The Mole's Top Ten books of 2016

My reading list for the year is never as extensive as Maryom's (in the main part because she reads a great deal faster than me) but that doesn't mean that I didn't read some fantastic books as well. I have reviewed my year and extracted the best although there were many others that only just missed out.

In no particular order....

Carrying The Fire - Michael Collins

I grew up at the height of the space race and was caught, for much of my youth, by the wonder and promise that the space race seemed to offer. I avidly read any newspaper articles or watched TV programmes that even vaguely touched on the subject. Originally published in 1974 and republished 40 years later, this book gives a great deal of insight into the space program and Mike Collins - the man.

The Climb - Chris Froome

I became most interested in cycling because of my father-in-aw who watches it avidly and assumes everyone else does too. There's a magic to the Tour de France that can easily catch you and drag you in and our youngest has caught the bug. This book tells the story of the rise of this young rider who had no privileges to help him along the way yet still went on to win the greatest bike race of all time.

It's Just The Chronospehere Unfolding As It Should - Ira Nayman

I have read a few books by Ira Nayman and they all have a zany humour that closely matches my own but this one is his best to date - In My Opinion.

Girl In Danger - Leigh Rusell

The second Lucy Hall Mystery and it feels very much that Lucy has come of age. A great second novel in the series.

Happy Birthday Old Bear - Jane Hissey

Old Bear is one of those story book characters that I shared of lot of time with as our youngest was growing and somehow he, and his friends, remain kind of special to me.

The End - Fifteen Endings to Fifteen Paintings - edited by Ashley Stokes

Short stories are things I generally enjoy a great deal and this collection is unusual because fifteen paintings were created with one thing in common - The End was part of the picture and fifteen authors then wrote short stories that the images inspired - a project that worked wonderfully.

The Book of Ralph - Christopher Steinsvold

This quirky SciFi novel surprised me immensely and I was surprised we didn't hear a great deal more about it.

The King's Revenge - Philip Womack

The last of the trilogy brought the story to a conclusion(?). A book every bit as good as the first in the trilogy and that's frequently not the case.

North of Porter by Kirkland Ciccone

As ever Ciccone has produced a quirky and extremely entertaining novel that has become his trademark. Once again this is probably his best to date.

Talisman - Paul Mudoch

A story of wizards and magic and well meaning friends, family and neighbours.
Book 1 in The Peck Chronicles and now book 3 has been published. It was very much the characters that won me over in this book but we can all be swayed by the fantasy of magic.

Warning Cry - Kris Humphrey

Rather negligently I didn't read the first in this series but was swept along by this story and the concept of a series where there is little character interchange between the books - although the chronology and overall arc does move forward. A great read. Book One's title involved wolves at a time when wolves were appearing on so many book covers which is why I overlooked it.