Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2020

Welcome friends, book bloggers and avid readers alike, to my annual book of the year post. As usual, this post is not about books written or published this year, it's about books I have read this year, and with dozens to choose from it's no easy task. I won't bore you with a big long list of all my reads from 2020, for that you can check out my historic posts or look at Amazon/Goodreads for my reviews, so without further ado:-

In at number five are (I know, I know but I just couldn’t separate them): The Exorcist, by William Peter Blattey, Frenchman’s Creek, by Daphne du Maurier and The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (26/07 + 29/11 + 26/12/2020 posts respectively).
‘The Exorcist is atmospheric throughout, great characters and it leaves you cold and needing the lights on for bed.’
‘Du Maurier's flagrant disregard for propriety is one thing but her depth of characters, her ability to have the reader rooting for the pirate and the adulterer as opposed the law abiding citizenry of Cornwall is simply brilliant.’
The Midnight Library was, ‘An enjoyable but thought provoking book which, especially at this time of year, brings the very important subject of loneliness to the fore . . . it does not disappoint.’

My number four is, An Untamed State by, Roxane Gay (28/06/2020 post)
‘BRUTAL,’ I said once I’d read it, and it was.
‘Brutal is about all you really need to sum up Roxane Gay's superb, An Untamed State, but there are two parts to this book (Happily Ever After and Once Upon a Time) and two sides to the story, so if brutal is one, then love is the other.
. . . the way Roxanne Gay writes just rips at your heart and you just know that if Mireille ever manages to escape, her journey would have only just begun.’

In the bronze position then, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (27/02/2020 post)
‘Oh No! Have I found my book of the year 2020 already? Well . . . Maybe!’ was what I said in February, and it came close.
Confusing, fast-paced, witty, horrific intriguing and I'll-be-damned-if-I'm-putting-this-book-down-it's-only-half-past-one-in-the-morning-and-I-really-really-really-need-to-know-who-the-murderer-is, oh, shit it’s . . .!’ pretty much sums things up.

So, this year’s runner up, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, by Kate Mosse (31/10/2020 post)
‘Atmosphere.
If you like a book with atmosphere, whether you're on the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff, crossing the causeway to Eel Marsh House, running from the ruins of Manderley, or walking the rain soaked alleyways of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona, if you like your books with atmosphere look no further than The Taxidermist's Daughter.’ I said back in October.
‘Chilling, spooky, rain soaked town on the south coast of England in the midst of a murder spree in the early 1900's with beautifully written characters, great plot, plenty of blood and intrigue; what's not to like?’

And the winner, my favourite book of 2020: Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Keneally (12/04/2020 post)
‘Read this book I beg you, for although it is horrific beyond imagination and will tear at your heart, it is a must-read if you ever want to understand just a snippet of what it must have been like to live in such conditions, and yes, if you've seen the film, both the girl in the red dress and the boy (albeit he was a teenager at the time) who hid in the cesspit, were both real, but only one survived.
To put a star rating on a book like this seems a bit crass but in the hope that it might get others to pick up a copy and read it, I will give it five.’

N.B: If you like your books spooky & atmospheric then you need to read Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who sadly died this year but left a lasting legacy with his amazing Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, of which the first two (The Shadow of the Wind & The Angel’s Game) I have just reread and are utterly amazing.

 

The Midnight Library, book review. (Matt Haig)

There was a lovely moment when I neared the halfway point of this book, a light bulb moment if you will, when I didn't so much know how it would end but knew how it would end!

To clarify: the finer details were still a mystery of course and would be until the very last page, but the general premise, where Nora Seed (who had just lost her cat - dead - her job - economic downturn - hadn't heard from her best friend in ages and so, believed there was little else to live for) would end up. Whether she would find her perfect life, the one she should have lead from her first beginning - be it the fame of a world renown rock band, being able to hold an audience with the perfect rendition of a Mozart concerto, holding the world and Olympic record for the four hundred meters breaststroke, or surviving the extreme climes of the coldest places on earth as a glaciologist - I had the answer.

Although I was but halfway through, knowing what was going to happen - or at least thinking I did - did nothing to lesson my enthusiasm; if anything it help, fuelled me, pushed me to see if I was right, and when I found out that I was, again, it didn't matter, I felt no less cheated, it was exactly how it should have been and made for a better book.

With myriad scenarios at the author's disposal it could so easily have been different. He could have fallen by the wayside, been temped by vainglory and excess or dwelt on the pitiful and despair but instead he went with what in this humble readers opinion was, the right road. It was a bumpy one, there's no question about that, with many a precipice for our weary protagonist to have tripped and fallen down, but she didn't, she made it, made it to her final resting place, and there was just so much right about where that was.

The way Matt Haig writes here grabs you straight from the off ,and with short sharp chapters and Nora's contrasting lives of excess, fame, quiet solitude, helplessness, addiction and the very serious subject of loneliness, there wasn't a page turned that didn't reveal some new and intriguing facet of a life not lived and it became a very emotional journey.

You want Nora to live, to love, be loved, find her happiness, wherever that might lie but you want to shake her, too; shout at her for wanting to give up, but not once did I ever stop routing for her, through good decisions and bad I was loyal to the end because as I said at the beginning of this post, I had a sneaky suspicion I knew the outcome.

Thank you Matt Haig, for this book, which is my first taste of your work, for I truly enjoyed it and will be wholeheartedly recommending it to all. I will no doubt be acquiring your back catalogue over the coming months and look forward to whatever you come up with next.

Four star for The Midnight Library. An enjoyable but thought provoking book which, especially at this time of year, brings the very important subject of loneliness to the fore and it's just won the Goodreads book of the year for fiction, too, so go check it out; it does not disappoint.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them yet why not message me with your recommendations.