What’s been your best read this year?

[HighburyLass]

Just one book (if you can!) that has stood out for you this year?

For me, it’s James by Percival Everett. Was given it as a present, I wouldn’t have chosen it. But my goodness what a great read. I was unsure as I hadn’t read Huckleberry Finn but it really didn’t matter (and now maybe I will!)

What have been your reading highlights?

Two Brothers by Ben Elton.

Seascraper

The Handmaid's Tale. I watched the show a while ago but hadn't read the book. Best thing I've read in a long time.

10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world by Elif Shafak.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I really enjoyed The Innocent One by Lisa Ballantyne. The 2nd one called The Guilty One was a bit disappointing.

The Last Mrs Parrish

The bear came over the mountain., by Lisa Munro.
It's about a couple married for 50 years, the wife has dementia and has to go into a home.

Would be really helpful if poster’s could write a couple of lines about the book as this is such a great place for recommendations

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. We read it for book club and I wasn’t keen as I’m not a fan of war stories, but I thought it was a clever story, beautifully written.

Quick synopsis as requested: blind French girl’s and young German soldier’s lives overlap intermittently throughout WW2.

Really enjoyed Jane Harper’s The Lost Man. Set in summer in South Australia (so around Christmas). Really makes you think about what it must be like to live in and farm, such inhospitable land, and a good central intrigue. Highly recommended.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

I really enjoyed the fourth wing series

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey. An extraordinary and unnerving story of triplet boys in an alternate history.

North Woods - Daniel Mason. So original .

The wren the wren by quite a long margin, really stayed with me

I'm still advocating for Ken Smith's "The Way of the Hermit" (AKA the hermit of Treig). It's someone who dropped out of most people's version of "normal" society, went travelling, came back to the UK, built himself a log cabin in the woods, has a fairly peaceful life, and gets merry brewing his own alcohol!

Oh, and Jasvinder Sanghera's "Shame". It's an interesting look into another culture, and how family pressure and forced marriages collide, with some devastating consequences (including her sister setting fire to herself to escape an abusive marriage). That was an eye-opener, and not in a good way!

I loved Piglet by Lottie Hazell.

It’s a book about a woman and her insecurities and also her relationship with food. It’s really beautifully written and thought-provoking.

All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker - it was so long but I didn’t want it to end!

American Dirt by Jeannie Cummins

Ive never felt so anxious reading a book. It's about a Mexican mother and her son who are forced to flee as migrants to the USA after a drug cartel massacres their family.

Never been so gripped reading a book. It was brilliant.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Each chapter follows a different character but their stories intertwine. There's no big story arc really but I devoured it.

The Names by Florence Knapp was good read

Reading this at present. A real page turner !

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a novel about a boy whose life becomes entangled with the fate of a famous painting after a bomb explosion. Reminiscent of David Copperfield and Great Expectations, it is utterly immersive: gripping, sad, funny and exciting. The characters felt so real. I didn’t want it to end. When it did, I immediately read it again, twice. Then I re-read all my favourite bits.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton is the writer’s account of how she found herself raising a wild leveret during lockdown. It is fascinating and beautiful. Another I had to re-read immediately.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is a compulsively readable novel. Sometime in the near future the government acquires the technology to snatch a few individuals from history. The heroine is a civil servant assigned to look after one of them; a Victorian naval officer rescued from a doomed Arctic expedition. It is imaginative, clever and funny.

What a great selection of recommendations! I had a very generous book token as a gift and as always will spend ages deciding what to buy. I love reading book reviews and recommendations almost as much as reading actual books!