My Best Books for 2020

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2020, Adam Kay, Adrienne Brodeur, Andrew Ridgeley, Ann Patchett, Anna Funder, book list, eighties, Elizabeth Strout, Emma Jane Unsworth, Helen Macdonald, Julia Baird, Lily King, Meg Mason, music, Ottessa Moshfegh, Patrick Radden Keefe, Rachel DeLoache Williams, Taffy Brodesser-Akner December 31, 2020

I did away with ‘top tens’ a few years ago, and instead I finish the reading year with a recap of the books that are still speaking to me (less about four and five-star ratings, more about what has stuck). Continue reading →

2020: What I Read

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2020, Angela Meyer, Australian, AWW2020, book list, COVID-19, Patrick Radden Keefe December 30, 2020

Here’s my year in books (tomorrow I’ll post my favourites for 2020) – Continue reading →

A Year of Sample Saturdays – 2020 edition

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Adrian Duncan, Anna Wiener, Anne Enright, Bonnie Tsui, book list, Claire Lombardo, Deborah Levy, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Ewa Ramsey, Fiona Harari, Halle Butler, Jayson Greene, Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Naoise Dolan, Raynor Winn, Sample Saturday December 26, 2020

I’ve read 105 Kindle samples this year – downloading sample chapters is better than impulse buying books… I think. Continue reading →

The Top 50 from the Best Books of 2020 List of Lists

Posted by Kate W in Fiction, Non-fiction, Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2020, Akwaeke Emezi, Alyssa Cole, Anna Wiener, Ayad Akhtar, Barack Obama, book list, Brandon Taylor, Brian Washington, Brit Bennett, C Pam Zhang, Cathy Hong, Charles Yu, Claudia Rankine, Curtis Sittenfeld, Danielle Evans, Douglas Stuart, Elena Ferrante, Emily Gould, Emily Mandel, Fernanda Melchor, Frances Cha, Garth Greenwell, Hilary Mantel, Isabel Allende, Isabel Wilkerson, James McBride, Jenny Offill, Jess Walter, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Kate Russell, Kawai Strong Washburn, Kiley Reid, Lily King, Liz Moore, Lydia Millet, Maggie O'Farrell, Marilynne Robinson, Megha Majumdar, Mikki Kendall, N. K. Jemisin, Natasha Trethewey, Peace Adzo Medie, Raven Leilani, Robert Kolker, Rumaan Alam, Samantha Irby, Sigrid Nunez, Silvia Moreno-garcia, Susanna Clarke, V.E. Schwab, Yaa Gyasi December 18, 2020

Presenting the 2020 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2020-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 50 books. Continue reading →

Best books of 2020 – a list of lists

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2020, book list December 10, 2020

It’s that time of the year when newspapers and magazines publish their ‘Best of 2020’ lists. These are the books that we would have been talking about around the water-cooler, had we not been working from home.

Lists usually begin appearing early November and keep going until the end of the year – I will keep adding as they are published.

The Best of 2020 According to #ALLTHELISTS will be coming soon – stay tuned! (See previous lists here). Continue reading →

Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Adam Kay, book list, Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts, Charlotte Wood, Chloe Hooper, podcast, reading, Stella Prize, TBR, theatre, twitter January 7, 2020

01. I’m sure Australia’s bushfires have made world news. The stats* are staggering and almost incomprehensible. I won’t turn this into a rant about our government’s lack of action (no, even acknowledgment) on climate change but this article is worth a read.

“Australia is the canary in the coal mine.”

Continue reading →

My Best Books for 2019

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, author talk, book list, Carrie Tiffany, Ceridwen Dovey, Charlotte Wood, Chloe Hooper, Deborah Lipstadt, Favel Parrett, Heidi Diehl, Jenny Ackland, Kate Rossmanith, Lori Gottlieb, Nina Riggs, Rhidian Brook, Sofie Laguna, Sofka Zinovieff, Trent Dalton, Vicki Hastrich December 31, 2019

An even spread of excellent books and some truly memorable author events has made 2019 a terrific reading year.

As I’ve done in previous years, I’ll focus on the books that have continued to resonate with me (as opposed to those I gave five stars to as soon as I’d finished reading). Continue reading →

2019: What I Read

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, Affinity Konar, book list, Emma Forrest, Jen Beagin, Louis Theroux, Mona Awad, Nina Riggs, Tayari Jones December 30, 2019

Here’s my year in books (with thanks to the Goodreads record keeping tool): Continue reading →

Ten years, ten top books

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with Ann Patchett, book list, Chad Harbach, Charlotte Wood, Cheryl Strayed, Gillian Mears, Hannah Kent, Hanya Yanagihara, Kate Atkinson, Leanne Shapton, Lisa McInerney December 26, 2019

It hadn’t occurred to me to make a list of my top ten books of the decade until I saw such lists popping up everywhere. Given that books, blogging and lists go together like sand and sea, it’s ridiculous that I haven’t been working on my list for months! Continue reading →

A Year of Sample Saturdays 2019

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with 2019, book list, Sample Saturday December 21, 2019

I’ve read 135 Kindle samples this year – downloading sample chapters is better than impulse buying books… I think.

Of the 135 I’ve read, I’ve said ‘yes’ to 57. Of those that I’ve said yes to, three I now own and five I’ve read.

However, if I buy the remaining 49 books, it destroys the miniscule gains I’ve made on reducing the TBR stack this year. So, I’ve narrowed it down to 15 that I’m busting to read – Continue reading →