Well, my Best Books of the Decade list wore me out, so my year end book list will be brief. Click the titles to read my reviews – except #5 and #3, which are Amazon links…

*Honorable mentions to two books I read and loved for the first time this year: Ferney by James Long (originally released in 1999) and the creepy gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

5. Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I just finished this cute novel about a precocious eleven year old chemist and amateur detective named Flavia. The second half was unnecessarily heavy with exposition, but it was a fun read.

4. David Grann: The Lost City of Z

I also recently finished this exciting non-fiction book, which chronicles explorer Peter Fawcett’s search for El Dorado (a.k.a. The Lost City of Z) and his mysterious disappearance in the Amazon jungle.

3. Elizabeth Hay: Late Nights On The Air

2. Kurt Vonnegut: Look at the Birdie *

*Listed edited to include this one, which I didn’t read until 2010.

1. Samantha Harvey: The Wilderness