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Post by windysisters on Dec 13, 2017 10:57:54 GMT
As longer-standing members will know, we have in past years asked everyone to nominate their Top Ten Favourite Reads (and their Five Worst Reads) and we’ve tallied up the nominations to get a Forum Top Ten.
As we are much smaller bunch over here in the new place, and in general books only get a handful of nominations each, this will be a pointless exercise this year.
However, we know how much members love lists and enjoy reading other people’s recommendations so we won’t deprive you of this!
There are still 18 reading days left so no rush, but any time between now and the 7 January, please list your Top Ten Favourite Books that you have read this year and also your Five Worst Reads of the year.
Guidelines:
• Please also put the authors’ names with the titles
• The books don’t need to have been published this year, you just need to have read them this year
• If the book is part of a series or trilogy, please put a note to indicate this (just in case anyone wants to read on your recommendation but doesn’t want to come in part way through a series)
Looking forward to the lists!
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Post by janetandjohn on Dec 18, 2017 18:29:20 GMT
TEN is a very small number of books! But some that I thought would make this list did not, and some I never even thought would make it have appeared. It's because favourite books for me are the ones that "stick", not the ones I perhaps loved for a week!
TEN favourites for 2017 Not Forgetting the Whale - John Ironmonger Dirt Music - Tim Winton The Draughtsman - Robert Lautner Should You Ask Me - Marianne Kavanagh The Secret Rooms - Catherine Bailey N/F Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves - Rachel Malik A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles BOOK OF THE YEAR I'll Be Seeing You - Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan Last Bus to Wisdom - Ivan Doig The Girl With All The Gifts - M R Carey
... and
The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms - J P Donleavy I got this one just for the 40 book challenge (a book with a long title) but I loved it - who knew! It gets my HONORABLE MENTION as it is number 11.
FIVE FOUR worst reads (Luckily not too much rubbish at all!) The Tidal Zone - Sarah Moss The Lady and the Little Fox Fur - Violette Leduc Murder on the Rocks - Karen MacInerney STINKER of the year If You Tell Me Not To Come, I'll Drop Everything, Just Tell Me To Come - Albert Espinosa
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Post by adelynechan on Dec 18, 2017 20:15:47 GMT
As at today I've read 68 books in 2017 and am just about to finish one, so I think I'll finish the year with 70 or 71 (much fewer than many of you!).
10 Favourites (in no particular order) Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed Head in the Cloud - William Poundstone Deep Thinking - Garry Kasparov One of us is Lying - Karen McManus The Betrayals - Fiona Neill All the Bright Places - Jennifer Niven Originals - Adam Grant The Sun is also a Star - Nicola Yoon Origin - Dan Brown The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion (this is the second book in the series, special mention to The Rosie Project too! I didn't want to name both in my list and I think I enjoyed the second book marginally more)
10 Least Enjoyed Data: A Love Story - Amy Webb The Fat Years - Chan Koon Chung Double Fault - Lionel Shriver Mythomania - Peter Conrad Great House - Nicole Krauss
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Post by jubee4 on Dec 22, 2017 19:23:02 GMT
Ooo love this idea. I shall have to get back to you on this as I can't remember off hand what I've read soI'll have to check with my good reads list
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Post by jubee4 on Dec 23, 2017 13:50:56 GMT
Right, I have more time on my hands now and Goodread is set up beside me so I'm good to go...
Books enjoyed 1. All 3 Books by Katerina Diamond (she's now my favourite author) THE TEACHER, THE SECRET, THE ANGEL 2. Girl on the Train by A J Waynes (NOT The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins) 3. Silent Child by Sarah A Denzil 4. The Breakdown by B A Paris 5. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson
Books not enjoyed so much 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Oh I'm struggling with this as I liked the books and finished all of them so I can't really put anything here! Do I have to?
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Post by janetandjohn on Dec 23, 2017 18:11:52 GMT
jubee4 - no you don't. I listed 4 only, but you can say no bad ones and people will congratulate you!!
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Post by rosemary3 on Dec 23, 2017 23:04:38 GMT
10 Best Reads
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo The Priory - Dorothy Whipple The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood Mrs Miniver - Jan Struther 11/22/63 - Stephen King Gillespie and I - Jane Harris Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Lively (a reread of one I loved as a child) Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland... - Catherynne M Valente
3 Worst Reads
Shame - Salman Rushdie The Man With Two Left Feet - P G Wodehouse I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna (it didn't)
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Post by windysisters on Dec 24, 2017 6:39:14 GMT
I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna (it didn't)
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Post by jubee4 on Dec 24, 2017 13:03:50 GMT
Phew. I didn't really have any books where I didn't complete them. Some weren't the best, but they were just a break from the norm genres to have a wee break.
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Post by natsplatt on Dec 29, 2017 9:24:57 GMT
In no particular order my top ten reads this year were:
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
The Heart's Invisible furies by John Boyne
The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb
Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
A Pleasure and a Calling by Phil Hogan
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
My 5 least favourite were:
Tea at 4 o'clock by Janet McNeill The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Virago at 40: A celebration by various The member of the wedding by Carson McCullers Although of these only 1 got a 1 star rating (Scarlet letter) the others were 2s and 3s, so not awful, just least favourite!
Nat
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Post by bookmadkirstie on Dec 29, 2017 12:56:21 GMT
Best Books (no particular order) The Last Piece of my Heart - Paige Toon The Secret of Crickley Hall - James Herbert AMAZING! Walt before Mickey - Timothy S. Susanin The Boy in Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne Always been a favourite of mine The Sunrise - Victoria Hislop one of my favourites this year The House By The Sea - Santa Montefiore New author for me, fantastic book! My favourite read this year! The Girls - Emma Cline My Secret Sister - Jenny Lee Smith and Helen Edwards The Secret of Happy Ever After - Lucy Dillon The Designer - Marius Gabriel
Least Enjoyed Oh Dear Silvia - Dawn French DNF
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Post by adelynechan on Dec 29, 2017 13:54:11 GMT
In no particular order my top ten reads this year were:
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
These are on my TBR for 2018 so I'm very excited now! I also need to pick out at least one book from an author whose works I've never read for the 40 Book Challenge... I might choose one from the other favourites you've listed
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Post by celia48 on Dec 30, 2017 18:15:19 GMT
My favourite reads are Consequences by Penelope Lively And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver The Fire Child by SK Tremayne Sleeper's Castle by Barbara Erskine The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connolly Another One Goes Tonight by Peter Lovesey The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
My least favourite were Year of the Tiger by Lisa Brackman The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (dnf) Stardust by Neil Gaiman (dnf) A Song from Dead Lips by William Shaw Judgement Day by Penelope Lively
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Post by pennyt on Jan 1, 2018 10:52:14 GMT
My top ten is a very varied list and, unusually for me, includes a couple of non-fiction books. All were truly engrossing reads. In the order in which I read them, they are: - The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
- When We Were the Kennedys - Monica Wood (non-fiction)
- A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Brodeck's Report - Philippe Claudel
- HHhH - Laurent Binet
- My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell (non-fiction)
- Tin Man - Sarah Winman
- The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
- La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman
- The Rebellion of Lucy Ann Lobdell – William Klaber
There were only three this year that I thought were out-and-out stinkers: - The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie
- The Rabbit Back Literature Society - Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen
- The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson
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Post by freerange on Jan 1, 2018 12:04:50 GMT
In the order I read them. Favourite Reads:The Winter Palace - Eva Stachniak Black Hills - Nora Roberts Amerian Gods - Neil Gaiman Soul Music - Terry Pratchett (read this before) Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey Through the Language Glass - Guy Deutscher (non-fiction) Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (read this before) I Can't Begin to Tell You - Elizabeth Buchan The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry Worst Reads:Vortex Manor - Elaine Bamford (it was a book for older children but I felt it was just a bit flat and didn't end properly) A Daughter's Journey - Lyn Andrews (I can't remember what happened) Perilous Dreams - Andre Norton (just dire) More Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin (the first one was great, this sequel disappointing) Coming Home for Christmas - Julia Williams (drivel) I'm going to have to read A Gentleman in Moscow; he's mentioned here a few times and was very popular in our Year in Books
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