Favourite reads so far this year?

[Posey]

And worst?

4 months into the year, just wondering what are the best books people have read so far, and the worst.
Always looking for inspiration, and things to avoid.

For me, the stand out book of the year so far has been "The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals" by Wendy Jones.
Also loved "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes

Worst was probably "Stone Junction" by Jim Dodge. Not awful but really not my cup of tea (read it for book club)

Thanks for all your "loves". My notebook is filling quickly with books to browse in Waterstones.
Anyone read The Reading Promise? I'm about 40 or 50 pages in and finding it decidedly underwhelming so far.

The best books I have read so far this year aren't new ones but books I had been meaning to read for ages:

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Brick Lane - Monica Ali

Also enjoyed:

Delphine de Vigan - No and Me
Colm Toibin - Brooklyn
Joshua Ferris - And Then We Came To The End
Mohsin Hamid - Moth Smoke

Ones I was a bit disappointed with -

Mari Strachan - The Earth Hums In B Flat
Lian Hearn - Tales of the Otori (I had heard these were good, but actually they are for teenagers and I just felt too old for them)

I like to pick up random books when I go to the library. I've had two hits this year, one was called The Untied Kingdom and the other The Ground Is Burning, can't remember author's names. Untied Kingdom is chicklit with added Terry Pratchett, Ground is Burning will work for CJ Sansom fans.

I enjoyed
"A Girl in Winter" Philip Larkin
"Letters to Monica" Philip Larkin
"The Great Coat" Helen Dunmore
"If Not Now, then When" Primo Levi

I absolutely loved the Lian Hearn series when I read them a few years ago - in fact, I may well get around to reading them again.

Nice to see a fellow Larkin-ite on here btw. :)

Loved Me Before you by Jojo Moyes and Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Least favourite are probably The Last Empress by Anchee Min and Before I go to sleep by SJ Watson. Really couldn't see what all the fuss was about with BIGTS, found it quite boring in parts.

Forgot all about the help. Read that one at Easter and loved it .

I'm going to be very literal about this and only mention books that came out this year, in which case:

Capital, by John Lanchester
The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler
A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale

All great, page-turning reads.

LOVING Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes and can't wait to get stuck into The Rules of Civility by Amor Someone and The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly.

BassaiDaiSalmon Fishing in the Yemen is indeed a weird one- completely implausable which you could forgive if the plot was good- but it is totally lacking in direction imo.
Michael Morgurgo's Private peaceful is a masterpiece- and suitable for your DD in a year or so- 9 is too young but she would love the 9 lives of Montezuma.
its a great idea to read DDs books so you can discuss them- I would struggle with my DD (12yrs) Terry Prachett stuff though- someone will be along in a minute to tell me to give it a go no doubt.

Not really read so much this year due to exams and busy at work but:

Loved The Help by Kathleen Stockett on audiobook
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Enjoyed The Magicians Apprentice Trilogy by Raymond Feist
Pure by Andrew Miller

Disliked Me Before You by Jojo Moyes ( I just don't like chick lit, I can see the plot lines a mile off and usually dislike the characters intensely!)

Have started but left for another day Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Possession by AS Byatt (although I don't know if I'll go back to Possession as I got more than a quarter through it and it wasn't grabbing me)

Just read Before I go to Sleep - really enjoyed. Also enjoyed the Children's Book by AS Byatt.

Disliked Snow storms in a Cold Climate by Sarah Dunant.

Love I could see the plot in Me Before You too but could also see several other possibilities, I did like the characters so perhaps that was the difference?

Read When God Was a Rabbit last year and I'm also in the dislike camp. Didn't like the characters in that one at all. Before I go to sleep seems to be dividing opinion too.

Me before you isn't chick lit - is it?

Chick lit is fluffy,light love stories such as Jane Green or so I thought, or do you mean it in the literal sense of anything written by a female author?

Anything by Sophie Hannah! Amazing author who keeps you gripped right to the end of the book.

I loved The Help and also one called Divergent. It would probably be classed as teenage fiction but I enjoyed it. Just downloaded The Hunger Games with is next on my list after I've finished the sequel to Divergent.

I started reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" after seeing it was in the top 10 of amazon for so long. Hmmm, what to say about this one, strange and not entirely sure I am enjoying it!

Had a right good start to the reading year thanks to my kindle and our wonderful local library.

I've loved

Rules of Civility
Book of Lies
Angelica by Arthur Phillips
Skagboys
Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
Telling Stories by Tim Burgess

I've been disappointed by

Miss Perigrines Home For Peculiar Children
Somnambulist by Essie Fox

I've also discovered Marian Keyes which has been a great bonus.

You by Joanna Briscoe - loved it.

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Matthew Green - not so much.

Loved Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi and I re - read The Bell Jar (again)

Hated the mermaid chair by sue monk kidd. Don't know why I read her stuff

Sophie Hannah. what a PILOSHIT. Terrible writing. Not edited.

Absolutely loved Middlesex by Jeffrey eugenides and human stain by Philip Roth.

Hated fifty shades of grey. I can't believe the hype it's generated.

Loved: Cloth Girl (by Marilyn Heward Mills) and The Observations (Jane Harris).
Didn't like: Gillispie and Me (Jane Harris).

My faves so far this year:
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Penelope Lively, How it All Began
Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, The Boy in the Suitcase
Anne Tyler, The Beginner's Goodbye

Did not care for:
A.D. Miller, Snowdrops
Chris Bohjalian, The Night Strangers
Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers
P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley (I really wanted to like this book, since I generally love P.D. James and I adore Jane Austen. Alas, it just didn't work.)

Guilty pleasure: The Hunger Games and its sequels

I also loved The Sisters Brothers. Just finished it and laughed a lot.

When God was a Rabbit and The Stranger's Child started well I thought but lost momentum and ended up quite disappointing.

Hated Before I Go to Sleep.

Just started Wolf Hall and hoping it's as good as the hype.

Have also loved a few fantasy books this year including ones by Peter Brett and Brandon Sanderson.