The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

It is time we started taking nominations for our annual best of the year poll. We will give you until Sunday 14th December to nominate up to three favourite books, then we can run dynamic rankings for the rest of the year (and maybe beyond that). Please use this thread to nominate.

As in previous years we will allow books first published in English in October to December 2024 or 2025, and for translations the earliest date (1 Oct 2024) may be a first English edition of an older book, no matter how old. Dead authors are allowed, as are dead translators. The start date rule may be waived for books which were very little known last year and were not on last year's list.

Note that my preference is that books published in 2024 should only be nominated if you read them for the first time this year, but that is just guidance, as I have no intention of trying to check (sometimes it takes a while for books to find the right readership, particularly when prize judges surprise us).

If you are an author or translator, please DO NOT nominate your own works.

When nominating, please link to the book using "Add book/author" in desktop mode. If you can't manage that please include the author's name, since a title alone may be ambiguous or difficult to find thanks to the vagaries of the GoodReads search function (not to mention the librarian bots that get titles and authors wrong).

Let's try and keep this positive - a celebration of what has been good rather than an opportunity for airing old grievances.

These are the nominations so far, alphabetically by title (up to Emmeline, 60 books so far):

The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel (10/4/2025, Anna)
Aerth by Deborah Tomkins (25/1/2025, Erin)
And Notre Dame is Burning by Miriam Robinson (7/8/2025, Paul)
Anima Rising by Christopher Moore (13/5/2025, Peter)
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (5/8/2025, Peter)
Audition by Katie Kitamura (8/4/2025, Gumble's Yard)
Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen (23/10/2025, Ruben)
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine (19/6/2025, Gumble's Yard)
Blood Book by Kim de l'Horizon (28/8/2025, endrju)
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien (8/8/2025, Erin)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (18/3/2025, Lark, CJ)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okarafor (14/1/2025, Shahar)
Deep Breath by Rita Halász (27/5/2025, Rose)
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (6/5/2025, Joy)
Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan (23/1/2025, Rose)
Discontent by Beatriz Serrano (2/9/2025, victoria)
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (1/4/2025, Shahar)
Eden's Shore by Oisin Fagan (10/4/2025, Gary)
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (13/5/2025, Gary)
Endling by Maria Reva (3/6/2025, Joy, CJ)
Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn (17/7/2025, Joe)
Flesh by David Szalay (6/3/2025, Anna)
Gloss by Kyra Wilder (24/2/2025, Anna)
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin (15/4/2025, Emmeline)
Helm by Sarah Hall (28/8/2025, Hugh)
House of Fury by Evelio Rosero (4/2/2025, Rachel)
Ibis by Justin Haynes (11/2/2025, Bella)
Lili is Crying by Hélène Bessette (22/7/2025, Rachel)
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (23/9/2025, Margaret)
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (13/5/2025, Shahar)
The Mind Reels by Fredrick DeBoer (7/10/2025, Rose)
The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey (17/6/2025, Lark)
Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell (30/1/2025, Joy)
North Star by Ethan Rutherford (11/3/2025, Bella)
Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter (20/3/2025, endrju)
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (12/8/2025, Paul)
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (13/3/2025, Sam)
One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (25/2/2025, Henk)
Pan by Michael Clune (22/7/2025, Sam)
The Pawn by Paco Cerdà (10/6/2025, Ruben)
The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa (18/3/2025, Paul)
The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje (19/6/2025, Ruben)
Restoration by Ave Barrera (26/8/2025, Rachel)
Ripeness by Sarah Moss (22/5/2025, Bella)
A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland (13/3/2025, Joe)
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (17/7/2025, Hugh)
A Short Introduction to Anneliese by James Elkins (24/6/2025, endrju)
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing (11/11/2025, Henk)
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (8/8/2025, victoria)
Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje (8/7/2025, Erin)
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (24/3/2025, victoria)
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (18/3/2025, Margaret)
Twist by Colum McCann (6/3/2025, Margaret)
The Two Roberts by Damian Barr (4/9/2025, Joe)
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (16/1/2025, Henk)
Universality by Natasha Brown (4/3/2025, Gumble's Yard)
We Do Not Part by Han Kang (21/1/2025, Sam,CJ)
We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose (5/8/2025, Peter)
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown (20/2/2025, Hugh,Garry)
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood (23/9/2025, Lark)

My nominations:

Seascraper
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh
Helm

I nominate:

Nesting
Endling
The Director

Wow 6 brilliant choices. I will add

Universality
Audition
The Benefactors

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
The Möbius Book
Will There Ever Be Another You

This an odd year for me. I did not find many new books that were top ten reads compared to years past. My best reads have been far and away older books. Even books I liked and rated five stars don't have much appeal now. So I will just list some favorite reads that I am still remembering.

We Do Not Part Han Kang
Pan Michael Clune
One Boat Jonathan Buckley

Small Boat
Discontent
Sky Daddy

We Do Not Part
Ibis
North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

From the list above:

We Do Not Part
Helm
One Boat

I nominate:

The Book of Records
Aerth
Slanting Towards the Sea

Bella (Kiki) wrote: "We Do Not Part
Ibis
North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

From the list above:

We Do Not Part
Helm..."

We Do Not Part was nominated by Sam, so feel free to choose another

I nominate:

Endling
We Do Not Part
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

CJ wrote: "I nominate:

Endling
We Do Not Part
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter"

All three of these have already been nominated. All nominated books go through to the rankings phase, so you could change these nominations without affecting their chances.

I love this exercise. My top-3 are all European translated novels this year (after discounting The Director I read before):

The Remembered Soldier - Daanje
Beasts of the Sea - Turpeinen
The Pawn - Cerdà

Hugh wrote: "Bella (Kiki) wrote: "We Do Not Part
Ibis
North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

From the list above:

We Do Not Part
..."

Thank you, Hugh

Ripeness

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose

Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

My favs:

Blood Book by Kim de l'Horizon

Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter

A Short Introduction to Anneliese by James Elkins

I'll nominate -
Every One Still Here – Liadan Ni Chuinn
The Two Roberts – Damian Barr
A Room Above A Shop – Anthony Shapland

Many of my favorites have been nominated, so I'll add:
Disappoint Me
Deep Breath
The Mind Reels

For me, excluding those already nominated:

And Notre Dame Is Burning
On Earth As It Is Beneath
The Place of Shells

The Benefactors
Endling
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

My favourites of the last year :
Death of the Author
A Drop of Corruption
Marble Hall Murders

House of Fury by Evelio Rosero
Restoration by Ave Barrera
Lili Is Crying by Hélène Bessette

Margaret wrote: "The Benefactors
Endling
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny"

The first two of those were already in the list, so feel free to change them

great nominations already! in addition, for me, it's

Gloss
Flesh
The Accidentals

Just tried the useless GR book search and neither Gloss nor The Accidentals find anything that looks relevant. Adding a link or the author's name makes the admin so much easier and quicker.

Google suggests Kyra Wilder for Gloss, and Guadalupe Nettel for The Accidentals, so I'll go with those for now.

So sorry Hugh! Yes, these are correct. I will add authors next time. Thanks for checking them for me.

Thanks Hugh, and apologies, I should have checked more carefully.
I will change those two for
Twist by Colm McCann https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Eden's Shore by Oisin Fagan
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Hugh wrote: "Just tried the useless GR book search and neither Gloss nor The Accidentals find anything that looks relevant. Adding a link or the author's name makes the admin so much easier and quicker.

Google..."

Goodreads is very wobbly this morning.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

Garry wrote: "Eden's Shore by Oisin Fagan
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong"
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh was already on the list, so you could choose another.

I don't have three that I would nominate for best after others' nominations are taken into account, but I will add:

Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin