Read Women discussion

This thread is for sharing your whole-year views of 2019. Some of us are just starting to put our arms around what we want to say in our "2019 on Goodreads" missives. Others keep lists all year long. Still others move ever forward with little in the way of backward analysis. To each his own. Whichever tribe is yours, as we close out 2019:

Which books were your favorites?
Which books would you label "disappointments?

There's no limit on how many you share of each category, but top and bottom 5 - 10 is ideal. If you were disappointed and have time to share, 'why,' please do.

If or as you post a 2019 on Goodreads update, feel free to share a link to it here so our members can enjoy it, learn from it, disagree or disagree with it, augment and purge our TBRs as applicable, and develop plans for our 2020 reading.

Well, it is still early so I may sneak in a few more reads before the year ends.

Favourite Fiction (in no particular order)
The End We Start From - Megan Hunter
The Bridge of Beyond - Simone Schwarz-Bart
Galatea - Madeline Miller
Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse - Anne Carson
Island of a Thousand Mirrors - Nayomi Munaweera
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives - Lola Shoneyin
Lady Oracle - Margaret Atwood
Persuasion - Jane Austen

Favourite Non-fiction
Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel - Lucinda Hawksley
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World - Catherine Nixey
Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine K. Albright
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails - Sarah Bakewell

Disappointments
Terra Nullius - Claire G. Coleman: Why? I think this might have partially been due to my expectations going in. I was really looking forward to reading a dystopian feminist fiction by an Aboriginal writer. I read this for my 2019 winter challenge and mentioned in my comments that while the aboriginal characters were portrayed in a very nuanced and interesting way, I felt that the motivations of the colonising characters were very one-dimensional which leaves the story very unbalanced. I also felt that the work needed a good editor. The story was quite disjointed and also contained a lot of repetition.

The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker: Why? This is supposed to be a retelling from the perspective of the previously silent females in The Iliad. Sure, the narrator is a female but she is still telling the story of Achilles and the Trojan War & nowhere near as well.

The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot: Why? Well, I am not finished this yet but I feel very little motivation to complete it. Another work that needs a good editor. Nowhere near the standard of Middlemarch or Daniel Deronda

Hoping to sneak in a few more before 2020 as well but here's mine, looking at some authors only, obvs.

Looking back now I definitely had a lot more success with Non-fiction than fiction this year. While I enjoyed most (def not all) of the fiction I read, I didn't love all that many. In contrast I found most of my non-fiction reads fascinating and had v few disappointments there.

Favourite Fiction
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

Favourite non-fiction
Educated by Tara Westover
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
Misjustice: How British law is Failing Women by Helena Kennedy
The War on Women by Sue Lloyd-Roberts

Disappointments
Vox by Christina Dalcher - felt like a bad tribute to the handmaid's tale but with none of Atwood's nuance or writing skill.

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey - Should know better than to trust a 'bookseller's book of the month'. I don't think anyone proofed this historical novel for even the most basic historical and cultural innacuracies. I could almost forgive that the story revolves around the idea of of confession and makes lots of references to catholic confession boxes that hadn't actually been invented at the time it's set in (sure it's an absolutely key aspect of the story you should get right but it's niche knowledge most people won't know without looking up). But a catholic priest not knowing or worrying about suicide being a mortal sin when investigating a drowning that's potentially a murder/accident/suicide? That's some strong BS. Also, nothing happened and it was very boring.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Again burned by a bookshop recommendation and logic of 'if they've bothered to translate it into English it's probably good'. No. But it was at least short.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - Last couple of years I've loved the Women's Prize for Fiction Winner, but not this year. Again another interesting sounding premise where I just didn't get on with the execution.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Was really looking forward to some fun Mayan-inspired fantasy set in the 1920s and instead got a plodding roadtrip, a narration style that grated, and an inevitable (and boring) romance.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang - really was a book of two halves. the first half a very adolescent/childish version on every underdog goes to magic/warrior-school book ever. The second half full of gratuitous and graphic rape, killing, and war-crime. Neither half particularly enjoyable or well executed.

Louise wrote: "Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Again burned by a bookshop recommendation and logic of 'if they've bothered to translate it into English it's probably good'. No. But it was at least short.."

I don't know how I'd feel about Convenience Store Woman in print, but it was so funny and touching on audio. And I'm not one to like the funny/touching combo in general.

Louise wrote: "Hoping to sneak in a few more before 2020 as well but here's mine, looking at some authors only, obvs.

Looking back now I definitely had a lot more success with Non-fiction than fiction this year..."

I completely agree with your disappointment with Vox and An American Marriage. Of the shortlist for the Women's Prize, I put An American Marriage 5th so I was quite disappointed that it won. I hope for better results in 2020.

Liesl wrote:
"Lady Oracle - Margaret Atwood
Persuasion - Jane Austen

Two of my all- time favourites, Liesl. I haven't 'met' many people on GR who've read and loved Lady Oracle so it's a pleasure to know you read and loved it too.

Louise wrote:
Favourite non-fiction
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn"

Disappointments
Vox by Christina Dalcher - felt like a bad tribute to the handmaid's tale but with none of Atwood's nuance or writing skill.

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

The Salt Path was so interesting and moving, though I did struggle to understand a few of the decisions they made.

And I'm with you on The Western Wind. I only made it 50 pages in before giving up in boredom.