Six months of books 2015

I've taken part in this in previous years and it's great to see it back again. A chance to look back at the books we've read in the first 6 months of 2015, 6 books in each of 6 different categories.

Visit the home of this meme, The Book Jotter, here to find out more...

Six books I have enjoyed the most...

1. The Golem and the Djinni - Helene Wecker
2. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
3. Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
4. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
5. Hausfrau - Jill Alexander Essbaum
6. The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty

Six authors new to me...

1. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
2. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café - Fannie Flagg
3. How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn
4. Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham
5. Big Ray - Michael Kimball
6. City of Thieves - David Benioff

Six books that took me on extraordinary journeys...

1. Inflicted - Ria Frances
2. The Leipzig Affair - Fiona Rintoul
3. The Golem and the Djinni - Helene Wecker
4. Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
5. Dissolution - CJ Sansom
6. The Auschwitz Violin - Maria Àngles Anglada

Six books by favourite authors...

1. The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton
2. A History of Loneliness - John Boyne
3. The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty
4. Chess - Stefan Zweig
5. Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig
6. The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry

Six graphic novels/comic book collections I enjoyed...

1. Plumdog - Emma Chichester Clark
2. Marbles - Ellen Forney
3. This One Summer - Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
4. The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman
5. Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky
6. Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol

Six bookshops I have visited...

1. The new Foyles, London
2. St. David's Bookshop, Pembrokeshire
3. Heffers, Cambridge
4. Aldeburgh Bookshop, Suffolk
5. Any Amount of Books, London
6. St Ives Bookseller, Cornwall

Six Months of Books - 2014

I took part in this half-year round up last year and enjoyed it very much; rather than just trying to write a list of best books read so far in 2014 it highlights different aspects of our reading. It was introduced by Jo at The Book Jotter and you can adapt the categories to suit. The same book can feature in more than one category. All you have to do is pick 6 categories that you want to use - there are lots of category suggestions by Jo here or you can choose your own. Then pick 6 books that fit into those 6 categories and post to your blog in July. 

Here are my six sixes from the first half of 2014 - six authors or books in six different categories, covering some of the books I've read in the past six months! (You'll find reviews of many, though not all, of them, here on the blog.)

Six authors who are new to me:

1. Grace and Mary by Melvyn Bragg
2. The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
3. Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
4. Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff
5. Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
6. In Too Deep by Bea Davenport

Six authors I've read before:

1. Perfect by Rachel Joyce
2. Fire and Brimstone by Colin Bateman
3. The Goddess and the Thief by Essie Fox
4. Brilliant by Roddy Doyle
5. The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
6. Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

Six books that I particularly loved and would recommend:

1. The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan
2. Lacey's House by Joanne Graham
3. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
4. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
5. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. The Lost Duchess by Jenny Barden

Six debut novels I've been impressed with:

1. Lacey's House by Joanne Graham
2. The Book of You by Claire Kendal
3. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
4. The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
5. The People in the Photo by Helene Gestern
6. Jellybird by Lezanne Clannachan

Six books I've read in an English translation:

1. Lifetime by Liza Marklund
2. Cold Hearts by Gunnar Staalesen
3. Zenith Hotel by Oscar Coop-Phane
4. The Blue Room by Hanne Orstavik
5. The People in the Photo by Helene Gestern
6. ...eek, it appears I need to get more translated fic read this year!!

Six books that took me by the hand and led me into the past:

1. The Lost Duchess by Jenny Barden
2. Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff
3. Before the Fall by Juliet West
4. Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
5. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
6. The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull

And, as a little extra 'six', though goodness knows there are far more than six sitting patiently waiting...

Six books I wanted to have read by now, this year, but haven't yet! (Very soon, I hope):

1. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
2. Fallout by Sadie Jones
3. The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson
4. Wake by Anna Hope
5. A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
6. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

How about your choices this year so far?

Six Months of Books - 2013

I've spotted this half-year round up on several blogs now and it looks fun to take part in; rather than just trying to write a list of best books read so far in 2013 it highlights different aspects of our reading. It was introduced by Jo at The Book Jotter and you can adapt the categories to suit.

Here are my six sixes from the first half of 2013 - six authors or books in six different categories, covering some of the books I've read in the past six months!

Six authors who are new to me:

1. Essie Fox
2. Robert Goolrick
3. Jonathan Tropper
4. Ann Weisgarber
5. Eva Hudson
6. Hannah Richell

Six authors I've read before:

1. Martin Edwards
2. Lynn Shepherd
3. Louise Voss & Mark Edwards
4. Stefan Zweig
5. Claire McGowan
6. Alexander McCall Smith

Six debut novels I've been impressed by:

1. The View on the Way Down by Rebecca Wait
2. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly
3. The Night Rainbow by Claire King
4. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
5. Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley
6. The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright

Six books I've enjoyed the most:

1. Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
2. After the Fall by Charity Norman
3. The Lost by Claire McGowan
4. The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
5. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
6. The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook

Six books from authors I know will never let me down:

1. Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes
2. The Memory of Lost Senses by Judith Kinghorn
3. Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde
4. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
5. A Treacherous Likeness by Lynn Shepherd
6. The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards

Six books I've read in an English translation:

1. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
2. Every Seventh Wave by Daniel Glattauer
3. Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig
4. The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry
5. The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
6. Fear by Stefan Zweig

How about your choices this year so far?