Calling all bookworms! What’s the best novel you’ve read this year?

[LabradorsInThePond]

Apologies for calling OP’s privilege and naming six:

New books:
Sorrow and Bliss ( Meg Mason)
Still Life ( Sarah Winman)
Small Things Like These (Claire Keegan)

Old friends:
The Witches of Eastwick (John Updike)
Ottoline ( Neil Gaiman, with my DS10 who loved it too)
I Feel Bad About my Neck ( Norah Ephron, not even a novel)

I am always looking for new ideas. So please post you’re top 1, or 6.

I have just finished Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein, found it really easy to read but compelling. I will definitely give it a second read soon.

i started Animal by Lisa Taddeo earlier this week and so far it is very good, hoping it carries on as well

I rather enjoyed Run Rose Run, the Dolly Parton/James Patterson collab.

It's not a novel, but I enjoyed The Girl from Lamaha Street

Agree with your recommendation for Small Things Like These. Best book I've read in a long time. It's very well put together both wrt detail and to flow. I really liked it and I'm planning to read her Foster as well.

I am looking for a book that I don't want to put down. I'm an audiobook fan I'm afraid - the print is always too small and I don't get on with reading glasses!

I absolutely loved Sorrow and Bliss - and mainly bought it because I knew Emilia Fox would be an amazing narrator.
I loved Life after Life too and am thinking about A God in Ruins, though I hear sone were disappointed in it.

On the lower brow end I have also loved The Thursday Murder Club and the sequel, partly because Leslie Manville did such a great job of bringing them to life.
I've just listened to an audible freebie called The Marriage Pact which I couldn't switch off... a bit trashy, but absorbing trash!

Further back, The Soldier's Wife by Joanna Trollope and Our House by Louise Candlish (I think she peaked with that one, nothing after it was as good). And the genre has become a bit overcrowded now.

Best recent book by a country mile: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession. When I finished it (and dried my happy tears), I went back to the beginning. Gorgeously written, funny, wise, and with love and friendship at its heart.

I am in the middle of listening to Lessons In Chemistry and I'm really enjoying it.

I read Blood Orange earlier in the year and I put off reading it for quite a while because I didn't think it would be my kind of thing but it was great!

I've really enjoyed Blood and Sugar and Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. I wish she'd hurry up and write another one!

Four Winds by Sophie Hannah

We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker

The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Neither are brand new, but The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Pirinasi by Susannah Clarke are both excellent.

Lie With Me - Sabine Durrant
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
The New Wilderness - Diane Cook
The Man Who Died Twice
Re-read Stig of the Dump - cried at the ending.

Another vote for Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Took my breath away as did Crawdads.

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare.

Stunning book.

Akin by Emma Donohoe
Where the Crawdads sing
Songbirds by Christy lefteri

Ohhhh yes, I second this. Loved it

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Read it for book club, awesome.

Everyone else in the book club loved Piranesi. I couldn't get going with it but hope to go back to it.

In Black and White - Alexandra Wilson (memoir of a young black barrister)
A Man Called Ove

I really loved They Called us Enemy by George Takei, it's a graphic novel based on his experiences in an American Japanese internment camp.
Also really liked The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell.
I'm just about to start The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl.

It’s not new, but I’m reading Ordinary People by Diana Evans. It’s about 2 couples from South London and their relationships. It’s very relatable, and I think well written, slightly flowery, but good enough for that not to be a distraction.
She manages to create a page turner, and I’m not sure how she’s done it! I definitely want to know what happens.

I’m re-reading crime and punishment atm and I re-read lord of the flies last month and of mice and men. Going through a bit of an old classics phase. DH is reading Jordan Peterson’s books, honestly can’t stand the man.

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte wood.

it took me a while to get into it but once I was past chapter 3 I couldn’t put it down. Powerful book, good story.

Another vote for the Thursday murder club and sequel. I had such low expectations as it's quite a mainstream one so I assumed it was name over content but I really liked the strong older women thing going on and it was both moving and funny. I've also been re reading Pterry Pratchett's books, specifically any with granny weatherwax in a starring role.

The name of the wind - Patrick rothfuss.
Pure fantasy, folklore, olde worlde and I couldn't put it down!

Crescent city 2: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas. She's my favourite.

A darker shade of magic series by VE Schwab (sp?) was excellent as well. Binged the three books in a week.

I've just finished "The Feast" by Margaret Kennedy. I'm a big fan of post war female authors, but thought this was particularly good

To be truthful I've read little this year except Mumsnet posts but I caught up on audiobook with 'Troubled Blood', (Strike and Robin), read beautifully by Robert Glenister. Oh, I did read 'The Locked Room'.