My Top 5 Books of 2017

After my mammoth — but not always enjoyable during the home strait — effort to read 200 books last year, I decided not to strive for any particular total this year. Inevitably, though, as I neared the 150 mark, I did my best to reach this figure, although 'only' managed 148. Here are my five favourites, as well as five more that almost made my shortlist (some of these also featured in my summer reading list).

1. The Unseen World by Liz Moore. Meticulously plotted and researched, moving and thought-provoking, Moore's novel follows 12-year-old Ada Sibelius as her father David — a brilliant but eccentric pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and a director of a computer science lab in Cambridge, MA — begins to develop signs of dementia. The race is then on for Ada to discover the secrets locked inside his mind, but it's more of a marathon than a sprint, as the novel edges through the 1980s to the present day, with a few hops back to the 1920s and 1930s. As someone whose day job involves the communication of science — including recent developments in computer science and AI — I found the themes covered here most interesting, but at its heart, The Unseen World is a complex, richly portrayed family drama with a fascinating mystery at its core.

2. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. Quinn's novel weaves together the stories of two women connected through the real-life Alice Network — a network of about 100 female spies posted by the British Army and MI6 in northern France during World War One — in a compelling work of historical fiction. In 1915, Eve Gardiner is recruited into the network and posted in a small town in northern France. Eve is trained up by Lili — based on the real-life Louise de Bettignies, the so-called 'queen of spies' whose code name, Alice, gave the network its name. Her assignment is to gather as much information from the occupying Germans as possible and feed it back to her handlers, a perilous job in a town where collaborators and spies abound. Thirty years later, Charlie St. Clair, an unmarried, pregnant American student, comes to Europe with her mother, but takes off to search for her beloved cousin Rose, who went missing in France during World War Two — a search which soon connects her with Eve. Both Eve and Charlie make flawed but courageous heroines and once I got into The Alice Network, I was gripped by both stories.

3. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo. Set mainly in the first decade of the 20th century in New York City, Santopolo's novel is a beautifully written, intense and often devastating love story. Columbia students Lucy and Gabe meet on 9/11 and, after a couple of false starts, fall in love. But Lucy soon struggles to compete with Gabe's all-encompassing desire to become a photographer, forcing her to make some very tough decisions. With convincing dialogue, and believable, if sometimes frustrating, central characters, The Light We Lost is a fantastic debut novel.

4. Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito. I read a lot of legal thrillers and Persson Giolito's story about a teenage girl awaiting trial for her involvement in a mass shooting at her exclusive prep school was smart, gripping and satisfyingly twisty. If you enjoy novels with unreliable narrators, this fast-paced novel will keep you guessing as to whether our intelligent, knowing narrator Maja is indeed as innocent as she claims or whether we should believe a word she says.

5. Sourdough by Robin Sloan. A young woman from the Midwest — Lois, a gifted programmer — takes a job at a San Francisco-based robotics company but before long, finds herself becoming an obsessive sourdough baker in her spare time. So far, so standard. But if you've read Sloan's previous novel, you won't be surprised to find that the sourdough, and the novel itself, have been proved with a hefty dose of quirkiness and magical realism. Sourdough is a delightful, clever and unpredictable novel, which is particularly enjoyable for those who have lived in or visited San Francisco.

And now, here are five more books, which didn't quite make my top five this year but which I enjoyed a great deal:

• Startup* by Doree Shafrir. A darkly comic, smart and keenly observed cautionary tale set in New York's fast-paced, social-media-saturated tech startup world.
• The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter. An intelligent, well-plotted thriller about a small-town lawyer who is caught up in a violent crime that drags up memories of the violent crime that tore apart her own family almost 30 years earlier.
• This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay. Often funny, sometimes sad and always keenly observed and thought-provoking, writer and comedian Kay's memoir of his former career as a junior doctor is an absolute must-read.
• The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. Ware has a real knack for producing tense, twisty psychological thrillers and her latest, in which four women who were once inseparable during their boarding-school years reunite to prevent past secrets from becoming present-day nightmares, is no exception.
• Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. One of the few non-fiction books I've read this year, Stephens-Davidowitz's work is an eye-opening dive into big data — and particularly the behavioural insights that can be gleaned from online search engines — making it essential reading for anyone who uses Google.

My full 2017 reading list is as follows (re-reads are in italics):

• The Parrots — Alexandra Shulman
• Big Brother — Lionel Shriver
• America's First Daughter — Laura Kamoie and Stephanie Dray
• The Couple Next Door — Shari Lapena
• Selection Day — Aravind Adiga
• Bloodline — Conn Iggulden
• Arctic Chill — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Geek Love — Katherine Dunn
• 4 3 2 1* — Paul Auster
• Midnight's Children — Salman Rushdie
• Hypothermia — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Any Human Heart — William Boyd
• Almost Missed You* — Jessica Strawser
• When She Was Bad — Tammy Cohen
• Seven Days — Deon Meyer
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter — Kim Edwards
• Cell 8 — Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström
• The Carrier — Sophie Hannah
• See Jane Run — Hannah Jayne
• The Three — Sarah Lotz
• High Crimes — Joseph Finder
• A Separation — Katie Kitamura
• See Jane Run — Joy Fielding
• The Kite Runner — Khaled Hosseini
• Lasting Damage — Sophie Hannah
• Little Deaths — Emma Flint
• Always a Bridesmaid (for Hire) — Jen Glantz
• Outrage — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Little Face — Sophie Hannah
• The Other Half Lives — Sophie Hannah
• The Truth-Teller's Lie — Sophie Hannah
• Everything You Want Me To Be — Mindy Mejia
•  The Point of Rescue — Sophie Hannah
• A Room Swept White — Sophie Hannah
• Kind of Cruel — Sophie Hannah
• The Telling Error — Sophie Hannah
• The Narrow Bed — Sophie Hannah
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan— Lisa See
• The Idiot — Elif Batuman
• The Lake of Dreams — Kim Edwards
• Did You See Melody?* — Sophie Hannah
• The Death of Lucy Kyte — Nicola Upson
• Black Skies — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Kiss Mommy Goodbye — Joy Fielding
• The Mind's Eye — Håkan Nesser
• Half of a Yellow Sun — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Longshot — Katie Kitamura
• See How They Lie — Sue Wallman
• Now You See Her — Joy Fielding
• Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes
• Japanese for Travellers — Katie Kitamura
• Missing Pieces — Joy Fielding
• Startup — Doree Shafrir
• East of Eden — John Steinbeck
• Five Star Billionaire — Tash Aw
• New Boy* — Tracy Chevalier
• Into the Water — Paula Hawkins
• Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
• Quicksand — Malin Persson Giolito
• My Husband's Wife— Jane Corry
• Strange Shores — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Woman No. 17 — Edan Lepucki
• Fingersmith — Sarah Waters
• The Burning Girl* — Claire Messud
• Good Intentions — Joy Fielding
• The Rules Do Not Apply — Ariel Levy
• The Keeper of Lost Things — Ruth Hogan
• Borkmann's Point — Håkan Nesser
• The First Time — Joy Fielding
• Don't Cry Now — Joy Fielding
• The Weight of Lies — Emily Carpenter
• Testimony — Scott Turow
• Camino Island — John Grisham
• The Edge of Lost — Kristina McMorris
• Tell Me No Secrets — Joy Fielding
• Life Penalty — Joy Fielding
• The End We Start from — Megan Hunter
• The Light We Lost — Jill Santopolo
• She's Not There — Joy Fielding
• The Dry — Jane Harper
• Sunday Morning Coming Down* — Nicci French
• He Said/She Said — Erin Kelly
• The Lying Game — Ruth Ware
• The Power — Naomi Alderman
• The After Party — Anton DiSclafani
• Place of Execution — Val McDermid
• Scienceblind —Andrew Shtulman
• Blood Sisters — Jane Corry
• Little Boy Lost — J.D. Trafford
• The Girlfriend — Michelle Frances
• The Informationist — Taylor Stevens
• My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
• Sometimes I Lie — Alice Feeney
• Don't Close Your Eyes — Holly Seddon
• Charley's Webb — Joy Fielding
• The Unseen World — Liz Moore
• The Good Daughter — Karin Slaughter
• The Good Widow— Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
• If I Die Before I Wake* — Emily Koch
• Beautiful Animals* — Lawrence Osborne
• The Locals — Jonathan Dee
• Lies — T.M. Logan
• Gather the Daughters — Jennie Melamed
• The Missing Ones — Patricia Gibney
• The Deep End — Joy Fielding
• The Alice Network — Kate Quinn
• Every Last Lie — Mary Kubica
• Close to Home* — Cara Hunter
• The Child in Time — Ian McEwan
• The Diplomat's Daughter— Karin Tanabe
• Lost — Joy Fielding
• Sourdough — Robin Sloan
• The Blackbird Season — Kate Moretti
• Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro
• Her Every Fear — Peter Swanson
• Heartstopper — Joy Fielding
• Bluebird, Bluebird — Attica Locke
• The Last Tudor — Philippa Gregory
• Prague — Arthur Phillips
• City of Friends — Joanna Trollope
• Mad River Road — Joy Fielding
• The Vegetarian — Han Kang
• The Sparsholt Affair — Alan Hollinghurst
• Amsterdam — Ian McEwan
• Snow Falling on Cedars— David Guterson
• The Girl Before — JP Delaney
• The Dying Game — Åsa Avdic
• The Good Guy — Susan Beale
• Bonfire — Krysten Ritter
• Reykjavik Nights — Arnaldur Indriðason
• Saints for All Occasions — J. Courtney Sullivan
• In Between Days — Andrew Porter
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Shirley Jackson
• Two Kinds of Truth — Michael Connelly
• Still Life — Joy Fielding
• The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983–1992 — Tina Brown
• The Vanishing Season— Joanna Schaffhausen
• The Ice House — Laura Lee Smith
• Ferocity — Nicola Lagioia
• The Secrets She Keeps — Michael Robotham
• The Marriage Pact — Michelle Richmond
• The Foster Child — Jenny Blackhurst
• This Is Going To Hurt — Adam Kay
• Good Me Bad Me — Ali Land
• Are You Sleeping — Kathleen Barber
• Since You Fell — Dennis Lehane
• Persons Unknown — Susie Steiner
• The Kitchen God’s Wife — Amy Tan

* Disclaimer: I received pre-release review copies of books marked with an asterisk from NetGalley. Receiving a review copy of a book influences neither my decision to review it nor my opinions of it in any reviews I do write.

My Top 5 Movies of 2017

The flip side of all the travel I've been doing this year is that I've had only limited time (and money) to spend on movies. Some of long-haul flights I took did allow me to catch up on films that I wanted to see at the cinema this year, but I only managed 18 cinema visits, and saw a further 18 films (some of which were re-watches) at home or on planes or buses. I did my best to see as many of this year's major releases as I could and also caught a few indie films, especially when prompted my free (preview screening) or cheap (Peckhamplex) tickets. Next year, I'm going to try to do better.

1. Moonlight. I went to see Barry Jenkins' remarkable film — which chronicles in a clever triptych structure the youth of a gay, African-American male growing up in the projects in Miami — at New York's iconic Angelika Film Center not quite knowing what to expect. Or, rather, I thought I knew exactly what to expect, but Jenkins confounded my expectations with its beautiful, melancholy and utterly moving coming-of-age tale. The performances are powerful, the three distinct sections fit together perfectly and this genre-defying film stayed with me for days. By turns heart-breaking, uplifting, intimate and all-encompassing, Moonlight gripped me throughout its 1h50 running time and left me wanting to spend more time with the central character in Jenkins' harsh but sensual world.

2. Dunkirk. Like Moonlight, Christoper Nolan's Dunkirk is also a story in three parts, but this time they are intricately interwoven and — because this is Nolan — they also take place over different timescales that range from one hour to one week. The central story is the odds-defying evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers during the titular World War II battle. Owing in part to the fact that World War II was covered in neither my GCSE history nor A-level (early-modern) history syllabuses, it wasn't a story I knew much about before watching the film, but I think that made Nolan's storytelling even more dramatic. There are some fantastic performances, including from RAF pilot Tom Hardy's sole visible eye, shellshocked soldier Cillian Murphy and especially Mark Rylance who, as usual, steals every scene in the most understated of ways as the skipper of one of the hundreds of civilian boats that were crucial in the rescue operation. Visually stunning and with a haunting score from Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk was rather overwhelming and definitely the kind of film you should watch on as big a screen as possible (I saw it at the Gloucester Cinema in Massachusetts, a rather low-tech venue where I also happened to see Jurassic Park, some 24 years earlier).

3. Call Me By Your Name. I had hoped to watch Luca Guadagnino's Italy-based coming-of-age story at the London Film Festival, partly because I was so impressed with Armie Hammer's performances in the two films I saw him in during last year's festival, Free Fire and Nocturnal Animals but I couldn't get a ticket. Instead, I finally caught up last week at a packed screening at the Peckhamplex. In the film, 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is spending another summer with his academic parents at their villa in a small northern Italian town. Each summer, Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg) hosts a graduate student at the villa as a research assistant and this year, it is the turn of tall, handsome, confident Oliver (Hammer). Over the course of the summer, the friendship between Elio and Oliver grows, as does Elio's own confidence and sense of self, gently encouraged by his cultured, liberal parents. Call Me By Your Name is beautifully shot and perfectly captures those lazy dog day afternoons of the southern European summer. It's a slow-burner, for sure, but builds up momentum without you noticing, and by the time it reached its crushing conclusion, I was completely captivated. Both Hammer and Chalamet were very good, and there's a certain monologue during the final act that Stuhlbarg nails.

4. The Death of Stalin. Armando Iannucci's darkest of dark comedies, The Death of Stalin, was just what the world needed in 2017. The film offers a depiction of Stalin's final days and the chaotic aftermath of his death, as his advisors circle, posture, plot and betray. It is a funny film, and there is a cracking script that crackles with energy, as well as some top-notch performances (Isaacs and Buscemi were particularly good) from the ensemble cast, most of whom seem have impeccable comic timing. Of course, many of the laughs are more nervous chuckles at the absurdity of what is happening, and at times, you do wonder whether it's even appropriate for you to be laughing (which is precisely the point Iannucci is trying to make, I'm sure).

5. The Handmaiden. Not to be confused with The Handmaid's Tale, Chan-Wook Park's film The Handmaiden is based on a novel by Sarah Waters called Fingersmith, although I only found this out after watching the film. Park's most famous film Oldboy is an all-time favourite of mine and I also enjoyed his English-language film Stoker. Based on these past experiences, I was expecting The Handmaiden to be both twisty and violent and it certainly delivered. It's hard to say too much about the plot without spoiling the film, but it centres around two young women in 1930s Japan-occupied Korea. One woman is a wealthy heiress, who is kept in isolation by her uncle on her large estate. The other is hired as her handmaiden, but has other intentions and plans for the heiress too. At almost 2h30 long, The Handmaiden kept me gripped throughout with its clever, unexpected volte-faces, leaving the viewer in a constant state of uncertainty about whom to trust and with whom to sympathise. Park is a master storyteller and this film is well worth seeking out.

NB: I did later read Waters' novel, but enjoyed it somewhat less than the film — perhaps because I knew what was coming.

The complete list of films I watched this year is as follows (re-watches are in italics:

- Silence
- Children of Men (home)
- Sing Street (home)
- Hidden Figures
- Boys Don't Cry (TV)
- Lion
- Hacksaw Ridge
- State of Play (home)
- Jackie
- Hell or Highwater (plane)
- Florence Foster Jenkins (plane)
- Moonlight
- Elle
- Personal Shopper
- Fargo (home)
- The Handmaiden
- My Cousin Rachel
- Olympus Has Fallen (home)
- To the Bone (home)
- Inception (home)
- Loving (plane)
- Fences (plane)
- Dunkirk
- The Circle (home)
- A Ghost Story
- Mother!
- Breathe
- Battle of the Sexes
- Blade Runner 2049
- Baby Driver (plane)
- Hunt for the Wilder People (bus)
- Logan (plane)
- Bad Moms (plane)
- The Big Sick (plane)
- The Death of Stalin
- Call Me By Your Name

A Year in Leaps: 2017

2017 has been my busiest ever year for travel. I spent 84 days outside the UK on 12 foreign trips, some for business but most for pleasure. 30 of these days were spent on a sabbatical in Australia and New Zealand. I visited five new countries and ten countries in total: the Czech Republic (Prague); France (Paris and Cannes); Germany (Cologne); Italy (Padua); Norway (Oslo); Spain (Barcelona); the United States (New York, Boston, Cape Ann and Maine); Singapore; Australia; and New Zealand.

Bex's Food and Drink Awards: 2017 Edition

2017 has been a particularly fine year for coffee, food and cocktails for me, partly because I've travelled to diverse destinations with copious coffee and culinary delights. Remind me not to work on next year's list on an empty stomach: reviewing so many food and drink photos gave me quite the appetite!

The Caffeine Chronicles: Coal Rooms, Peckham

You might not want a lump of coal for Christmas but conversely, a lunch at the Coal Rooms in Peckham is an infinitely more appealing proposition. Peckham's Old Spike Roastery and Camberwell's Spike & Earl have long been favourites of mine, but because I've been travelling so much this autumn, it's taken me a while to visit their newest sibling, which opened in August. Occupying the former ticket office in Peckham Rye station, Coal Rooms consists of a series of three rooms, moving from the bakery and take-out-coffee spot in the first chamber, to the stools at the sleek black marble bar overlooking the kitchen in the middle, and the bright, minimalist dining room at the back.

Some fellow south-east London friends and I visited for brunch at the weekend and really enjoyed it. We booked a table (which is always a pleasant novelty), although as we were there fairly early on a rainy, winter's day, we probably didn't need to. We had a great table in the corner of the main dining room, seated at the comfy teal benches that skirt the room. The room is light and sparsely, but attractively, decorated. Although I didn't take any photos, the bathrooms — located in the station's former public facilities and retaining most of the period features — are well worth a visit even if you don't need to spend a penny.

The Saturday brunch menu erred on the breakfast end of the spectrum, which is just as it should be. There were three brunch cocktails and I was tempted by the bloody Caesar but stuck to coffee, as I've been fending off a cold for the past fortnight. Coffee is from Old Spike, of course, and the menu simply proposed black (£2.25) or with milk (£2.65). Of course they serve espresso-based drinks but in the absence of a piccolo prompt on the menu and distracted by the food choices, I defaulted to ordering a black coffee, which turned out to be an americano. It was pretty nice but had I thought more carefully, I would have ordered an espresso or perhaps a piccolo. One of my friends ordered a flat white later on, which looked rather good.

Most of the brunch dishes sounded great — the hash brown with kimchi and kimchi mayo, and the bubble and squeak with smalec, fried egg and plum brown sauce, in particular — but I had heard such great things about Coal Rooms' bacon sandwiches (£5), with coffee-cured bacon and homemade ketchup or brown sauce in a custard bun, that I had to go for that. I went for streaky bacon and ketchup, and also ordered a fried egg on the side.

Now, they must have been out of custard buns, although no one said anything to us, because the sandwich came on two ginormous slices of sourdough bread. This was so little of a disappointment — I mean, it was a half-foot-tall sandwich! — that I didn't even notice until later. I would still like to try the custard bun another time, particularly after enjoying the Dutch crunch sandwich at Spike & Earl. The bacon was delicious and flavoursome and came in a very generous portion. Seriously, this was a very challenging dish to eat, but well worth the effort. I ended up using my knife and fork because I don't think it's physiologically possible to eat it by hand without unhinging your jaw. This bacon sandwich definitely merits its rankings among London's best bacon sarnies, and although I probably wouldn't have guessed that it was coffee-cured if I hadn't already known, the coffee did add a rich, full-bodied twist to the meat.

We did almost regret not ordering the full English for two (£30), which came served on a huge platter of deliciousness, but our 'modest' main course meant that we had room for a pudding. The pudding was a millionaire's shortbread (£6), with rich chocolate sauce, brown butter caramel, crumbled shortbread and 'waste barista milk ice cream' (yes, we are in Peckham). It came served in a cup with the logo of the premises' former occupants, Fat Boy, and once all the layers were mixed, it tasted heavenly.

On the way out, we paused in the café room to look at the Old Spike coffee (whose packaging remains one of London's most beautiful) and merchandise — the Old Spike socks, packaged in a tin, would make a particularly good gift for the hipster in your life. There are a few pastries and sweet treats on offer here, waiting patiently underneath the Christmas tree.

Coal Rooms. 11a Station Way, Peckham Rye Station, London, SE15 4RX (Peckham Rye Overground). Website.

A Winter's Day in Bath

As I mentioned in my recent Bath coffee guide, I've been wanting to return to the city for several years, but the expensive train fares (often over £75, even off-peak) from London — no matter how far in advance I tried to book — have always discouraged me. Finally, though, I secured a £29 day trip ticket and headed off on the Friday before last for a wintry day in the city.

Bath: A Specialty Coffee Tour

Other than school history and Latin trips, my only other visit to the city of Bath was in summer 2002, on a pre-university weekend trip with my then boyfriend. I was working in a sandwich/coffee shop at the time and had begun to get into good coffee, but no memories of Bath's coffee — good or bad — have stood the test of time. Fifteen years later and Bath has become quite the specialty coffee destination.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Over Under Coffee, Soho (CLOSED)

UPDATE (March 2019): This location of Over Under is now permanently closed, although you can still visit them in Earls Court and West Brompton.

Since talking to the good folks of Assembly Coffee at the London Coffee Festival in the spring, Over Under Coffee in Earl's Court has been on my coffee to-do list. I knew it would take me some time to find an opportunity to go that far west, however, and so it was fortunate that Over Under opened a second, more central location instead. I have often used Ham Yard as a cut-through between Great Windmill and Denman Streets just north of Piccadilly Circus, and as a over Over Under II, I now have an excuse to linger there instead of rushing through.

The Soho Over Under opened a few weeks ago while I was out of the country and it made the perfect pit-stop during my West End Christmas shopping on Saturday. As well as the Ham Yard Hotel, where I've been for a few meetings and events, there are some lovely shops in sleek, understated Ham Yard.  Over Under is on the right-hand side as you amble up from Denman Street.

The coffee shop is small inside, with just a dozen or so seats along a comfortable cushioned bench along one wall, and a couple of tables too cold to sit in on the day I visited. My eye was drawn immediately to the décor: the beautiful, beach prints took me right back to Sydney and Bondi and the Great Barrier Reef, where I was relaxing just over a month ago. I also loved the cheery pops of yellow behind the counter, on the bench and in the yellow cups sitting on top of the sleek Slayer machine.

The food also echoed my recent antipodean trip, with diverse breakfast bowls, toasts and sandwiches on offer. Another time, I'll have to come back to try the avocado toast, simply because I can't resist menu clickbait like "micro coriander". There are plenty of vegetarian, vegan and dairy- and gluten-free choices on the menu. I had already eaten but found room for two mini toffee cakes (£1 a pop), which were sweet and just indulgent enough.

And as for the coffee, it's from Assembly, of course, and tastes fantastic. The new Colombian espresso, which I'd sampled at Lumberjack the week before, wasn't in the hopper, but my piccolo (£2.40) was absolutely beautifully brewed, with a perfect swan floating elegantly on top. It tasted great too, and was complimented well by my toffee-pudding shooters.

With its friendly staff and laid-back, beautiful café, Over Under is relaxing spot for an excellent coffee away from the Soho crowds. I still plan to visit the Earl's Court original...it just might take a while.

Over Under Coffee. 4 Ham Yard Hotel, London, W1D 7DT (Tube: Piccadilly Circus). Website. Twitter. Instagram.