Year End Reading Review

Yes I know it's not the end of the year, but my book year ends on August 19 because that's when I got my first book journal.  This last year I read 153 books, even I'm amazed, sounds like I sat in a corner and did nothing but read all year.  But the truth of the matter is that I read very quickly and I generally have 3 books at a time going, one on my Kindle, one by the couch and one in the bathroom.
What kinds of books?  Well lots of mysteries, 50 of those, I really like a good mystery, also read 24 science fiction/fantasy.  This is probably my favorite genre, but it's hard to find good ones.  I read 9 nonfiction books, mostly biographies and the rest were a mixed bag of literature.
I did a bit of rereading this year, revisiting old friends.  I've been rereading all of Elizabeth George's books, that's the Inspector Lynley/ Barbara Havers stories.  I like the older ones best, but all are good.
I also reread the entire 14 book Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson Wheel of Time series, Georgette Heyer's mysteries, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and recently I started rereading the Guy Gavriel Kay Fionvar Tapestry triology.

My favorite 11 books from last year, in no particular order, it was supposed to be 10 but I couldn't eliminate one, are:

1.  Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway This one really surprised me, I'm not a big Hemingway fan.

2.  The Summer of the Bear  by Bella Pollen  The father dies (was it murder, suicide, accident?) and the family retreats to a remote Scotish island to heal--but it's not as simple as it sounds

3.   Earth and Air by Peter Dickinson  Short stories (something I'm not particularly fond of) that all have a magic touch.  Recommended for 10 year olds and up, but I thought it was very adult.

4.   Memory of Light by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson  The end of the series

5.   Through a Brazen Mirror  by Delia Sherman  Again, a tale of magic, but definitely for grownups.

6.   The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe  A mother and son share books during the time she is dying, should have been sad, but it wasn't.

7.   The Road by Cormac McCarthy  The end of the world as we know it and we aren't doing fine

8.  The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
A sort of Forest Gump like story except the 100 year old man is smarter and funnier.

9.  Ender's Game  by Orson Scott Card  Now being made into a major motion picture and I'm sure they'll ruin it.

10. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand  by Helen Simonson  Wonderful little book about a very British major (retired) who knows what's right and acts accordingly.

11.  The Reluctant Reader by Alan Bennett  Queen Elizabeth becomes a reader and that pleases no one, so good I got Mac to read it and he loved it.

Honorable Mention: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson A new YA fantasy series.

Right now I'm reading The Sword of the Lady by S. M. Stirling, part of The Change series, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Gordon and The Children's Hour by Marcia Willett.  Three very different books, but then I think that's how I keep them straight.