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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

My favourite reads of 2018 Part 1 #amreading

14/12/2018

15 Comments

 
When the bots at Goodreads urged me to tidy my virtual bookshelves, 2018 still had another twenty days left to run. Plenty of time to edge closer to last year’s pinnacle of 150 books. But since I’ve already passed 2017’s 5-star total of 12 books, I’ve decided to share my favourite books of the year in four parts. This instalment covers my reading from January to April this year. Perhaps you’ll choose one of these five to help you say No to Christmas!

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I’m as surprised as anyone to find a novel about a road rally on my favourites shelf, but Peter Carey’s twentieth book, A Long Way from Home, published by Faber and Faber, is about Australia’s subjugation of its indigenous people. It engaged me both as a reader with an interest in themes of social justice, and as a writer learning to bring a light touch to serious themes.
 
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman, Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba, published in 2017 by Portobello books, is a moving and subtle foray into childhood disturbance. Focusing on a seven-year-old girl’s uprooting to an orphanage, after a car crash that kills her parents, I was mesmerised by the language of this novella, somehow both poetic and matter-of-fact.
 
Published in 2017 by Sceptre, Jaroslav Kalfar’s debut is a lovely novel that almost defies description. While some novels suffer from the weight of too many stories, Spaceman of Bohemia manages to be much bigger than the sum of its many parts: sci-fi adventure; love story; sociopolitical history of the Czech Republic and homage to Prague; psychodrama of how the actions of one generation shape the next; a meditation on identity, adaption to loss, and what makes us human.
 
Shona McMonagle, the feisty heroine of Olga Wojitas’ debut, Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar, is invited by the 200-year-old founder of her alma mater to serve as a kind of goodwill ambassador across the centuries. Published by Saraband, the concept is so silly it could have misfired, but the author is perfectly in control of her material, with just the right blend of intelligence, comedy and tension. Unusually for me, I found myself several times laughing out loud.
 
Every Note Played is the story of a concert pianist whose career is cut short by motor neurone disease. I loved this for the author’s compassion for her flawed characters, and the emotional range and depth. Although often wary of a redemption-through-catastrophe-or-suffering narrative, I really appreciated eavesdropping on this family’s bumpy journey to some kind of resolution. Published by Allen & Unwin, Lisa Genova’s fifth novel is a poignant portrayal of loss; the compromises of marriage; the loving and hating that’s part of any caring/dependency dynamic; and the risks of both following and shying away from your dreams.

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Although I haven’t reread Jane Eyre this year, I’ve made her the focus of this week’s 99-word story. The link to Charli’s prompt is tenuous: Cat Harbour brought to mind Cattiside Moor from where I've imagined Jane hearing Rochester’s voice calling her and, on my guided walk, we get our first glimpse of North Lees Hall, the inspiration for the house where Jane goes to work as a governess.


Less bound by facts than Charli, I’ve proposed an unlikely moorland encounter between a fictional character and an American woman whose dates only slightly overlap. While I had fun with Jane’s voice, with a couple of phrases taken directly from Charlotte Brontë, it strikes me that Victorian novelists, with their wordy perambulations, could have gained a lot from the constraints of flash fiction.
Jane Eyre meets Cora Kingston

After fleeing Thornfield with only the shabby apparel I arrived in, the coachman set me down at a crossroads in a north-midland shire, dusk with moorland. Skirts snagged by the heather, I sought a place to rest my bones.

By God’s grace, I encountered another lonely female, whose kindness in sharing her meagre repast of bread and cheese brought forth my sorry story.

“Why, pray, did you not go with him?”

“He was married to another – although he came to regret it.”

“Perhaps you did not love him enough.” Cora took my hand. “Have you ever kissed a girl?”
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
15 Comments
TN Kerr link
15/12/2018 04:30:57 pm

Nicely done.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:12:29 am

Thank you.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
16/12/2018 10:32:36 am

I have to admit that I haven't read Charli's post yet. Hers is the next stop on my journey tonight. So maybe I don't know enough about Cora to comment, but your story made me chuckle.
You're going to be tough to follow with four posts of books. I was hoping to get just one out by now but have be stymied by time.
Congratulations on your dangerous second place at the Ranch. Great story.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:16:38 am

Thanks, Norah, I’m not sure you’ll be much wiser about the links to Cora even after reading Charli’s post as I think I strayed quite away from the prompt. No worries if you can’t keep up with all the instalments of my Books of the Year marathon as there’ll be a summary post at the end, but I thought it was going to be too long otherwise.

Reply
D. Avery link
16/12/2018 06:57:20 pm

I totally agree that Victorian novelists would benefit from flash. Where did I recently read something along that line of thinking? Here? The style of writing was partly due to the method, i.e., handwritten, no word processors. So revising and reworking was a laborious process. The male novelists often enlisted their wives to that task. Hmm. Maybe Cora is just looking for a scribe.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:20:26 am

Ha ha, you have been paying attention, D! And wives being such useful commodities, every writer should have one. Wordprocessing packages are greats, but they can’t do the dusting.

Reply
Irene Waters link
16/12/2018 10:39:10 pm

All the books have gone onto my TBR list. They all sound interesting. I loved the twist in your flash. I think the Victorian novelists collectively are probably twisting in their graves at your last sentence. Persoanlly, I have never taken to those Victorian novels as they are far too wordy for me although I can appreciate the wit displayed in some.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:27:54 am

That’s great, Irene, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. As for the Victorians, they can be rather convoluted and preachy. Unfortunately I find that with some contemporary novels too, especially some European translations, which can for my efforts to read more diversely. And I wonder if Charlotte Brontë was aware of sexual diversity – after all, she attended boarding school – similarly others of her era, but didn’t consider it proper to write about it. One of my fantasies about Jane Eyre is that, instead of marrying Rochester, she goes off with his much-maligned wife, the madwoman in the attic.

Reply
Nancy Brady link
18/12/2018 02:32:25 am

I loved your take on the prompt. The language especially. The ending certainly surprised me. Congrats on your second place finish, too. ~nan

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:28:47 am

Thanks, Nan, both were fun to write.

Reply
Robbie Cheadle
19/12/2018 08:33:01 am

Very interesting post, Anne. I enjoyed your take on the prompt and laughed at your comment that you have not re-read Jane Eyre yet this year. I have also read that book about six times.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/12/2018 11:31:01 am

If/when you come to the UK you’ll be able to visit where it all began in Yorkshire – or better still come to the Peak District which is the setting (although contested) for Jane Eyre.

Reply
Olga Núñez Miret link
1/1/2019 12:07:13 pm

Great recommendations and I love your story. To a fabulous 2019, Anne!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
1/1/2019 04:23:29 pm

Thanks, Olga, same to you.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
1/1/2019 04:23:44 pm

Thanks, Olga, same to you.

Reply



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