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Post by windysisters on Jan 2, 2019 10:29:37 GMT
It's time to ask everyone to nominate their Top Ten Favourite Reads (and their Five Worst Reads)
Any time between now and 11 January, please list your Top Ten Favourite Books that you have read this year and also your Five Worst Reads of the year. I'll post a summary over the weekend of 12/13 January.
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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peppercricket
Book Assistant
Batley Townswoman's Guild presents the Battle of Pearl Harbour
Posts: 7,075
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Post by peppercricket on Jan 2, 2019 11:11:50 GMT
Worst Mr Holmes by Mitch Cullin - boring Dark Pines by Will Dean - clipped sentences and an annoying lead character Down & Out in Shoreditch & Hoxton by Stewart Home - tripe (and I'm being polite) The Countenance Divine by Michael Hughes - confusing The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen - weird
Best The Darling Buds of May (1) by HE Bates - delightful and fun! Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather by Tessa Boase - wealth of unknown information about the RSPB The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements - loved the writing Tomorrow by Damien Dibben - fab and touching story told by a dog Time and Time Again by Ben Elton To Kill a Mockingbird illustrated by Fred Foreman - retelling of the brilliant novel in graphic form, superb The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy - weird and unsettling, in a good way! A Fine Day for a Hanging by Carol Ann Lee - tremendous research in the retelling of Ruth Ellis's hanging The English Monster (1) by Lloyd Shepherd - brilliant detective series set in the early 1800s. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - finally read after 3 attempts, loved it.
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Post by windysisters on Jan 2, 2019 11:57:14 GMT
3 of my stinkers were, sadly, books chosen by my reading group. However, 4 of my favourites were too so that balances out!
Favourites:
A Keeper by Graham Norton
The Bees by Laline Paull
The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce
Faithful by Alice Hoffman
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The One plus One by Jojo Moyes
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café by Fannie Flagg
Mr Mercedes (1) by Stephen King
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Dominion by S J Sansom
Stinkers:
The Frozen Lake by Elizabeth Edmondson
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan
Slade House by David Mitchell
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Post by sarita on Jan 2, 2019 12:57:57 GMT
Another thread I love Best The Round House Louise Erdrich A Pocketful of Crows Joanne Harris Le Sourire étrusque Jose Luis Sampedro Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler The Alchemy of Desire Tarun J Tejpal Not Forgetting the Whale John Ironmonger Reservoir 13 Jon Mc Gregor Prisoners of Geography Tim Marshall NF Les nymphéas noirs Michel Bussi The Mandibles Lionel Shriver not a 5 stars but the subject matter was a mind opener Worst Nutshell Ian Mc Ewan A Long Way Down Nick Hornby Les Thanatonautes Bernard Werber Sapiens Yuval Harari
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Post by janetandjohn on Jan 2, 2019 17:23:40 GMT
Lovely Reads from me:
Good Morning Midnight - Lily Brook-Dalton Tin Man - Sarah Winman The Wild Air - Rebecca Mascull The Ballroom - Anna Hope Sea of Rust - C Robert Cargill The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne A Woman of Independent Means - Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey Dear Mrs Bird AJ Pearce Gap Creek - Robert Morgan Some Kind of Fairy Tale - Graham Joyce
and just sneaking in two honorable mentions, as I had to remove another 17!!
The Darling Buds of May - H E Bates Bettyville - George Hadgman (NF)
Duds:
The Norfolk Mystery - Ian Ransome Driving Short Distances - Joff Winterhart (my worst read of entire year )
No place for Secrets - Sherry Lewis One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning At The Beginning of the Twenty First Century - Roland Schimmelpfennig The Chilbury Ladies Choir Jennifer Ryan
* Thanks Wendy! this is one of my favourite January tasks.
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Post by adelynechan on Jan 2, 2019 21:24:58 GMT
10 Favourites: Not in order of preference, but there is some semblance of grouping by genre. The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen Fallen Angel by Jonelle Patrick The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Only Child by Rhiannon Navin A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara * book of the year The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle Scale by Geoffrey West Sully: My Search for What Really Matters by Chelsey Sullenberger
Close 11th place - it was a really tough call! In the end I decided to cut one from the mystery/thriller genre so: After the Crash by Michel Bussi
5 worst reads: I decided to go for ones which I did finish but didn't like, so DNFs are excluded. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Casino Royale by Ian Fleming The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey Our House by Louise Candlish
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Post by rosemary3 on Jan 2, 2019 21:51:04 GMT
Ooh yes, love this thread! My top 10 reads (a difficult choice!): Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs - such a sweet and lovely graphic novel Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi - rural Italy in the 1930s (not religious despite title!) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - a clergyman struggling with faith, morality and mortality History of the Rain by Niall Williams - a lovely poetic Irish story I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - classic vampire/apocalypse with a twist If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi - Jewish resistance/escapees in the forests of Poland in WW2 Lethal White by Robert Galbraith - Cormoran strikes again! The Go-Between by L P Hartley - a lovely coming-of-age classic The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - long but a pageturner, family saga/building a cathedral Tin Man by Sarah Winton - a very touching story of love and friendship My bottom 5:
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - the only real stinker, I found it so tedious. The others were all two star reads, just underwhelming or not for me: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Dead Babies by Martin Amis Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
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Post by natsplatt on Jan 3, 2019 11:42:44 GMT
My top 10, all 5 star reads! Career of Evil and Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (3 and 4 in the series!) Simon vs the homosapiens agenda and The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli The long way to a small angry planet and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (books 1 and 2 of the series) Shadow of Night and The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (books 2 and 3 in the series!) Happiness for Humans by PZ Riezen Game of thrones by George RR Martin I didn’t list the-reads at all as they most likely were in my top ten the first time, I found several new favourite authors this year, hence 10 books but only 6 authors in the list lol!
Worst 5 (well, only 4 for me!) Christmas Wishes by Katie Flynn (just dull) A High wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes DNF Voyage in the dark by Jean Rhys DNF The Beast within by Serena Valentino DNF
Nat
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Post by janetandjohn on Jan 3, 2019 13:42:23 GMT
My top 10, all 5 star reads! Career of Evil and Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (3 and 4 in the series!) Simon vs the homosapiens agenda and The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli The long way to a small angry planet and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (books 1 and 2 of the series) Shadow of Night and The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (books 2 and 3 in the series!) Happiness for Humans by PZ RiezenGame of thrones by George RR Martin I didn’t list the-reads at all as they most likely were in my top ten the first time, I found several new favourite authors this year, hence 10 books but only 6 authors in the list lol! Worst 5 (well, only 4 for me!) Christmas Wishes by Katie Flynn (just dull) A High wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes DNF Voyage in the dark by Jean Rhys DNF The Beast within by Serena Valentino DNF Nat Nat - I loved that one too, but as I started with 27 lovely books, some had to go!
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Post by pennyt on Jan 4, 2019 10:19:42 GMT
This has been really difficult for me this year - I had at least 20 crackers to choose from, and no out-and-out stinkers so have had to grub around in the lists a bit to come up with five that just didn't live up to expectations. But I think at last I've got a definitive list!
Best reads:
The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnett I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell The Fire Court - Andrew Taylor The Wonder - Emma Donoghue In the Distance - Hernan Diaz Travelling in a Strange Land - David Park Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See West - Carys Davies Rocket Men - Robert Kurson
Most disappointing reads:
Daisy Belle - Caitlin Davies Silver and Salt - Elanor Dymott The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley Melmoth - Sarah Perry Heads You Win - Jeffrey Archer (entirely because of the ending!)
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Post by littlereader on Jan 7, 2019 14:20:08 GMT
Favourites
His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnet What a Carve Up! - Jonathan Coe Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne Freedom - Jonathan Franzen The Scandal - Fredrik Backman Travels with My Sketchbook - Chris Riddell Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng The Death's Head Chess Club John Donoghue The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain
Disappointed by
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
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Post by geminii on Jan 11, 2019 16:57:48 GMT
It has been so difficult reducing my list of Outstanding Reads in 2018 to just 10 .. I could so easily have listed 20 !!
In a year of reading 'firsts', like Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle, I couldn't really choose .. I will just have to read more by these Authors this year and see if they make the next list ..
Favourites :
Persuasion by Jane Austen .. my first Austen read, the Lyme connection making it doubly special
Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery .. what is not to love, lifted my year
The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton .. got me hooked into SB
The Witchfinders' Sister by Beth Underdown .. based in Essex - has to be on my list
Day of the Dead by Nicci French .. brilliant final installment of a thrilling Series
The Mermaid and Mrs Handcock by Imogen Hermes Gowar .. totally original, magical and captivating
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See .. discovered by accident, blew me away
The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter .. I could have picked any from the six I read from this Author / Series
The Clockmakers' Daughter by Kate Morton .. a ghost story, a romance, a triple time novel - completely stunning
The Midnight Watch by David Dyer .. what did happen the night the Titanic sunk ?? Really made me think, What If ??
Worst :
Asking For It by Louise O'Neill
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield
Ru by Kim Thuy
Quickly In and Quickly Out by Mark Petersen
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Post by eightlegs on Jan 11, 2019 21:34:36 GMT
It's taken me a while to get round to this but my top 10 for 2019:
Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz Eleanor Oliphant - Gail Honeyman Should you ask me - Marianne Kavanagh A Year of Marvellous Ways - Sarah Winman The Music Shop - Rachel Joyce Songs of the Sea Maid - Rebecca Mascull The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown The Girls in the Garden - Lisa Jewell Faithful - Alice Hoffman 22 Britannia Road - Amanda Hodgkinson
And the least favourite I can only find two that I wasn't keen on, neither of which was awful
I am, I am, I am - Maggie O'Farrell - I've loved her fiction but found this a bit contrived The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera - I felt this was trying a bit too hard to be clever and I found it overly graphic in places
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Post by froglady on Jan 15, 2019 10:34:49 GMT
My favourite is: The seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - just loved how the author mixed the sexes of the unwitting/unwilling protagonist and it went on to win the Costa prize for first novel. Sal
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Post by windysisters on Jan 15, 2019 12:00:42 GMT
I think I've worked out the data correctly:
Five books received 2 nominations each:
Faithful - Alice Hoffman His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnet Lethal White by Robert Galbraith The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain Tin Man by Sarah Winton
And one book got 3 nominations: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
None of the "worst" books got more than 1 nomination but surprisingly one book appears on both sides: I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell
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