Your best and worst reads of the year?

[Parisbanana]

Since we're almost at the end of the year, was just looking back at what I've read.

Favourite books include The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett and A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

Worst Stone Junction by Jim Dodge

Most disappointing was Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler. I am a big fan of her, but have been disappointed, underwhelmed by her latest writing.

[CoteDAzur]

Laura - I recently re-read Never Let Me Go and can answer your question:

Never Let Me Go works as an atmospheric piece about someone's childhood memories & teenage years, but completely fails as proper speculative fiction about "What might be if xx happens" because none of it makes sense. The author hasn't bothered to create and describe an internally consistent world where clones would be raised & slaughtered for their organs. In order to completely sidestep imagining the details of a future where this would be possible, he even starts it off by saying the book takes place some time in 1990s

• All these legions of children, none of whom have ever had a home, family, or a parent. Yet they are perfectly normal, no different in their temperament, feelings, thoughts, interactions to children in boarding schools who have loving families
  
• None of them run & hide, although they know they will be robbed of their organs and eventually killed
  
• If clones are not considered "people", since they obviously have no rights, how do they own cars and have driver's licenses?
  
• Why are they infertile? Surely that means their reproductive organs are useless for transplantation. Why on earth would that be?
  
• They survive losing 2 or maybe 3 organs, and the rest of it is wasted. Surely a better system would be to take one of them, and completely harvest all his organs, skin, cornea, hair, etc.
  
• An enormous amount of money is spent to keep them alive, fed, clothed, etc whereas the logical thing to do would be to harvest their organs as soon as they reach adult proportions shortly after puberty.
  
• If organs from clones is a possibility, surely the logical idea would be for everyone (or every family) to have a clone of their own to minimise risks of tissue rejection. And if the goal is supplying organs from unrelated strangers, wouldn't it be MUCH easier, cheaper, etc to just pass a law mandating forced organ donation at death?

[naturelover]

Best:
Freedom by J Frantzen
The Marriage Plot by J Eugenides
Pure by A Miller
Why be Happy by J Winterson
Any Human Heart by W Boyd
Sunset Park by P Auster
Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness by A Fuller

Worst: some chicklit trash for my book club that I have chosen to forget the title and author of.

Interesting, two people here didn't like Snowdrops. I read it last year and loved it and so do several of my friends.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Had blanked from my memoryforgotten 50 shades. Lets just say I wasn't inspired enough to read the other two.

[Tikkabillajive]

I've kept a list of all the books I've read this year for the first time ever - it has been really nice looking back over it.

Best:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne DuMaurier
The Hunger Games (the first book, didn't find the others as gripping)

Others I enjoyed:
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
11.22.63 by Stephen King
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (though a bit disappointing after Middlesex)
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Worst:
50 Shades of Grey ('nuff said)
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (utter drivel)
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (found this totally impenetrable)
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd

[Dragonwoman]

I thought about the issues discussed in 'Never let me go'. I think the author is using the children as a metaphor for all people's lives. How we can sleepwalk into a way of life because it is all we know & how very difficult it can be to escape your 'destiny'.

As for the practicalities, there is evidence to show that children brought up in groups without families from birth (like old style children's homes) exhibit emotional flatness as adults, such as seen in the book.

I took the story to mean that the children were clones of specific people & kept until their much older original needed the organs, which were removed bit by bit as needed to keep the rest 'fresh'. That way they would be a perfect genetic match.

[juneybean]

Best: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Worst: Snowdrops by AD Miller

[BOFingSanta]

Best

My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You, by Louisa Young

11.22.63, by Stephen King (too long, but still a page-turner)

Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier (I could be biased, because she replied so generously to an email I sent her afterwards )

The Secret Keeper, by Kate Morton (I so didn't see the twist coming)

(which reminds me, Fingersmith was a highlight too, even though it wasn't released this last year)

The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl (utterly compelling, her best, I think)

Worst

Revenge Of The Tide, by Elizabeth Haynes (so disappointing after Into The Darkest Corner last year)

and some shite chicklit that Shiney recommended called The Dating Detox. But really, that was my own fault- I should have known better

[bottleofbeer]

Weird, I read Revenge of the tide last week!

Didn't come close to her first, I agree.

It's years old now but The Wicked Girls inspired me to re-read As If by Blake Morrison. Well worth a read, non fiction.

[BOFingSanta]

Didn't it just sound like she had been on a pole-dancing course and wanted to recite the moves? Grimola.

[bottleofbeer]

Yes, I went for a pole dancing lesson for a hen do. Dear god it was horrific.

I'm going to write a book about it, andddd step around the pole, swing and fall on your arse with an unpoledancer-ish thud.

Makes me so glad mine was a Robbie Williams tribute act and drinking sesh in Espo's

[BOFingSanta]

Ah, I should have been there

[bottleofbeer]

Next time I get married you're SO there.

[letsgetreadytoramble]

Gillespie And I by Jane Harris is an amazing book - starts out a bit slowly but once you get into it you literally can't put it down. Definitely my best book of the year.

Agree that Fifty Shades was the worst - appallingly badly written - "oh my!"

[maillotjaune]

Worst - the only book I couldn't finish this year was Snowdrops - AD Miller i think

Finally made it through A Tale of Two Cities in an effort to celebrate Dickens anniversary but won't be trying again.

Best

Also finally read some Trollope and have lots more to look forward to lined up on the kindle.

Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
(all the above read because of mumsnet!)
Parrot and Olivier in America - Peter Carey
The Master and Margherita - still haunted by several things from that, as Willem has said upthread.
The Hare with Amber Eyes
Bring Up The Bodies

[Galaxymum]

Best reads for me were:
The Thread
My Dear I Wanted To Tell You
Mariana (by Susanna Kearsley)
and discovering bargain kindle comfort reads at a time I really needed them!

Worst read by far 50 Shades of Grey (7 months later it still angers me to think of "oh my"!)

[ScrimshawTheSecond]

Best: Possibly The Incomers by Moira McPartlin. About a black woman who comes to rural Scotland in the 1980s. Wonderful story, very compelling. Loved it.

Worst: Pirate Pete's Potty Adventure. And then maybe Jo Nesbo - torture-porn. A fabulous plot ruined by unnecessary violence.

[AgentProvocateur]

naturelover your favourite books this year are almost the same as mine. I've not read - or heard of -,the Cocktail Hour one, though, so I'm going to track it down. Love all the others on your list.

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

Best
Me Before You
Before I Go To Sleep (can't believe how many people have that on their worst list!!!)
Room
Into The Darkest Corner
Starter For 10
Maxwell Sim (can't remember the full title)

worst
I tend to abandon books I don't like, but I percevered with the Slap and still thought it was rubbish by the end.

[babybythesea]

I have a request.
Please stop posting the books that you enjoyed and that I haven't already read/got.

My Amazon wishlist (which is where I record everything that I think looks as though I would like it) is now 23 pages long, 553 items. This is a list of purchases I wish to make - it's not good for my wallet.

And that's before I've started on the stuff in my house that I haven't yet read.

!!!!!!

[CoteDAzur]

Dragon - re "I took the story to mean that the children were clones of specific people & kept until their much older original needed the organs, which were removed bit by bit as needed to keep the rest 'fresh'."

That's what I had thought after reading it the first time in 2006 (because that makes better sense). Upon reading it last month, I can confirm that the book is about clones being raised as general organ donors.

The film "The Island" with Scarlett Johansson & Ewan Mc Gregor did this subject much better imho.

[lauraellajane]

Interesting points re Never Let me Go Cote - i think I'd agree with all of them but obviously don't pay attention enough while reading! I just enjoyed the good writing

[Badvocsanta]

Best:
Ancient and modern by Natalie Hayes
Song of Achilles by madeline miller
Being up the bodies by Hilary mantel

Worst:
Moranthology - awful
50 shades - oh my

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

Derailing slightly, but I found Michel Faber's Under The Skin a much better read than Never Let Me Go.

[BOFingSanta]

Oh, Under The Skin was fabulous- so creepy!

[Parisbanana]

I loved Under the Skin. Creepy is exactly the right word for it.