Looking back over the books we have reviewed this year there seems to have been a lot of low scores. We usually have a plethora of 7's but so many books seems to have fallen below this 'average' score.
Our chosen books have certainly been wide ranging, from golden oldies such as Agnes Grey and The Thirty Nine Steps to our first ever hard back, Eleanor Oliphant. We've had the true story of a doctor tragically dying from cancer to the filming of a (fake) true story in 1940's England. We've been bang on trend with Thirteen Reasons Why and Big Little Lies airing at the same time as we were reading them yet nothing really hit the spot. That was until Eleanor. It's time once again for the Big Review and this time its of 2017!!!!!!!
January started with Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. A slim read to lead us into 2017 which scored a 6.8 by the group. The blog also features the book that wasn't actually reviewed - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
February was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi. Very wide ranging scores for this potential emotional roller coaster but the book never really delivered the sucker punch I was expecting and it averaged a 6.
Next up was our second book by Lianne Moriaty - Big Little Lies scoring a strong 8.3 but was it as good as The Husband's Secret? I didn't think so, others disagreed. For those of you who are interested Big Little Lies will be returning for its second series next year.
Nocturnal Animals was April's offering by Austin Wright, again wide ranging scores but only averaged a 5. Looking back I think this is the one that disappointed me the most, the beginning had so much potential yet the main character was so weak.
I have no idea how The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry managed to score an 8. It was not one I enjoyed but the group thought otherwise. It does however win the award for best book cover:
The very English and quite enjoyable Their Finest by Lissa Evans was June's book of the month but only averaged a 6.
July was The Couple Next Door's turn which we rated so highly I forgot to blog about it!
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher was one of our first #PassItOn books (anyone found one yet?) and scored 5.5 in August despite it being simultaneously aired on Netflicks.
The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan was September's read which I read in a tent in the Outer Hebrides whilst potty training a two year old. Ah the memories. It scored a 6.5
Another attempt at a local book was tried for October - Broken Silence by Danielle Ramsay which came off better than our last attempt by scoring a 6.5
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was November's book of the month and to be quite honest easily wins our Book of the Year Award. It scored a very strong 9
Which just leaves A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig as our December offering (One rule of book club - we review a Christmas book in December). We scored this one a festive 8.5 making it surprisingly one of our highest scorers of the year.
So our three highest scorers were Eleanor Oliphant, A Boy Called Christmas and The Essex Serpent (I grossly disagree). Our lowest scorers were Nocturnal Animals, Thirteen Reasons Why and The Couple Next Door which is probably about right.
I always find when writing the review of the year there is one book I had completely forgotten about and for me it was Their Finest. That's not to say it was one of our worst books, it wasn't, and now that I've re-read my post about it I can remember really liking the story and Bill Nighy's involvement. However I had completely forgotten at the time of writing that this had been one we had reviewed this year. The group however nominated Broken Silence as the one most people forgot which is surprising given how recently we had reviewed it.
The last word in what seems to have been a year of slightly below average must go to Eleanor, not because we have had slim pickings but because it really is a quite excellent book. I'm looking forward to it being published in paperback and seeing a whole new wave of people being introduced to her. Happy New Year Eleanor, I hope it's a good one for you.
Our chosen books have certainly been wide ranging, from golden oldies such as Agnes Grey and The Thirty Nine Steps to our first ever hard back, Eleanor Oliphant. We've had the true story of a doctor tragically dying from cancer to the filming of a (fake) true story in 1940's England. We've been bang on trend with Thirteen Reasons Why and Big Little Lies airing at the same time as we were reading them yet nothing really hit the spot. That was until Eleanor. It's time once again for the Big Review and this time its of 2017!!!!!!!
January started with Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. A slim read to lead us into 2017 which scored a 6.8 by the group. The blog also features the book that wasn't actually reviewed - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
February was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi. Very wide ranging scores for this potential emotional roller coaster but the book never really delivered the sucker punch I was expecting and it averaged a 6.
Next up was our second book by Lianne Moriaty - Big Little Lies scoring a strong 8.3 but was it as good as The Husband's Secret? I didn't think so, others disagreed. For those of you who are interested Big Little Lies will be returning for its second series next year.
Nocturnal Animals was April's offering by Austin Wright, again wide ranging scores but only averaged a 5. Looking back I think this is the one that disappointed me the most, the beginning had so much potential yet the main character was so weak.
I have no idea how The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry managed to score an 8. It was not one I enjoyed but the group thought otherwise. It does however win the award for best book cover:
The very English and quite enjoyable Their Finest by Lissa Evans was June's book of the month but only averaged a 6.
July was The Couple Next Door's turn which we rated so highly I forgot to blog about it!
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher was one of our first #PassItOn books (anyone found one yet?) and scored 5.5 in August despite it being simultaneously aired on Netflicks.
The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan was September's read which I read in a tent in the Outer Hebrides whilst potty training a two year old. Ah the memories. It scored a 6.5
Another attempt at a local book was tried for October - Broken Silence by Danielle Ramsay which came off better than our last attempt by scoring a 6.5
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was November's book of the month and to be quite honest easily wins our Book of the Year Award. It scored a very strong 9
Which just leaves A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig as our December offering (One rule of book club - we review a Christmas book in December). We scored this one a festive 8.5 making it surprisingly one of our highest scorers of the year.
So our three highest scorers were Eleanor Oliphant, A Boy Called Christmas and The Essex Serpent (I grossly disagree). Our lowest scorers were Nocturnal Animals, Thirteen Reasons Why and The Couple Next Door which is probably about right.
I always find when writing the review of the year there is one book I had completely forgotten about and for me it was Their Finest. That's not to say it was one of our worst books, it wasn't, and now that I've re-read my post about it I can remember really liking the story and Bill Nighy's involvement. However I had completely forgotten at the time of writing that this had been one we had reviewed this year. The group however nominated Broken Silence as the one most people forgot which is surprising given how recently we had reviewed it.
The last word in what seems to have been a year of slightly below average must go to Eleanor, not because we have had slim pickings but because it really is a quite excellent book. I'm looking forward to it being published in paperback and seeing a whole new wave of people being introduced to her. Happy New Year Eleanor, I hope it's a good one for you.
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