Reading

In preparation for our travels:

• Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds (Stephen Kinzer)
• The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People (Neil Hegarty)

Only three other nonfiction:

• To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (Adam Hochschild)
• King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Adam Hochschild)
• What It Takes: The Way to the White House (Richard Ben Cramer)

The rest were novels:

• Stoner (John Williams)
• TransAtlantic: A Novel (Colum Mccann)
• The Woman Upstairs (Claire Messud)
• Ragtime: A Novel (E.L. Doctorow)
• A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (Julian Barnes)
• The Shack (William P. Young)
• Juniper Berry (M.P. Kozlowsky)
• The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
• The Calder Game (Blue Balliett)
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 (Christopher Paul Curtis)

I have my wonderful granddaughter to thank for suggesting the last four entries in that list.

I'd recommend all these books except Transatlantic and The Graveyard Book.  I'm undecided about The Shack; I'm glad I read it, but I doubt that most people would care for it.  The best of the lot were To End All Wars and Stoner.

Update: The Shakespeare Stealer (Gary Blackwood), another of the wonderful granddaughter's suggestions, bridged the old and new year; I began it a couple days a few days after Christmas and finished it a week later.  It's good.