I love reading books and book reviews are the heart of Panorama of the Mountains. I’ve been keeping track of the books I read since I was a teenager and I’ve attempted to catalog every book I’ve ever read at LibraryThing.
One of my big reading projects is Around the World for a Good Book, where I’ve been attempting to read an original work of fiction from every nation in the world.
On this page I’ve provided links to posts about my favorite books as well as my running lists of books I’ve read this year. If there’s a book you’d like to discuss or think I should read, let me know in the comments!
Favorite Books by Year:
Favorite Books of the 2010s
Favorite Books of All Time (2009 List)
Favorite Books of All Time (2020 List)
Complete List of Books Read in 2024
The books are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 stars with links to summary reviews. (A) is for audiobook.
Here’s a thumbnail of what the ratings mean:
- 5 stars – all-time classic (I’m very stingy with these)
- 4 stars – a particularly interesting, well-written, or important book
- 3 stars – a good book from start to finish
- 2 stars – not a good book on the whole but has some good parts
- 1 star or less – basically a bad book with no redeeming values
January
- A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (A) – ****
- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglass Adams (A) – ***1/2
- A Mercy by Toni Morrison (A) – ****
- Respect Yourself by Robert Gordon – ****
- The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (A) [Around the World: Cayman Islands] – ***1/2
- No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon (A) [Around the World: Guam] – ****
- What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad (A) [Around the World: Qatar] – ****
- Inventing the Charles River by Karl Haglund – ****
- A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs Vol 2: From the Million Dollar Quartet to the Fab Four by Andrew Hickey – ****
February
- Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng (A) [Around the World: Botswana] – ***
- The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (A) [Around the World: Denmark] – **1/2
- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown – ***1/2
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (A)M[Around the World: Sri Lanka] – ***1/2
- Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System by Cynthia Zeitzevsky – ***1/2
- The Pirates Wife by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos (A) – ***
March
- The Secret History of Bigfoot by John O’Connor (A) – ****
- The City Where Dreams Come True by Gulsifat Shahidi [Around the World: Tajikistan] – ***1/2
- We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (A) – ****
- King of Shadows by Susan Cooper (A) – ***1/2
- Salt by Mark Kurlansky – ****
- Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (A) – *****
April
- A Damn Near Perfect Game by Joe Kelly – ***1/2
- Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon – ****
- Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner (A) [Around the World – Cambodia] – ****
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (A) – ****
May
- Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein (A) – ****
Currently Reading
- The City of State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power: 1630-1865 by Mark Peterson
- The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylore (A)
- The Girl Who Soard Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente (A)
- The New Bostonians by Marilynn Johnson
To Be Read This Month
- Home by Toni Morrison (A)
- Godkiller by Hannah Kaner (A)
- White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (A)
- The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin (A)
- Find More Birds: 111 Surprising Ways to Spot Birds Wherever You Are by Heather Wolf
- Canon EOS Rebel T5/1200D for Dummies by Julie Adair King
BBF Book Group Schedule
Listen in December: https://archive.org/details/patrick-stewart-performs-a-christmas-carol
Panorama of the Mountains 