What's your favourite book of 2016... so far.

tooyoung I am so glad you have downloaded The Odd women - I hope you like it. ( The Netherworld, New Grub Street and the Whirpool are also great by Gissing). He is such an under rated and forgotten author.
I read a piece this week in the Guardian about Eleanor Rathbone (an "odd woman" of that time) who worked tirelessly for the poor and persuaded Beveridge to include a Family Allowance in his plan for society in 1945 (just a year before she died). Her life story really resonated with me (especially after having just reread The Odd Women)

I love these threads - always give me ideas for new books.

My favourites so far have been:

A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson (I had a huge crush on Teddy)

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery (read that because of a recommendation on MN)

A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold - she is the mother of one of the Columbine shooters and this book was really riveting.

That Distant Land by Wendall Berry. He is a writer from Kentucky, very old school, very anti big-farming etc. This is a series of stories about his homeplace and very moving, funny, evocative.

Misery by Stephen King. I listened to this in the car and their moments when I was shouting out loud "no, no, no"

A Little Life - my absolute favourite book this year.

Just finished The House at the Edge of the World by Julia Rochester. Very absorbing and unusual.

Thanks for other posts - I have now downloaded The Odd Women and Wicked Girls.

Really wish I could get into My Brilliant Friend - but for me it was one of those very rare occasions where I gave the book up half way through. I'm sure I'm missing something!!

The book of strange new things - Michel Faber.
The Elena Ferrante Neopolitan novels as mentioned by others.

Really loved re - reading The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
and The Odd Women by George Gissing (my favourite author)

Currently ill and needing easy reads - I am pretty taken with Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - a thriller about 2 women who were involved in a child murder when they were very young. Her latest book is on the Guardian's Not the Booker prize list

The word by Wyl Meinmuir

For me it's Untold Stories by Alan Bennett.

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan. I've suffered mental health problems and I think it's the best depiction of mental illness I've ever read

i enjoyed The Bone Clocks much more than I thought I would
I picked up Slade House from the library yesterday.

I absolutely loved 'My Brilliant Friend" and the other three Neopolitan novels by Elena Ferrrante. The four novels are really one giant novel detailing the very complex friendship between two girls/ women from the fifties onwards.

I am currently loving 'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyeel Mueenuddin. These are are series of linked short stories set in Pakistan. Unputdownable!

I absolutely loved 'My Brilliant Friend" and the other three Neopolitan novels by Elena Ferrrante. The four novels are really one giant novel detailing the very complex friendship between two girls/ women from the fifties onwards.

I am currently loving 'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyeel Mueenuddin. These are are series of linked short stories set in Pakistan. Unputdownable!

I've read a few this year that I've liked but probably it would be between A History of Loneliness by John Boyne and Company of Liars by Karen Maitland.

HHhH by Laurent Binet recommended by Remus

Moving- Jenny eclair

Just finished it and am missing it.

How to be brave was really good too.

Slade House by David Mitchell but I've only read four.

It's hard to choose. I nominated these for Not The Booker Prize which brings together a lot of eclectic reads, not always mainstream, but it is really hard to choose just 1!

River of Ink by Paul MM Cooper set in Sri Lanka

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell