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Original poster

Whats the best book you've read this year???

110 replies

Love2bake · 12/06/2008 11:17

Mine would be The Kite Runner.

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floaty · 03/07/2008 22:14

another vote for pippa Lee here

rachel(mumsnet) · 17/06/2008 23:47

Without wishing to hi-jack your thread, we wanted to draw your attention to our new review catagories for adult books. Here you will find Best Book of the Year. The criteria is it has to has to have been written in the last year or so. If you have a moment, it would be great if you could transfer your recommendations and comments to this catagory and we'll publish your reviews.

You'll also find Best Book Ever, Best Light Read and Worst Book of the Year

At some point, we'll be handing out literary prizes at our very own Mumsnet
Book Awards, so the more reviews we generate the better. Big thanks in advance if you get round to posting your reviews.

Rachel

CapricaSix · 17/06/2008 13:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sophiajane · 17/06/2008 13:18

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Also loved Kite Runner

choosyfloosy · 17/06/2008 13:08

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa. Maria Vargas Llosa? Can't remember, sorry. Very funny, very lovely, except the last chapter which was a bit of a Captain Corelli-style letdown, though still funny unlike CC.

Scarletibis · 17/06/2008 13:05

Loved The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

and Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

pollywobbledoodle · 17/06/2008 12:42

well if we can have more than one! bel canto by ann pratchett....a hostage situation in south america....but a group of dislikable hostages and some likeable captors and twista and turns aplenty....great book

mollysawally · 17/06/2008 09:28

bluebumedfly - Book thief will be my next book

Heathcliffscathy · 16/06/2008 22:26

ooo beansprout, so glad you thought so, am off to buy fall on your knees now...

msappropriate · 16/06/2008 22:14

I loved Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

hotpasty · 16/06/2008 22:05

Have recently plumbed (mined?) a rich seam in discovering the contemporary American writer Joyce Carol Oates.... Fantastic thick meaty reads; Middle Age, Mother Missing, The Falls, We Were the Mulvaneys - there are enough to keep you going for about a year! I highly recommend them. Also finally got round to reading the Ghost Road trilogy by Pat Barker which was brilliant.

BlueBumedFly · 16/06/2008 21:51

Mollsawally - TTW was wonderful eh? My friend said she thought it was contrived!? Well duh! (Very adult reaction from me of course) it is a book about a man who can travel through time for goodness sakes, it was hardly going to be real was it. What she missed was the total and unending love that they held for one another.

The Book Thief is great, again, really touching and it has the most amazing characters who surprise you right till the end. Not saccharine sweet by any means, if fact it has some hideously sad truths but that is half of its wonder.

mollysawally · 16/06/2008 21:34

bluebumedfly - I loved time traveller's wife, found it really funny and touching. It suprised me. Was The book thief good? I'm looking for a really good book to read next

BlueBumedFly · 16/06/2008 21:24

Time Traveller's Wife and Wuthering Heights (ok, I have read that one about ten times but I do love it!) also loved this year:

The kite runner
A thousand splendid suns
The book thief
Randoms acts of heroic love (think that is the title)

Now onto the 'Other Bolyen Girl' - anyone else read that? Should I press on as I am quite liking it so far?

beansprout · 16/06/2008 21:04

Agree with Sophable, Seven Types of Ambiguity is fab. As is Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald.

MegSophandEmma · 16/06/2008 21:03

It has to be "Journey of souls" by Dr M Newton. Bloody fasinating book. Its one where you have to pass on to anyone who will listen

peasholme · 16/06/2008 21:02

Oooh I've got my eye for the Esther Freud. And Persepolis looks amazing too. Cracking thread!

GustWriter · 16/06/2008 21:00

love falls by esther freud

PenelopePitstops · 16/06/2008 21:00

Revalation by Sansom

MadBadandDangeroustoKnow · 16/06/2008 20:56

The Great Gatsby
A Spot of Bother

Heathcliffscathy · 16/06/2008 20:54

seven types of ambiguity.

by a country mile, it is an absolutely amazing book.

bergentulip · 16/06/2008 20:52

Yes, I can see you might think that a little embarrassing(!)

Ask your library if they happen to have any books by Mo Yan instead..... I came across it in the Guardian Literary Section, so it's quite reputable(!), honestly!!

TheDullWitch · 16/06/2008 20:44

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, about a girl's life in Iran. It's in the form of a comic book. So funny and moving. I know it might sound worthy but it s brilliant.

peasholme · 16/06/2008 20:37

I'm sorry but I daren't ask for that in the library BTulip!

bergentulip · 16/06/2008 20:27

Big Breasts and Wide Hips- sounds odd, it's not porn(!)-
but is a very interesting read. Set in wartorn China, follows the life of one mother, through the eyes of the anti-hero son.

I've never read a book like it. Highly recommended. Very weird. Very uncomfortable. Thought-provoking, well written/translated(?)....