A list of my all time favourite books through the years (it’s way longer than this but I’ll add to it as and when I remember!);
 
YA
The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
The Tricksters – Margaret Mahy
The Eyes of Karen Connors – Lois Duncan
Tiger Eyes – Judy Blume
 
Adult
Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories – Dan Rhodes
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
Eleanor Rigby – Douglas Coupland
The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing – Melissa Bank
The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende
The Life and Death of Charlie St Cloud – Ben Sherwood
After You’d Gone – Maggie O’Farrell
Burial Rites – Hannah Kent

February’s book The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer was one of those reads that has you gripped from the start. Sympathetically written, it had pace and angst and I really felt for the main character Matthew, who was battling with schizophrenia and the death of his brother. Filer’s writing was honest and brutal in parts and I felt that at times I could really climb into Matthew’s head and see his thoughts crashing about. But then the last quarter the book kind of lost its hold on me and I was left feeling the teeniest bit disappointed with the way the book ended. I wanted to LOVE this book and instead I liked it. But that’s no bad thing.

March’s book is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It’s had some pretty lofty reviews (and I wish I hadn’t read them as the last thing I want is that feeling of anticlimax or disappointment), but I have high hopes for this one.

January’s book, The fault in our stars by John Green, was a beaut to kick start my efforts at joining in with #theyearinbooks I’ve always been a fan of Young Adult fiction and this book didn’t let me down. John Green really tapped into the souls of these characters and let me tell you there were plenty of tears.

For February I’ve chosen The shock of the fall by Nathan Filer. I’ve heard great things about it so I have high hopes that it’ll be a good read.

Back when I worked in retail marketing I was lucky enough to get so many free books that I was never short of anything to read. I’m ashamed to admit it but I would often start books and then give up on them if they didn’t capture my attention after a few pages and I would pass them on to friends or charity shops without even batting an eyelid.

Since leaving that job I’m not inundated with free books and as I buy them with my own pocket money (or go to the library) I am more likely to make the effort to read a book from start to finish. Trouble is I’ve found it increasingly difficult to devote a bit of time to reading since having the boys which is such a shame because it is one of my all time loves. I suspect this is mostly to do with the fact that I am always so tired (yes the Husb and I are still pretty sleep-deprived as Littlest is not quite sleeping through even at 21 months), and partly to do with my attention span being so short at the moment as my poor, battered brain is always juggling an infinite to-do list.

Towards the end of last year I discovered Laura’s gorgeous blog Circle of Pine Trees and although there are so many things I love about her blog, what really shone through for me was her love of books. It’s obviously a big love as she created a project where the aim was to read (at least) one book a month and make a record of it, share it, discuss it using #theyearinbooks. It’s kind of a virtual book group but it’s not conventional because we all choose whatever we want to read, and it’s this gentle approach which appealed to me because it seemed less scary than a book group and most of all, it felt achievable.

So this is me, starting off my #yearinbooks with January’s book, The fault in our stars by John Green. I’ve always been a sucker for YA fiction and this looks like a gem.