Ridiculously, the easiest so far! I think I got a head start this year which saved me from a couple of months of barely getting through a page. Here we go; the full list, followed by the highlights:
- The Sunshine Kid by Harry Baker
- The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis
- The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
- The Haunting of Nathaniel Wolfe by Brain Keaney
- Every Day by David Levithan
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
- The Hunted by Alex Shearer
- Monster by CJ Skuse
- Noggin by John Corey Whaley
- Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
- The Pearl by John Steinbeck
- Ein Ganzes Leben by Robert Seethaler
- Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
- Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett
- The Revenant by Michael Punke
- The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
- Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl
- Locke and Key by Joe Hill
- The Accident by CL Taylor
- We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
- High Challenge, Low Threat by Mary Myatt
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
- The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgewick
- Doll by Nicky Singer
- A Song for Ella Grey
- The Lie Tree by Frances Harding
- The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
- I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
- The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
- Asking for It by Louise O’Neill
- The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
- A Little Book of Language by David Crystal
- The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
- Reading Reconsidered by Doug LeMov
- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
- Feed by MT Anderson
- When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
- Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
- Land by Alec Campbell
- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- The Girl with all the Gifts by MR Carey
- Alice by Christina Henry
- Nod by Adrian Barnes
- The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
- The Girls by Lori Lansens
- The Moth by Catherine Burns
This year’s lot has definitely been my favourite to date! Although I’m still heavy on the YA fiction (soon to be rectified by Fiona Ritson’s 52books challenge including a couple of classics, eek!), a lot of the reads this year have been recommendations without prior knowledge of the author.
ALL TIME FAVE Burial Rites, Hannah Kent’s debut was a book that I really enjoyed reading. Now I know that sounds obvious but whilst I like the plotlines or ideas behind a story, I very rarely enjoy a book so much that I relish the process itself ( I rush read, a lot!)- this book made me slow down. The main character represents so many aspects and faces of society that the story stayed with me for a long time after reading.
ONE FOR THE BOYS Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This book sparked so much discussion with male students whilst I was reading it, that we ended up in the middle of a non-fiction lesson using an extract from Chris McCandless’ diary to consider the bravery/naivety of such a boy.
CLASSROOM VALUE Reading Reconsidered by Doug LeMov has completely flipped the way I approach reading within the classroom and ultimately contributed to overhauling reading strategies within the department. LeMov provides an accessible way to teach reading to students, uncovering the mistakes that teachers often make through unknowingly missing out the ‘steps’ to effectively accessing a text. A complete game changer for any teacher.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Harry Baker is wonderful. Running poetry club last year left me scouring the internet for performance poets and along with Jess Green, George the Poet, Harry’s TED Talk is definitely on my most watched. He’s marvellously endearing and his collection of poetry will warm your heart.
DISAPPOINTMENT Alice by Christina Henry- I am a huge Alice fan and this attempted new take on a ‘what Alice did next’ was painfully slow and incredibly difficult to understand what the eventual point was. If I had been Alice, I would have given up and headed back the way I came by the third chapter, tops.
IF YOU ONLY READ ONE Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig. The way that Haig celebrates the ‘weaknesses’ of humanity, along with the incredibly personal voice to his previous self took my breath away and I hope that one day, society will be as honest as he is with the topic of mental health.
If you have any recommendations, please tweet me or find me via Goodreads- I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone! I am happy to chat about anything I’ve read too. I mean it when I say that this year has been a fantastic one for books- there are so many on this list that I could happily pass on to others. Here’s to another wonderful year of reading 🙂
Kat Howard 