Just found a plot-hole in The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, a children’s fantasy book where a bunch of British kids climb up a tree into magical words with their friends the pixie and the man suffering from Macrocephaly. They say they can’t get to a land because it’s moved away from the top of the tree and then, after getting there by other means, climb down from that land as if it was indeed at the top of the tree.

So there! I’m cleverer than whatever editor of Enid Blyton let that one slide. w00t w00t.

J – Juvenile or YA
C – Canadian
POC – Person of Colour
Q – LGBTQ
GN – Graphic Novel/Comic
ARC – Advanced Reader Copy
RR – Re-read
E – Ebook

001. Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordechai Richler (J, C, POC)
002. Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz (C, POC)
003. Winter of the Ice Wizard (Magic Treehouse #32) by Mary Pope Osborne (J)
004. Franny K. Stein: Lunch Walks Among Us by Jim Benton (J, RR)
005. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (J, RR)

006. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (E, RR)
007. Franny K. Stein: Attack of the 50-ft Cupid (J, RR)
008. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
009. The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton (C)
010. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power

011. Choose Me by Evelyn Lau (C, POC, Q)
012. Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World by Thich Nhat Hanh (POC)
013. Ivy and Bean Break The Fossil Record by Annie Barrows (J)
014. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (J, RR)
015. Night Film by Marisha Pessl

016. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis (J, RR)
017. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
018. How Should A Person Be by Sheila Heti (C)
019. Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (J, RR)
020. The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe (RR)

021. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (J, RR)
022. Savage Love by Douglas Glover
023. Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Scott Pilgrims Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley (C, POC, GN)
024. Accusation by Catherine Bush (C)
025. Collecting by Miranda Wilson (E, ARC)

026. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson (Q)
027. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Other People in Norman Rockwell’s America by Jane Allen Petrick (POC, E, ARC)
028. Tampa by Alissa Nutting
029. The Mask Game by Sergey Gerasimov (E, ARC)
030. Matilda by Roald Dahl (J, RR)

031. Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (J, GN)
032. Floating Like The Dead by Yasuko Thanh (C, POC)
033. Everything is so Political edited by Sandra McIntyre (C, POC)
034. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
035. Juanita Wildrose: My True Life by Susan Downe

036. Franny K. Stein: The Invisible Fran by Jim Benton (J)
037. Franny K. Stein: The Fran that Time Forgot by Jim Benton (J)
038. Franny K. Stein: Frantastic Voyage by Jim Benton (J)
039. Franny K. Stein: The Fran With Four Brains by Jim Benton (J)
040. Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman (J)

041. We Are Water by Wally Lamb
042. Franny K. Stein: The Frandidate by Jim Benton (J)
043. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
044. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (POC)
045. Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16 by Moshe Kasher (POC)

046. Everything Is Perfect When You’re A Liar by Kelly Oxford (C, E)
047. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
048. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (E)
049. Hellgoing by Lynn Coady (C)
050. Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (J, GN)

051. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (J, RR)
052. They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy (E)
053. Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (J, POC, GN)
054. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
055. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (J)

056. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (J, RR)
057. A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik
058. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (J, Q?)
059. The Town that Drowned by Riel Nason (C)
060. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankenweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (J, RR)

061. The Bear by Claire Cameron (C)
062. Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
063. Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (J, RR)
064. Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso
065. Who Was Nelson Mandela by Meg Belviso (J)

066. Plain Jane by Eve Horowitz (POC, RR)
067. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
068. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa (C, POC, ARC)
069. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (J, POC)
070. Come Barbarians by Todd Babiak (C)

071. Acts of God by Ellen Gilchrist (ARC)
072. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (J)
073. The Last Unicorn/Two Hearts by Peter S. Beagle (E)
074. Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (J, RR)
075. Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)

076. You Are One Of Them by Elliott Holt
077. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (GN)
078. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (E)
079. Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary (J)
080. The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi (J)

081. The Twits by Roald Dahl (J, RR)
082. Christmas in Camelot (Magic Treehouse #29) by Mary Pope Osborne (J)
083. 7 Ways to Sunday by Lee Kvern (C, ARC)
084. The Death Ray by Daniel Clowes (GN)
085. The Heart Broke In by James Meek

086. In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa (POC, ARC)
087. Hildafolk by Luke Pearson (J, GN)
088. Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson (J, GN)
089. Roost by Ali Bryant (C)
090. Wildwood by Colin Meloy (J)

091. Big Town by Stephens Gerald Malone (C)
092. The Joshua Stone by James Barney
093. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
094. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)
095. The Guts by Roddy Doyle

096. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker
097. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (POC)
098. Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)
099. The Dinner by Herman Koch
100. Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)

101. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)
102. The Walking Dead: Book One by Robert Kirkman (GN)
103. The Walking Dead: Book Two by Robert Kirkman (GN)
104. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (POC)
105. Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (J, GN)

106. Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary (J, RR)
107. Bound to You by Christopher Pike (J)
108. Ramona’s World by Beverly Cleary (J)
109. A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi (J)
110. Just Pretending by Lisa Bird-Wilson (C, POC)

111. When Did You See Her Last by Lemony Snicket (J)
112. 419 by Will Ferguson (C)
113. Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket (J)
114. Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of Fantasy #2: The Quest for Paradise: The Return to the Kingdom of Fantasy by Geronimo Stilton (J)
115. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (C)

116. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (POC, Q)
117. The Land of Long Shadows by Muriel E. Newton-White (J, C)
118. Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates
119. Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voigt (J)
120. P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia (J, POC)

121. Girls to the Rescue edited by Bruce Lansky (J)
122. After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
123. Blindspot by Kevin C. Pyle (GN)
124. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
125. The Crooked Maid by Dan Vyleta (C)

126. The One and Only by Emily Giffen
127. The Secret of Grim Hill by by Linda DeMeulemeester (J)
128. The Explanation for Everything by Lauren Grodenstein (ARC)
129. The Walking Dead Compendium One by Robert Kirkman (GN)
130. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (J, RR)

131. The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani (J, POC, Q)
132. Series Of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (J)
133. Niko by Dimitri Nasrallah (C, POC)
134. Series of Unfortunate Events #2: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket (J)
135. The Walking Dead Compendium 2 by Robert Kirkman (GN)

136. Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet
137. The Wanderer or Female Difficulties by Fanny Burney (E)
138. Series of Unfortunate Events #3: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (J)
139. Malarky by Anakana Schofield (C)
140. Such Bright Prospects: Short Stories about Asperger Syndrome, Alcohol, and God by Tessie Regan (E, ARC)

141. Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (J)
142. Meatspace by Nikesh Shkula (E, ARC)
143. The Unenviable: Stories of Psychological Trauma and Hardship Among Immigrants and Their Families by David G. Mirich (E, ARC)
144. Series of Unfortunate Events #5: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket (J)
145. My Real Children by Jo Walton

146. The Girl With The Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts (J, RR)
147. The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms by Ian Thorton (E, ARC)
148. The Rescue Princesses: The Lost Gold by Paula Harrison (J)
149. The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters (Q)
150. X’ed Out by Charles Burns (GN)

151. Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume (J, RR)
152. Africa39 edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey (POC, E, ARC)
153. A Series of Unfortunate Events #6: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket (J)
154. Rescue Princesses: The Magic Rings by Paula Harrison (J)
155. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (POC)

156. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar (J, RR)
157. 10:04 by Ben Lerner (ARC)
158. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (POC)
159. The Son by Jo Nesbo
160. Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe (E, ARC)

161. A Series of Unfortunate Events #7: The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket (J)
162. The Battle for WondLa by Tony DeTerlizzi (J)
163. The Scatter is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer (POC, E, ARC)
164. A Series of Unfortunate Events #8: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket (J)
165. A Series of Unfortunate Events #9: The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket (J)

166. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
167. And Home Was Kariakoo by M.G. Vassanji (C, POC, ARC)
168. The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
169. Boy Snow Bird by Helen Oyeyemi (POC)
170. The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton (J)

171. Capital by John Lancaster
172. A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock (E, ARC)
173. A Series of Unfortunate Events #10: The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (J)
174. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
175. Mrs Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing by May Sarton (Q, E, ARC)

176. The Book of Canadian Animals by Charles Paul May (J, C)
177. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
178. A Series of Unfortunate Events #11: The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket (J)
179. A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket (J)
180. Collected Stories by Frank O’Connor

181. Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (J, RR, E)
182. All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (POC)
183. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (POC, E)
184. A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End by Lemony Snicket (J)
185. Caught by Lisa Moore (C)

186. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice (RR)
187. The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor
188. Nathianiel Fludd: Beastologist Book One by R.L. LaFevers (J)
189. The Passion by Jeannette Winterson (Q)
190. Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas (Q)

191. Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart (POC)
192. An Untamed State by Roxane Gay (POC)
193. One More Thing by B.J. Novak
194. The Borrowers by Mary Norton (J)
195. Watch How We Walk by Jennifer LoveGrove (C)

196. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
197. The Magic Half by Annie Barrows (J)
198. Rapunzel’s Revenge by Dean and Shannon Hale (J, GN)
199. The Treatment by Mo Hayder
200. Ozma of Oz Graphic Novel by (J, GN)

201. The Journalist and the Murderer
202. Kiss of the Fur Queen (POC, C, Q)
203. Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman (E, ARC)
204. The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
205. The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer

206. Shouldn’t You Be In School by Lemony Snicket (J)
207. Paris Trout by Pete Dexter

So it isn’t 2015 yet and I will likely read at least four more books before then, but I will also be holidaying and being miserable therein, so I’ll start the reviewing now, making adjustments as necessary. I usually have a few good books at the very end of the year, not necessarily because they were the best, but simply because I can remember them better. Equally, I might not get around to posting this until 2015, and then ignore earlier sentences please.

I am going to take my year end review questions from The Perpetual Page Turner. Some of the questions anyway.

Book Questions

01. Best Book You Read In 2014?

I had 29 five star books in 2014, and 19 four and a half star books. That’s hard to make a choice. Can I just put all of them in chart in no particular order? Who am I asking can I to? There’s no one here but me.

That’s a lot. Yeah, sorry about that.

02. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

One of Meek’s other books, The People’s Act of Love, is a book I keep coming back to again and again. This one though, something like 500 pages and 300 of it is summary. I was sad I didn’t love it.

03. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?

I got this book to review through netgalley (my review is here) because I love me some Guests of the Nation. But then I paled when I realised it was 700 pages long. That’s a lot of Irish short stories. I thought it would be a slog to get through. It wasn’t. It was magnificent!

04. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?

I mentioned this book to my sister-in-law and I think she read it. She sent me an email about her initial thoughts. Whether she finished it or not, I don’t know. I’m actually pretty good at buying books my mother or mother-in-law might like; I guess that’s my super power, not being a good writer or invisibility or anything. I did buy my mother-in-law a book for Christmas, but she hasn’t read it yet. Does it count as a recommendation when you buy someone a book? I bought my sisters books too, but some for Christmas so I’m not going to spoil the surprise here.

I read strangely though. I don’t have many IRL people around me with the same tastes, so I usually don’t recommend too much.

05. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?

I don’t read too many adult series, since most series for adults tend to be fantasy, which I rarely enjoy, or boiler-plate mystery police procedurals and I haven’t enjoyed a mystery series since Denise Mina’s Garnethill trilogy (which I read 2, 1, 3 by accident, oops). I attempted the Deborah Harkness trilogy, read A Discovery of Witches in the summer. Hated it, so just read the plot synopses of the next two books on Wikipedia to save myself time. I guess I also read a bunch of The Walking Dead this summer too. Also disliked it. Maybe I am just not good at adult series.

But kid series! Tesfa and I read all of the Ramona books this summer. Then this fall, we read all of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which I’d put off reading because I thought they would be Harry Potter derivatives, and I don’t like Harry Potter that much. But they weren’t and I really enjoyed them and I really enjoyed Ramona again, so best series kids’ books FTW!

06. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?

Lisa Bird-Wilson. I would like her to be my friend.

07. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

I got this book in some Humble Bundle thing a while ago that had another book I actually wanted to read in it. But then I was going through my e-reader and reading alphabetically, and this was next. As I said when I finished it, if you can get past the fact that no one, ever, in their right mind, behaves the way these people behave, it’s not bad. Like my advice when people go to Japan for the first time: Just turn your brain off and accept it. The book is total camp, and I know it isn’t meant to be, and that my enjoyment of it is very schadenfreude-like, but such tomfoolery I don’t think you could do on purpose if you tried. Almost makes me want to read more space-opera.

08. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Man, this book stressed me out. It was like when I read Room and it got me all stressed out. I actually had to put An Untamed State away a few times because it was starting to give me panic attacks.

09. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

There’s a whole bunch of juvenile fiction I read to Tesfa this year that I’ll read again. Here’s a likely sampling:

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?

11. Most memorable character of 2014?

The Baudelaires in “>A Series of Unfortunate Events.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?

I’m thinking of buying this book and reading it every January, just to remind myself to calm.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?

I had some sort of block against this book, one because for some reason I thought it was called Oliver Kitteridge, which was apparently enough to put me right off, and the fact that it was American, and I often have real trouble with American books, set in America, but Americans, and the fact that all those What book should you read next recommendations always told me to read it. But it was at the library and finally I sucked it up and it’s actually a really great book. Sorry universe for ignoring you for so long re: Olive Kitteridge.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?

I know people do this, they write down sentences from books that inspire them. I try to but I don’t have a pen by my bed, so I often fold down a page and then completely forget about it and return the book to the library or onto the shelf. My most amusing attempt at saving-quotes-for-later occurred while reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making while high on prescription pain killers. There was a page that I was positive had the most life-changing quotation ever written on it. I folded the top corner, bottom corner, put a bookmark in, so I wouldn’t forget.

Once off the pain-killers, ooh my. Nothing on that page that I could tell was any more meaningful than anything else. I do recommend reading fantasy books while high though. It made it much more enjoyable.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

Longest (1008 pages):

Shortest (excluding picture books read to Tesfa) (24 pages):

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?

I suppose I’m jaded. I don’t know exactly what is supposed to shock me. For example, I read The Treatment and all the blurbs on the front were like Most terrifying book I’ve ever read and I was meh. Same with Night Film. So I’ll go with:

Since when I read it, I thought Seriously? You can just end a book like that? and then I thought Seriously! I could end my faerie story like that!. So I did.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)?

I have no idea what this means. Apparently it means One True Pairing? Does it have to be a book? Because I am so in love with Katniss/Peeta in the Hunger Games movies I watched for the first time this year. In the books, I was fairly ambivalent, but in the movies, hellz yes. I want to be movie Katniss and Peeta, not one or the other, but both or their relationship or something. Maybe I’ll fuck off the rest of the day and just rewatch the movies on Netflix.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year?

Delphine and her family.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Can’t break it down between these two.

21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

This was for book club. No reason I would have read it otherwise. Totally not my style nor my interest.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?

So this one specifies book; I can’t just say Peeta from the movie again?

I don’t read books that have a lot of likable or even bangable characters. And a lot have child protagonists. So let’s just say no one for now.

23. Best 2014 debut you read?

If anything, answering all these questions has taught me I am not good at narrowing things down to one.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

I don’t know how accurate it was, but I had an exact picture in my mind of the north-end of Halifax and Africville in my head while reading this.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?

Tesfa was not impressed with my meltdown. It’s just a book she kept saying. Why are you crying?

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Does this mean a hidden gem published in 2014? Or a hidden gem I read in 2014? I don’t know. Let’s put:

As it satisfies both conditions. I was surprised by how moving this book was.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?

I read a few sort-of-experimental novels this year.

Malarky was the only one I really enjoyed reading though.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Did not like it and that’s why it made me mad (see my review here). I know I should try to because every story is worth something, but I don’t care very much about rich, white men whining about being rich, white men. Just don’t.

So that’s it for this. I’ll do some more stats and whatnot in a future post. But this might be the last post for a week and a bit due to the holidays, so happy holidays readers, all two of you 🙂

Which, of course, is sort of silly since I’ve ranked them all 4.5 or 5 out of 5, and I’ve only read five books by Jeanette Winterson, but here goes anyways, from least favourite to most:

1. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit;
2. The Passion
3. Lighthousekeeping
4. Sexing the Cherry
5. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

So there we go! I will attempt to read more Jeanette Winterson and update this list as necessary.