In no order, here are the fifteen books out of all I’ve read this year that have truly stuck in my mind, one way or another.
Fiction
Karen Heenan: A Wider World. Tudor historical fiction, but not about the royals. A nuanced portrait of a man caught up in the politics and intrigues of the Tudor Court.
Gregory Norminton. The Devil’s Highway. One landscape. Past, present, future. Spare and challenging.
Jonathan Nevair: The Wind Tide trilogy. Space opera at its finest: three interconnected books, with underlying ancient themes of ethics and morality and belonging.
Julie Bozza: Writ in Blood. A retelling of the story of the Earps, Doc Holliday, and Johnny Ringo – but above all about loneliness, love and acceptance.
Laury Silvers: The Jealous. The second of Silvers’ trilogy of Sufi mysteries, this – and the first (The Lover) as well – brought 12th C Baghdad, and the lives of working men and women, alive.
Anne Louise Avery: Reynard the Fox. Beautifully written retelling of the medieval western European story cycle.
Non-fiction read for pleasure:
Helen MacDonald, Vesper Flights. A collection of observational and philosophical essays on nature, with an underlying sense of both wonder and sorrow.
Charles Foster, The Screaming Sky. Science and philosophy, once again, this time centred around swifts and their place in the world – and what the way we see them says about us.
Tom Chivers: London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City. Investigations into the lost landscapes of London. Layers of history and ecology and meaning. An urban, non-fiction companion to The Devil’s Highway.
Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris: The Lost Spells. Beautifully illustrated collection of – poems? incantations? – about the natural world.
Non-fiction read for research and pleasure:
Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry: The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe. A survey of early-medieval Europe, discussing change, connection, and continuity, and the contributions of often historically marginalized individuals and events.
Guy de la Bédoyère: Praetorian, Gladius, and Domina. All three books have been highly readable yet still scholarly works informing me about the Praetorian guard, the Roman army, and the women who helped shape Rome and Roman politics.
L.J. Trafford: Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome. How could I not include this? Both funny and informative, it’s a great resource for writers looking to accurately reflect Roman attitudes, or for anyone who just wants to know what Cicero had to say about sex.
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