What's the best book you've read this year?

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 5:27 pm

[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.

Katherine Ashe · Post by **Katherine Ashe** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 5:46 pm

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.

Kasthu · Post by **Kasthu** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 7:26 pm

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...

Leo62 · Post by **Leo62** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 8:11 pm

The Little Stranger was one of my fave books of last year, and haven't read any fiction to equal it since. Hasn't been a vintage year for me in terms of HF. Not terrible, just nothing outstandingly memorable. So my best book this year is non-fiction: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 8:23 pm

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

Perdita · Post by **Perdita** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 9:32 pm

[quote=""Lucy Pick""]Mantel's Wolf Hall, hands down.

I read Wheel of Fortune many many years ago and liked it.[/quote]

Wolf Hall would be runner up.. I loved it! I read somewhere there would be a sequel. Fingers crossed

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sat November 27th, 2010, 10:48 pm

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

tsjmom · Post by **tsjmom** » Sun November 28th, 2010, 12:48 am

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 · Post by **N. Gemini Sasson** » Sun November 28th, 2010, 3:44 pm

A Dog's Purpose, by Bruce Cameron. If you're a true dog person, this one will stay with you for a long time and make you look at your dog a little differently.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sun November 28th, 2010, 4:32 pm

Louisa May Alcott: The woman behind little Women (AMAZING!)
My name is Mary Sutter