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New Year, New Goals

Looking back on 2016, the 52 books was an achievement for me... and a fitting renewed goal for 2017. With age, though, comes discernment (or an absence of patience) and I find it much easier to put down a book unfinished.  I'll never make it through all of the books that I want to read and it is silly to spend time on one that I'm not enjoying or indifferent towards. So, the number of 'incomplete' has jumped considerably.

The Winners

  1. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips

  2. The Jungle Law by Victoria Vinton (story of Rudyard Kipling in America)

  3. The 6 Messiahs by Mark Frost

  4. Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

  5. The Murder Room by PD James

  6. Galore by Michael Crummey (a very curious Canadian story)

  7. My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey

  8. Medicus by Ruth Downie

  9. I, Judas by Caldwell Taylor

  10. Casanova in Bohemia by Andrei Codrescu  (excellent story of Casanova in retirement)

  11. The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman

  12. The Burning Road by Ann Benson

  13. Mamigon by Jack Hashian

  14. Accordion Crimes by E Annie Proulx

  15. The Stone Woman by Ali Tariq (Spain)

  16. Wanting by Richard Flanagan (first book I've ever read from Tasmania)

  17. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

  18. The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James

  19. The Black Widow by Daniel Silva

  20. Brimstone by Preston & Child

  21. Fool Me Once by Brandeman & Parker

  22. The Machiavelli Covenant by Alan Folsom

  23. Exodus by Leon Uris

  24. Gideon's Sword by Preston & Child

  25. Illuminated by Matt Bronlewee

  26. Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

  27. The Physician by Noah Gordon

  28. The Last Jew by Noah Gordon

  29. The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro

  30. Plagiarist by Benjamin Cheever

  31. The Double Eagle by James Twining

  32. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (trans. from Polish)

  33. The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre by Dominic Smith (Australia)

  34. Trinity by Leon Uris

  35. The Devil's Brew by Jack Treby

  36. The Private Patient by PD James

  37. The Affair by Lee Child

  38. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Losers

Light of Day by Jamie Saul

The Sea by John Banville

Gilbert, A Comedy of Manners by Judith Martin

Voices of the Desert by Nelida Pinon (Argentina)

The Fisherman's Testament by Cesar Vidal

 

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Of Note

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.  It isn't often that you read the first of a particular genre of fiction.  I suppose Tom Clancy was groundbreaking with Hunt for Red October but, in this era of formula writing with copy after copy after copy (John Grisham, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, David Baldacci, Clive Custler) it is fun seeing the first of its type.  The Moonstone is widely considered the first detective novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Wilkie Collins was a good friend of Charles Dickens and worked with him on stories, magazines, plays, &c.  

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I am English with a bit of French and German.  I don't think that there is any Jewish blood coursing through my veins but wish that there was.  I have been drawn to so many good books on Jewish peoples and the tremendous burden their heritage carries that I am envious of their perseverance and survival.  I particularly liked The Hope by Herman Wouk, Exodus by Leon Uris, two books by Noah Gordon, and all of the Daniel Silva novels. 

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Again, in 2017, I've enjoyed foreign authors with works from Australia, Spain, England, Canada, Poland and Tasmania.  The one from Poland, Quo Vadis, stands out for its detailed story-telling... a great book.  I include Canada simply because the book was so unique and specific to Canada.

Incomplete

  1. The Diamond by Julie Baumgold

  2. Lunatics by Barry & Zweibel

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

  4. Ripper by Isabelle Allende

  5. A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander

  6. Getting it Right by William F Buckley

  7. The Nest by Cynthia Sweeney

  8. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

  9. The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw

  10. Tsar by Ted Bell

  11. George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade

  12. The Good German by Joseph Kanon

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