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issybird · 12-21-2018, 09:58 AM

I'm finally done tweaking my ten-best list. I usually like an even split between fiction and nonfiction; the sad reality this year is that I read less nonfiction than typical of me. At the final cut, I had eleven books on my list with six fiction and five nonfiction, but the obvious weak link was one of the nonfiction books. So be it.

Four of these were five-star reads; the rest four-star. In no particular other than the split between fiction and non:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
What's Bread in the Bone (Cornish Trilogy #2) by Robertson Davies
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Royal Flash (Flashman Papers #2) by George MacDonald Fraser
Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter #3) by Sigrid Undset
The Complete Little World of Don Camillo (Don Camillo #1) by Giovannino Guareschi

Run to the Mountain: The Journals of Thomas Merton, v. 1 by Thomas Merton
American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman
The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade by Philip Jenkins
Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding Schools, 1939-1979 by Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Synchronicities and takeaways:

Two Nobelists
Four of the fiction books were one of a trilogy or series
Two books (one fiction, one non) feature Abraham Lincoln
Two works in translation
Only two women authors
Authors from five different countries
All written within the past century
Finally and most notably, seven of the ten books had a distinct religious theme.

ETA another synchronicity: two of the fiction books were audiobooks and they had the same narrator (Frederick Davidson).

12-21-2018, 09:58 AM	#18
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 21,369 Karma: 235205657 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: Mini, H2O, Glo HD, Aura One, PW4, PW5	I'm finally done tweaking my ten-best list. I usually like an even split between fiction and nonfiction; the sad reality this year is that I read less nonfiction than typical of me. At the final cut, I had eleven books on my list with six fiction and five nonfiction, but the obvious weak link was one of the nonfiction books. So be it. Four of these were five-star reads; the rest four-star. In no particular other than the split between fiction and non: *Lincoln in the Bardo* by George Saunders *What's Bread in the Bone (Cornish Trilogy #2)* by Robertson Davies *The Old Man and the Sea* by Ernest Hemingway *Royal Flash (Flashman Papers #2)* by George MacDonald Fraser *Kristin Lavransdatter: The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter #3)* by Sigrid Undset *The Complete Little World of Don Camillo (Don Camillo #1)* by Giovannino Guareschi *Run to the Mountain: The Journals of Thomas Merton, v. 1* by Thomas Merton American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman *The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade* by Philip Jenkins *Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding Schools, 1939-1979* by Ysenda Maxtone Graham Synchronicities and takeaways: Two Nobelists Four of the fiction books were one of a trilogy or series Two books (one fiction, one non) feature Abraham Lincoln Two works in translation Only two women authors Authors from five different countries All written within the past century Finally and most notably, seven of the ten books had a distinct religious theme. ETA another synchronicity: two of the fiction books were audiobooks and they had the same narrator (Frederick Davidson). Last edited by issybird; 12-21-2018 at 07:35 PM.