A reference point for books read and reviewed:
January:
1. Still Glides the Stream by D.E. Stevenson (1959)
2. The Seasons of Rome by Paul Hofmann (1997)
3. Mike and Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse (1953)
4. A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam (1971)
5. The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn (2013)
6. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher (2000)
7. Apricot Sky by Ruby Ferguson (1952)
8. French Women Don’t Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano (2013)
9. Old Filth by Jane Gardam (2004)
10. The Dreaming Suburb by R.F. Delderfield (1958)
11. The Song of the Yukon, and Other Verses by Robert Service (1907)
12. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (2009)
13. The Summer After the Funeral by Jane Gardam (1973)
February:
14. Tales from Greenery Street by Denis Mackail (1928)
15. Faith Fox by Jane Gardam (1996)
16. Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy (1951)
17. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman (2003)
18. Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach (2004)
19. Drawn from Memory by E.H. Shepard (1957)
20. Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton (1932)
21. Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson (1942)
22. Diplomatic Baggage by Brigid Keenan (2005)
23. Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff (1983)
24. Pastoral by Nevil Shute (1944)
25. Leadon Hill by Richmal Crompton (1927)
26. On the Other Side by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg (1979)
27. The Sidmouth Letters by Jane Gardam (1980)
March:
28. Bring on the Empty Horses by David Niven (1975)
29. The Ladies’ Man by Elinor Lipman (1999)
30. Gran-Nannie by Noel Streatfeild (1976)
31. False Colours by Georgette Heyer (1963)
32. Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively (1994)
33. The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam (2000)
34. Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins (2004)
35. Last Night’s Scandal by Loretta Chase (2010)
36. Past Secrets by Cathy Kelly (2006)
37. Just Imagine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (2001)
38. The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (1864)
39. Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase (2007)
40. The Forever Girl by Alexander McCall Smith (2014)
41. Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich by Stephen Leacock (1914)
42. Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1995)
43. The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster (2013)
44. The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan (2013)
45. A Kiss for Midwinter by Courtney Milan (2012)
46. Waiting on You by Kristan Higgins (2014)
47. The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg (1968)
48. Joie de Vivre by Harriet Welty Rochefort (2012)
49. It Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning (2014)
April:
50. Unsticky by Sarra Manning (2009)
51. Lessons From Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott (2012)
52. Something About You by Julie James (2010)
53. Three Little Words by Susan Mallery (2013)
54. The Finishing Touches by Hester Browne (2009)
55. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning (2011)
56. Some Girls Do by Clodagh Murphy (2014)
57. Drawn From Life by E.H. Shepard (1961)
58. The Day of Small Things by O. Douglas (1930)
59. God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam (1978)
60. It’s Not You by Sara Eckel (2014)
61. Jane’s Parlour by O. Douglas (1937)
May:
62. As Green As Grass by Emma Smith (2013)
63. The Sunny Side by A.A. Milne (1921)
64. The Virago Book of Women Gardeners edited by Deborah Kellaway (1995)
65. Bachelor Boys by Kate Saunders (2004)
66. These Wonderful Rumours! by May Smith (2012)
67. Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy (2014)
68. Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins (1918)
69. Young Money by Kevin Roose (2014)
70. The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan (2013)
71. The Little Lady Agency and the Prince by Hester Browne (2008)
72. Saving Grace by Ciara Geraghty (2008)
73. The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne (2012)
74. Swiss Sonata by Gwethalyn Graham (1938)
75. The Young Ardizzone by Edward Ardizzone (1970)
76. Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan (2014)
June:
77. Little G by E.M. Channon (1936)
78. Love Lessons by Joan Wyndham (1985)
79. Switzerland for Beginners by George Mikes (1962)
80. The Path Through the Trees by Christopher Milne (1979)
81. The Honeymoon Hotel by Hester Browne (2014)
82. Mothering Sunday by Noel Streatfeild (1950)
83. Summer Half by Angela Thirkell (1937)
84. The Ugly One by Hermione Ranfurly (1998)
85. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman (2014)
86. Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell (1940)
87. No Highway by Nevil Shute (1948)
July:
88. At Least You’re in Tuscany by Jennifer Criswell (2012)
89. The Vacationers by Emma Straub (2014)
90. Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (1937)
91. Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl (2001)
92. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon (2014)
93. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (2014)
94. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (1942)
95. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (1990)
96. The Perfect Match by Katie Fforde (2014)
97. That Summer by Lauren Willig (2014)
98. The Far Country by Nevil Shute (1952)
August:
99. Brighouse Hotel by Susan Pleydell (1977)
100. Laughing All the Way to the Mosque by Zarqa Nawaz (2014)
101. To War with Whitaker by Hermione Ranfurly (1994)
102. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine (2014)
103. Delancey by Molly Wizenberg (2014)
104. In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins (2014)
105. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson (1991)
September:
106. Alice Brown’s Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating by Eleanor Prescott (2012)
107. Mr. Almost Right by Eleanor Moran (2010)
108. Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple (1932)
109. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1991)
110. Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (2014)
111. Landline by Rainbow Rowell (2014)
112. Falling for Max by Shannon Stacey (2014)
113. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (1992)
114. The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson (2008)
October:
115. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran (2014)
116. All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey (2013)
117. Kate’s Wedding by Chrissie Mansby (2011)
118. The Crow Road by Iain Banks (1992)
119. Love a Little Sideways by Shannon Stacey (2013)
120. Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey (2012)
121. The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig (2014)
122. The Village by Marghanita Laski (1952)
123. The Unexpected Professor by John Carey (2014)
124. We’ll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn (2014)
125. Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith (2014)
126. Postcards from Europe by Rick Steves (2009)
November:
127. Popular by Maya Van Wagenen (2014)
128. Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd (1946)
129. The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice by Polly Coles (2013)
130. The Village Effect by Susan Pinker (2014)
131. The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan (2014)
132. Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare (2009)
133. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
134. Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer (1932)
135. Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy (1953)
136. Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin (1988)
137. At Home with Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott (2014)
138. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye (1978)
139. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase (1995)
140. Tangled Lives by Hilary Boyd (2013)
December:
141. Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase (2004)
142. The Sun and Other Stars by Brigid Pasulka (2014)
143. Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas (2012)
144. The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan (2014)
145. Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas (2009)
146. Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas (2012)
147. The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas (2013)
148. Us by David Nicholls (2014)
149. Emma by Alexander McCall Smith (2014)
150. An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (1870)
151. My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon (2013)
152. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas (2008)
I’ve just found (been sent to) your blog and here’s an old favourite not read for many years waiting to greet me. Must head for the attic bookshelves. A very “comfortable” writer – just who I need on a dark winter day with a dose of what seems all too likely to be flu
Welcome, Kathryn! I heartily endorse your prescription of D.E. Stevenson; she might not cure the flu, but she does provide much-needed comfort. Still Glides the Stream was a perfect book to start the new year with.
I’ve just read The Home Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, loved it so much that I looked for links on the internet, and found my way here. I’ve read your review of THM, and the comments attached, and really agree with them all. I almost started to read it again straight away, but I think I’ll let it settle for a while before I re-read it. I was so struck by the awful consequences if Lester should recover, and the silent lengths to which all were prepared to go, that I found myself cheering him on when he sat down again in his wheelchair and unlaced his shoes. I wonder if a modern writer might have ended it there?
Having also read through your book list for 2014 I was thrilled to find someone else with the eclectic tasted that I have. It was a delight to find that though I recognised your book choices I have not read them all, but felt very at ease with your list, so now I have many more books to look forward to. And you are a Persephone reader, and Angela Thirkell fan and list P G Wodehouse. Snap, snap, snap!
Out of interest, how do you feel about J B Priestly, Terry Pratchett and Charles Dickens?
Golda