The death of David Bowie on January 10th was a shock to many people, including me, and 2016 did seem to provide us with more than usual ‘famous deaths’. It’s been a big year in politics, too. But here’s my personal take on the past 12 months:
Best book moment: Holding Chosen Child for the first time, followed very closely by holding the brand-new Ward Zero. (But Chosen Child has a prettier cover, so it gets first mention.)
First foreign edition: Une Mer Si Froide was published in summer, also with a very cool cover. My bookshelf is growing…
Worst weather: We had the wettest year of the decade here in N.E. Switzerland, and our lake promptly overflowed. (And stayed overflowed for several weeks.)
Most accurate weatherforecaster: The Böög. It took 43 minutes before his head exploded last April, which meant we could expect the worst summer ever. (The summer wasn’t bad, actually, it was spring that was so wet…)
Best holiday: Visiting Prague. My new third favourite city. (Behind Glasgow and Edinburgh.)
Best decision: Adieu Chevy Spark. I sold my car in September, and I can honestly say I haven’t regretted it for a second.
Closely connected to this – Best purchase: My polka-dot shopping trolley.
Best reads: I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d have liked, but Elly Griffith’s The Woman in Blue was a highlight, as was Extraordinary People by Peter May.
Most-read blog post: This one! And yes, it’s a ‘writing’ post, but it’s more than a little tongue-in-cheek…
Favourite tweet:
Best graffiti: The school diagonally opposite my flat opened after an 18 month build. At the Open Day, I was delighted to see they’d ‘recycled’ the graffiti from the perimeter building site fence. All my old favourites are now up in the children’s cloakrooms.
And that was my 2016. I’ll have some very exciting – and very different – 2017 book news next week, but until then, I’ll wish everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2017 – and thanks for sticking with me! 🙂
linda huber 
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