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?

I enjoyed The Ministry of Time; The List of Suspicious Things and You Are Here.

It's been an unusual year for me as I mostly read crime fiction but have broken away from
that a fair bit.

I've enjoyed these too as they are so different.

Hoping the third one is coming soon.

which is the best one to start with please?

Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang hands down. Lots of other highlights but none that good

Which is the best Murdoch to start with Dappy?

There’s a lot mentioned that I loved

I read Project Hail Mary last year it’s brilliant

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall is a long term favourite

And I also liked The God Of The Woods

All Quiet On The Western Front should be required reading

Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle, based on the true story of Artemisia Gentileschi, a 16th century Italian artist. She spends her young life having her drunkard father take credit for her incredible work, and is then brutally raped by another painter. Her father insists she marries her rapist. It’s enraging and vivid.

Oh and The Voyage Home. That trilogy is spectacular.

irisheils, if you’re game to try more sci-fi, I’d highly recommend the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. Yes, some of it goes over your head in terms of the sci-fi/computery stuff, but it’s a great series. And Apple TV have done a good adaptation.

Hmmm...tough one. I began with The Good Apprentice because Harold Bloom considered it her best work. I'm not sure I'd recommend beginning with that, however, as it's quite long.

The Sea, The Sea won her the Booker, and I can see why. Again, not sure I'd start with it though. Like The Good Apprentice it's a long novel and in places a demanding one.

I would recommend either The Bell or The Green Knight. The Green Knight is considered a minor work (The Sea, The Sea, The Black Prince and The Good Apprentice would be the critics choices), but I really enjoyed it. I think it might even be my favourite.

If you want to plunge in at the deep end, I'd try The Sea, The Sea.

I really hope you enjoy her, wherever you begin. 😊

The Music Room by William Fiennes. Absolutely beautifully written biography of the author’s brother, who suffered from severe epilepsy. His parents tried to manage him at home for years, until his temper became too dangerous.

it’s woven in with their work running a country estate and their sense of responsibility towards it. Fiennes describes his family with such love, humour and respect without ever sliding into mawkishness.

You can’t help but like them all.

I loved it.

Thank you all for fabulous recommendations. My list of “books I might like to read/were recommended/worth a look/had rave reviews” has got a lot longer 😊

Just finished the Wolf Den trilogy by Elodie Harper. Follows the life of a slave who starts out in the Pompeii brothel but moves through society. Series begins about five years before the Vesuvius eruption and ends a couple of years after. Really fascinating if you want to get lost in the streets and culture of Pompeii.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Also a fantastic film.

This - absolutely brilliant and still thinking about it. About a woman and three different versions of her life and the consequences for her family.

One of the following:
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun. The experiences of a 19yo the day Hitler came to town.
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta. Ironically titled, parenting in mid century Nigeria.
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker. Feminist retelling of the end of the Trojan Wars.

All I can say is thankyou Penguin.

Prophet Song. Listened to it on BorrowBox - utterly compelling about normal lives gradually being pulled into chaos.

The Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - two writers are forced to collaborate to tell the story of what everyone thought was a weird cult suicide, only to find that there’s more to it than that. Told through text messages, transcribed interviews, film scripts etc and cleverly done.

I loved Salmon Fishing in the Yemen too.

Lots of books I've loved listed above.

For Iris Murdoch I started with The Bell and wasn't disappointed.

This year hasn't been vintage but my top two were Sally Rooney's Normal People (charts the relationship of Connell, popular, humble background, and Marianne, loner, indepedent. Whimsical and an easy read) and Damon Galgut'sThe Good Doctor (set in a run-down rural hospital in post-apartheid South Africa. Nice literary prose, thought provoking and somewhat disturbing).

If I can only give one it has to be

Rosalind Belben - Hound Music

What it’s about - a close examination of a fox hunting family in the early 20th century - might seem less compelling than her truly extraordinary writing style, though the two are intertwined. I’ve never read anything like it.

And would have finished there had I not dipped into the first few pages of

Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children

again after an interval of about thirty years. It’s still one of the greatest novels ever. It should be required reading for anyone on MN - reluctantly feminist mid-20th century author writing about a family with ‘too many children and too little money’. It’s nothing like anything one might expect.

Also - I have pre-ordered

Helen De Witt’s Your Name Here

which should arrive in a couple of weeks. She is a genius. (Someone started a thread about her recently.)

This is one of my stand-out ones too. Completely absorbing. I read comparisons to Never Let Me Go, but I don't think they were justified.

I loved The Eights. Very moving and compelling story with great characters. Looking forward to more from the author.

Mine is possibly My Friends by Fredrik Backman. I love his writing style and the humour in it.

The Story of a Heart - Sarah Clarke