Cambridge Library Online Bookclub discussion

Though it isn't as good as reading an actual book, we all love trawling the internet in search of booklists. What better use of internet time spent away from books than looking up more books!

Obviously, Goodreads has a lot of good ones for all genres, occasions, and moods, but we're wondering what's been making you tick so far this year? Let us know 1 or 2 (or 10!) books that have been your favourite so far this year.

Here's a whole bunch of booklists for you to peruse and check out what other people have been enjoying so far:

Best Books of 2014 So Far

Amazon Editor's Picks:
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&n...

Readers' 10 Best Books (so far) at the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/book...

Time Magazine's List:
http://time.com/2815951/best-books-of...

Bookriot's List:
http://bookriot.com/2014/07/07/best-b...

BookPage's List:
http://bookpage.com/the-book-case/165...

Paste Magazine's List:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles...

Book Smuggler's List:
http://thebooksmugglers.com/2014/06/t...

Hours of entertainment and possible recommendations!! Enjoy ;)

I haven't read too many books released this year, myself. I did thoroughly enjoy Kevin Powers' book of poetry Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: Poems (also check out his début novel of a few years ago: The Yellow Birds. Quite Brilliant). I am looking forward to getting stuck into Dave Eggers' new one, as well as Murakami's lastest. I have mostly stuck to older books that I've owned for a while and never got around to reading. Of these though, my winners and high, high recommendations go to:
Look Homeward, Angel
The first two My Struggle books by Karl Ove Knausgård
The Origin of the Brunists
Giovanni's Room (anything Baldwin tends to be bitingly visceral and so very beautifully written).
:)

Also, Vollmann's The Royal Family. One of the best and most desperately real books I've ever read, but assuredly not for the faint of heart.

The Yellow Birds is a great novel, one of the best in recent years in my opinion.

I haven't read too many published this year but most I've read have been pretty good.

I'm really liking Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, definitely an imaginative writer. Other books I quite liked :-
The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith.
Night Film - Marisha Pessl
The hundred-year house - Rebecca Makkai

I'm also looking forward to reading The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin Anderson, I had a great time reading his previous novels in this series.

One benefit of (obsessively?) tracking what books I've read is to be able to easily see what books I've read that have come out this year.
I've only read two books published this year, Skin Game by Jim Butcher and Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte. I rated both books 4 stars.

Darren wrote: "The Yellow Birds is a great novel, one of the best in recent years in my opinion.

I haven't read too many published this year but most I've read have been pretty good.

I'm really liking Ancillary..."

Yeah, I've heard Leckie's Ancillary Justice is excellent. I'd like to read it.

So I'm getting through a few of the chunkier books that have been released this year, and I felt I had to add them here. Being:

Robert Coover - The Brunist Day of Wrath (sequel to The Origin of the Brunists that I mentioned above).
William T. Vollmann - Last Stories and Other Stories.
These=epic,thoughtful,&beautiful.

I also just finished Ali Smith's How to be both, which was quite excellent, if a little inconsistent throughout.
Read 'em.

(PS. These will be worth a looky, looky.
Denis Johnson - The Laughing Monsters
Richard Ford(!!) - Let Me Be Frank With You
Marilynne Robinson - Lila)

(PPS. Also, for Bolano fans, Una novelita lumpen is out!)

**all of these books are either in the library now, or are on order from our suppliers.

Here's just a few more lists for you to scroll through, and add books to that good old friend (or haunting devil) the "to-read shelf".

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

-R

Ernest wrote: "One benefit of (obsessively?) tracking what books I've read is to be able to easily see what books I've read that have come out this year.
I've only read two books published this year, [book:Skin ..."
Ernest, I've heard interesting things about that Jim Butcher novel. Would you say it's more Steampunk or just classic sci-fi?

Helen wrote: "Ernest wrote: "One benefit of (obsessively?) tracking what books I've read is to be able to easily see what books I've read that have come out this year.
I've only read two books published this ye..."

Helen, that particular Jim Butcher book (and indeed that series in general) is urban fantasy. The Dresden Files series is well worth reading, with it being one of, if not the best, series I have read in the last few years. The first few books may seem a bit standard, but the larger overarching story really starts picking up from about book 4 onwards.