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The best book I read in 2014 was... [add yours]

172 replies

chicaguapa · 01/12/2014 20:25

1 month to go and I already know that this will be the best book I read this year. I absolutely loved it. It's £2.99 for the Kindle version and you'll want to read it again as soon as you finish.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

OP posts:
unclerory · 01/12/2014 22:45

I re-read A suitable Boy. Even better the second time around.

I was just thinking I should re-read this. I read it the first year of my Phd, it took me ages to read and the people in it were as real to me as my new friends.

Anyway, best book of 2014? Fingersmith, but I also read Magnus Merriman by Eric Linklater during the Referendum which was very funny.

meandjulio · 01/12/2014 22:47

The Goldfinch.

hackmum · 02/12/2014 09:18

I read The Goldfinch this time last year so I can't include that! I've read loads of wonderful books this year. I think my favourite non-fiction is Far from the tree by Andrew Solomon. I've mentioned it a few times already, but it is really such a powerful read - all about how parents cope with children who are "different": if they're deaf, for example, or have autism, or dwarfism, or suffer from schizophrenia. He talks to the adult children as well about how they feel about how their parents brought them up. It's one of those books that gives you an insight and perspective into the lives of people that you might not otherwise consider very much.

In fact, looking back through my list of 70+ books this year, there are some really cracking non-fiction books and not so many fiction ones, which has really surprised me. I think my fiction choice would probably be Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, which is sweet and touching and an all-round lovely read. But I'd also recommend (if I can sneak them in) We are all completely beside ourselves and The Paying Guests.

Liveinthepresent · 02/12/2014 09:21

.

TranquilityofSolitude · 02/12/2014 09:23

Another vote for 'We are all completely beside ourselves'.

MollyMaDurga · 02/12/2014 09:41

Not a new book, first published in 2011 but only read it this year: Into the silence by Wade Davis. About the War, Everest and Mallory. Amazing. Non-fiction though and my number two would be Behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo, also non-fiction, about life in an Indian slum.
My fiction favorites would probably be Burial Rites and A Tale for the time being by Ruth Ozeki.

MollyMaDurga · 02/12/2014 09:44

Oh and To rise again at a decent hour by Joshua Ferris had me laughing out loud, def the most funny read this year!

RyanAirVeteran · 02/12/2014 09:54

I AM PILGRIM. No other reading required.

"Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation.

But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder – and Pilgrim wrote the book.

What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruins on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God."

skolastica · 02/12/2014 09:57

I've read a lot of good books - the most unexpectedly good read however, was:

Maps for Lost Lovers - Nadeem Aslam.

It had been on my bookshelf for over two years. Shame on me!

Celticlass2 · 02/12/2014 11:52

That's music to my ears Agent I had no idea there was a sequel to The SiegeSmile
Off to download Betrayel. Loved reading a suitable boy again. Felt strange holding such a heavy book though now that I do most of my reading on kindle.

mmack · 02/12/2014 12:01

I think that Americanah is a better book than The Goldfinch. I just couldn't care about the characters in The Goldfinch the way I did about Ifem and Obinze. I also thought the plot of the last section of The Goldfinch was a bit of a mess. I also loved The Son by Philipp Meyer and The Free by Willy Vlautin.

BeattieBow · 02/12/2014 12:11

I read "I know why the caged bird sings" this year (as Maya Angelou died). Loved it.

RaphaelaBella99 · 02/12/2014 12:14

The Book of Evidence by John Banville.
A brilliant protagonist/narrator who is as jolly and comical as he is sinister.

paulapantsdown · 02/12/2014 12:26

It look like I'm the only person who was bored to sobs by the final third of Goldfinch! Thought I would never get to the end of the bloody thing.

I also enjoyed Pilgrim until it also became ridiculously far fetched in the final third. Maybe I have a short attention span?

I did however love The Paying Guests, and I have just read Tony Parsons new one, Murder Bag and really enjoyed it.

My favourite of the year though is the wonder Joseph O'Connors The Thrill of it All. The most beautiful story of frieindship and redemption.

This thread has made me want to re-read A Suitable Boy now.

Zamboni · 02/12/2014 12:28

Another vote for Life After Life.

Bakeoffcakes · 02/12/2014 12:31

I read Half Of A Yellow Sun for the first time this year, I absolutely loved it.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 02/12/2014 13:28

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn , no idea why Gone GIrl was such a hit, I thought it was awful but was gripped by this one.

bananapuddles · 02/12/2014 13:30

Another vote for The Goldfinch. I was completely absorbed and couldn't put it down.

LaundryFairy · 02/12/2014 13:32

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 02/12/2014 13:34

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (bit late to the party there, I know).

DuchessofMalfi · 02/12/2014 14:28

paula - you're not the only one who didn't love The Goldfinch. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as her other two novels, which are on my favourites list. Her writing is, as ever, superb, but I just didn't enjoy the story.

Americanah is wonderful - I listened to it as an audiobook and was completely enthralled.

Not sure what my all time favourite book of the year has been, but it may be The Children Act by Ian McEwan. Will have a good think about this and go through this year's reading list.

magimedi · 02/12/2014 15:48

MollyMaDurga

Ten minutes ago I just downloaded a sample of Behind the Beautiful Forevers to my kindle as was thinking about buying it! What a coincidence!

hackmum · 02/12/2014 17:11

Yes, I've also read Behind the Beautiful Forevers and it's really good - very well worth a read. They're doing a stage version of it at the moment too.

Tournesol · 02/12/2014 17:19

I loved The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Also Americanah by chimamanda ngozi adiche.

And my non-fiction pick would be the very funny Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris.

HiawathaDidntBotherTooMuch · 02/12/2014 17:20

Tiny sunbirds far away, by Christie Watson