Thanks to the Wednesday Reading Meme, 2015 is the first full year of my life for which I could make an almost-accurate list of books read! So I did. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be a lot of detectives. I should probably scale back, but will I? That is the true mystery.
January
1. Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh
2. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Hyman Rubio
3. The Fleet Street Murders - Charles Finch
4. The Moor - Laurie R. King
5. The Vacationers - Emma Straub
February
6. All Small Carcasses - Gina Goldblatt
7. A Burial at Sea - Charles Finch
8. Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
9. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey**
10. Enter A Murderer - N. Marsh
11. Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L. Sayers
12. The Fountain: Secrets of Seulmonde - Vernell Chapman
13. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemsin
14. The Invention of Murder - Judith Flanders (NF)**
15. A Man Lay Dead - N. Marsh
16. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
17. The Nursing Home Murder - N. Marsh
18. The Untelling - Tayari Jones**
19. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - P. D. James
March/April
20. After Many a Summer - Aldous Huxley
21. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien
22. Dead Man's Folly - A. Christie
23. Death in Ecstasy - N. Marsh
24. Elephants Can Remember - A. Christie
25. The Floating Admiral - Detection Club
26. The Franchise Affair - J. Tey
27. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Man and His Work - ed. Kazin (NF)
28. Gaudy Night - DLS*
29. The Incredulity of Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
30. The Innocence of Father Brown - GKC
31. The Moving Toyship - Ed. Crispin
32. Murder is a Girl's Best Friend - Amanda Matetsky
33. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell*
34. Party Going - Henry Green
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen**
36. The Poisoned Chocolates Case - Anthony Berkeley
37. Right Ho, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse*
38. Samuel Johnson is Indignant - Lydia Davis
39. A Shilling for Candles - J. Tey
40. The Singing Sands - J. Tey
41. The Skull Beneath the Skin - P. D. James
42. To Love and Be Wise - J. Tey
43. Vintage Murder - N. Marsh
44. The Wisdom of Father Brown - GKC
May
45. An Alphabetical Life: Living it Up in the World of Books - Wendy Werris (NF)
46. Catastrophe Planet - Keith Laumer
47. The Club of Queer Trades - GKC
48. Death at the Bar - N. Marsh
49. Death in a White Tie - N. Marsh**
50. A Death in the Small Hours - Charles Finch
51. The Man in the Queue - J. Tey
52. Northanger Abbey - J. Austen*
53. An Old Betrayal - Charles Finch
54. Overture to Death - N. Marsh
55. The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
56. The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
57. Strong Poison - DLS*
June
58. Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger*
59. Death at the Bar - N. Marsh
60. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
61. The Laws of Murder - Charles Finch
62. Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees ***
63. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
July
64. Emma - J. Austen*
65. Leave it to Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
66. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis**
67. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante**
68. The Once and Future King - T. H. White*
69. One Corpse Too Many - Ellis Peters
70. Strangers and Brothers - C. P. Snow
71. Wheel of Ice - Stephen Baxter
August
72. The Aerodrome - Rex Warner
73. Death of a Ghost - Margery Allingham
74. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
75. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris*
76. The Nine Tailors - DLS*
77. Police at the Funeral - M. Allingahm
78. Pride and Prejudice - J. Austen*
79. The Secret Adversary - A. Christie
80. Sense and Sensiblity - J. Austen*
81. A Surfeit of Lampreys - N. Marsh**
82. Sweet Danger - M. Allingham
83. The Man Who Was Thursday* - GKC
September
84. The Adventures of Sally - P. G. Wodehouse
85. The Case of the Late Pig - M. Allingham
86. Chasing the Moon - A. Lee Martinez**
87. Death and the Dancing Footman - N. Marsh
88. Flowers for the Judge - M. Allingahm
89. Head of a Traveller - Nicholas Blake
90. The Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary**
91. How to Suppress Women's Writing - Joanna Russ (NF)
92. An Overdose of Death - Agatha Christie
93. Pat of Silver Bush - L. M. Montgomery
94. Psmith Journalist - PGW
95. Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman - E. W. Hornung**
96. The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
97. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Emma Orczy
October
98. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*
99. Colour Scheme - N. Marsh
100. The Corpse in the Snowman - N. Blake
101. Dancers in Mourning - M. Allingham
102. The Fashion in Shrouds - M. Allingham
103. Final Curtain - N. Marsh**
104. Mistress Pat - LMM
105. Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham**
106. Witness for the Prosecution - A. Christie
November
107. Home by Nightfall - C. Finch
108. How Far Can You Go? - David Lodge
109. The Girl in Blue - P. G. Wodehouse
110. The Golden Age of Murder - Martin Edwards (NF)
111. The Golden Road - LMM*
112. The Great Mistake - Mary Roberts Rinehart
113. The Group - Mary McCarthy**
114. Kilmeny of the Orchard - LMM*
115. The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux
116. My Wars are Laid Away in Books - Alfred Habegger (NF)
117. Night at the Vulcan - N. Marsh
118. Traitor's Purse - Margey Allingham
119. The Wife-Swap Report (NF)
120. Some Words of Jane Austen - Stuart M. Tave (NF)
121. Speedy Death - Gladys Mitchell
122. Too Many Women - Rex Stout
December
123. Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates (NF)**
124. A Crack in the Edge of the World - Simon Winchester (NF)
125. The English Breakfast Affair - Jennifer Montgomery
126. Honeymoons Can be Murder - Connie Shelton
127. Night at the Vulcan - N. Marsh
128. Spinsters in Jeopardy - N. Marsh
129. The Story of a New Name - E. Ferrante**
Began but did not finish in 2015:
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Falstaff - Robert Nye
Fer-de-Lance - Rex Stout
Finnegans Wake - J. Joyce
Life Mask - Emma Donoghue
The Light and the Dark - C. P. Snow
Night Watch - Stephen Kendrick
No Place Like Home (Diaries and Letters)
The Secret Country - Pamela Dean
The Shores of Light - Edmund Wilson (NF)
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
Began in 2015 but do not plan to finish:
City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
A Distant Trumpet - Paul Horgan
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
Murder Uncorked - Michele Scott
Woman in Red - Eileen Goudge
_________
(NF) non-fiction
*re-reads
**favorites of 2015
***a good candidate for most perfect book ever written
Re-reads: 15
Non-fiction: 10
Non-detective fiction: 51
Books with "death" or "dead" in the title: 13
Authors new to me in 2015: 37 that I really loved: 16
This list isn't 100% complete, especially "things I began but didn't finish" and number of re-reads, but close enough.
January
1. Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh
2. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Hyman Rubio
3. The Fleet Street Murders - Charles Finch
4. The Moor - Laurie R. King
5. The Vacationers - Emma Straub
February
6. All Small Carcasses - Gina Goldblatt
7. A Burial at Sea - Charles Finch
8. Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
9. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey**
10. Enter A Murderer - N. Marsh
11. Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L. Sayers
12. The Fountain: Secrets of Seulmonde - Vernell Chapman
13. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemsin
14. The Invention of Murder - Judith Flanders (NF)**
15. A Man Lay Dead - N. Marsh
16. The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
17. The Nursing Home Murder - N. Marsh
18. The Untelling - Tayari Jones**
19. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - P. D. James
March/April
20. After Many a Summer - Aldous Huxley
21. At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien
22. Dead Man's Folly - A. Christie
23. Death in Ecstasy - N. Marsh
24. Elephants Can Remember - A. Christie
25. The Floating Admiral - Detection Club
26. The Franchise Affair - J. Tey
27. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Man and His Work - ed. Kazin (NF)
28. Gaudy Night - DLS*
29. The Incredulity of Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
30. The Innocence of Father Brown - GKC
31. The Moving Toyship - Ed. Crispin
32. Murder is a Girl's Best Friend - Amanda Matetsky
33. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell*
34. Party Going - Henry Green
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen**
36. The Poisoned Chocolates Case - Anthony Berkeley
37. Right Ho, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse*
38. Samuel Johnson is Indignant - Lydia Davis
39. A Shilling for Candles - J. Tey
40. The Singing Sands - J. Tey
41. The Skull Beneath the Skin - P. D. James
42. To Love and Be Wise - J. Tey
43. Vintage Murder - N. Marsh
44. The Wisdom of Father Brown - GKC
May
45. An Alphabetical Life: Living it Up in the World of Books - Wendy Werris (NF)
46. Catastrophe Planet - Keith Laumer
47. The Club of Queer Trades - GKC
48. Death at the Bar - N. Marsh
49. Death in a White Tie - N. Marsh**
50. A Death in the Small Hours - Charles Finch
51. The Man in the Queue - J. Tey
52. Northanger Abbey - J. Austen*
53. An Old Betrayal - Charles Finch
54. Overture to Death - N. Marsh
55. The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
56. The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
57. Strong Poison - DLS*
June
58. Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger*
59. Death at the Bar - N. Marsh
60. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
61. The Laws of Murder - Charles Finch
62. Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees ***
63. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
July
64. Emma - J. Austen*
65. Leave it to Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
66. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis**
67. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante**
68. The Once and Future King - T. H. White*
69. One Corpse Too Many - Ellis Peters
70. Strangers and Brothers - C. P. Snow
71. Wheel of Ice - Stephen Baxter
August
72. The Aerodrome - Rex Warner
73. Death of a Ghost - Margery Allingham
74. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
75. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris*
76. The Nine Tailors - DLS*
77. Police at the Funeral - M. Allingahm
78. Pride and Prejudice - J. Austen*
79. The Secret Adversary - A. Christie
80. Sense and Sensiblity - J. Austen*
81. A Surfeit of Lampreys - N. Marsh**
82. Sweet Danger - M. Allingham
83. The Man Who Was Thursday* - GKC
September
84. The Adventures of Sally - P. G. Wodehouse
85. The Case of the Late Pig - M. Allingham
86. Chasing the Moon - A. Lee Martinez**
87. Death and the Dancing Footman - N. Marsh
88. Flowers for the Judge - M. Allingahm
89. Head of a Traveller - Nicholas Blake
90. The Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary**
91. How to Suppress Women's Writing - Joanna Russ (NF)
92. An Overdose of Death - Agatha Christie
93. Pat of Silver Bush - L. M. Montgomery
94. Psmith Journalist - PGW
95. Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman - E. W. Hornung**
96. The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
97. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Emma Orczy
October
98. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*
99. Colour Scheme - N. Marsh
100. The Corpse in the Snowman - N. Blake
101. Dancers in Mourning - M. Allingham
102. The Fashion in Shrouds - M. Allingham
103. Final Curtain - N. Marsh**
104. Mistress Pat - LMM
105. Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham**
106. Witness for the Prosecution - A. Christie
November
107. Home by Nightfall - C. Finch
108. How Far Can You Go? - David Lodge
109. The Girl in Blue - P. G. Wodehouse
110. The Golden Age of Murder - Martin Edwards (NF)
111. The Golden Road - LMM*
112. The Great Mistake - Mary Roberts Rinehart
113. The Group - Mary McCarthy**
114. Kilmeny of the Orchard - LMM*
115. The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux
116. My Wars are Laid Away in Books - Alfred Habegger (NF)
117. Night at the Vulcan - N. Marsh
118. Traitor's Purse - Margey Allingham
119. The Wife-Swap Report (NF)
120. Some Words of Jane Austen - Stuart M. Tave (NF)
121. Speedy Death - Gladys Mitchell
122. Too Many Women - Rex Stout
December
123. Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates (NF)**
124. A Crack in the Edge of the World - Simon Winchester (NF)
125. The English Breakfast Affair - Jennifer Montgomery
126. Honeymoons Can be Murder - Connie Shelton
127. Night at the Vulcan - N. Marsh
128. Spinsters in Jeopardy - N. Marsh
129. The Story of a New Name - E. Ferrante**
Began but did not finish in 2015:
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Falstaff - Robert Nye
Fer-de-Lance - Rex Stout
Finnegans Wake - J. Joyce
Life Mask - Emma Donoghue
The Light and the Dark - C. P. Snow
Night Watch - Stephen Kendrick
No Place Like Home (Diaries and Letters)
The Secret Country - Pamela Dean
The Shores of Light - Edmund Wilson (NF)
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
Began in 2015 but do not plan to finish:
City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
A Distant Trumpet - Paul Horgan
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
Murder Uncorked - Michele Scott
Woman in Red - Eileen Goudge
_________
(NF) non-fiction
*re-reads
**favorites of 2015
***a good candidate for most perfect book ever written
Re-reads: 15
Non-fiction: 10
Non-detective fiction: 51
Books with "death" or "dead" in the title: 13
Authors new to me in 2015: 37 that I really loved: 16
This list isn't 100% complete, especially "things I began but didn't finish" and number of re-reads, but close enough.
Comments
Did you like Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend? I read something about it recently, and it sounded interesting, but I couldn't decide if it sounded interesting enough that I ought to read it.
I did like My Brilliant Friend, though you should be aware going in (I wasn't) that it is the first book in a series and ends on an emotional cliffhanger; you can almost feel the ground falling away and then there is no more book left, whoops.
It was described to me as "Emily and Ilse, if they had grown up surrounded by poverty and violence instead of trees," and this is pretty accurate.
But anyway, old murder mysteries are the best of course, so I think you're on the right track here. :)
It has been good to keep track this year! It makes me feel like I've accomplished something, which is almost as good as having actually accomplished something.