The Top Ten Tuesday topic this week takes me into the land of lost good intentions.My list of 10 Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t represents but a small fraction of all the titles I envisaged reading — and in many cases even declared that I would read — last year. But still they linger on the “unread” shelves either but I wasn’t in the mood for that genre/theme/setting/tone at the time or I was more dazzled by a bright shiny new object.
Will I read any of these 10 in 2024? Maybe. But I wouldn’t bet my house on it.
The Aerialists by Kate Munnik
This novel by Canadian born author Kate Munnik re-imagines a tragedy in the Welsh city she has come to call home. Louisa Maud Evans was 14 years old girl when she climbed aboard a hot air balloon. Her 5,000 ft descent by parachute was meant to be a huge attraction at the Cardiff Exhibition of 1896 but the 100,000 spectators never saw her land. Instead her body was pulled from the sea three days later.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
After encountering Bonnie Garmus at an author event last year (or was it even the year before that??) I was all fired up to read the book that “everyone” tells me is wonderful. It keeps staring at me from the bookshelves, calling out to be read at last.
Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
It’s a mystery why I haven’t got around to reading this yet because I loved Le Pére Goriot. Balzac’s novel is about a poor, plain spinster who relies on the condescending patronage of her socially superior relatives in Paris. She turns out to be a vengeful woman when crossed in love and marriage.
The Fall of Light by Niall Williams
It will soon be Reading Ireland Month once more so that might give me the impetus to read a novel which follows the lives of five men from an Irish family. It’s set before, during and after the Great Famine, tracing the experience of those who seek to find a better life elsewhere in the world.
First They Killed My Father by Ung, Loung
I think it was Kim at Reading Matters who recommended this memoir of a girl whose family lived through the Cambodian genocide.
Lessons by Ian McEwan
One of the many, many books I requested from NetGalley that I have yet to read. I was curious whether this would see a return to form for McEwan whose earlier books I loved but from my husband’s reaction it seems that isn’t going to be the case.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
I’d planned to read this one for Novellas in November but that event came and went without any intervention from me.
Pearl by Sian Hughes
This debut novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023, is set in Cheshire, England which is where the author lives and runs an independent bookshop. Her novel is a tale of love and grief as told through the eyes of a young mother who lost her own mother when she was eight years old.
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Not the most cheery of novels on my list, but then that’s not Gaskell’s kind fiction unless you count Cranford which I hated.. Ruth tells the story of an orphaned young seamstress who catches the eye of a gentleman. He abandons her but not before getting her pregnant. She gets a chance to make a new life but when her former lover turns up again she has to choose whether to save her reputation or her pride.
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
I’d forgotten I bought this one in a charity bookshop. It’s now been rescued from the darker recesses of the bookcase and moved onto the shelves nearest to my bed where I can keep it in sight. Which hopefully might get me to read it sometime soon.
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