Top Ten Books I Have Read This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the people over at The Broke and the Bookish and today's topic is "Top 10 books I've read this year". According to my Goodreads statistics, I've only read 28 books this year, but I can still easily make a Top 10 because most of them have been really nice reads. I don't participate in TTT a lot because most of the topics are not that captivating for me, but this one I felt is a really good one. 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson has been the number one read in 2013 for me for quite a while now. What can I say - I loved this elegantly written time-folded story, full of interesting and life-like characters.

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson - this clever story with fantastical elements was such a pleasant surprise! Never did I expect it would captivate me so. And let's not forget the jinni.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - quirky, fast, captivating epistolary novel with hilarious and accessible characters. So funny.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin - I heard many complaints about this one before I read it in the beginning of the year; however, I liked this one more than a few previous books in the series.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - big thanks to all who said good things about this book, it will be the series I will definitely continue with.



Germinal by Émile Zola - a haunting book, beautifully and descriptively written. There are scenes in Germinal I am not sure I can ever get out of my head.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - this was the first book I finished this year, and what a start to the reading year of 2013. Atwood's text is almost mesmerising.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - one of the best re-read experiences I've ever had. After plowing through this novel in high-school, all I remembered now was a bunch of guys all named Aureliano or Jose Arcadio, and a strange girl who ate soil. This time I devoured this book - such beautiful language (I read it in Estonian and it is one of the rare cases when I can say that the translation was absolutely brilliant), and my faith to magical realism has been restored.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - four words: fantastic characters, Marian Halcombe.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - even though it is not one of my favourite books, I listed Jane Eyre because it was a very successful re-read experience. I saw completely different things than back when I read it at the age of teens. There is so much more than just questionable romance in this novel.

Useless statistical list: that makes - 

- one fantasy series book;

- one simply an awesome book;

- three Women's Prize contestants;

- five classics books. 

Review: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Edit to begin with: this was supposed to be a post of mini-reviews on three books, but after I had started with "Alif" and had happily typed away three long paragraphs, I realised it's just not going to happen.

This G. Willow Wilson's novel was in this year's Women's Prize longlist and I wouldn't have minded if it had also been in shortlist. "Alif the Unseen" had so much speaking for it: exciting setting, lovely characters, fantastical elements depicted in a realistic world, the theme related to information technology that I find super intriguing: is it possible to create a programme that is able to identify each user's "computer handwriting"? Oh, and there's a map. And a book. And neither of those are a bad thing when it comes to reading a novel.

 

 I was extremely impressed with the way that author transferred fictional (probably?) online-chats into the text. Bottom line: they are not consistent. The chat may begin with one or both parties starting with proper capitalisation and use of punctuation marks, but as the conversation progresses (and possibly becomes heated/more nervous), people start skipping punctuation and capital letters, and it was attention to these kind of details that I loved finding in this book.

 

I'll be the first one to admit slight obsession with the jinn. When it comes to mythical/fantastical creatures, I usually maintain my composure. Dragons are nice and I approve their existence in the book-world, but to me they tend to be just characters, like any other. However, it has not been the same regarding the jinn ever since I read Jonathan Stroud's hilarious "Bartimaeus" trilogy, which, I'm afraid, changed my view on jinn forever. I like my jinn to be witty, snarky, moody, curious, passionate and overall patronising towards the "smaller" being - man. But behind all that, I also want the jinn to remain good-hearted, kind of like big brothers towards humans, and this is exactly what I got with Vikram in "Alif". Even though Alif himself and Dina were both very solid for me (as were the side characters), Vikram was the main character for me in this book. 

 

Alif creates this computer programme, which is able to recognise people behind the screen based on their "handwriting" when they type. I find this extremely intruiging, because already there are things invented like for example "personal" adds, which seem to pop up based on the pages you have visited, or the book recommendations based on the books you have listed you have liked. Alif's programme Tin Sari takes it a step further and it just makes you think once again, where is it that we are heading with all these developments in technology, automation and robots.  

 

The language is accessible but crisp and fresh, and the dialogue can oftentimes get quite snarky:

 

"I don't want foreigners involved in my business. Djinn are one thing but I draw the line at Americans." /p.114/

 

"No," said Dina. "We don't burn books."

"Who's we?"

"People with an ounce of brain." /p. 350/

 

"I know it's common for old people to complain about the modern moment, and lament the passing of a golden age when children were polite and you could buy a kilo of meat for pennies, but in our case, my boy, I think I am not mistaken when I say that something fundamental has changed about the world in which we live. [...] Revolutions have moved off the battlefield and on to home computers. Nothing shocks one anymore." /p. 366/

 

I chuckled a lot when reading "Alif" :)

 

In all, "Alif the Unseen" is a delicious mixture of modern-time Middle East, fantastical creatures, loveable (but not cheesy!) characters, a mysterious book and intriguing questions, all wrapped in good paced and humorous language.  Highly recommended.

 

---

427 pages

 

Closing the lid of April

Where are they?

Yay, May! It was already 10 degrees outside yesterday, and we took a nice walk. Felt good to wear a spring jacket for a change.

 

Reading wise, it was an odd month. I struggled with some slumps, which usually doesn't happen. As a result, I have several books now that I have started but have put aside for time being - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens and "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. I have been struggling with classics, I only read one Classics Club book in April and that is not good. My main steam has all gone on books from Women's Prize longlist - three of those last month.

 

What I read in April 2013:

 

* E. Zola "Germinal" (for Zoladdiction event and the Classics Club)

* K. Atkinson "Life After Life" (Women's Prize shortlist)

* K. Garcia and M. Stohl "Beautiful Creatures"

* G. Willow Wilson "Alif the Unseen" (Women's Prize longlist)

* F. Segal "The Innocents" (Women's Prize longlist)

 

524 + 473 + 563 + 426 + 436 = 2522 pages (why can't I sometimes pick, like, really short books?)

 

Plans for May:

 

• I want to read more classics. Currently I am half-way through Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin", which I added to my CC list, and I would also like to proceed with "A Tale of Two Cities".
• I decided to take part in my first readalong - we will be reading "The Hound of Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (hosted by Unputdownables). It won't enable me to tick off a CC book, as I have added the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories there, but it will be progress.
• I am also fairly sure I will try to take part in the week long readathon Bout of Books 7.0. It's going to be interesting choosing books for that week.