What's the best books you've read in the last 12 months?

The Reader on the 6:27.

Quite a short book (52,000 words) that I read in a couple of hours one afternoon because it really grabbed me. Bit of an odd book but I really liked it.

I read the latest Maggie O’Farrell. It was weak at points but I throughly enjoyed it.

Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason- I read it again straight after finishing it. Never done that before!

Shuggie Bain - the characters have stayed with me

I’ve read a lot of meh books this year. Probably enjoyed most, the Richard Osman books and Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The best things I've read this year are Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov. Death and the Penguin is a black comedy about a journalist who writes obituaries in Kyiv who owns a penguin. Grey Bees is about a beekeeper who lives in the 'grey zone' between Ukrainian and Russian soldiers near Donetsk.

I also enjoyed Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro which is about a disabled woman investigating her daughter's death. And I'm about the last person in the world to read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante which I adored. It's the first in a quartet following two friends from a working class neighbourhood in Naples.

If you like suspense The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean was rivetting.
I have also enjoyed Mad About You (witty rom com)
and Love, Anthony by Lisa Genova
Non-fiction- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

I HATED The Keeper of Lost Things, if anyone is interested!

@burritofan loved both of those ❤️

Still Life by Sarah Winman was wonderful (as was Tin Man).
I've also really enjoyed Town called Solace. Great Circle was brilliant (though long!)
I read Laurie Lee's trilogy too and would highly recommend :)

See you in September
A new wilderness
Moths

The Cult - Abby Davies - just read this. Absolutely superb. Definitely one of my top books in recent months.

Hamnet

Just starting Shuggie Bain. Strong start and I think the author comes across really well in radio interviews. ( the soft Scottish accent probably helps). A bit concerned to read the reviews on here. It’s true some things can be just too relentlessly grim.

Favourite Audiobooks -
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Promise by Damon Galgut
The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Graeme McRae Burnet (not a recent publication)
Piranesi by Susanna Clark

I found Shuggie Bain to be unrelentingly grim and I say that as someone who grew up on a similar council estate to the author!
I didn't finish it. I'm old enough to remember the time it's set in. I'm always a bit shocked at comments like 'I really enjoyed Shuggy Bain' - I mean it's working class lives. Ok druggy and drinking but still. Just miserable.......you could hardly sink any lower.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson.

I found Shuggie Bain to be unrelentingly grim and I say that as someone who grew up on a similar council estate to the author!

My favourite books of last year were:

American Dirt
The Underground Railroad (this haunted me for weeks)
Such a Fun Age

Where the Crawdads sing
My Dark Vanessa
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Vanishing Half
Shuggie Bain
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Thursday Murder Club/The Man Who Died Twice.

Another vote for My Dark Vanessa.

Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist by Richard Shepherd was my favourite non-fiction book of 2021.

Special mention to Bel Canto by Anne Patchett.

I haven't been reading much contemporary fiction but I loved Louize Erdritch The Night Watchman. It's based on the struggle of previous generations of her family to win rights for indigenous tribes in America. It's got some wonderful characters.

I also loved All the Light We Cannot See but slightly not wanting to because I found the story a bit contrived.

The Sunken Road by Ciaran McMenamin (also if you like audiobooks, it's particularly good as Ciaran is an actor and brilliant narrator)
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

These books stood out a mile to me this year, they all happened to be historical fiction.... also a reread of Excession by Iain M Banks. Non fiction - Educated by Tara Westover

should be - some might not be comfortable with

The book that has stayed with me most this year is The Expendable Man by Dorothy B Hughes which was recommended by Harriet Gilbert on a Good Read Radio 4 on 6th July
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xlv2www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xlv2
It is about a black intern crossing Arizona by car, published in 1963. Dorothy Hughes is a white woman writing from the point of view of a black man which some might be comfortable with.
I got an old copy but it is republished now by Persphone books.
Gives a sketch of the race problem in the US.

A pleasure and a calling by Phil Hogan. Here's a brief intro to it ... trust me, you'll like it!

'You won’t remember Mr Heming. He showed you round your comfortable home, suggested a sustainable financial package, negotiated a price with the owner and called you with the good news. The less good news is that, all these years later, he still has the key.'