The Captive Reader

In any given year, I have a lot of reading aspirations.  In years past, these used to manifest themselves in the numerous reading challenges I would sign up for and then drive myself crazy trying (and often failing) to complete.  Even without challenges, I am compelled to compile lengthy reading lists of books that catch my fancy.  It’s rare that those books are new but in 2017 a rather shocking number of new releases made it on to my to-be-read list.  Which is where most of them have remained.

As we approach the end of the year, here are ten of the 2017 titles I really hope I’ll get to read in 2018:

Jacob’s Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill – This is Hill’s second volume of bookish musings, after Howards End is on the Landing, which I loved.  I am 99% certain I will find this under the Christmas tree and so it might be polished off before 2018 starts.  Simon loved it, which is an almost certain guarantee that I will too.

Joining the Dots by Juliet Gardiner – one of my very favourite historians looks “at the changes to women’s lives since 1940, told with examples from her own life” in a book described as a “brilliant account of feminism over the last 6 decades.”  It appears to combine so many things I love that it may end up being one of those books I am too excited to read once I actually get my hands on it.  Or not.

Where the Wild Winds Are by Nick Hunt – a few years ago, I read and enjoyed Hunt’s book Walking the Woods and the Water, an account of his adventure tracing Patrick Leigh Fermor’s famous trek across Europe.  It was also had the distinction of being the only book my father read that year since he picked up my copy and read it straight through with delight.  In Hunt’s new book, he has an even more interesting challenge: wind walks, following four different European winds across the continent.

The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich – more than 30 years after its initial publication, Alexievich’s groundbreaking oral history of the active role Soviet women played in the Second World War is finally available in English.

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd – This appears to combine three of my great interests (travel, Germany, and the inter-war period) so my urgency to read it should come as no surprise.

The Fear and the Freedom by Keith Lowe – in Savage Continent, Lowe examined in devastating detail the chaos of post-WWII Europe.  Here, he looks instead at how the world was changed by the innovations and movements that sprung up as a result of the war.

Auntie’s War: The BBC During the Second World War by Edward Stourton – it’s impossible to read about WWII, whether in fiction or non-fiction, and not hear about the importance of the BBC.  This history promises to be full of interesting anecdotes and just generally looks like a great compliment to my other reading.

The Arrangement by Sonya Lalli – something a little lighter!  A romantic comedy about a young woman whose ex re-enters the picture just as her family is starting to arrange a marriage for her.

At the Stranger’s Gate by Adam Gopnik –The author of Paris to the Moon and Through the Children’s Gate, Gopnik now casts his mind back to the 1980s when he and his wife first moved to New York.  I don’t necessarily understand the allure of New York but I do understand the allure of Gopnik writing about it.

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden – just released this month, I am so excited to read the second book in the trilogy that started with The Bear and the Nightingale.  I was completely enchanted by the first book and Arden writes just the kind of fantasy books I like best.

And, as a bit of a cheat (since it is out in Europe but not North America), I have an 11th title to add to the list:

Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively – described as “partly a memoir of her own life” and “also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature” this sounds absolutely perfect.  I adore Lively’s writing and anything garden-related is always a winner with me.

The challenge, of course, is that there are more great books coming in 2018.  And I may have committed myself to something that will leave very little room for new releases of any kind…but more about that in January!

What 2017 books do you still want to read?  Or which ones did you love so much you think everyone else should read too?

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