On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

This year is almost over, and we can all look forward to another year of reading things we love (and maybe some we won't). Let's hear from everyone about your favorite books. Goodreads informs me that I read 90 books this year. I'll start out with my list of 8 titles from those 90.

My two very favorites, and I loved both of them so much I can't choose between them, are All the Light We Cannot See and An Unnecessary Woman. Then, in no particular order,
City of Thieves
Wake
The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War
Coal Black Horse
The Member of the Wedding
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

I'd love to see everyone's list. They obviously don't have to be from Trail reads.

Have to agree with All the Light We Cannot See
Time of the Locust
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
I'm sure I have a few more 5star reads. Have to go look.

Did like Samuel Lake and coal black horse, but I read those the year before.

This is actually a more difficult decision than I thought it would be, Diane.

My favorite is The Plover -- and it has had that position since I read it.
Next is Dust -- one of the most difficult excellent books I've ever read.

Then there follow, in no real order,
All the Light We Cannot See
An Unnecessary Woman
Flags in the Dust
Journal of a Solitude
The Spinning Heart
The Unquiet Dead

I'm sure I could add more too as this was an excellent year of reading for me.

I read twenty-one books this year that I gave five stars. I have probably gotten some notoriety in this group On the Southern Literary Trail for giving some noted books one or two stars. Like a baseball umpire, I just call them the way I see them! But about 20% of all the books I read this year got five stars. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

I read a lot of books of short stories. I tend to like short stories that are a little quirky. Here are my favorites from 2014:

The Collected Stories by Grace Paley – This is actually a collection of three books by the same author and I gave each book five stars. So that counts as three books. All short stories.
Burning Bright by Ron Rash – I like this author, one of many I discovered thanks to this group. This is my favorite book by him. Two other Ron Rash books also got five stars: Serena and Saints at the River.

The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff – I went through some periods where I bought used books online. I bought this book of short stories fairly randomly.
Where I’m Calling From: New and Selected Stories by Raymond Carver – This author is well known but new to me.

I have also started reading some e-books this year and here are some of the best:

It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood by Frida Berrigan – Maybe the title says enough. An homage to my radical leanings.
Stoner by John Williams – I listened to the audio while I read the e-book, a very good combination. I think Diane recommended this book. Thank you!
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – This post apocalypse book was something different for me that got me reflecting back on my life at the end of the year. Again, I did the e-book plus audio very successfully.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander – Agitate! Educate! Organize! For Justice and Human Rights

I also often read some pretty old stuff:

The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein – Feminist plays that play to my roots.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – Reading this one again fifty years later.

Here are my couple of five star mysteries for the year:

Think of a Number by John Verdon – Un-fucking-believable but a great story with adrenaline and thought provocation too.
Until Death by James L. Thane – it was entertaining and challenging in that special mystery book sort of way!

I discovered I could borrow Kindle books online this year and here are a couple of winners:

Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen – I’m a guy who happens to like some chick lit.
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey – This book showed me how relatively easy I have had it with my personal experience of mental illness.

And, finally, my most favorite recommended book that will make you feel good about people:

Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil by Paul Bloom – If you can’t take the free online course on Coursera by this Yale professor, read the book.

Thinking about the best books I read this year was fun. Hope some of you enjoyed hearing about them and got some ideas. I can't even imagine what I would be reading without Goodreads. My top two: The New Jim Crow and Just Babies.

All right, you are all to blame! I just went to Amazon and bought All the Light We Cannot See in Kindle and audio. Now are you happy?

Larry, if you don't give "All the Light You Cannot See" 5 stars after reading it, I don't want to hear about it! I just bought a used copy of some Grace Paley short stories because I've heard what an excellent writer she is, but never read anything of hers.
Sue, I downloaded "The Plover" after reading your glowing review of it a while back and plan to get to it soon. We have other titles in common, as usual.

Diane S, I just looked at your review of "Boys in the Boat" and want to give that a try as well.

When I looked back on the books I read in 2014, I picked three as my favorites:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
The Invention of Wings
All the Light We Cannot See

Other 5 star books that I enjoyed were:
Blindness
Orfeo
A Death in the Family
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
Coal Black Horse
The Enchanted
Burial Rites
Flowers for Algernon
The Keepers of the House
A Parchment of Leaves

A few good rereads for library book groups were:
Defending Jacob
Jane Eyre
The Snow Child

2014 was definitely a good reading year.

Diane wrote: "Larry, if you don't give "All the Light You Cannot See" 5 stars after reading it, I don't want to hear about it! I just bought a used copy of some Grace Paley short stories because I've heard what..."

Diane, I have a collection by Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man, which I haven't read yet. Maybe I'll get to it in 2015.

I'll be very interested in your thought on The Plover. I actually bought myself a hardcover copy after reading it from the library. I know I want to read it again.

Connie wrote: "When I looked back on the books I read in 2014, I picked three as my favorites:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
The Invention of Wings
[book:All the Light We Cann..."

Connie, you're continuing the All the Light We Cannot See streak here. Larry, I hope you like it though I have read a few negative reviews.

Connie, I think Death in the Family is one of the best books I've ever read but I read it last year. I also enjoyed Keepers of the House but not quite at the 5 star level.

Sue wrote: "This is actually a more difficult decision than I thought it would be, Diane.

My favorite is The Plover -- and it has had that position since I read it.
Next is Dust


Sue, I'm adding "The Plover" to my TBR list. I'm trying not to add too many books during the next few months because my younger daughter is getting married in April.

Most of my favorite books of the year are re-reads, which is an indication that the rest of my reading year was somewhat of a disappointment.

re-reads:
MEANS OF ASCENT -- Robert Caro
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER -- Mark Twain
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN -- Mark Twain
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY -- James Agee
ALL THE KING'S MEN -- Robert Penn Warren
CASE CLOSED -- Gerald Posner

Here is the best of the rest:

I thouroughly enjoyed two novels that I would never have stumbled onto on my own:

THE BLACK FLOWER -- Howard Bahr
THE BOOK OF EBENEZER LE PAGE -- G.B. Edwards

The others in no particular order:

MEDITATIONS IN GREEN -- Stephen Wright
THE PRESIDENT'S CLUB -- Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
TEXAS LITERARY OUTLAWS -- Steven L. Davis
THE BIG RICH -- Bryan Burrough
THE SON -- Phillipp Meyer
JERRY LEE LEWIS -- Rick Bragg

90 books? Clearly I am just a dilettante compared to many people in the group. Too much spare time spent in the garden and never enough in the study...

Still, amongst the southern novels I did manage in 2014, I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading All the King's Men. A well-written, well-crafted, well-balanced novel that still seems fresh today. I also thought I'd re-read some Carson McCullers and then discovered that I had never actually read her first novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. So I did - and enjoyed that too.

Courtesy of the group, I also very much liked The Long Home and have invested in copies of William Gay's other novels on the strength of it. I also liked They Don't Dance Much, but alas James Ross wrote nothing else.

Away from the south, I particularly liked The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton - an underrated London author whose novels are now being republished. Short review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

Interesting to see that Larry commends Grace Paley's collected stories. She is an author I'd been thinking of reading...but that will be for the new year now. Speaking of which, have a very happy one!

Howard wrote: "Most of my favorite books of the year are re-reads, which is an indication that the rest of my reading year was somewhat of a disappointment.

re-reads:
MEANS OF ASCENT -- Robert Caro
THE ADVENTURE..."
A lot of your favorites are mine too, just didn't re-read any of them. I am really glad you loved The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War and The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, they are 2 of my all-times favorites as well. And I really want to get to Bragg's biography of Jerry Lee Lewis in 2015.

Peter wrote: "90 books? Clearly I am just a dilettante compared to many people in the group. Too much spare time spent in the garden and never enough in the study...

Still, amongst the southern novels I did man..."

I have The Slaves of Solitude on my shelf, patiently waiting, along with Grace Paley.

Diane wrote: "Howard wrote: "Most of my favorite books of the year are re-reads, which is an indication that the rest of my reading year was somewhat of a disappointment.

re-reads:
MEANS OF ASCENT -- Robert Car..."

I've said it before, if Jerry Lee's life had been fictional it would have been included in all the Grit-Lit anthologies.

Peter, thanks for reminding me of The Slaves of Solitude. I've moved it "into rotation", so to speak, as I don't want to forget it.

And Diane, I really must get to The Book of Ebenezer Le Page next year too. My the 2015 reading schedule is already looking very busy!

An Unnecessary Woman and Euphoria standout right off the bat.

Sue, Ebenezer is a character you'll never forget.
Heather, Euphoria is on my tbr list for this year. I vote we expand 2015 to 14 months.

At the rate my reading plans are expanding, I may need 18 months in 2015!

This year, I found that the Kindle-Audible link was the way to save my bacon! You know the "too many books, too little time" dilemma? Hands-free reading was the only way I could quickly revisit a couple Ron Rash books for my book club scavenger hunt and author chat, and Ive become hooked since. Between our reads here on The Trail, the local book club, and my own choices, I got through 30 or so books. Hooray for Audible!

My favorites for the year mostly came from various members' recommendations, so I thank you all very, very much.
- Tomato Red
- A Land More Kind Than Home
- The Clearing
- Kestrel Waters
- The Rosie Project

The Goldfinch, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, and The Orphan Master's Son were tops for 2013.

My pace slowed way down toward the end of the year, but I had quite a few I like very much. In no particular order my favorites would have been:

The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
Stillwater by Nicole Helget
Benediction by Kent Haruf
A Shelter of Others by Charles Dodd White
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Several other really good ones, but at the moment those are the strongest.

On my "gotta get to" list for the upcoming year are:
Long Man, The Kestrel Waters: A Tale of Love and Devil, All the Light we can not see, and I am hoping that The Lost Country might find the light of day this year??

Peter wrote: "90 books? Clearly I am just a dilettante compared to many people in the group. Too much spare time spent in the garden and never enough in the study...

Still, amongst the southern novels I did man..."

Peter, I can strongly recommend Provinces of Night and I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories (if you like short stories) as I think they are my favorite William Gay works.

Josh wrote: "Peter, I can strongly recommend Provinces of Night and I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories (if you like short stories) as I think they are my favorite William Gay works."

Thanks for the recommendations, Josh. I shall look forward to Provinces of Night (which is on the shelf) and keep an eye open for the short stories.

Diane wrote: "This year is almost over, and we can all look forward to another year of reading things we love (and maybe some we won't). Let's hear from everyone about your favorite books. Goodreads informs me..."

City of Thieves was an excellent book!

Connie wrote: "When I looked back on the books I read in 2014, I picked three as my favorites:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
The Invention of Wings
[book:All the Light We Cann..."

Loved The Enchanted and Burial Rites.....good taste Connie!

Leanne wrote: "This year, I found that the Kindle-Audible link was the way to save my bacon! You know the "too many books, too little time" dilemma? Hands-free reading was the only way I could quickly revisit a c..."

Leanne
Nice list....read all of these and all were 4 star or better. My least favorite was the Rosie Project. I am going to have to put my list together. I think I had a pretty good reading year for 2014.

So here is my list of my very top reads, but still alot I didn't mention. My favorite and new to me authors this year were Randy Thornhorn, John Boyne and Alice Hoffman. Also, very impressed with some great debut novels. So here it goes.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things
Wicked Temper
Stillwater *debut novel
Fourth of July Creek *debut novel
Wonder *debut novel
The Enchanted *debut novel
The Winter People
A Monster Calls
Spare Change
East of Eden

Forgot about Stillwater. Loved that one too.

Stillwater may have been my very top read for 2014. It's so hard to choose.

Laura and Josh, good to see you back. You both went MIA in December. What, with work, a 10 year old, school vacations, shopping, cooking, church, tree decorating, relatives and all the little extras Christmas brings, you had no time to read?

Laura wrote: "So here is my list of my very top reads, but still alot I didn't mention. My favorite and new to me authors this year were Randy Thornhorn, John Boyne and Al..."</i>

<i>Josh wrote: "My pace slowed way down toward the end of the year, but I had quite a few I like very much. In no particular order my favorites would have been:

[book:The Keepers of the House by [author:..."

Let me add my welcome back to Diane's, you two! Good to see y'all. Great Moderator's Choices y'all came up with for November and December. Enjoyed both of them. Here's to another year of good reading in 2015.

Diane wrote: "Laura and Josh, good to see you back. You both went MIA in December. What, with work, a 10 year old, school vacations, shopping, cooking, church, tree decorating, relatives and all the little ext..."

You nailed it Diane! I don't think I could have made a better list than what you did! I took the month of December off from all my reading groups and tried to hit my yearly reading challenge. It looks like I am going to fall short by about 3 books. Kathryn thinks I should read 24/7 to reach my goal....I think she thinks I am a failure if I don't hit my 100 book mark. Ha!!!!

Miss Scarlett, thanks for starting this topic! Well, my reading totals are a little down this year. I may hit fifty-eight in the next few days. The majority of my reads were four stars. And, as Howard noted, a number of my five stars were re-reads, a number with "The Trail." Now, I'm not disappointed in that. I try to make as many of the Trail's reads as possible, though it prevents me from diving into more recent reads at times.

So, looking at 2014, here are my favorites:

Flags in the Dust
A Rose for Emily
A Death in the Family--this time an audible recording on a lengthy trip. Magnificent.
To Kill a Mockingbird--another audible recording, read by Sissy Spacek. It doesn't get any better than that.
Hell at the Breech
Twilight
The Great War and Modern Memory
The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914
Fear: A Novel of World War I
Goodbye to All That
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
The Confessions of Nat Turner
Sophie's Choice

As you can see, my reads were largely divided between Southern Literature and observance of the Centenary of the Great War. That trend is likely to continue for the next several years, depending on history titles released concerning WWI. Also, I've been invited to join The Year of Reading Women, and must admit that reviewing my goodreads list, I follow the typical gender result of being a male who tends to read books by male authors. So--remedying that. Although, I'm not entirely guilty of solely reading male authors.

*Sigh* Originally miss-posted this under currently reading and recommendations!

Agree, Diane, great post.....I love seeing the diversity among the readers. I personally think my list is the best...joking, kind of!!! No seriously, I love what readers are selecting as favorites.

Something Mike said made me think. He does that to me sometimes. He observed that he read more books by male authors than by female authors.

I'm embarrassed to say that of the 100 books I read this year, only 31 were written by female authors. That seems to suggest a New Year's resolution. That, and mopping my bathroom floor more often. TMI?

Happy new year!

Larry I was at only 12 (out of 43 or so) BUT some of my favorites were by female authors. Interesting point.

I try to jump around with the types or genres I read throughout the year.

Some of my 5 star reads from the year:

Twilight

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

a few from the fantasy realm

The Last Light of the Sun

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

and some weird fiction(a favorite genre of mine)

Where the Summer Ends: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume 1

The Imago Sequence and Other Stories

The Lost District

Quite a few of the Southern Lit picks came in with 4 star ratings

The Devil All the Time

A Parchment of Leaves

Hell at the Breech

The Clearing

Thanks to the group for expanding my horizons, probably wouldn't have found most of these last books without your help.

I rated over 40 books with 5 stars this year! My full list is over on my blog but for this space, I'll include the southern lit titles.

What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg
(I count her because she lives in Florida!)

Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer
(A novel told in letters, loosely based on Flannery O'Connor's friendship)

The Invention of WingsThe Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
(A good way to learn more about the plantation culture in Charleston)

The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
(need I say more)

Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy, #1) by Jeff VanderMeer
(another Florida author, this whole trilogy was a pleasure to read!)

Heritage by Sean Brock
(a truly beautiful cookbook from one of the best southern chefs, doing his best to preserve and utilize heritage ingredients!)

I had "Frances and Bernard" on my list this year, but didn't get to it. And "Heritage" is most certainly a beautiful cookbook. A co-worker in her 20's asked me why he was holding rocks in his hands in the cover photo. I told her they were beans, and she was amazed. That made two of us.

I did not get all of the books from our group reads finished in 2014 but of the ones I finished some of my favorites were:

All the King's Men
The Kestrel Waters: A Tale of Love and Devil
Light in August
The Keepers Of The House
The Night of the Hunter

Some other favorites not from our group:

The World of Yesterday
The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
The Big Sleep

Great list, Beverly. I read most of those at various times, and they're all very good.

I have three books that are at my top list:

All the King's Men
A Death in the Family
The Confessions of Nat Turner

In the Next Level:

Summer of 1949: Yankees and Red Sox
Notes of a Native Son
Flowering Judas and Other Stories
Cotton Tenants
Woe is I
Darkness Visible


And Tied for Third Place and Still Good Books:

Deliverance
A Hell of Mercy
A Parchment of Leaves
The Devil All the Time
A Land More Kind Than Home

A special word for "Flowering Judas and Other Stories". My introduction to Katherine Anne Porter is one of my high lights.

that easy for me
1 all the Turmen Capote's short stories
2Breakfast at Tiffany's
3Child of God
4The Bad Seed
5 Of Mice and Men
6Dead Poets Society
7The Dog: Stories
8Panorama City
9The Wishing Tree

That's a great list, Erika. I have some of those on my list to read.

Diane wrote: "Larry, if you don't give "All the Light You Cannot See" 5 stars after reading it, I don't want to hear about it!"

I am about 3/4 of the way through this wonderful book on Kindle/Audible and am really enjoying it. I may not be able to exceed a strong four stars, but want to thank this collection of readers for steering me in a very good direction!

Glad you're enjoying it, Larry.

Well, I guess you were all smiling when I said "strong four stars" yesterday! I did say I was only 3/4 of the way through and you all knew the ending already. I also have a general star rule: If I cry, it gets five stars. So OK, Diane, five stars!

Whoopee, Larry!

Larry wrote: "Well, I guess you were all smiling when I said "strong four stars" yesterday! I did say I was only 3/4 of the way through and you all knew the ending already. I also have a general star rule: If I ..."

AWRIGHT, AWRIGHT, AWRIGHT!!!