Here are the books I enjoyed reading the most in the past year. They fall into various categories of fiction and non-fiction, old and new, and are listed in the order that I read them. The only thing they all have in common are that they are generally positive and upbeat!
I Remember Nothing by Norah Ephron © 2010 – some quite humorous essays
The Man of the Desert by Grace Livingston Hill ©1914 – inspiring characters, excellent Christian romance
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen (fiction) by Siri James © 2008 – absolutely incredibly awesome.
The New Year © 1968, by the amazing Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature – characters of strength and integrity – a perfect marriage is rocked by a letter from 12-year-old Korean son of wartime romance
Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything that you Love by Barbara Sher © 2006 – thank you Barbara for saying that scanners are unique and intelligent and valued!
The Year Without a Purchase by Scott Dannemiller © 2015. Hilarious! And it does have some good solid advice and thoughts for people addicted to buying.
Venetia by Georgette Heyer © 1958. Humorous Victorian romance – one of her very best!
The Sojourner © 1958 by Marjorie Rawlings, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Yearling – wonderful, I reviewed this here.
Selected Stories by P.G. Wodehouse © 1958 – even the author’s foreword is funny, every story is laugh-out-loud hilarious (to me, anyway!).
Charmed Particles: A Novel by Chrissy Kolaya ©2015 – a theoretical physicist, his wife and daughter assimilating into suburban America, the last great gentleman explorer and his politician wife and their precocious daughter; all living near the superconductor supercollider in Illinois. Fascinating on so many levels, I couldn’t put it down (a debut novel—wow!).

And for a few more, here is my post from last year: Positive Uplifting Humorous Reads
What are YOUR favorites?
Happy New Year of Reading in 2018!
******
Images:
Thanks to ulleo at pixabay for the creative commons photo of book heart https://pixabay.com/en/book-pitched-book-pages-browse-1975830/
U.S. writers that rank highly on my favorites’ list are Saul Bellow and Joyce Carol Oates. Last year, I read Bellow’s “Humboldt’s Gift” (mind-boggling, and perhaps even better than “Herzog”.) Oates was a new discovery. I read a collection of short stories (“Lovely, Dark, Deep”), and a novel entitled “Black Water”, which was very gripping. Must get more stuff written by JCO…
Carla Cécile
DO NO EVIL – READ BOOKS! (My bookseller’s motto)
Thank you Carla! I have added your recommendations to my list of books to read–I’m looking forward to them. I hope we can share more of our favorites in the future! All the best, Ramona