What is your book of the year so far?

[Sadik]

One only, no cheating with multiples (And I am totally asking this for Christmas present purposes)

Mine is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. It's not the best written book I've read this year (objectively it has lots of faults), but it's the stand out for me because of the world-building, endless ideas to think about, and good characters.

Probably The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

"The Heart's Invisible Furies"

Just ordered The Heart Invisible Furies - thank you!

I've ordered it too, thank you!

Florida - Lauren Groff, Sight - Jessie Greengrass, Dakota Winters - Tom Barbash.

I've enjoyed I Am Pilgrim, Dear Mrs Bird, Standard Deviations...

Edge of Eternity - Ken Follet

The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky. A brilliant novel from the 1970s written by a writer in exile from the-then Iron Curtain Czech republic. The chief character is teaching literature in a remote part of Canada but his thoughts are dominated by his memories of life in Czechoslovakia, particularly the years of the Nazi occupation and then the takeover by Stalin's forces. He reflects on his family, his lost loves and what happened to him and his friends after the war. It's interspersed with scenes of refugee life in Canada. Funny, moving, thoughtful, literary, informative, incredibly readable and absorbing. Am excellent novel. Also the portrait he constructs of life under fascism/totalitarianism, refugee life all very timely.

That sounds wonderful Dottie (to be honest, just the title alone would be enough to get me to read it)

The Rules of Seeing - Joe Heap - an intrigueing novel about a blind girl and another girl who meet by chance.

One Day in December - haven’t finished this book yet but really enjoying it.

The Horse Boy - not a new book but a true life account about a dad and his autistic son, and his trek across Russia meeting horse tribes, as he discovers his son as a natural affinity with horses.

Winter, by Ali Smith. I loved her Autumn as well

The Silent Companions - loved it

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - read it early in the year, still my favourite.

I'm really loving The Library Book, Susan Orlean's new one.

Otherwise, my hands down best book of 2018 is actually a reread: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon.

Thanks for starting this thread OP - lots of great suggestions!

A Place Called Winter and A Perfectly Good Man, both by Patrick Gale.

Very moving stories.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Really well crafted and moving.

You Think It, I'll Say It - a collection of short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld. Oh my god can that woman write! It is spectacular; loved each and every story.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman is my standout book this year.

Another vote forThe Heart’s Invisible Furies.

I’m reading The Heart’s Invisible Furies now - only about 100 pages in but loving it. I also loved Eleanor Oliphant and The Essex Serpent.

Favourite non-fiction book was Educated by Tara Westover, moving, scary, weirdly life-affirming.

Favourite fiction reads The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, the first two books in a trilogy set in medieval Russia, full of politics, religion, talking horses.

Alice Mine is Winter by Ali Smith too! She’s my favourite living author.
It didn’t grab me right from the start - I found the character hallucinating a bit hard to deal with - but by the end I loved it.

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan - I’m almost the same age as her so it was like reading my childhood!