What is the best book you have read this year?

[TravellingSpoon]

Need some inspiration for my book challenge and know which ones to avoid from the other thread, but need some good reads.

Mine would definitely be A Gentleman in Moscow or The Women in the Castle.

The Salt Path and also The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn.
Amazing books.
The Salt Path is about how her and her partner lost their home and, finding themselves homeless, they decided to walk the whole of The South West Coast Path. It’s an amazing story.

The Wild Silence is about how they rebuilt their life.

Highly recommend them to anyone.

Placemarking

Tana French the Wych Elm

CRACKING literary thriller

Half of a Yellow Sun
Olive, Again
The Mirror and the Light

'The Vanishing Half' by Brit Bennett.

A beautiful book.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay.

Story of a junior doctor.... absolutely brilliant. Read it in a day any I never do that.

and I

Where The Crawdads Sing and The Hate U Gibe. Both powerful in different ways but they have stayed with me.

Best: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Also really enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig and The Lost Man by Jane Harper.

American Dirt and Where the Crawdads Sing have been my favourites.
I couldn’t finish A Gentleman in Moscow

Where the crawdads sing!

Song for Night by Chris Abani. It’s quite short and unlike anything else I’ve read.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

Girl woman other.
The salt path.
The Gustav sonata.
And I've just finished and very much enjoyed Away with the penguins.

(Not a fan of Crawdad's.)

Where the Crawdads Sing
The Most Fun We Ever Had
The Light at the End of the Day

@N4ish - I loved Circe! My favourite book this year was Spinning Silver, just really caught my imagination and I enjoyed the descriptions of snow and ice.

Trumpspeak by Berengere Viennot

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. It stayed with me for ages after finishing it. I haven’t had that for ages with a book. All the books I’ve read by Elizabeth Strout have been really good. Also liked Louise Candlish’s books this year.

Queenie
Girl, Woman, Other
Spring

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Loved it. Every single chapter was a joy.

Hamnet - Maggie O' Farrell
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

I didn't want either of them to end..

And
More than a Woman - Caitlin Moran

A Most Beautiful Thing (Arshay Cooper) is my fave read this year.
The Salt Path is a joint second with several others.

I've read 15 so far this year (was trying to get to 20, not sure that's going to happen...).

Browsing through what they've been the ones that have stood out:
Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, LOVED these, beautifully written (and I'm about to start her latest book tonight 😁). I read the final 2 in 2020 (first 2 in 2019).

Caitlin Moran's More than a Woman. Spot on, as always.

Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again. Particularly Olive, Again. I could read more and more and more.

The Testaments.

I didn't get the love for Crawdads, it didn't do it for me.

Looking forward to Hamnet, Rodham, and want to try some more Ann Pratchett (Bel Canto and/or The Dutch House). I've got William Boyd's latest lined up, love his work. And have added Piranesi and American Dirt based on these Mumsnet threads.

The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Outstanding