All About Books discussion

This thread is where you can post your favorite book each month . You can create your post with the template below . At the end of each month when you edit your post , send a post telling us that you have updated it . For anyone interested , it's a good way to share our favorites . Since this is already June , you can start at the end of the month or fill in the previous months if you like .

Copy the template below, and each month come back and edit your post with the favorite book you read that month. Then you pick out of those 12 for your favorite book of the year.

January -
February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year -

I have been doing this since the beginning of the year in another group so here are my favorites so far :

My favorites for 2015 :

January -A Land More Kind Than Home
February -A Slant of Light
March -A Little Life
April -The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
May -Church of Marvels
June -Circling the Sun
July - Language Arts
August - Thirteen Ways Of Looking
September -So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
October - The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories
November -Fallen Land
December -Mr. Ives' Christmas

Best of the year -A Little Life

Angela, great idea. THIS is doable, picking my ten best books ever isn't!

My favorites so far:
January: Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

February: The Vagabond

March: Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

April: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962

May: Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

June: An Owl on Every Post

July: Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

August: The Marriage of Opposites

September: I am cheating. I cannot decide between Up in the Old Hotel and Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs. I also have the feeling I should have given both 5 stars.

October: A Little Life

November: Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva

December: The Penguin Lessons

Best of the year: Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

My favourites of 2015

This is still tough, but easier to pick than favourite ever books!

January - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
February - Lady Chatterley's Lover
March - Selected Poems of Langston Hughes
April - Suffragette: My Own Story
May - The Enchanted
June - Giovanni's Room
July - Girl With a Pearl Earring
August - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
September - The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
October - The Autobiography of Malcolm X
November - The Fishermen
December - Emma (the only book I read)

Best of the year - Tough call, lots of great books, but it might be Girl With a Pearl Earring

It was easy for me since I have in another thread this group a list of the books I have read this year AND their ratings. Piece of cake.

I like this idea! Much easier than wading through a year's worth of books.

January - The Winter Crown
February - The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan
March - The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
April - A Family Of Kings: The Descendants Of Christian Ix Of Denmark
May - In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette Runner up: The Blue Castle
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year -

Chrissie wrote: "It was easy for me since I have in another thread this group a list of the books I have read this year AND their ratings. Piece of cake."

Chrissie, I think you're right. Ask me my favourite ten books on a topic or subject, and I can come up with a list. The other -- well, I'd be still trying to decide, as I read all sorts of things.

Thanks, Angela. A nice idea. I've still ended up with 2 titles for March. I'll try to stick to the rules for the rest of the year!

January - Independence Day
February - Skylark
March - Embers and The Song of Achilles
April - The Lay of the Land
May - Duet
June -The Way Of The Women
July - Zuleika Dobson
August -Kokoro and The Sense of an Ending
September - Light in August
October - The Little Grey Men andQuicksand
November - Nora Webster
December - Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories

Best of the year - Embers

Gill , I've done that in my other group when I can't decide . We can be flexible here . ;)

I started doing this in my monthly progress reports (at Angela's excellent suggestion). Here's my list so far:

January - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
February - A Spool of Blue Thread
March - A Little Life
April - A History of Loneliness
May - The Children's Crusade
June - Little Bastards in Springtime: A Novel
July -Red Lightning
August -The Small Backs of Children
September - Storytelling Apes: Primatology Narratives Past and Future
October -The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories
November - My Life as a Mermaid, and Other Stories
December - Juventud

Best of the year - A Little Life

Here are my favorite reads I've read so far this year from all the books I read each month (I'll edit this list as I get done with each months reads these are my faves that I've read from January through June):

January -The Paragraph Ranch Three Graves Full To Curious Heights The League of Protectors Misery

February -The Wise Man's Fear
Libriomancer Codex Born Empty Bodies: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Dystopian Survival A Wrinkle in Time Firefight

March -The Blue Castle Little Brother Suicide Forest A Death The Queen of the Tearling A Monster Calls Sirius

April -The Rosie Project What the Night Knows The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency The Second Heart Enzan: The Far Mountain: A Connor Burke Martial Arts Thriller Living Hell Illusion
My Life With The Walter Boys

May -Warbreaker Room Before I Go To Sleep The Crane Wife The Rithmatist Circus Galacticus Born of Defiance Island of the Blue Dolphins Wildwood The Adventures of an Imagination Zero Is The Key The Under Dog: A Short Story The Shining Divergent

June -Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale, The Isle of the Lost, Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror, May B., The Mother-Daughter Book Club, Skin Game, What Lies Within, Snitch, Rest In Pizza, The Girl with All the Gifts

July -Beastly, The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights, The Color Purple, Quick Silver, The Orion Ghost, Dying to Dream, The Christmas Train, The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence, Blue Dahlia Boom Town

August -The Invasion of the Tearling The Last Princess Much Ado About Anne Ordinary Grace Bone Cold Warriors of the Black Shroud Unbound

September -Cinnamon, Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane,The Wednesday Wars, The Light That Failed
October -The Halloween Tree, The Sorrows,Draculas
November -So...I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse and All I Got Was This Podcast, The Genius Wars, Dear Pen Pal, Pies & Prejudice, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, The Day the Crayons Came Home

December -The Snow Child, Waiting for the Magic, Sway, Nanny X, Mile 81, Suspect Zero, The Dream Merchant, Home for the Holidays, Down Among the Dead Men, Gregor and the Marks of Secret , Watership Down, The Rosie Effect, and The Shoe Box: A Christmas Story

Best of the year- I enjoyed them all

My favorite books of 2015, by month:

January - A House in the Sky
February - Code Name Verity
March - The Year of the Flood
April - The Alienist
May - Life As We Knew It
June - The Passage, runner-up: The Road
July - The Martian
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year (so far) - Code Name Verity

Chrissie wrote: "It was easy for me since I have in another thread this group a list of the books I have read this year AND their ratings. Piece of cake."

Me too, but some months were still hard to decide which book I liked best. I should have cheated like Gill ;)

I'll give this a try. I am so wishy-washy that I have a hard time picking just one some months!

January - The Three Musketeers
February - Men at Arms
March - Strange Shores
April - Cloud Atlas
May - The Remains of the Day
June - Long Day's Journey Into Night
July - A Civil Campaign
August - The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
September - Barchester Towers (but not the Librivox recording) & The Mousetrap
October - The School for Scandal or 84, Charing Cross Road
November - How Green Was My Valley
December - Jingo or David Copperfield {reread}

Best of the year - so hard to choose! I am going with How Green Was My Valley as I think that this is a book that will stay with me but I had the most fun reading A Civil Campaign.

My best book of each month:

January - The Night Guest
February - The Power Of One
March - Gilead
April - Cloud Atlas
May - The Children Act or The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
June - The Remains of the Day
July - Heft
August - The Handmaid's Tale
September - The Paying Guests
October - The Martian
November - The Enchanted
December - Circling the Sun

Best of the year - possibly The Remains of the Day??

Leslie, you have cheated too! In fact so has Rebecca with her runner up and Amber, your list is just huge! Haha and there was me trying really hard just to pick one book for each month. I should have known everyone would have too much trouble trying to narrow things down!

It's really interesting to see which books everyone has picked though :)

Great idea!
Here are my favorite reads of the year by month:

January: The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr 4-star
February: Amnesia Moon and The Door 4-star
March: Peace Like a River 5-star
April: Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal 4-star
May: The Casual Vacancy 4-star
June: Kafka on the Shore 4-star
July: A Man Called Ove 5-star
August: Death Comes for the Archbishop 5-star
September: Blood and Bone 4-star
October: Almanac of the Dead 4-star (verging on 5-star; very well written)
November: Amsterdam 5-star (Love Ian McEwan's writing)
December: Ready Player One (this may change before the end of the month but it's unlikely)

Favorite book of the year: Peace Like a River

I'm stalking all of your favorites of the year and adding to my TBR list. :D

Thanks Pink, I read a lot of books per month so had to narrow it down to my faves for each month.

Rebecca wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "It was easy for me since I have in another thread this group a list of the books I have read this year AND their ratings. Piece of cake."

Chrissie, I think you're right. Ask me m..."

:0)

Pink wrote: "Leslie, you have cheated too! In fact so has Rebecca with her runner up and Amber, your list is just huge! Haha and there was me trying really hard just to pick one book for each month. I should ha..."

Actually, I think it was harder to do retrospectively. My intentions are entirely honourable for the coming months!

Great idea. I'm lucky in that I only read 3-4 books a month so much less to chose from!

January - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
February - Wolf Hall
March - Chocolat
April - The Light Fantastic
May - Holy Fools
June - Giovanni's Room
July - A Man Called Ove
August - The Handmaid's Tale
September - The Paying Guests
October - none
November - The Girl on the Train
December - Round the Christmas Fire: Festive Stories

Best of the year - A Man Called Ove

Nice idea!

January - People of the Book 5*
February - Youth Without God 5* and My Childhood 5*
March - The Family Carnovsky 4*
April - none
May - The Good Earth 4*
June - none
July - The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation 5*
August - none
September - Midnight's Children 5*
October - none
November - Tempo di seconda mano. La vita in Russia dopo il crollo del comunismo 4*
December - none

Best of the year -

March and May are only 4* books because I haven't read 5* books, and in April I haven't read good books so I've added two 5 stars in February.

Pink wrote: "Leslie, you have cheated too! In fact so has Rebecca with her runner up and Amber, your list is just huge! Haha and there was me trying really hard just to pick one book for each month. I should ha..."

It is so hard to compare some of my books -- for example, I loved both Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms and Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems but it is apples and oranges. How can I say one is better than the other when they are so completely different?

I know Leslie, it's almost like having to choose my favourite cat!

January - Bleak House by Charles Dickens
February - The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
March - The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
April - Half Wild by Sally Green
May - The Spider in the Corner of the Room by Nikki Owen
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year -

Leslie wrote: "Pink wrote: "Leslie, you have cheated too! In fact so has Rebecca with her runner up and Amber, your list is just huge! Haha and there was me trying really hard just to pick one book for each month..."

You're right, it was very hard to choose! Finished updating mine up to May now. Leslie, I see you have already completed your June favourite!

It was quite hard to choose, so I picked the ones that really stood out to me from my lists.

January  Helen Simpson Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
February Anne B. Ross Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind
March  Pierre Hadot,  Esercizi spirituali e filosofia antica
April Emile Zola The Joy of Life
May Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day
June Charlotte Link La casa delle sorelle
July Harper Lee Go Set a Watchman
August Hawkins Paula  La ragazza del treno
September Jennifer Worth Chiamate la levatrice
October Elisabeth Howard The Light Years
November Jhumpa Lahiri  The Namesake

I love all the different books.

What I like with this is that you don't just get the famous titles we all recognize!

Angela, thank you.

Chrissie, you are welcome . I thought of this when we were doing our top ten list because I think this is a bit easier to do . Although I do sometimes have a hard time choosing between two books that I really liked . ( We can cheat and list two !)

It's interesting to see everyone's selections.

Angela M wrote: "It's interesting to see everyone's selections. ."

I agree. It is also interesting to see what particular people prefer in genre.

Pink wrote: "I know Leslie, it's almost like having to choose my favourite cat!"

:)

Great idea Angela!

January - The Hours
February - The Remains of the Day
March - Ready Player One
April - All the Light We Cannot See
May - Cloud Atlas
June - Giovanni's Room
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Thanks , Greg , but I can't take credit . It's from another group , but I'm glad I suggested here . It's been interesting to see people's selections .

Well, Greg, I agree with you about Giovanni's Room but NOT All th e Light You cannot See. I felt I was generous in giving it two stars. JUST how I felt personally. ;0)

Oh, and I liked The Hours too.

I went ahead and filled in June, I don't think I will read a better book this month.

January - Tell the Wolves I'm Home
February - The Martian
March - Mademoiselle Chanel
April - The Book Thief
May - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
June - All the Light We Cannot See
July - We Are Called to Rise
August - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and Seabiscuit: An American Legend
September - Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
October -Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story
November - Cutting for Stone
December - The Shadow of the Wind

Best of the year - It's a tie! Seabiscuit & The Boys in the Boat

Chrissie wrote: "Well, Greg, I agree with you about Giovanni's Room but NOT All th e Light You cannot See. I felt I was generous in giving it two stars. JUST how I felt personally. ;0)

Oh, and I liked The Hours ..."

We do agree on a lot, but I guess we can't agree on everything Chrissie :)

I liked the vivid, metaphorical language of All the Light We Cannot See, and I was definitely drawn in by the characters, particularly the blind girl. I really enjoyed it!

My 12 favorite books of the year are:

January - What Alice Forgot
February -All the Light We Cannot See
March -The Last Letter from Your Lover
April -The Girl You Left Behind
May - Sarah's Key
June -The Book Thief
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Best of the year -

Greg wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Well, Greg, I agree with you about Giovanni's Room but NOT All th e Light You cannot See. I felt I was generous in giving it two stars. JUST how I felt personally. ;0)

Oh, and I..."

Look at all the people who have listed it here. YOU are not alone. It is me that is weird.

Chrissie, I'm reading All the Light We Cannot See next month, so I'll see if it makes my favourite book of the month, or if I'm just weird like you ;)

Good luck, Pink.

Pink wrote: "Chrissie, I'm reading All the Light We Cannot See next month, so I'll see if it makes my favourite book of the month, or if I'm just weird like you ;)"

I've got it on order from the library as well!

I read All the Light We Cannot See last year and it was my favorite for May , 2014 . That doesn't mean I'm not weird , though !

Angela, no, no, no. It is the people like me who dislike it who are the weird ones. You have it backwards.

No , Chrissie, I mean we are all probably weird in our own way . :)

Sandy , I'll be doing the same thing ! So many good suggestions.

Great idea, glad that I kept an updated list for the year handy. I love to see what other people read and liked, we are all so different in tastes! but Sandy is right, going through the list is bound to make my TBR longer.

I'll stick to the rule of one per month so here are my faves:

January -Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman
February - Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
March -Chocolat by Joanne Harris
April - A History of Roman Art by Fred S. Kleiner
May - The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
June - Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky
July - Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

My monthly favorites of 2015:

January- The Three Musketeers
February- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
March- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
April- Oliver Twist
May- War and Peace
June- The Hobbit
July- The Lord of the Rings
August- A Tale of Two Cities
September- Crime and Punishment
October- Anna Karenina
November-
December-

Favorite book of 2015-

Great idea!

January - Daughter of Fortune
February - A Handful of Dust
March - The Martian
April - A House in the Sky
May - The Robber Bride
June - The Silent Wife
July - Howards End
August - The Stone Diaries
September - The Island
October -
November -
December -