Favourite Books of 2019 & Christmas Reading

As the year-end approaches, I like to reflect on the books that left an impression. It’s a constant source of surprise and excitement knowing a life-changing read could be just around the corner, magical and unexpected as snow in July.

I used to worry that impactful reads only happened in your late teens/early twenties. Surely, the more I read the more difficult it would become for a book to surprise me? So far I’ve found this isn’t the case. I am still profoundly affected by the right story, which always mystically arrives at the right time. I hope this holds true throughout my life. Maybe my worry that books would stop affecting me came from a misplaced belief that with age it’s possible to become a self-actualised, fully-formed person. The truth is, we’re always learning and growing. Consequently, different stories will affect us at different times of our lives.

Anyway, that was a long preamble to my favourite reads of 2019.

(At the end I’ll also share what I’m reading over Christmas).

Best Books of 2019

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson & Eugene Yelchin

I don’t normally read funny books (maybe it’s the Gael in me) but The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge is an exception. I’ve never read anything like it. Told in prose and wonderful illustrations (I wish more adult books featured illustrations) it’s a fantasy comedy of manners about a genteel Goblin archivist hosting a snooty Elf ambassador.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

A favourite of 2019 and now up there with my all-time favourite books. It’s a tome at 1000 pages but a fantasy like no other. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, two magicians restore magic to England, oblivious to the shadowy presence of the magician who preceded them centuries ago.

I feel Susanna Clarke has set a precedent for fantasy novels that no one has yet dared to follow. I’ve never been a fan of ‘magic systems’, seeing magic as something natural, subtle and uncontrollable. Susanna Clarke favours this interpretation too, and it makes the supernatural elements of her work all the more dangerous and mysterious.

Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett

Since last summer I’ve become attached to The Lymond Chronicles, a series of historical novels about a Scottish nobleman. Pawn In Frankinsence is the fourth book in the series. I’ve heard Dunnett fans describe this as ‘the hell book’ and they’re not wrong. I can’t really describe any of the Lymond books without spoilers and only recommend that you start reading them this second. Whatever you do - do not Google anything about them or delve too deeply into Goodreads reviews. I got a terrible spoiler that I’m still reeling from.

The Yellow on the Broom by Betsy Whyte

'The Yellow on the Broom' is the memoir of Betsy Whyte, one of the Scottish travellers, who roamed the countryside with her family between the wars. The town where I live was an important location to travellers, where they worked picking berries in the summer. Some of them even settled here when societal pressures made the travelling lifestyle harder. Their cant language therefore seeped into our vocabulary & it gave me goosebumps reading words and phrases I use every day.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

As a writer this read was close to the bone! Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger' delves into the life and mind of a young writer driven to the brink of insanity by deprivation as he tries to 'keep his head above water'.

While I hope never to experience the narrator's abject poverty I could relate to the hairloss, anxiety, inflated ego and crippling self doubt. Hamsun plumbs the depths of the artistic soul, which is by turns hypersensitive, proud, humiliated and hopeful.

What I’m reading over Christmas

Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett

Surprise, surprise. This Christmas my reading plans extend no further than switching off all social media, surrounding myself with tea and festive chocolate, taking a deep breath and plunging into the final Lymond book (😭). It will either be a very good or very bad end to the year.

I’d love to know your Christmas reading plans and what your best reads of 2019 were. Let me know in the comments ⭐🌙

p.s. I’m on Goodreads & update my reading habits on there more frequently than Instagram if you’re interested in that kind of thing.