Firstly – Thank You for yesterday- I have many great questions to answer while I am travelling. This will be fun. Most excellent.
Now the next thing on our Christmas List is our Christmas Book List! I had not forgotton.
This year, because last years list got SO BIG and SO LONG (like many of you I read – and listen to audio books a lot so I too have heaps of favourites), I think that this year we will limit ourselves to TWO personal favourites – it can be a novel, or cookbook, or nonfiction, or fluffy historical romance, audio book or book of art – any book at all but one we met for the first time THIS YEAR in 2016. Not your favourite book of all time just two of your favourite books from your 2016 reading list.
And let us know the genre and a why you recommend we read it.
Have a scroll through the comments and if your favourite book is already there SECOND it, or third it or fourth it. This way we will get a really good idea of what everyone is reading (or listening to) and you get to name two MORE books in your own comment if your first favourite is already in the list. 
I am never without a book. Often I am listening to a book (while I do housework or cook) and then read another book (usually on my kindle in winter when it is hard to get to the shops) before I go to bed. So I get through a fair number of books. And I often listen to podcasts when I am cleaning in the barn but that is a completely new discussion! 
I love our annual Fellowship Book List. Sound like fun? Good – because – I need some good reading material for my travels. I particularly need a good airplane book. (Why airplane book is not a genre I do not know!).
I will collate the list tonight and publish it for you tomorrow so you can print it and use it as a book mark or give it away during the holiday season.
If you run your own book list with your own readers at your blog be sure to link it back to The Kitchens Garden (I will note it at the bottom of my post the day I receive the link) so that we can all come and look at your list as well. Your own readers might have some new ones too!
The roads were frozen sheets of ice out here in the country yesterday and for two days we have not even received our mail. The country roads are too dangerous. I hope they are better today because Lori the Pig Lady is coming to collect the little barrow. I am glad he is going to a good home but I have to admit I wish he were not going at all. He has been a perfect little house pig. Boo and I will miss him awfully.
Much love, have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
112 responses to “Annual Book List request 2016”
Safe travels, Celi and a great and happy family reunion. – And farewell to our piggy… I feel with you and with Boo. And – I’m sure – our little barrow will miss both of you very much too!
Loved the photographs so much and I’ve stolen them all to print them out and send them to both of my old aunts who have no PC, so no e-mail… – as kind of a ‘Christmas Story from the Farmy’ full of love.
Happy Holidays to all.
I am thrilled that you are printing some shots for your Aunts – that is such a compliment! Thank you.. c
I enjoyed reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tart,
Thank you Gerlinde, I have not read this one either and look forward to it – thank you for the recommendation c
I’ve actually thought about this. For 2016 my pick has to be The Portable Veblen. I adored every character and every paragraph. It’s contemporary fiction, but can’t be categorized beyond that. Happy trails on your travels!
I don’t know this one! Excellent. thank you c
I discovered the collected poems of Madeleine L’Engle just this year , “The Ordering of Love.” And some of her prose in another book, “Walking on Water.” I didn’t know she wrote in either form, but I should have guessed. The poems are delightfully unpoetic (they make sense, perfectly and honestly, no irony or indirection, uncomplicated language with a natural rhythm). The poems were not written for children, though children might be curious upon reading the one section that retells very Old T. bible stories– just as she was as a child when she read about persons like Leah, or Lot.
The best parts are at the beginning and the end. These take time. They are very moving–about her lifelong love. In between, the poems tell stories about her children and grandchildren, about birth and loss, about sorrow and joy, and about the old farmhouse in New England where all of this happened.
What a pleasant surprise this book was. It is too thick for an airplane book, though I like reading one poem at a time and looking out the window for a while to let the words settle. It isn’t available on kindle, but that’s OK because sometimes poems get rearranged electronically. You probably won’t find it in your local library either. For some reason no one thought to promote her poems. (I think you will see the reason if you happen upon the book.) It is a bigger than a gem, but not gaudy. Her picture on the front sets just the right tone.
And a perfect addition to our list Albert – thank you. Good poetry does deserves air and a look out the window between the readings – thank you for this – I will find it.. c
For fiction The Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning which is actually made up of two trilogy’s and starts in Romania and ends in Egypt on the eve of WW2. Non fiction Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater in which he follows the route of the old Imperial Airways in the early days of air travel from London to Brisbane
Sounds great Abel, esp Beyond the Blue Horizon. Interesting. c
Sad to hear the little piglet is moving on…lovely little creature…I’d be a hopeless farmer. I know you’ve read “Any Human Heart” but I reread it all the time. I’m currently reading a wonderful novel by Rohinton Mistry ” A Fine Balance” about India in the 70’s…..beautiful writing.
Nanny Boo and I are miserable. It was like having a wee porcine angel drift through the house. Thank you for your book suggestions, Any Human Heart is one of those books that I love to Give people. I look forward to a fine balance I will find it – thank you, Roger! c
I thought A Fine Balance was a very good book, too.
I love the piglet group!
I’m reading Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard and next the latest James Lee Burke, which no doubt, John has read.
Great! I will look these up – thank you
I’ve got a great airplane book for you! Fits easily into a pocket or purse and weighs virtually nothing. Interesting phrases and commentary on… speaking in Italian. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you my Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions). It’s such a small book but with an entertaining approach to learning that I had to give it a long title!
Thank you Stella – what a lovely idea.. c
on PBS they have a series called Shetland. From books written by Ann Cleeves. I am hooked. Crime stories with an excellent plot. Really enjoy seeing into the daily life of the Shetland Isles. The history of the islands pulls you into the story. She also has a series of books called Vera Stanhope. This series is also on PBS. Called Vera. Also crime and Vera is an inspector. Books are so much better. Read both series. Thank you all for such a great list. So wonderful. Safe travels and the joy of being with your family.
Yes this is a wonderful list of books! Can you tell me which two books of these series you liked the most for the list? c
Oh yes, second the Vera books! I didn’t like the tv series until i read the books, and gained an insight into the workings of her mind and what goes on underneath that tough exterior. Thanks for the tip about the Shetland series.
Oh, yes, Ann Cleaves! I only read the first one of the Shetland series, but it’s atmospheric and such a wonderful setting. Raven Black.
Sorry, Cleeves.
I enjoyed The Anatomist’s Apprentice by Tessa Harris – it’s the first book in a series of historical mysteries. Curiously, you were in my dreams last night, miss c! it was lovely to visit with you.
Really!? Wonderful. Thank you for this book! I look forward to reading it.. c
My year has been rather strange. I’ve read a lot of books, but for many different reasons I’ve been reading a lot of “fluffy” books and wouldn’t necessarily recommend them.
What I would recommend is Louise Penny’s “The Brutal Telling”, a little older, but new to me this year. I enjoy her books, Inspector Gamache and the whole Three Pines element just pulls me right in.
The other one I would recommend was by Alan Bradley – probably classed as YA crime, but definitely appealing to adults also. Who wouldn’t want to be 11 years old and friends with Flavia DeLuce – detective, chemist, etc. The last one I read was A Red Herring Without Mustard – I enjoy all the characters, but I think Dogger (the faithful retainer) is one of my favourites. There is just something about him . . . Any of the series is wonderful, but starting at the beginning with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie gives you the best grounding in the characters.
Since I tend to buy my books at the Sally Anne Thrift Store, I’m generally a year or two (or more) behind what is current. But I’ve read some wonderful things that I wouldn’t have found at Coles, etc. And my book budget goes a LOT further! I’ve got some books lined up for reading over the holidays as I really need to get back to the “good stuff”.
Great suggestions here!
Chris S in Canada
I’ve joined Goodreads’ 2016 reading challenge. I’m done with 122 books to date. My list would be the Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi, The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate, Irena’s Children by Tilar Mazzeo and Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
My preference is for non-fiction and my two favourites for this year were ‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, a book about the creative process, delightfully written; and ‘Love Warrior’ by Glennon Doyle Melton, a memoir of her life from drug and sex abuse to a dysfunctional marriage and how she came out of it. Very moving and reads like a letter from your best friend, intense and personal. Happy travels Celi.
I’m so pleased he is going to a good home! Merry Christmas Celi 😃