Reamde is a Neil Stephenson book, but not one I’ve read.
News of the World will be a movie as well starring Tom Hanks.
Wonderful book and I look forward to the movie.
Francis Spufford, Golden Hill - set in colonial New York, steeped in the 18th century, and a constantly engaging plot. The best historical fiction I’ve read in years.
^^^ I have that book here - one of those to-be-read books I’d like to read sooner rather than later.
Came out today. (I love playing around on the NPR Best Books site.)
Best Books of 2017: NPR
For fellow audiobook fans, Audible is having a sale. I picked up the Last Policeman series from my wish list.
This will keep you busy–huge list of best of lists:
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2017/11/online_best_of_75.html
Enjoy!
We’re readers here, so what about the best books each of us read this year. How many books did you read and which ones were your favorites? They do not have to be published in 2017.
I’ve read 60 so far this year (and will probably finish another five or so). Most were not published this year and few wowed me, though I liked a good many of the 60.
Among the ones that I loved were short story collections. This surprises me as I don’t consider myself a short story fan. Still I heartily recommend:
Best Shorts: Favorite Stories for Sharing - Avi (Technically for young readers but excellent choices.)
The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes - Lyndsay Faye (Thoroughly enjoyable)
**[color=red]*[/color=red]**Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories - Kanishk Tharoor (A well-deserved Wow!)
Graphic novel:
Paper Girls, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 - Vaughan, Brian K. (Sort of Doctor Who strange and decidedly not for everyone but thoroughly enjoyed by me.)
Novel:
News of the World - Paulette Jiles
And a special shout-out to the CC Book Club:
The Stranger - Albert Camus
and I followed two of the book club selections with autobiographical accounts:
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Harriet Jacobs
The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick - Nat Love
*These last two are definitely off the beaten path - at least for me - but am glad I read them. Both can be found online. The writing won’t wow you but I found them worth reading anyway.
Anyway a most unusual reading year for me. Look for my [color=red]*[/color=red] - it’s the book I recommend above all others. :-B
I’d love to know what others here would choose as their favorite reads this year.
I just finished Exit West by Moshsin Hamid. It was very good. Ill Will by Dan Chaon kept me reading, although it was a little disturbing.
I liked reading The Stranger as a grown up and in French that was considerably better than my high school French. I also (unlike most of the CC bookclub readers) really enjoyed the response novel by The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud.
I think my favorite book of the year was *A Gentleman in Moscow * - thoroughly enjoyable, but with surprising depths. I also really liked The Essex Serpent
I also have quite enjoyed reading Lois McMasters Bujold’s Penric novellas.
My favorite reads this year were A Gentleman in Moscow, News of the World, and - in the nonfiction category - When Breath Becomes Air. I have no clue how many books I read this year. Maybe 25 - 30.
Re post #4708, @ignatius, the number of books you read every year amazes me!
My favorite fiction book this year was The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and my least favorite was The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud. I rate those simply on the fact that the first was an unusual story with interesting and complex characters, and the second was a chore from beginning to end. I’m not sorry I read Daoud’s book—I learned a few things—but it wasn’t what I’d call pleasure reading.
The book that I would never have fully appreciated or understood without the help of the CC Book Club was The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I approached the novel far too literally and my co-readers opened my eyes to the whys and wherefores of metaphor and magical realism.
My favorite non-fiction book was Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. I wish it had been around years ago, when my parents’ health first started to decline. Reading it now, in hindsight, I can pinpoint what my family did right and what we did wrong. Overall, the tone of the book is generous and forgiving. We all eventually walk this road with our loved ones, Gawande included (which he describes in moving detail).
I just finished Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, and agree – it was very good and very useful in thinking about my dad’s upcoming (inevitable) decline, and eventually my own.
My favorites in the past year are A Gentleman in Moscow, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane and News of the World.
I have read 55 books this year and hope to hit 57, including finishing the Alexander Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow. It’s fascinating and extremely well written.
Most entertaining: Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett; Faithful Place, by Tana French; and Modern Lovers, by Emma Straub.
Most thought-provoking: The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, by Blaine Harden; The Sellout, by Paul Beatty; and The Fact of a Body, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnivich.
Best combination of entertaining and thought-provoking: The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, by Megan Stielstra; and Moonglow, by Michael Chabon.
Favorites this year: Anne Patchett’s Commonwealth, Elizabeth Strout’s Anything is Possible, and
Clare Messud’s The Burning Girl. I’d never read any of Mesud’s books–after reading this one, I went back and read her other 6 novels. I’ve read 42 books this year and will probably finish 2 more by the end of the year.
I’m not sure how many books I listened to this year. I’m scrolling through the Audible app, and I can’t remember what was 2016 and what was 2017. If I finish one per month, that’s a good pace for me, with all the podcast listening I do as well.
If pressed, I’d say my favorites this year, in no particular order were:
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown,
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik,
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Why Buddhism is True: The Science & Philosophy of Meditation & Enlightenment by Robert Wright.
I just finished Silent Child by Sarah Denzil. I don’t recommend it. The best thing about it was the narrator. I thought it had a lot of promise that was wasted. I wish I could rewrite it.
I probably read about 100 books this year. Gentleman in Moscow was my fav. I did a lot of re-reading books this year…not a lot of new books in the SF&F genre that rocked my boat.
Isn’t it amazing how many people just loved A Gentleman in Moscow? So gratifying for the author to get that kind of response! But perhaps a little daunting to think of the inevitable comparisons when he produces his next work.(“Towles latest is no Gentleman in Moscow, but…”)