Cover to Cover Challenge discussion

I finished my 144.

I'm almost at a loss as to what to read next. What book was "The Best Book You Read All Year?"

Journeywoman

Oh My! I had several. I think it is a tie between &

Difficult - but I think the one that stands out the most is Mistress of the Art of Death

The first 4 in the series are excellent.

I forgot to list mine.



Room by Emma Donahue

Mine for 2010 was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is almost impossible to answer, I lucked out with so many excellent books this year.

However, one suggestion I highly recommend is The Imperfectionists - an excellent, endearing, and enrapturing book.

For fun & mystery I would vainly recommend any of the Spellman books by Lisa Lutz and the Flavia De Luce series by Alan Bradley

There are so many that it is hard to pick a favorite. I just finished the first one in the Maisie Dobbs series, called Maisie Dobbs, and it is definitely at the top of my list. I can't wait to read the sequels. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, Garden Spells, and The Last Time I Was Me are also tied for number one, though.

I have a few:
The Black Dagger Brotherhood series - JR Ward - I only have 1 to go that I am goign to read in December - they have all been 5 stars for me with the exception of one which was 4

The Cookbook Collector - loved it
City of Veils: A Novel

Ok, I think I"m going to have to go with Beast Behaving Badly simply because it was so funny. Since the end of Sept I've been having some family problems (my 83 y.o. Mum fell and broke a couple of ribs--which led to my brother and I finding out just exactly how bad off she was mentally and physically) As a result of that fall, I've spent a LOT of time sitting in hospitals since. Five hospitals in 3 different states, to be exact. My Mum accounted for 4 of those 5 hospitals. But my hubby was the 5th one. It seems that while sitting in hospital with my Mum he picked up a VERY nasty and agressive staph infection. Took 2 operations to get cleaned up and he's now at the "bored out of his gourd" stage of healing, with at least another couple of weeks to go before he's allowed to do anything.

Anyway--as a result of all this upset, Beast and the rest of the books in this interlocking series, has helped me keep up my spirits. Mainly because the characters are just ssooo funny.

I think my favorite that I read this year so far...would be I think The Last Song...but I am only now just really delving into books again since it has been years since I really picked up books consistently.

I really likedThe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and Fall of Giants. Fall of Giants, I'll acknowledge, was flawed. But, what held it together and made it a wonderful book was that Follett has a gift for creating characters you care about. He is one of the few male writers that writes women well- in the sense that he can make women flawed, complex, contradictory without making them seem "less".

I've read SO many good books this year: the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher, Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews and too many other good ones to go through them all!

I loved Cutting for Stone, The Prince of Tides, and Every Last One. It's too hard to just pick one out of 144!

I read a lot of good books this year but the Hunger Games trilogy was my favorite.

I have only read the first 2 in trilogy but they are on my list of best books this year as I am sure the 3rd will be. Another great read was . I can't wait for the next one. Also, , and were great.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a great book but a bit heavy so there was also The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Cloud Atlas

Wicked Appetite and Fat Chance were both a lot of fun

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Ok, I think I"m going to have to go with Beast Behaving Badly simply because it was so funny. Since the end of Sept I've been having some family problems (my 83 y.o. Mum fell and br..."

Aww, sorry to hear about your family ills. Glad to hear they are better. I love Shelly Laurenston and agree that BBB was hysterical and great choice for a favorite book of the year. I talk her up so much, I swear people thinks she owes me money, lol.

My favorite this year is the Kate Daniels series Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds etc by Ilona Andrews. I think I've re-read all the books,like, twice this year.

Shelly Laurenston's, Dragon series she writes as G.A. Aiken, Dragon Actually, What A Dragon Should Know, etc. are a very, very close second.

I don't have just one book that I loved this year. I had several and they were in series.

I would agree with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for a really good lighter read (awesome on audio) and The Book Thief for a heavier read.

I agree with Carrie on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, such an informative read and I just couldn't put it down. Tiffany, The Book Thief was one of my favourites this year too.

A few of my favourites this year: Nikolski (a wonderful adventure story told in pieces, a Canadian book), Slaughterhouse-Five, A Single Man (loved the movie & decided to read the book as well), The Things They Carried, & The Tea Rose (kept me riveted, great storytelling).

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society hands down!

I too loved Guernsey. In fact, I just passed it over to my daughter with orders to "read it". Like she wouldn't. lol, I raised her right. :o) My grandkids are also readers, despite being teenagers AND male. They still read a lot, and enjoy books. Even if they won't admit it in public.

The books I enjoyed the most this year were:

Fiction - Sarah's Key, The Help, & The Doctor's Wife

Non-fiction - two ends of the spectrum in terms of how families care for one another - most dysfunctional family The Glass Castle, loving family - Making Toast.

Along the way some new heroines - Flavia DeLuce, Sweeney St. George & Lisbet Salander

Old favorite characters - Jake Reacher, Stone Barrington, Dillon & Sherlock

Best Essays - At Large and At Small

Anathem by Neal Stephenson was by far my favorite this year!

I loved The Help - by far the best book I read this year

The Help will have to be a 2011 read for me.

My favorite was The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and also I LOVED the Fever series by Karent Moning

I read several books that I liked so much I re-read them immediately. They were:
Anansi Boys
The Graveyard Book
Oryx and Crake

That is a hard question. I would say either The Red Tent by Anita Diamont or the series by Steig Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl who Played with Fire/The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest.
Of those 3 I think I liked The Girl Who Played With Fire the most. But they are excellent!
As is The Red Tent... I will re-read that over & over again in my lifetime.

Grace wrote: "I read several books that I liked so much I re-read them immediately. They were:
Anansi Boys
The Graveyard Book
Oryx and Crake"

I have had Oryx and Crake on my bookshelf for years. It was good?? I have a habit of getting 5 or 6 books at once & then I build up shelves worth that I need to read... continue bringing books home - and some wait for a while. I will pull it down & put it in the "next" pile. (notice I said pile and not just Next. I literaly have 10 books on my nightstand waiting for me.

Julie wrote: "I have had Oryx and Crake on my bookshelf for years. It was good??"

Yes, I thought it was amazing - but, it won't appeal to everyone. It's a cautionary tale about what could happen if genetic engineering were to advance without any thought or concern for the consequences.

Atwoods "Year of the Flood", published in 2009, is set in the same 'timeline' (i.e. runs parallel to Oryx and Crake) and expands on the story. If it turns out that you enjoy "Oryx and Crake", be sure to read "Year of the Flood".

Thanks! I have pulled the one and put the other on my list!!!

So hard to pick one, but if I had to: Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada.

My favorite this year is The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

I love Michael Connelly. The Scarecrow was good. Connelly is a favorite of mine. I can never wait for the paperback!!

Deeper than the Dead byTami Hoag. It was a great murder mystery.

I believe was my absolute favorite for 2010. I can't wait for the next book for 2011!

So many great books... The Help, The Hunger Games (and the rest of that series!!), The Glass Castle, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Forgotten Garden, Thirteen Reasons Why, and The Wednesday Letters were some of my favorites, although it was had to narrow it down to that list!!! HAHAH!!! :)

Oops... forgot Sarah's Key! That was fabulous too!!

Some of the best books I read this year were:

The Passage by Justin CroninThe Passage
Dancing for Degas by Kathryn Wagner Dancing for Degas
the Hunger games series by Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset
the Dragon Tattoo series The Millennium Trilogy
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak The Book Thief
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin A Game of Thrones

There were so many books I loved last year. I think my favorites were from my favorite series. (I'm a big sucker for series) I think my favorites were - The Lion by Nelson DeMille (John Corey series), Broken by Karin Slaughter, The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver and probably 61 Hours by Lee Child

In 2010 I read 111 books. Much better then I did in 2009 (which was only 29).

If I had to pick the top 5 books I read this year they would likely be:

1. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
2. City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane
3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
4. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
5. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward

I'm not going to think too much more about this because I will probably just change my mind a hundred times.

The best book I read in 2010 was actually a series. It was Dean Koontz's Frankenstine series.

For 2010, the best book I read was a tie between 2 :The Singapore Grip and The Siege of Krishnapur, both by the late J.G. Farrell
So far in 2011, my vote goes to:
Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill

The best books I read in 201o were:





A Hope Undaunted is the first in a new series by Julie Lessman, but it continues the family drama started in her first trilogy, the Daughters of Boston. The daughters of boston series are the best!

Carrie wrote: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a great book but a bit heavy so there was also The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Cloud Atlas
..."

Good to know. The Immortal Life is on my list. I loved Potato Peel Society.

My fav this year so far is The Discovery of Chocolat

Deborah wrote: "My fav this year so far is The Discovery of Chocolat"

That sounds interesting, Deborah. I've recently read
Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury..very interesting history of the big chocolate firms in UK, US and Europe.

The best book I have read in the past month, well actually I can't choose between 3 and they are Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen, Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.