[quote=""eddieo396""]best book this year was city of dreams by beverly swerling.....[/quote]
I read that book years ago, bought it in NYC in my first visit. Absolutely loved it. Wish I liked the sequels more. But this one was just perfect for me, and gave me a better understanding of that great city.
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What's the best book you've read this year?
- Katherine Ashe
- Scribbler
- Posts: 26
- Joined: September 2010
- Location: beside a waterfall
I don't know that I can call it THE best book I've read all year, but The Real History of the End of the World by Sharan Newman is the funniest thing I've read since Eats Shoots and Leaves. Each item in End of the World gets about four pages of her humor and research, and has an extensive bibliography and footnotes for the serious minded. It's a mini scholarly compendium of every end-of-world belief from Gulgamesh to 2012. Newman is also the author of The Real History Behind the da Vinci Code and The Real History Behind the Templars. A useful author to know about.
Some favorites this year include (I can't pick just one!):
The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou
A Hollow Crown, by helen Hollick
Of the Ring of Earls, by Juliet Dymoke
The Creation of Eve, by Lynn Cullen
Paths of Exile, by Carla Nayland
Gildenford, by Valerie Anand
Legacy, by Susan Kay
The King's General, by Daphne Du Maurier
Henry of the High Rock, by Juliet Dymoke
Penmarric, by Susan Howatch
The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton
The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
And then pretty much all of the Elizabeth Chadwick books I read this year...
The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou
A Hollow Crown, by helen Hollick
Of the Ring of Earls, by Juliet Dymoke
The Creation of Eve, by Lynn Cullen
Paths of Exile, by Carla Nayland
Gildenford, by Valerie Anand
Legacy, by Susan Kay
The King's General, by Daphne Du Maurier
Henry of the High Rock, by Juliet Dymoke
Penmarric, by Susan Howatch
The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton
The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
And then pretty much all of the Elizabeth Chadwick books I read this year...
2010 was a bumper crop for me with books -- there were quite a few that got top marks from me:
http://www.epinions.com/review/To_Defy_ ... 2126062212 -- To Defy a King -- To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Thi ... 9552725636 -- This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Maj ... 8218281604 -- Major Pettigrews Last Stand by Helen Simonson (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3631555204 -- The Girl who Kicked a Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3265609348 -- The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 1586249348 -- The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/For_the_ ... 1016086148 -- For the King by Catherine Delors (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Becoming ... 7190494852 -- Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3905699460 -- The Courtiers by Lucy Worsley (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Emp ... 9640288900 -- Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Susan_Ho ... 8706932356 -- The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James II by Susan Holloway Scott (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Lois_McM ... 8988278404 -- CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/To_Defy_ ... 2126062212 -- To Defy a King -- To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Thi ... 9552725636 -- This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Maj ... 8218281604 -- Major Pettigrews Last Stand by Helen Simonson (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3631555204 -- The Girl who Kicked a Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3265609348 -- The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 1586249348 -- The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/For_the_ ... 1016086148 -- For the King by Catherine Delors (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Becoming ... 7190494852 -- Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3905699460 -- The Courtiers by Lucy Worsley (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Emp ... 9640288900 -- Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (nonfiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Susan_Ho ... 8706932356 -- The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James II by Susan Holloway Scott (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Lois_McM ... 8988278404 -- CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold (fiction) 5/5
I wouldn't say it was a particularly brilliant year for me in the fiction reading stakes but two that stand out from the rest for me have been:
I'm just off to my badly kept reading diary to see if I read anything else to add to this.
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Edited to add Sovreign by C.J. Sansom
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Perfumes The A-Z Guide (non fiction) by Lucca Turin and Tania Sanchez
I'm just off to my badly kept reading diary to see if I read anything else to add to this.
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Edited to add Sovreign by C.J. Sansom
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Perfumes The A-Z Guide (non fiction) by Lucca Turin and Tania Sanchez
Last edited by EC2 on Sat November 27th, 2010, 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
The absolute best novel I read this year was 'Saving CeeCee Honeycutt' by B. Hoffman about a young girl with very messed up parents who goes to live w/ an aunt in Savannah GA. The characters touched my soul. Very few books become part of my soul ('The Glass Castle', Katherine', and 'The Book Thief' are the others) like this one has.
- N. Gemini Sasson
- Reader
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- Location: Ohio
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Louisa May Alcott: The woman behind little Women (AMAZING!)
My name is Mary Sutter
My name is Mary Sutter
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