Ten Favorite Books of the Year

My favorites of the books I read this year, not necessarily books that came out this year (or anywhere near this year) ...

10. Bonecrack (1971)

All of Francis' books are pretty much the same, just either good or bad. This was very good.

9. The Hunger Games (2008)

I could've put the trilogy here, since I read them all, but the first book, much as I liked the follow-ups, was the real barn-burner of the bunch. Let's hope the movie is half as good.

8. One Across, Two Down (1971)

Sometimes we don't need fuzzy characters or moral uplift. Sometimes it's uplifting to read about a degenerate plotting to kill his mother-in-law and his wife. Sometimes.

7. Full Dark, No Stars (2010)

Not King's best collection of novellas, but certainly his grisliest. It's nice to know that the old fella can still make your skin crawl.

6. Mad World (2010)

A rare non-fiction appearance. This is the fascinating true story of Evelyn Waugh and the family that inspired Brideshead Revisited.

5. A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Boyd's very funny first novel, with a protagonist worthy of Kingsley Amis at his best.

4. An Unsuitable Job For a Woman (1972)

I prefer Cordelia Gray to Dalgliesh somehow. My favorite of James' mysteries.

3. The Last One Left (1966)

MacDonald at his height, telling a multi-character tale of corruption and redemption.

11/22/63 (2011)

Simply a great page-turner, with some nice asides thrown in about history, America, and the passage of time.

1. Any Human Heart (2002)

It's hard to imagine a year in which this wouldn't be my favorite book. Maybe the year I read Lucky Jim, of course, or the year I read Brideshead Revisited. An epic and human tale.

Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead

A selective biography, detailing the relationship between Evelyn Waugh and the members of the Lygon family, who inhabited an enormous country house called Madresfield. The family of the Lygons, a disgraced Earl and his seven children, were clearly the inspiration for Brideshead Revisited, Waugh's most popular novel, and one of my all time favorite books (a book I will probably read every decade of my life). Waugh went to Oxford (and had a romantic relationship) with Hugh Lygon, the beautiful and alcoholic second son of the family, then, in subsequent years, became close friends with three of the Lygon sisters, often living at Madresfield for long stretches of time. (Evelyn Waugh essentially owned no home during his entire twenties, going from hotel to country house to hotel. Does anyone do this any more? It seems like a reasonable way to live.)

The book is hit and miss, partly because Paula Byrne, the author, keeps feeling the need to explain the connections between the Lygons and Brideshead Revisited. It's best when she just focuses on the Lygon family who are, in and of themselves, a fascinating subject. All the children had fairly desolate fates--this was the saddest part of the book, the way that all their lives were haunted by the fortunes and excesses of the roaring 20s.

About limited biographies, I love the idea. The biggest problem with reading biographies is getting through all the early stuff about the subject's childhood. Some childhoods must be interesting but most aren't. Face it: biographies get interesting when the subjects start sleeping with people.