In 2010 I started recording the books I read each year in a slightly feeble attempt to simplify my life. Once read and recorded, the book could be passed on, kept or (mostly) returned to the library.
As always, my list contains some classic and classic-style crime (I’m not into gore) and some re-reads of favourites. There’s one set of diaries and a biography and lots of travel and natural history. It is always a good year when there’s a new book by Elinor Lipman, one of my favourite writers, and although I’m rationing my intake of Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym there’s one from each.
2020 was a difficult year personally and for the entire globe. It is easy to spot the comfort reads but I’m pleased to see, looking back, there are some more challenging chunks in there, and one stand-out*. Here they are, in the order I read them.
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
A Talent to Amuse by Sheridan Morley
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens
Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe
Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich
Blue Moon by Lee Child
Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Peter Hall’s Diaries by Peter Hall
Plume by Will Wiles
Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman
Leonard and Hungry Paul* by Ronan Hession
Nocturne by James Attlee
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Masked Prey by John Sandford
Hamlet Globe to Globe by Dominic Dromgoole
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Crooked House by Agatha Christie
The Truants by Kate Weinberg
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Dark Salt Clear by Lamorna Ash
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
A Month in the Country by J L Carr
Dangerous in Love by Lesie Thomas
The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards
Miss Iceland by Auchur Ava Olafsdottir
The Floating Admiral by The Detection Club
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie
A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
The Way to the Sea by Caroline Crampton
Conversations with my Agent by Rob Long
The Confession by Jesse Burton
Magie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Blythell
Nod by Adrian Barnes
The Burgular who Counted the Spoons by Lawrence Block
Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson
With Child by Andy Martin
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
The Killings at Kingfisher Hall by Sophie Hannah
Suzy D Harris 