2014: A Year in Reading

For my end of year round up last December, I put together a long post looking at the highs and lows of a year in publishing, from Dan Brown and Amazon's drones to Eleanor Catton's Booker prize win and the surprising rise of Galley Beggar. 2014 has been more of an inward-looking year for me, for various reasons, so this time I'm going to make it more personal by going over what I've been reading and reviewing over the past 12 months. I don't have much to thank Northern Rail for, but the couple of hours a day I spend getting to and from work does give me plenty of reading time... so, here is a round-up of the books I've read in 2014. Lots of true crime and literary fiction, three new favourites (Geoff Dyer, Gordon Burn and Hilary Mantel), and one of the best books I've ever read, thanks to Fitzcarraldo Editions. Books marked * were published this year.

January

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Unthology 4* - Unthank Books (Reviewed)
Morphologies - Comma Press (Reviewed)
Eat My Heart Out* - Zoe Pilger (Reviewed)
In the Wolf's Mouth* - Adam Foulds (Reviewed)
Season to Taste* - Nathalie Young
Tits Out Teenage Terror Totty - Steven Wells
Zona - Geoff Dyer
Zenith Hotel* - Oscar Coop-Phane (Reviewed)
The Hamlet Doctrine - Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster
A Map of Tulsa* - Benjamin Lytall (Reviewed)

A mixed start to 2014 - In the Wolf's Mouth and Season to Taste were mild let downs, but Eat My Heart Out was a novel that has stayed with me all year, and A Map of Tulsa was a surprise favourite. I'd never read any Geoff Dyer before starting Zona on a coach back from London, but it becomes a bit of a theme later in the year. Zona isn't his best, but does show his ability to draw me in whilst writing about a subject I have no interest in (although there's an argument that all of Dyer's non-fiction is essentially about Geoff Dyer). The Hamlet Doctrine was intriguing, but I really don't have the psychoanalytical background to fully understand it - something that I might have to remedy after the Freud-fest that was the Read Women 2014 party. And finally a big shout out for former NME journalist and punk poet Steven Wells' gonzo pop-culture classic Tits Out Teenage Terror Totty, featuring, amongst other things, a robotic Princess Diana, repeatedly resurrected and ritually slaughtered to satisfy the British public's angst-lust.

February

How To Fight Islamist Terror From the Missionary Position* - Tabish Khair (Reviewed)
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Quick and the Dead - Joy Williams
Contest of the Century* - Geoff Dyer (Reviewed)
The Pike - Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Mrs Caliban - Rachel Ingalls (Reviewed)

In February, I was in the odd position of having to review a book about Chinese-American trade relations, not realising that there was more than one Geoff Dyer. I enjoyed it more than I expected. I agree with Sam Jordison's verdict on The Goldfinch ('long book is long') - there are some peaks, but my god, the troughs. I wish I'd enjoyed spending time with Boris and the dog as much as Donna Tartt clearly did. Otherwise, I gave the Tabish Khair book a pretty positive review, which was probably quite generous in retrospect; The Quick and The Dead was a #readwomen2014 suggestion, which was creepy and featured some excellent dialogue, The Pike was  spectacularly well-written, and best of all was Mrs Caliban, the story of a bored housewife who falls in love with a giant sea creature.

March

Dissident Gardens* - Jonathan Lethem
The Rental Heart* - Kirsty Logan (Reviewed)
Inferno - Dan Brown
The Lemon Grove* - Helen Walsh (Reviewed)
Astragal* - Albertine Sarrazan (Reviewed)
The Curious Habits of Dr Adams - Jane Robins
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
All The Rage* - AL Kennedy (Reviewed)
The Bling Ring - Nancy Jo Sales

Two standouts in March - The Rental Gardens, with all its 'raw sexual energy', and Albertine Sarrazan's cool French beat novel Astragal, re-released by Serpent's Tail with a foreword by Patti Smith. Life After Life was better than I expected - Dissident Gardens was worse. I still can't believe it didn't make the Bad Sex shortlist. I wasn't impressed with The Lemon Grove or All The Rage either. Inferno prompted one of my favourite reviews ever, in The Millions. Finally The Bling Ring is pretty terribly written, but I'm still fascinated by it. I swear it says more about the human condition than the entire Booker shortlist. It's much better than the film too.

April

A God in Every Stone* - Kamila Shamsie (Reviewed)
Animals* - Emma-Jane Unsworth (Reviewed)
Look Who's Back* - Timur Vermes (Reviewed)
The Great Influenza - John M Barry
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins - Irvine Welsh (Reviewed)
Death in Perugia - John Follain
Journal of a Plague Year - Daniel Defoe

Two of my books of the year turned up in April - Kamila Shamsie's epic A God in Every Stone and Emma-Jane Unsworth's riotous Animals, featuring the chapter heading of the year: 'Vermouth? You can't handle vermouth!' As part of my Read Women challenge, I read Hilary Mantel for the first time - she would go on to be one of my most-read authors of 2014. Elsewhere, Timus Vermes bought Hitler back as a YouTube celebrity, to dubious effect, and Irvine Welsh continued to tread water with his new novel. I was also reading up on pandemics for a blog post, hence the John Barry and Daniel Defoe.

May

Glow* - Ned Beauman (Reviewed)
Stephen Ward Was Innocent, Ok - Geoffrey Robinson
Sworn Virgin* - Elvira Dones (Reviewed)
Her Brilliant Career - Rachel Cooke (Reviewed)
The Impossible State - Victor Cha
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
Bryant and May and The Bleeding Heart* - Christopher Fowler
Stillness and Speed - Dennis Bergkamp
Young God* - Katherine Faw Morris (Reviewed)
The Crimes of Elagabalus - Martijn Icks
I Am China* - Xialou Guo (Reviewed)
The Mystery of Princess Louise - Lucinda Hawksley
White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Quite a lot of non-fiction this month - Central Library had recently re-opened after four years, and my visits meant the TBR pile was getting out of hand. Icks' study of the notorious Roman emperor Elagabalus was a little dry, but extremely detailed, while The Mystery of Princess Louise suffered from a lack of access to important archives. Victor Cha's book about North Korea had something of a Republican bias to the writing, but did suggest a great understanding of the state's culture. Read Women was coming on well, with The Waves and White Teeth, which stands up as one of the best 'old' novels I read this year. I'd only read NW before, which I thought was overrated, so this was a revelation. There were two Granta best young authors this month - the slightly disappointing Glow, and the excellent I Am China - and a notable Granta Books debut, Katherine Faw Morris' brutal Young God. I also enjoyed the annual Bryant and May book, documenting the latest adventures of my favourite octagenarian detective duo. Finally, Sworn Virgin jumped straight to the top of my 'greatest Albanian novel ever' list.

June

Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys* - Viv Albertine (Reviewed)
Randall* - Jonathan Gibbs (Reviewed)
Meatspace* - Nikesh Shukla (Reviewed)
Americanah - Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie
I Am Zlatan - Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Unthology 5* - Unthank Books (Reviewed)
Thirst* - Kerry Hudson (Reviewed)
Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel
Unspeakable Things* - Laurie Penny (Reviewed)

A really good month, with two non-fiction highlights in Viv Albertine's tragic/inspiring autobiography and Laurie Penny's polemic Unspeakable Things. The uncompromising honesty of Clothes Clothes Clothes... was set by the opening sentence: ‘anyone who writes an autobiography is either a twat or broke. I’m a bit of both’.  Randall, from Jonathan Gibbs was intriguing, if flawed - I probably enjoyed writing about this more than any other book this year. Meatspace didn't really do it for me, but Kerry Hudson was on great form with Thirst, and I enjoyed catching up with Bring Up the Bodies and Americanah also.

July

Upstairs At The Party* - Linda Grant (Reviewed)
Did She Kill Him?* - Kate Colquhoun
Marshland - Gareth E Lees (Reviewed)
Low Expectations* - Elizabeth Aaron (Reviewed)
Escape* - Dominique Manotti (Reviewed)
Blazing Star* - Andrew Larman (Reviewed)
All The Birds, Singing - Evie Wyld
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
After Me Comes The Flood* - Sarah Perry (Reviewed)
The Book of Gaza* - Comma Press (Reviewed)
Breakfast With The Borgias* - DBC Pierre (Reviewed)

Another two standouts this month: Upstairs At The Party is a definite 'novel of the year' contender - actually, at this point, the five best novels I've read in 2014 have all been by women - and Andrew Larman's Earl of Rochester biography was an excellent attempt to capture the decadent poet's spirit. I enjoyed the strange tales lurking within Marshlands, and Low Expectations was a lot of fun - I just regret not seeing the Edinburgh Festival stageshow. After much prompting (and walking into her in the toilets of the Anthony Burgess Foundation) I finally read some Evie Wyld - I thought the structure of All The Birds... would work brilliantly on film. Breakfast With the Borgias was a welcome return to form for DBC Pierre after the dire Petit Mal. Finally, Did She Kill Him? was yet another knocked together account of a Victorian murder (you'll see a few in this list) which was interesting enough but didn't say much we didn't already know.

August

Men At Arms - Terry Pratchett
The Road Not Taken - Frank McLynn
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Dept of Speculation* - Jenny Offill
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
London Fields - Martin Amis
A Bad Character* - Deepti Kapoor (Reviewed)
The Hellbound Heart - Clive Barker
Nowhere People* - Paolo Scott (Reviewed)
An English Affair - Richard Davenport-Hinds
Sick City - Tony O'Neill

A slightly slower month; I was obviously having a bit of a Terry Pratchett phase over the summer - there may have been a plan to re-read all of them, before I realised how crazy that would be. Fiction wise, A Bad Character and Nowhere People were both excellent books that went under the radar a bit. Sick City was a great piece of pulp fiction, and re-reading The Hellbound Heart reminded me how much Under the Skin owed to Hellraiser... Non-fiction wise, The Road Not Taken is a really strong account of near revolutions in English history, written by someone who knows their stuff, and can analyse causes reasonably objectively. An English Affair is an appallingly snobbish account of the Profumo scandal. I wasn't totally bowled over by Department of Speculation, though I could see the appeal - and I finally read The Handmaid's Tale, and regretted not doing it sooner.

September

Zone* - Mathias Enard (Reviewed)
How to be a Public Author* - Paul Ewan (Reviewed)
The Wreck of RMS Tayleur* - Gill Hoffs (Reviewed)
The Blazing World* - Siri Hustdvedt
Trials of Passion* - Lisa Appagnanesi
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere* - Alice Furse (Reviewed)
Adventures in Stationery* - James Ward (Reviewed)
All The Days and Nights* - Niven Govinden (Reviewed)
Shark* - Will Self (Reviewed)
Young Skins* - Colin Barrett
Clara's Daughter* - Meike Ziervogel (Reviewed)
The Disappearance Boy* - Neil Bartlett (Reviewed)

A reviewing spree this month. Friends got sick of me constantly banging on about how great Zone was, but I'd still put it as one of the best books I've ever read. Seriously, just buy it. Will Self took time off from writing obituaries for the novel to publish Shark, a solid but not brilliant follow-up to Umbrella. There were more excellent debuts with Alice Furse's dryly comic Everybody Knows This in Nowhere and Colin Barrett's prize-winning collection Young Skins being highlights. Finally, Niven Govinden's All the Days and Nights didn't totally connect with me, but clearly struck a nerve with others, as Lonesome Reader's review showed. Two disappointments were The Blazing World, which I found over-long and patchy, and How To Be A Public Author, which was generally very well received but seemed misjudged to me.

There was plenty of interesting non-fiction too, from Gill Hoffs' well-researched account of a forgotten Victorian shipwreck to James Ward's history of stationery, which contains the most hideous sentence involving a drawing pin ever written. Best of all was Lisa Appagnanesi's study of female crime and madness, a fascinating look at the way public opinion, guided by the developing science of psychiatry, distinguished between 'mad' and 'bad' women.

October

The Paying Guests* - Sarah Waters
J* - Howard Jacobson
Here Are The Young Men* - Rob Doyle (Reviewed)
Consumed* - David Cronenberg (Reviewed)
Anger is an Energy* - John Lydon
The Establishment* - Owen Jones
Colorless Tsukuru* - Haruki Murakami
Portrait of a Man* - Georges Perec (Reviewed)
The Myth Of Brilliant Summers* - Austin Collings (Reviewed)
The List* - Joanna Bolouri
Happy Like Murderers - Gordon Burn
The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure* - CD Rose (Reviewed)

Some new experiences this month, as I read books by Sarah Waters and Howard Jacobson for the first time. If The Paying Guests was pretty much exactly what I imagined a Sarah Waters book to be like (in a good way), J was apparently a huge stylistic shift for Jacobson. This leads to an odd situation where I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, but didn't feel driven to read anything else by the author. Here Are The Young Men and Consumed were both brutal and compelling novels, which would be in the frame for books of the year. The List was a bit of a necessary departure after all the body horror and savagery, but was very funny and enjoyable, while The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure was a brilliant concept, full of humour and pathos. I was less impressed by Colorless Tsukuru, and the use of false rape accusations as a plot line. Beyond political considerations, the writing itself felt lifeless and dull.

In non-fiction, The Establishment took me a lot longer to finish than I expected, mainly because I could only put up with the loathsome interviewees for about five minutes at a time before being overwhelmed with hatred. The launch party for Anger is an Energy was probably the best author event I've ever been to - the book itself is not as compelling as Lydon's first autobiography, but I enjoyed reading the sections dealing with PiL and the Pistols reunions - the contrast between Lydon's account and the one in Glen Matlock's autobiog says a lot about both characters. Book of the month goes to Happy Like Murders, Gordon Burn's psychological portrait of Fred and Rose West, which blends fact with a novelist's style, and was clearly a huge influence on David Peace. Burn was another author who I will be reading more of in future.

November

Harraga* - Boualem Sensal (Reviewed)
Out of Sheer Rage - Geoff Dyer
Jeff in Venice, Death in Veranesi - Geoff Dyer
Helter Skelter - Vincent Bugliosi
Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son - Gordon Burn
The Emerald Light in the Air* - Donald Antrim (Reviewed)
Black Neon* - Tony O'Neill (Reviewed)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher* - Hilary Mantel (Reviewed)
Girl Trouble - Carol Dyhurst
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Outline* - Rachel Cusk
Poor Souls' Light* - The Curious Tales Collective (Reviewed)
England, Arise!* - Juliet Barker

I took advantage of a few days off work in November to catch up with more Geoff Dyer and Gordon Burn. Reading Out of Sheer Rage and Jeff in Venice back to back, it's striking how much material from one is incorporated into the other. I admired the way that Dyer doesn't attempt to sugar coat the more infuriating aspects of his personality in Sheer Rage, while Jeff in Venice, the first of his novels I'd read, was funny and surprisingly sexy (the first half at least). There was more true crime, Gordon Burn on the Yorkshire Ripper, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's fascinating investigation into the Manson family, and Truman Capote's brilliantly-written In Cold Blood. Carol Dyhurst's Girl Trouble was a well-researched yet slightly superficial history of moral panics involving young women from Victorian times to the present day, while Juliet Barker's account of the Peasant's Revolt was let down by the author's faith in the King's good intentions (a mistake also made by the rebels themselves).

In fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed short story collections from Donald Antrim and Hilary Mantel, and was impressed by the subtle and beautiful prose of Outlines. Black Neon was another excellent piece of rockabilly-tinged pulp fiction from Tony O'Neill, whose writing continues to develop as he strays from his more autobiographical early work. Finally, The Curious Tales collective returned with another collection of supernatural stories for winter nights, with highlights from Alison Moore and Johnny Mains, which made for good reading as the snow started to come down in the Peak District.


December

A Different Class of Murder* - Laura Thompson
The Hollow Crown* - Dan Jones
Revival* - Stephen King
The Wake* - Paul Kingsnorth
Fred and Rose -
Any Other Mouth* - Annaliese Mackintosh

Having finished most of my reviewing for the year, December was a chance to catch up with some books I'd been putting off for a while, including another Book of the Year candidate. I really enjoyed Revival, although it seems to have split opinion a little. In terms of plot, it isn't up there with King's most inspired, but the storytelling is excellent, and the way in which King manages to condense all the novel's horror into one intense burst, after 13 chapters of build up, is testament to his skill. Even better was The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth's eleventh century fantastical dystopia (one of the niche genres of the year). The novel was brilliantly reviewed by David Hebblethwaite here. I also read and enjoyed Annaliese Mackintosh's Green Carnation-winning Any Other Mouth, after a glowing recommendation by Jayne White.

Laura Thompson's revisionist account of Lord Lucan's life was entertaining but infuriating, with the writer seemingly too in awe of her subject to write objectively. Her proposal that the Lucan nanny may have been killed by a hitman rather than Lucan himself is plausible, although not compelling, but would still make Lucan legally guilty of murder regardless. Dan Jones' history of the Wars of the Roses was an entertaining overview, full of incident and detail, if a little low on analysis. And I read Fred and Rose for a more traditional version of the story told in Happy Like Murderers.

Conclusion
So, as of 13th December, I have read 121 books this year, Of these, 71 were published in 2014, and 55 were written or co-written by female authors. Picking a top 5 is tough, but for fiction I would choose:

Zone - Mathias Enard
Eat My Heart Out - Zoe Pilger
Here Are The Young Men - Rob Doyle
The Wake - Paul Kingsnorth
Animals - Emma-Jane Unsworth

Just missing out are Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant, A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie and The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure by CD Rose

The top non-fiction books were Lisa Appagnanesi's Trials of Passion and Alexander Larman's Blazing Star.

Let me know what you think of my choices, and your own favourites, in the comments below!