Whats the best book you've read this year???

[Love2bake]

Mine would be The Kite Runner.

Maryann I was in two minds about that book too - thread here

Loved Ukrainian Tractors.

Best books this year: A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry and one I've just read and really enjoyed - Salt by Jeremy Page.

Found both 1000 splendid suns & half a yellow sun a bit unengaging tbh. This year, I have mostly been reading :
Anna Karenina
Rebecca (how had I not read this before??), blardy fabulous bit of page-turning
Chesil Beach. Having found the last few Ian McEwan's a bit dull

funnypeculiar - how refreshing,what you say about those 2 books- people usually think I'm mad no to love them as they seem to do !

Oh yes, Rebecca is fab! Ian McCewan is one of the main areas of argument in the Janeite household. DP thinks the sun shines and I think he's over-rated, over-written crap.

Agent Zigzag - BRILLIANT stuff.
Also, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Both good feeding books!

no country for old men cormac mccarthy
the road cormac mccarthy

I've just read The Electric Michaelangelo, about a tattoo artists life. Its just brilliant. It starts off in 1907 in Morecambe and spans his life through to the 70's..think its by Sarah Hall.

The new Amitabh Ghosh is extremely good.

Mengele Zoo by Gert Nygårdshaug. Bloody brilliant, shame it is not in English Translation. Has been voted book of the century, before both Ibsen and Hamsun here...

the book thief...superb

MaryAnn, I'm actually avoiding reading the kiterunner, despite EVERYONE raving about it, because I'm convinced I'll hate it, & then I'll have to fight everyone at bookclub

Book Thief is next on my list, pollywobbledoodle.

Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey.
I havent managed to read much this year yet though.

Don't forget to post your Best book of the year in reviews

I finished The Book Theif this week - it's brilliant.

i liked notes on an exhibtion a lot too

also last stop salina cruz by david lale very good indded

Life of Pi or the Zookeeper's Wife

Lots of good books this yr:

Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Oooh MI - I didn't realise Amitabh Ghosh had a new one out (he wrote The Glass Palace didn't he ? I loved that).

I enjoyed Tractors in Ukranian, 1000 Splendid Suns, Half of a Yellow Sun.

The book which has made the greatest impact on me this year has to be Never Let Me Go by Kazio Ishiguro. I found it absolutely fascinating and disturbing. I can't say I 'enjoyed' it, but I'm glad I read it. All about cloning people for organ donation

I've just finished the Grapes of Wrath - unputdownable, and am in the middle of The Last Empress, which I'm not enjoying as much as Empress Orchid.

On Chesil Beach and The Book Thief are in my bedtime reading pile!

I'm reading a lot this year!

What was tractors in ukranian like hotcroosbunny, was it similar to half a yellow sun?

No they weren't at all similar.

Tractors was really funny, if a little bit painful to read. I wanted the father character to stop being so silly and desperate.

Half a yellow sun was sooo sad, but I found I empathised with the characters and wanted to read on to find out what happened to them.

Tractors was funny and sad, but mostly funny - hello hotcross !

at "1000 Splendid Suns is best book ever".

As in, no better story that this simple heart-tugging story of two women being beaten up for years, no character development better than these 2-dimensional interchangeable women, no writing style better than this Afghan guy writing in English?

I hated 'Ukranian tractors' as well, btw. East European bimbo after senile dad's money. Not even funny.

'Never Let Me Go' was interesting, though.

Best book I read this year was J. G. Ballard's autobiography 'Miracles of Life'. He is the guy who wrote 'Empire of the Sun', which was autobiographical itself - i.e. he was interned in a prison camp in Shanghai during WWII along with other English people as a child.

CoteDAzur: recommend me a Ballard to start with, please.
My top read: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, closely followed by Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
Anything by David Gates (massively underrated) and whatshisname St Aubyn also stayed with me, but I think they might have been last year...