Best book you’ve read this year

[lastqueenofscotland]

Doesn’t need to have been released this year, just one you’ve read in 2019 and why.

I really enjoyed The Dust That Falls From Dreams recently, which was far better than its shitty title implied it would be

Also reread Oryx and Crake. Which is one of my all time favourites.

So it is ritz it's been a long day, that's my only defence!

My favourite fiction in that case is Fried Greem Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe

@InTheCludgie I'm sure we all feel a bit like that. Fantastic book wasn't it?!

I think for me it was Old Baggage by Lissa Evans. It was just so lovely. I also really loved the Familiars which I read in January, that would come a close second.

The Alice Network comes up frequently on my library app, would you recommend it @NorthernLightss

The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society - Mary Ann Shaffer

The Queen of bloody everything - Joanna Nadin

Loved them both. I've just started Erebus so pleased to see that mentioned!

Circe
Only Killers and Thieves
Educated

Loved all of these!

Oh and
'It's about bloody time. Period.'

One Day in December - really enjoyed it.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Bit of a marmite I think but I totally loved it and identified with the protagonist's humour.

Loved...

Where the Crawdads Sing
The Nightingale
After the End

I enjoyed Circe most I think. I was a bit disappointed with The Testaments though.

Two I’ve just read that I found totally engaging - The secrets of Tenley House and the Penmakers Wife.

This is going to hurt was the one I read most quickly - very funny.

Two books I read in 2019- although they are not recent- I really enjoyed were-
The Handmaid's Tale- hard going at times but brilliant.
The Rosie Project- loved it!

Station 11 hands down.

Also loving Olive Kitteridge - only reading it now because I went to hear Elizabeth Strout talking about her new book, Olive Again, and decided to read it then the new book.

Fiction would be Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler. I only discovered Anne Tyler a couple of years ago and I'm gradually working my way through her books.

Non-fiction would be Untangled by Lisa Damour. It was recommended to me by the Mum of an older girl.

I've just compiled my reads of 2019 like this.

Top 5 are

The blue castle- L M Montgomery fantastic! My favourite ever book

Where the crawdads sing
Educated
This is going to hurt
Why be happy when you could be normal?

Loved Sally Rooney & Jess Kidd too

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

Epic sci fi on a huge scale. Beautifully written. Just amazing.

The Mixed Martial Artist by Lanta Brown. It popped up on Kindle unlimited so I gave it a try and oh my god! Like nothing else I've read.
It's a bit of an alternative love story that goes in a direction you would not expect and the characters really stick with you!

I recently read "Pages for You" by Sylvia Brownrigg which I absolutely adored

The corset thanks @iklboo for mentioning this book!

Nothing as good as 2018's best read, "The Heart's Invisible Furies" These were my favourites from my 2019 "50 Books" thread

The Dark Circle - Linda Grant
Educated - Tara Westover
Ordinary Thunderstorms - William Boyd
Milkman - Anna Burns
Different Class - Joanne Harris
The Butterfly Room - Lucinda Riley
A Friend From England - Anita Brookner
How was it for you? Women, sex, love and power in the 1960s - Virginia Nicholson (non fiction)
The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell
Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce

........and forgot to add these two - Engleby - Sebastian Faulks, Clock Dance - Anne Tyler

Out of 8 books I’ve read since Christmas the two I enjoyed most were The Nanny at Number 43 by Nicola Cassidy and Susan Hills latest Simon serrailer The benefit of hindsight .