The Next Best Book Club discussion

What book have you read so far this year that has stood out for you?

Mine is 3 lol. Can't decide.

1. Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
3. In The Red - Alexis Hall

Good question, Fiona. I can't decide either! My top 3 literary fiction would be:
1. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
2. The Reader - Bernhard Schlenk
3. Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris

And my top chick lit picks would be:
1. Scot on the Rocks - Brenda Janowitz
2. Love the One You're With - Emily Giffin

So I guess that's my top 5 of the year! :)

Its weird Jen, when u think of all books u have read in the year, which you would recommend to re-read again and again lol.

Here's mine - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Does anyone in the UK have a copy of this I can borrow, so I can see what all the hype (lol) is about?

Just one I read recently
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Try the library, Titch, that's where I got mine.

Thanks hun xx

Laura, I wanna cry. Our copy is out now til 8th January. So I might read it nxt year when I have done the Winter Challenge.

My favorites for the year are Double Bind and The 13th Tale.

I also vote for Guernsey!!

Do you and Fiona live close to each other? Cuz I think she recently checked it out from the library, and is now thru w/it.

Lisa, I have 13th Tale - Diane Setterfield here lol.

No, I live in Northamptonshire and she lives in another part of the UK lol.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

mine is a tie.

1. the thirteenth tale
2. the book of lost things

Mine is also a 3 way tie:

Life of Pi
The Book Thief
The Thirteenth Tale

They were all so brilliant in different ways - I really cant pick a favourite

I would have to say “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. It was the first book of 2008 that I read, and it ended up being the best!

The Kite Runner.... Khaled Hosseini

Long Way Gone... Memoirs of a Soldier Boy... Ishmael Beah

Jonathan Strange - that was a good one Susanna!

Fiona, I am so ... I don't know... happy that Prodigal Summer is on your list!

Becoming a Tiger: How Baby Animals Learn to Live in the Wild. That's a 7-star book.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

I can't pick just one either! So, here's the top 4 out of everything I've read this year:

Red River by Lalita Tademy
Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Here are the books I rated a 5 out of 5 this year.

The Lost Boy-Dave Pelzer
A Lifetime Burning-Linda Gillard
Kane & Abel-Jeffrey Archer
Sudden Prey-John Sanford
A Special Relationship-Douglas Kennedy
Thinking of You-Jill Mansell
Certain Girls-Jennifer Weiner
The Broken Window-Jeffrey Deaver
Infidel-Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Prisoner of Birth-Jeffrey Archer
Audition-Barbara Walters
The Ciderhouse Rules-John Irving
Nadia Knows Best-Jill Mansell
Sunset Express-Robert Craise
Those Who Save Us-Jenna Blum
The Three Miss Margarets-Louise Staffer
The Brass Verdict-Michael Connelly


It was a VERY good year.....

My five books would be:

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
3. Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffenegger
5. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
2. Mistress of the Art of Death, The Serpent's Tale, and City of Shadows--all three by Ariana Franklin, my new favorite author
3. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer
5. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny
6. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
7. The Pact and Nineteen Minutes--both by Jodi Picoult
8. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
9. All of the Southern Vampire series with Sookie Stackhouse (Dead Until Dark, etc.) by Charlaine Harris
10. The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid
11. Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
12. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
13. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
14. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
15. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

It's been a very good year for reading.

I also chose the ones that I gave 5/5 this year (I left even a few off here as I think as the year has gone on I no longer feel I would have given 5 stars to something if I re-read it):

1. The Aeneid of Virgil
2. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
3. Dvorak in Love by Josef Skvorecky
4. The Balkan Trilogy by Olivian Manning
5. Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford
6. Stories of Breece D'J Pancake
7. Ancestral Shadows by Russell Kirk
8. Anabasis by Xenophon
9. Nadja by Andre Breton
10. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
11. Good Benito by Alan Lightman
12. A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
13. A World Away by Stewart O'Nan
14. Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams

I am not finished yet, but know that 2666 by Roberto Bolano will be on the 5-star list also by the time I am done; it likely ranks highest on the list even, as it surpasses everything else I've read this year in both scope and vision.

Hmm, you have 2 of my faves on there, Heather, looks like I have to consider Lace Reader now!

Guernsey and Blindness

Amazing when someone has read a book that u have on ur shelves and recommends lol.

I just finished rereading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - always a favorite of mine.

Gravediggers Daughter - Joyce Carol Oates

Limiting it to novels released in 2008, for me it is a tie between The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and Serena by Ron Rash. Instant classics IMHO.

Hmmm... Would be unfair for me to put hubby's book here - although I feel that way about it. I think I too will have to go with Gursney and I just looked it up on Amazon to see if it qualifies (i.e published in 2008) and it does! It's doing well too look at these rankings...

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical
#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary
#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States

Wife of GR author: Michael J. Sullivan | The Crown Conspiracy (10/08) | Avempartha (04/09)

I forgot The Heretic's Daughter. Also, Heather, I really liked The Lace Reader. It's what led me to The Heretic's Daughter, the whole Salem and witches thing. It was interesting to see the modern day Salem in The Lace Reader and the witch hunt day of The Heretic's Daughter.

The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

El, You have The Stolen Child on your best book list; wasn't that a great and intriguing book? I haven't heard anyone else mention it yet, and I thought it was so good!

Cindy, I absolutely adored The Stolen Child when I read it earlier this year. It embodies everything I like (in a literary sense) and the characters were so fascinating. I would love more people to read it and talk about it. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up and I am generally wary of new writers, but I certainly am glad now that I did read it.

i've never heard of the stolen child, but it looks like i'll have to look into it.
i'm heading off to the library in a few minutes- hopefully they'll have it available!

I totally agree El. I may have to 'reread' it as it's been a while and I couldn't remember enough to have a discussion about it. Except I do remember being pleasantly surprised!

It's funny. While I was reading it, I wasn't that crazy about The Life of Pi. After several months, I find myself thinking about it. I like it better now than when I was actually reading it.

My top three were The Book Thief, The Thirteenth Tale and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

My very favorite is The Book Thief.

Favourite book published this year -

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

The Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
and
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I've given so many books 5/5 on my 2008 shelf here, but I think the ones which I loved the most were:

1. The Last Town on Earth - Thomas Mullen
2. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
3. A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

I also gave 5-star ratings to:
Dying Voices - Laura Wilson
Second Glance - Jodi Picoult
Love in the Present Tense - Catherine Ryan Hyde
Dancing with Eva - Alan Judd
The Island - Victoria Hislop
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
Lucky Girl - Fiona Gibson
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Come Away With Me - Sara MacDonald
Empress Orchid - Anchee Min
The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
Marshmallows for Breakfast - Dorothy Koomson
Rush Home Road - Lori Lansens
Property - Valerie Martin
Me and Emma - Elizabeth Flock
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - Rebecca Wells
Seeing Redd - Frank Beddor
Studentdom - Matt Stuart (non-fiction)
Little Men - Louisa May Alcott
The Story of the Treasure Seekers - E. Nesbit
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
& some kids books.

My favorites that I have read this year:
Mercy-Jodi Picoult
Second Glance-Jodi Picoult
My Sister's Keeper-Jodi Picoult
A Field of Darkness-Cornelia Read
The Book Thief-Markus Zusak
Middlesex-Jeffrey Eugenides

I've read so little this year that my choices are limited...
I really liked The New Yorkers, C Shine, strange but nice, oddly inconclusive, but it didn't matter.
Best Mystery, The Art of Detection, by Laurie King.

The ones I gave 5 stars too this year are:

The Bonesetter's Daughter- Amy Tan
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
The Red Tent- Anita Diamant
His Dark Materials Trilogy- Philip Pullman

Heather, I hope you enjoy The Heretic's Daughter. Let me know what you think about it.

Hayes, have you read anything else by Laurie King? I love her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. She's coming out with a new one in this series this coming Spring, and I'm so excited.