To celebrate the National Year of Reading, here are my books of the year from the 2010s as I continued my 2-books-a-week commuting life.
2010 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Brilliant. Franzen captures the characters in a few paragraphs.
2011 Animal Farm (again!) by George Orwell
First read in 1978. His masterpiece, a perfect allegory.
2012 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
An explosive opening. I loved the character of Hobie. The exploration of grief is beautifully done.
2013 How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson
My philosophy of life as an anarchic tract.
2014 The Circle by Dave Eggers
This thriller chillingly exposes what happens if the tech giants stop believing their “Don’t be evil” mantra.
2015 Us by David Nicholls
David Nicholls is a brilliantly funny writer whose popular success and readability makes some literary snobs dismiss him. They are missing out!
2016 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A friend of mine’s favourite praise for art is “harrowing”.
One day when I was without a book for the commute home, she lent me A Little Life.
It is harrowing but it a beautiful novel about friendship, too.
2017 Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People
My former colleague Disability Now’s Katherine Quarmby wrote a sobering but important book about disability hate crime that everyone should read.
2018 Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Pullman is a master storyteller. I particularly love the Oxfordshire bits.
2019 I am, I am, I am: 17 brushes with death, a memoir by Maggie O’Farrell
17 brushes with death: the first is chilling. Superb autobiographical writing.
Alex White writes 
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