I put a question mark above as I know my tendency to make lists and then do something else entirely. But I am always hopeful! This is my Thursday Thirteen so I have a nice variety of (mostly) in progress books but a few new ones, too. And if I am very good, I will read my last ten books from this list. More likely, and hopefully, it will be ten books but maybe from the list and maybe a few new ones will nudge their way in as well. You know how that goes, right?
The first half of my list was easy. It was the last few that I hemmed and hawed over, and it'll be those that will give me some difficulty.
- December Prompt Book (as yet to be decided).
- Golden Age by Jane Smiley--I have to finish the last of her Last Hundred Years Trilogy: A Family Saga.
- The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton--Have to get in one more classic this year.
- We'll Always Have Paris: Trying and Failing to Be French, Emma Beddington--thoroughly enjoying this one and I wish she had written more books!
- Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King--Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes (now an appearance by Dashiell Hammett) and set in San Francisco--a perfect way to end the reading year.
- The Violins of Saint-Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor--A last gasp at getting in one more NYRB, and it has been a very hot or miss NYRB subscription year (but I still ambitiously renewed my subscription for 2018).
- Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo--Loved the first section, but need to get back into the rhythm of the second section.
- My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell--Just need to get back to this one and finish.
- The Human Flies by Hans Olav Lahlum--I was so into this Norwegian mystery but I lost the thread and must get back to it.
- ??Mystery novel as yet to be determined which will hopefully be my last read of the year--something special to bookend things . . .
- Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell--Another one I sort of lost the thread but must finish so I can press on in those Barsetshire books.
- Keep the Home Fires Burning by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles--I will definitely finish this but am not sure if I will just carry it over into the new year and read at leisure rather than try and rush through. How many books in this series will there be, anyway?
- House Made of Dawn by M. Scott Momaday--I know it is a classic and a must read in terms of Native American Lit, plus it won a Pulitzer, but I don't quite know what happened. Just struggled with it. And I am less than 100 pages from finishing, too. A challenge, this one will be.
So, there it is. Easy peasy, right? How hard can it be since they are almost all in progress and in some cases I am closer to the last pages than the first ones. In my case it is always the distractions that come in the form of new books or those books I start on a whim. I can start a "next reads/2018" pile and have something to look forward to, right? I can be so determined in some parts of my life and tenacious, but in others . . . books in particular. A pushover, I am.