Year of reading 2019: Part 1 – My top 18

Posted on January 1, 2020 by WordsAndPeace

Year of reading 2019
Part 1
My top 18

To follow my tradition, here is part 1 of my yearly recap.
There is a total of 3 parts:

my favorites, with my usual categories, see here below
my stats
my fun list with titles

If 2018 was my most pathetic year in the last decade, with only 77 books read, 2019 is my best year, with 118 books! I believe it justifies the 18 categories as shown here below, as I read enough in each category to list an awesome book in it.

The final choice is based on the quality of the book, on how it resonated with me and my own experience, and on how it stayed with me. Some of these books may actually have got only 4 out 5 Eiffel Towers at the time I read them.

MY FAVORITES

click on the covers to access either my review,
or the Goodreads page for the couple of titles I have not reviewed yet

PRINT COPIES

Fiction	Historical Fiction	NonFiction	Mystery

EBOOKS

Fiction	Historical Fiction	NonFiction	Mystery

AUDIOBOOKS

Fiction Historical Fiction	NonFiction		Mystery

SCIENCE-FICTION

CHILDREN BOOKS

GRAPHIC “NOVEL”

MANGA

SPIRITUAL BOOK

BOOK COVER

DO YOU HAVE SOME FAVORITES
IN COMMON WITH MINE?

MORE FUN RECAP TOMORROW!

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF READING TO YOU!

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Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel winner

Posted on May 21, 2019 by WordsAndPeace

#MBI2019

Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel winner

Finally, the day has come to discover the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.
This has been a wonderful experience for me, reading 12 books from all over the world, even though a few were quite awful, according to me. BUT some were also amazing.
As a reminder, here is where things were at the level of the shortlist:

And our Shadow Panel has voted and our winner is:

Personally, I would choose another winner:

I’ll add here the official winner in the afternoon: it’ll be chosen in the evening in London, you can watch the event live here.

DID YOU READ THESE TITLES?
WHICH ONE WOULD BE YOUR WINNER?

Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel shortlist

Posted on April 18, 2019 by WordsAndPeace

#MBI2019

Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel shortlist

This year, our Shadow Panel counts 11 judges. Everyone worked really hard and most judges read most of the 13 books featured on the longlist.
Here is the shortlist our Shadow Panel came up with:

As you can see, our Shadow Panel shortlist has 5 books in common with the official shortlist – just as mine also had 5 in common with the official list, but with a different 6th title.

This is all pretty similar.
This is probably due to the fact that the longlist was rather weak this year, without too many outstanding titles.
And as most the books were very fairly short, our team of judges managed to read a lot. I’m amazed I personally managed to read 12, in so few weeks.
“Every book was read by at least 8 judges, and most by at least ten (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was the only one with everyone’s score).

What next?
Our winner will be announced on May 21, a few hours before the official winner is announced.
NB: the book I would pick as the winner is on the official shortlist and the Shadow Panel shortlist!

If you want more details, come this way to read our chairman’s post.

DID YOU READ THESE TITLES?
WHICH ONE WOULD BE YOUR WINNER?