Well that’s another year over, another year closer to retirement. 2019 was a bit shit….if you have a soul that is….no soul? then yay the Tories won and we are all fucked. With regards book it has been an epic year, I’ve discovered so many amazing books, new authors and I’ve managed to increase my penguin clothbound collection to 22…a fine collection to read as the apocalypse kicks off. Usually I try and get a celebrity to hand out awards, but my track record of killing off their careers means I’ve been blacklisted from A to Z, I can’t even get somebody from Geordie Shores, whatever that is. So I’ll be handing them out as well as picking the winners, an almost impossible task.
Best Fiction
The Nominations this year are.
The Hierophant’s Daughter by M. F. Sullivan. Book one of probably the greatest trilogy I’ve ever read, I am not a fan of series of books but this was so good I read all three books in one year AND got the t-shirt.
The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas by Daniel James. Difficult one to categorise as it potentially spans fiction and non-fiction depending on whether you believe the many conspiracy theories out there. I am 100% certain that I’ve never read anything quite like this and loved how it is sparking reader’s imaginations.
The Fish That Climbed a Tree by Kevin Ansbro. Kevin is one of the stars of the year for me, a new author and I’ve already consumed 3 of his books, each one has entertained, made me laugh and left me on the edge of my seat at times. He is the master at creating characters that you care for and like a cat he likes to toy with their lives. This book gets the nomination though as it was the first one I picked up and started my Ansbro addiction.
WINNER: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF EZRA MAAS
Best Non-Fiction
The nominations are:
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. Top notch writing about homelessness and walking the South West Coastal Path. Opening scenes made me incredibly angry, which only made me care more for Raynor and her husband. I ended up having to research them after the end of the book to see how they are doing. I have recommended this book to so many people.
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. Yes I know it isn’t a new book but this year was the first time reading it for me. I’ve no idea why I’ve waited so long because I loved it. The otter is a wonderful creature and reading about Gavin’s relationship with one was lovely.
Curlew Moon by Mary Colwell. Another one about animals makes the list, this time the Curlew, an animal I knew very little about. This book is crammed full of information and Mary’s obsession with the Curlew is contagious.
WINNER: THE SALT PATH
Best Poem
I read 22 books of poetry this year, I think I might be getting addicted. After looking through all those books the poem that has stuck with me is:
‘I Slit My Wrists and He Said ‘Yo” from the book, Snail Vixen and The Crystal Garden by Casey Renee Kiser. You can listen to her reading it HERE.
The Lighthouse Award (Worst book of the year)
WINNER: Yet again the worst book of 2019 that I read was an “award winner”, the only 1 star book luckily for me. May we be forgiven by A. M. Holmes is 480 pages of nothing, an opening tragedy, 400 pages of a dark void of words and then an interesting ending, maybe it was interesting because the end was in sight? This book had nothing going for it, I truly have no idea how it got the award, I always try and find a positive when doing a review of a book but for this one I came up empty handed.
And that’s yer lot, out of the 104 books I read in 2019 those were the cream of the crop…except for the last one of course. Many thanks to all the lovely people who sent me books this year, it does feel great to come home from work to book post. Here’s to another fantastic year of reading in 2020.
