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

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue December 28th, 2010, 12:17 am

One last honorable mention for me,

Guests of the Emperor by Janice Young Brooks.

Civilian women held in Japanese POW camps in WWII. Chilling stuff.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
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Ash
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Location: Arizona, USA

Post by Ash » Tue December 28th, 2010, 4:02 am

I posted earlier, then realized that I posted two books I'd read the previous year, but reread this year! That doesn't count (well for me it doesn't :)

its impossible to lise one book. I can list one or two in each of my fav genres, however:

fantasy: George RR Martin's Storm of Swords (and the next three books).

HF: Douglass's Women Jewell Parker Rhodes
To Defy a King by EC
The Last Queen by CW Gortner

SciFi: Poul Anderson There Will Be A Time

Best seller: Girl with a Dragon Tatoo

classic: Queen of Hearts by Wilkie Collins

History: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Travel: AA Gill is Away
Last edited by Ash on Tue December 28th, 2010, 4:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Margaret
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Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
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Post by Margaret » Tue December 28th, 2010, 7:24 am

10. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
An absolutely amazing novel. Not historical fiction, but would appeal to a lot of people here, I think.

I really must read The Little Stranger. I enjoyed Fingersmith, which richly proves Waters can do gothic atmosphere, but I think I would probably like The Little Stranger better. I used to love ghost stories, which seem to have gone out of style. Maybe Waters will bring them back.

I did finally post my "Best of 2010" list.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
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Telynor
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Location: On the Banks of the Hudson

Post by Telynor » Tue December 28th, 2010, 9:32 am

The Sparrow is one of those books I beg people to read. there's not a lot of books that make me cry, but that one does.

These are the ones that I really got a kick out of for 2010 releases:
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 Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (fiction) 5/5
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The ... 3631555204 -- The Girl who Kicked a Hornet’s 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
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Ash
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Post by Ash » Tue December 28th, 2010, 9:46 am

Despite the quibbles I had with Sparrow, I too loved it, and had tears streaming down my face when I finished it.
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