. The Prince and Betty by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
126. Innocent Blood by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹
127. Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
128. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 🌹🌹🌹🌹
129. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹
130. The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor 🌹🌹🌹
131. Straight Man by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
132. Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
133. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹
134. Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
135. The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
136. Aqua Alta by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹🌹
137. The Spring by Megan Weiler 🌹🌹🌹1/2
138. The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer 🌹🌹🌹🌹
139. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

* I didn't realize that my very old (like 1890) edition of Our Mutual Friend was abridged until I got to the end of it. I loved the story, but thought it was herky jerky and that I had missed big parts. It was herky jerky and I did miss big -- and little -- parts. So I can't rate it now. I plan to read the complete version again and know I will love it.  

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.

Book List: Books Read in 2021

 

BOOKS READ IN 2021

Every January, I try to remember to post a list of the books I read the prior year. Somehow, I completely forgot to post my list of 2021 books. I was really busy at work in early 2022, getting ready for a big trial that started in March. A lot of non-work stuff fell out of my brain. I didn't realize that my 2021 list was missing until I went to post my 2022 list. Oh well. Life happens. 

Here now, a year late, is the lit of the 134 books I read in 2021, in the order I read them. I usually read 100 - 110 books a year and have no idea how I read so many in 2021. You can find an explanation of my rating system below the list. 

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Red and the Black by Stendhal 🌹🌹🌹

• Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctrow 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Not Now, But Now by M. F. K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹

• Ship of Fools by Katherine Ann Porter 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed (reviewed here)🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall 🌹🌹

• On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder in the Bastille by Cara Black 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Reflex by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir by Erica Jong 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Shugie Bain by Stuart Douglas 🌹🌹🌹

• Whip Hand by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Lighthouse by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Anglophile's Notebook by Sunday Taylor 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Midnight Line by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life: Scrapbooks, Collages, and Inspirations by Charlotte Moss 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Old Filth by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World by P. J. O'Rourke 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters 🌹🌹🌹

• Mystery Man by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Dead Cert by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 60 (Winter 2018) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Last Friends by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Obasan by Joy Kogawa 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Wisdom of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Florence King Reader by Florence King 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• How They Decorated: Inspiration from Great Women of the Twentieth Century by Gaye P. Tapp 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Faithful Place by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Consequences by Penelope Lively 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Day of the Jack Russell by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Orchids & Salami: A Gay and Impudent Memoir by Eva Gabor 🌹🌹🌹

• The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Jeeves in the Offing by P. G. Woodhouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Dead Bell by Reid Winslow (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Private Patient by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mark Hampton: An American Decorator by Duane Hampton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹

• Skios by Michael Frayn 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by Maarten J. Troost 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them, edited by Roxanne J. Coady 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Conservative Sensibility by George F. Will 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Eat Cake for Breakfast: And 99 Other Small Acts of Happiness by Viola Stanto 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Place in the World by Amy Maroney 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Twice Shy by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Little Book of Japanese Contentments: Ikigai, Forest Bathing, Wabi-sabi, and More by Erin Niimi Longhurst 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bruno: Chief of Police by Martin Walker 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater by Alan Richman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier 🌹🌹🌹

• Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon 🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 69 (Spring 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shape of the Journey: New & Collected Poems by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Labyrinth by Kate Mosse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend 🌹🌹🌹

• The Darlings by Cristina Alger 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Choir by Joanna Trollope 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Uncommon Clay by Margaret Maron 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹

• Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Changed Man by Francine Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Split Images by Leonard Elmore 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• May We be Forgiven by A. M. Holmes 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• BUtterfield 8 by John O'Hara 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design by Michael S. Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Funerals are Fatal (aka After the Funeral) by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 71 (Autumn 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• French Lessons by Ellen Sussman 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Rizzio: A Novella by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday 🌹🌹🌹

• Peril at End House by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Past Tense by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• March Violets by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Dr. Yes by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Plum Sauce: A Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• LaBrava by Elmore Leonard 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Gertie: The Fabulous Life of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy by Kathryn Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Maison: French Country Style by Elizabeth Hilliard 🌹🌹🌹

• Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

In 2020, I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is idiosyncratic and ever-changing. It is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me when I read it, its technical merits, and whether I would recommend it to other people. For example, I might rate a book highly if it's a social comedy set in a British country house because that kind of story checks all my boxes. On the other hand, I will probably rate a book on the low end if it lacks any humor, takes itself too seriously, or intolerantly espouses a point of view I disagree with ("intolerantly" is key in that sentence). 

With those general guidelines in mind:

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 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 isn't an all-time favorite. 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. This is where my subjectivity really shows because I will often give a book three roses simply because it isn't a genre I like. I will read sci-fi books, for example, because they are on some Must read list I'm working on, then not enjoy them because I don't like sci-fi. So when I give a sci-fi book three roses, take it with a big grain of salt.  

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. I like most of the book I read because I chose to read them and I read what I like. But I occasionally pick a clunker. And I often dislike the book my Book Club picks. 😉

🌹 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.

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.