Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Since we are slowly getting closer to the end of 2013 here's a place for you to review your year in reading and to share the literary highs and lows of 2013 :) Just to be clear, this is not about books published in 2013, but the books you've read this year.

Feel free to use the following format or to bluntly ignore it:


1.Which were your favourite books of the year?

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

I've discovered a lot more this year due to receiving a Kindle Fire as a gift last Christmas.

Because of this I became a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, I discovered an author who instantly became my favourite author ever - W. Somerset Maugham. I also discovered Rafael Sabatini and Jack London who I enjoy a lot. I found out I don't connect with F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing.

I also discovered Locke & Key, which is an amazing series of graphic novels. I read through the first two Walking Dead compendiums and they're amazing. I started the Preacher series and I'm looking forward to more of those. I caught up on some classic comics as well and got the collection in which Gwen Stacy dies, and those couple of issues are some of the most powerful stories.

The big least favourite book of the year for me was Song of Achilles. Ugh.

My favourite books of the year are The Song of Achilles, The Fault in Our Stars and The Scorpio Races. I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that I have really loved.

My least favourite are some of the ones I have read for review, notably A Shade of Vampire which is one of the worst things I have ever read. Ever.

I think my biggest discovery is John Green, even though I had heard of him I had never read any of his work, I've read two of his books so far this year and I love his style of writing. I was really surprised by The Thirteenth Tale and how much I enjoyed it as a group read.

Interesting that the first two posts feature the same book - one as a favourite and one as a least favourite.

OH that's interesting! Care to elaborate why you loved or hated it? I had honestly never heard of the book before.

Jenny wrote: "OH that's interesting! Care to elaborate why you loved or hated it? I had honestly never heard of the book before."

I loved everything about it Jenny :) I loved the story, the way it was written, the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus...it was pretty much a perfect book in my opinion. From what I remember (we read it as a readalong in Perks) Robert didn't like Miller's take on the story of The Iliad and how she portrayed it, amongst other things - please correct me if I'm wrong Robert!

I must have missed that readalong! Had you read the original before Signourey?

@Robert: I haven't yet read a book by W. Somerset Maugham but have been meaning to read The Razor's Edge and Of Human Bondage for a while now. I will try and get to one of those in the beginning of next year.

My Favourite Books:

Among many books I will select two books as the best and they are by the same author - 1. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. I will never forget the feeling that Italo Calvino made me to feel at the end of the book. It was a book in which the protagonist is the reader. For making me the main character of a book I will always be grateful to him.
2. Invisible Cities. The great meanings and the core of many philosophical musings are tactfully summerised and are beautifully expressed in few words. I used to read a page and used to return to the next page the next day. An experience I loved very much.

New Literary Discoveries:

I will say just two names - Christa Wolf and Clarice Lispector. I loved the former for her honesty and the latter for her courage to write and to confuse.

Pleasant Surprises:

Two books. 1. Frankenstein. It was truly a surprise. I had never expected much from Mary Shelley and with much apprehension I began the book. But the impact I received was great.
2. The Leopard. The reason is as stated for Mary Shelley's book. I had this book for a long time in my "to Read" list and I was not very eager to read it very soon. But then when I began read it I was only upset with myself for being so late.

Other books enjoyed:
1.Waiting for God
2. Gilead
3. Job: The Story of a Simple Man
4. Thousand Cranes
5. Chess Story

The Book with which I was disappointed:
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams. I expected much and I did not get what I had expected. Same thing can be true for Country Girl.

Can I just mention as an aside to number 3, that my most pleasant literary discovery of the year was actually "Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ" itself? And even more specifically, and recently the "All About Books" group. Many thanks to you you all - you're broadening my tastes no end :)

Now, calm your blushes and as you were...

Jenny wrote: "I must have missed that readalong! Had you read the original before Signourey?

@Robert: I haven't yet read a book by W. Somerset Maugham but have been meaning to read [book:The Razor's Edge|31196..."

I think we read it in July, so quite a while ago. I haven't read The Iliad before, I read The Odyssey at university but that's my only exposure to Homer.

Jean wrote: "Can I just mention as an aside to number 3, that my most pleasant literary discovery of the year was actually "Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ" itself? And even more specifically, and recently the "All About Books" grou..."

Aw, Jean! So glad you've said that, it's true - the AAB group is wonderful :)

xxx

:)

I've really got into my reading this year. Managed to get through many more books than usual, probably as for the first time in my life I've not sat an exam in a calender year!

1.Which were your favourite books of the year? My author of the year has been Margaret Atwood and I've read 4 by her with 1 planned (The Blind Assassin, The Robber Bride, Surfacing and MaddAddam have been read, Alias Grace is to be read!)

I LOVED Anna Karenina, Child 44 and Vanity Fair

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?
I really hated Possession and was unimpressed by The Thirteenth Tale and The Perks of Being a Wallflower

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year? This year I have found a likely for short stories which is a new branch of reading that has opened up to me. I hope to continue this and poetry reading in the near year.

In author terms I have been glad to have finally got round to reading Daphne du Maurier and Stephen King whose works I have been meaning to read for a while.

Book terms, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Hunger Games

My most surprising read was A Monster Calls which was a truly unforgettable read.

What a fantastic year of reading! Thanks to all the lovely people at AAB for suggesting many of these choices (3 of my favourites were recommendation swaps from people on here) and for encouraging my ever-growing love of books and TBR list with your wonderful chat :)!

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?
These are the only books I've rated 5 stars in 2013, so I guess they're my favourites. I've discovered Sherlock this year, which I'm still working through and Orwell, who I assumed I wouldn't like, but I love. Each of these books I consider to be amazing, powerful and perfect in their own right.
Brave New World
The Fault in Our Stars
Lolita
Ariel
Animal Farm
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Diary of a Young Girl
Address Unknown
Jane Eyre

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?
Everything Is Illuminated pretentious (and the only book I gave up on this year)
The Virgin Suicides boring
Never Let Me Go disappointing
The Perks of Being a Wallflower unrealistic
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas tiresome

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?
Rebecca thought it might be a wishy washy romance, found it was a beautifully written mystery
The Kite Runner thought it might be nothing special, but found out it was
Frankenstein thought I knew what it was about, found out I was wrong
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz thought it might be a sentimental children's book, found out this didn't matter, it's really good
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe thought it might be a long boring read, found out it was a real quick, funny, page turner

One of the best things about 2013 for me has also been joining Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and discovering new books and genres out of my comfort zone, as well as great groups and new reading friends :) :) :)

Dhanaraj wrote: "The Book with which I was disappointed:
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams. I expected much and I did not get what I had expected. Same thing can be true for Country Girl.
"

I've never really been able to warm towards Handke's writing, but then I've only tried twice. He's an interesting phenomenon though. He's one of those writers that have a very active hate camp which often turns into a mocking camp. Due to the position he took during the Yugoslav Wars in the 90's when he defended the Serbian point of view, he turned into a persona non grata for quite a while.
There is a very active 'love' camp however as well, and both seem to be in constant war, often to be witnessed on television and radio and always using the political person Handke as an arguement. I find it interesting that most critics loose or refuse ability to judge a writer by his writing due to a political standpoint he might be taking or once took. However that distinction between person and work seems to be much harder when said writer is still alive.

Heather wrote: "I've really got into my reading this year. Managed to get through many more books than usual, probably as for the first time in my life I've not sat an exam in a calender year!

1.Which were your ..."

Daphne du Maurier belongs to my biggest discoveries of the year as well, for some reason I had always associated the name with romantic soft sawder novels but I am really glad I was on the wrong track entirely.
Like you I was rather underwhelmed by 'Possession', but then I guess part of my disappointment came from the fact that I expected so much from this novel.

Pink wrote: "1.Which were your favourite books of the year?
These are the only books I've rated 5 stars in 2013, so I guess they're my favourites. I've discovered Sherlock this year, which I'm still working thr..."

I guess I really have to read Frankenstein now, after both you and Dhanaraj are singing it's praise :)

@Jenny I agree, thought Possession was going to be wonderful but I was just so bored!

I am really looking forward to discovering even more du Maurier in the new year, I'm just sad I didn't get started on her works sooner!

Heather wrote: "@Jenny I agree, thought Possession was going to be wonderful but I was just so bored!

I am really looking forward to discovering even more du Maurier in the new year, I'm just sad I didn't get st..."

Seems that lots of us have recently discovered Daphne du Maurier, I'm so glad we'll be reading more of her books in the new year!

Dhanaraj wrote: "Two books. 1. Frankenstein. It was truly a surprise. I had never expected much from Mary Shelley and with much apprehension I began the book. But the impact I received was great."

Frankenstein has been a surprise also for me: a much deeper novel than one would expect - as Dracula.
For my answers I have to consider a bit; later on I'll write...

This year I haven't read books that impressed me positively that much. I have read some good books to which I gave 5 stars and among these ones there is:

Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre, non-fiction about the indipendence of India.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, again about India and though it talks about the indipendence and the Emergency period in India it is fiction.
I loved also Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, he is a genius, I must read more by him and I hope to add next year also something by Eugène Ionesco.
Last but not least The Postman: Il Postino by Antonio Skármeta. I had watched also the film but the book is much better, nothing to do with the film. Il talks about the friendship among Pablo Neruda and his postman, there are dissertations about love, literature and life. I would consider this book the most impressive of the year, I was completely absorbed by it and read it all at once. The book created a wonderful atmosphere around me.
Well, I have liked a lot also The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Worst books, I think some won with the giveaways of GR by new Italian emergent writers.

Biggest surprise, till now, I think The House of the Spirits because I thought Isabel Allende wrote chick-lit, romance or something like this. But also The Postman: Il Postino because I really couldn't imagine that the book was so different from the film that I really didn't like.

But the year isn't over, so I hope to add some book or author at the end of dicember!

This looks interesting, but I think I will wait until later on in December, I still have a few books I plan to read. However I think it's really interesting that the same book did end up in the first, as a favourite and a least favourite. I have to say I enjoyed The Song of Achilles but I don't think it stands out to me.

dely wrote: "Biggest surprise, till now, I think The House of the Spirits because I thought Isabel Allende wrote chick-lit, romance or something like this. But also The Postman: Il Postino because I really couldn't imagine that the book was so different from the film that I really didn't like."

THat novel by Allende is a real masterpiece. I don't think she ever got near to that level anumore! But not all her other novels are chick lit dely;
Eva Luna or Of Love and Shadows are really nice, really sad - I read it just after having lost my father, Paula ...

My favorite books of the year are A Tale of Two Cities Jane Eyre The Great Gatsby The Snow Child The Book Thief To Kill a MockingbirdThere have been more wonderful books this year these are a selection that I would urge anyone to read.

My least favorite/most disappointing books are Juliet and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer both of these I had really high hopes for and felt let down by them.

Literary discovery of the year has to be Charles Dickens I absolutely love his writing style his characters are wonderful his descriptions beyond compare and the first book I ever read of his was A Tale of Two Cities and I have never read a book that affected me so much or stayed with me so long on closing the back cover.

This for me has been a year of wonderful books finding that I really like classics Dickens, Bronte, Fitzgerald and Harper Lee to name a few. In between those there have been some great modern works The Book Thief, My dear I wanted to tell you, The Night Circus and many more.
Good reads has opened a whole new world of books and like minded people and for that I am very happy.

Roll on 2014 and my 'Something old/Something new' challenge. :)

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?
Incredibly enough almost all my non fiction reads:
Elisabeth C. Gaskell Life of Charlotte Brontee
Erin Blakemore La biblioteca delle donne
But also some novels or plays:
Edmund De Waal, Un'eredità di avorio e ambra
Elisabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys
Henry Ibsen Casa di bambola
Bill Richardson, Waiting for Gertrude
Israel Joshua Singer I fratelli Ashkenazi

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?
Quite a few, many of Austen’s speen off that I read to help a friend of mine with her blog, plus some other YAs:
Clara Sanchez, Il profumo delle foglie di limone
Patric Ness The Knife of never letting go
Margo Lanagan The Brides of Rollrock Island
Jane Odiwe, Lydia Bennet's Story

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?
Eva Ibbotson A Countess Below Stairs
D. E. Stevenson, Miss Buncle's book and Miss Buncle Married

Sigourney wrote: "Jenny wrote: "OH that's interesting! Care to elaborate why you loved or hated it? I had honestly never heard of the book before."

I loved everything about it Jenny :) I loved the story, the way it..."

Yeah, partly.

Basically I didn't think the romance was believable at all because Patroclus was always portrayed as this doe-eyed teenager and Achilles was basically a poster boy, and the love never had any depth to it. It was pretty much just Patroclus fawning over Achilles the whole time.

The author inserted some conflict about their affair but given the Greeks' attitudes towards homosexuality and relationships on the battlefield the soldiers wouldn't have reacted that way, so it didn't come across as authentic.

The ending completely contradicts the description of the Underworld and it was done just to wheedle out a bit of a happy ending and it didn't ring true for me.

Jenny wrote: "Dhanaraj wrote: "The Book with which I was disappointed:
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams. I expected much and I did not get what I had expected. Same thing can be true for Country Girl.
"

I've never really..."

When I made my comment I was not aware of the controversy surrounding the person of Handke. So I am not a member of the 'active hate camp'. I had expected of a biography few things and he had not written a biography. That was something else. That is why it was a great disappointment to me. And I agree with you that a writer is to be judged by his writing than by his personality. But then it can open a can of worms. Anyone can ask what is then the responsibility of a writer and what is the use of the words if they do not match with deeds?

@Laura T and Jenny: FRANKENSTEIN is a lovely book at least to me. And it will remain one of my favourites for my life time. Mary Shelley was a great prophet to predict the ruthless reign of 'science' over human sentiments.

I'll do mine at the end of December too but you can check my 2013 books I've read list to see the books that I've read and enjoyed on that list that I've read all year.

@dely: finally someone who shares my passion for Beckett!! :)
I agree with Laura, to me it is Allende's best book by far (I also really liked the movie), she's written a lot of other good books but also a whole bunch of what I would call kitsch.

@Tracey: I really liked The Perfume when reading it a few years back and I am really curious to hear what it is that you disliked if you don't mind me being nosy.

@Laura: I have read none of those books but I am scribbling down titles eagerly ;)

@Robert, I am tempted to read it to see which side I would fall on, but the word 'posterboy' is usually very efficient in stopping me from trying! I'll through the dice!

@Dhanaraj: I know!! (or at least I thought so) this was merely meant to feed your curiousity for German literary gossip ;)

1. Best books of the year: (not including rereads) �
Topper Takes a Trip - hilarious!
Devil in a Blue Dress
I Robot
Titus Andronicus
Cakes and Ale
Tartuffe
Peter Pan
The Silence of the Grave
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Loved One
Double Indemnity
Our Man in Havana
The Ministry of Fear
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
�

2. Biggest disappointment/ Worst books: �
The Wicked Wager - terrible
The Ghost Orchid Murder - poorly written
Case Histories - biggest disappointment; well-written but not what I had wanted it to be
Gargantua and Pantagruel - gave up on this; seems to be a marmite book
The Virgin in the Garden - well-written but I found it pretentious and boring

3. Most pleasant literary surprise:
a few mystery series I discovered (or rediscovered) -
    Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Martin Beck (Sweden);
    Arnaldur Indriðason's series (Iceland);
    Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen series (England);
and discovered in Aug. '12, the Angela Thirkell Barsetshire series �

I was just thinking there is no point in me contributing here, but I have just looked and quite shocked to discover I have actually read 24 books this year. I will have a think and post a response to this post very soon.

24 books in the year of a child is a great number Gemma!!!!!

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Almond Tree
Purple Hibiscus

I liked most of the books I have read this year, but the above three were the ones that most captivated me.

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?

Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady - oh, what a boring book!
On the Road - Ditto! Why is this a classic?

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

The Fault in Our Stars I didn't even want to read this, I thought it would be depressing, but I was surprised how much I liked this book.

Jenny I was expecting it to 'burst' into action and it was just such a plodder of a book for me :(
Leslie I am reading Peter Pan now and it is beautiful the descriptives are incredible and Peter such a dark character it us like old Grimms fairytales some gruesome stuff in here not for kids lol. I am loving it.

Tracey wrote: "Jenny I was expecting it to 'burst' into action and it was just such a plodder of a book for me :(
Leslie I am reading Peter Pan now and it is beautiful the descriptives are incredible and Peter su..."

Yes, it was quite different from what I had expected based on movies!

Thankyou, Laura I was quite impressed. Some have been baby weaning books etc, but even so I was pleasantly surprised and actually had forgotten a lot I had read and enjoyed!

Here is my year...

My favourite book this year is most definitely, Atonement. I tried reading it a few years ago but could not get into it. I'm glad I gave it a second go. I also loved The Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend. Great concept for a book, hugely enjoyable read.

Least enjoyable were The Woman who went to bed for a year. I'd heard great things about this one, but could not get on with the characters at all. I was also disappointed by The Night Circus.

My literary discovery of the year is Daphne Du Maurier. I read Rebecca and loved it. I have treated myself to an early Christmas present of her collection so very much looking forward to reading more.

Like some of you, I'll need to come back to this thread... I'd like to have two browsers open when I reply.

I'm posting partly so I get the notifications. ;)

So far, I've read 169 books this year (I knew I read a lot but I guess I had no idea... And there are 12 that I read early in the year before I began keeping a score or doing a report like I do now. I don't want to claim it as read unless I do those two things...)

I DO read a lot of graphic novels, so if you check, you'll see those. However, I fell in love with Dickens, Shakespeare and others while in high school... I actually read The Aeneid in the original Latin, and if you liked those very old works, you WANT to read The Metamorphosis! The gods, male and female, have arguments all the time... To settle the one between who works harder in bed, men or women, they turn a man into a woman, and then interview him/her. It's hilarious!

Because of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, I now adore Ron Rash. I was introduced to some wonderful books and honestly, some I just couldn't finish (rare, for me... I'll prob try again. I don't like to admit defeat!)

I admit that I read "independently", ie. not on the approved list, most times ;)

Gemma wrote: "Thankyou, Laura I was quite impressed. Some have been baby weaning books etc, but even so I was pleasantly surprised and actually had forgotten a lot I had read and enjoyed!

Here is my year...

M..." is one of the best novel of the XX century, I'm glad you liked it.

Atonement

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?

In looking through my ratings for 2013 I am realizing that I have had a year quite rich in 5 star reads.

My favourite books this year:
fiction
Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Patterns of Childhood by Christa Wolf
Youth Without God by Ödön von Horváth
The Submission by Amy Waldman
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Bone People by Keri Hulme

nonfiction
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit

poetry
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?

the worst of the worst:
Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel - unbearable
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - I admit: my two most feared genre's combined was a toxic combination. Paranormal meets chick lit with a tint of 'I am a virgin to the art of witchcraft, please hand me a studlike male leading character that I can look up to and topple over in submissive admiration paired with unbecoming dimness.'

Not as bad but books I was surprisingly dissapointed by:
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans
and
The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness by Arno Gruen.

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery
of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

I discovered three authors this year that I would like to read much more of:
Anne Carson - a brilliant and really extraordinary poet (extraordinary also in the way she creates hybrids of poetry, novel and essay)
Daphne du Maurier - who I had always mistaken for the author of cheesy love stories with woman fainting against their big chested lovers.
Hjalmar Söderberg - who I discovered during our Scandinavian months over at Perks.

I also started doing something that I hardly do: I started re-reading favourtite books. And loved it. So I decided to keep doing that next year.

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?

The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli
The Frozen Heart by Almudena Grandes
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
City of Thieves by David Benioff
A Scanner Darkly by Philip Dick
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Room by Emma Donoghue

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?

The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder - absolutely diabetic
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk - maybe the worst reading of the year, horrible
Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa - not so bad at the beginning, but the scene of the unnecessary pig sacrifice have made me hate it
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. F. Fitzgerald - ehm, I know, but I was and I am still very disappointed..
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame - I felt totally out of the story..

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery
of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

Daphne du Maurier - I read Rebecca not so long ago, but after it I decided that I will read everything of her bibliography!
Elizabeth George - I wasn't expecting to love Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers! :)
Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins - I couldn't even imagine how original and adorable is this book!

1. Which were your favourite books of the year?

I had so many favourite books this year - I'm going to list my top 10 though (in no particular order, because that would be impossible!).

- Forbidden
- The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star
- Shatter Me & Unravel Me (counting as one because it is a series)
- The Dark Light of Day
- The Outsiders
- The Fault in Our Stars
- Looking for Alaska
- On the Jellicoe Road
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- The Silver Linings Playbook

These are the books that I felt stayed with me the most out of all the books I read and loved this year. It seemed to be a very good year for me in terms of reading - I discovered a lot of new genres and authors and enjoyed most of the books I read.

The rest of my 2013 favourites can be found here, if you sort by date read:
/review/list...

2. Which were your least favourite books of the year?

Forget You was my obvious least favourite - I think that it was the only book I rated one star this year. So I am also going to list my biggest disappointments here. They are as follows.

- Allegiant - disappointing end to a fantastic series.
- The Redemption of Callie & Kayden - same as above.
- Gone Girl - heard wonderful things about it and had high hopes, but it just didn't meet my expectations at all.
- The Great Gatsby - I expected to love this, but found it average (between 2 and 3 stars, eventually rated 3). Still mad about it especially considering how much I loved the movie.

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

John Green & Tahereh Mafi were the two stand out authors that I discovered this year - I 5-starred every book of theirs that I read. Simply amazing, both of them.

All in all, I had a pretty good reading year.


1.Which were your favourite books of the year?
- Whitethorn (one of Bryce Courtenay's best books, in my opinion)
- Infinite Jest (this book was amazing....and yet, there truly is an "infinite jest" vibe about it....someone is playing a jest on the reader :D)
- 1Q84 (a new author who's works I'll continue to explore)
- Bone (a YA graphic novel about friendship & loyalty, with dragons and monsters. Very well illustrated and told)

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?
- Sylvia (Bryce Courtenay at his worst; skip this one)
- Half Blood Blues (?????....how did this one win awards???!!)

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?
- the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. I've read 6 this year and can't wait to read the rest
Still Life
A Fatal Grace
The Cruelest Month
A Rule Against Murder (also called The Murder Stone)
The Brutal Telling
Bury Your Dead

Petra, 'Still Life' is on my TBR since you've first mentioned it here, so I am looking forward to finding myself a copy sometime next year.

Jenny wrote: "Petra, 'Still Life' is on my TBR since you've first mentioned it here, so I am looking forward to finding myself a copy sometime next year."

It is excellent!

Quite a few of us have discovered Daphne Du Maurier this year. I am looking forward to reading more of her books.

Jenny, I really enjoyed A Discovery of Witches. Still not got round to reading the second get though, it's been on my shelf since it first came out.

Gemma, hope you don't want to beat me up for having had a little rant about it! ;) Maybe it's best in my case to just surrender to the fact that neither chick-lit nor paranormal and definitely not the combination(!!!!) are really my cup of tea and just get over it. But then again: it's good to keep trying sometimes!

Anastasia wrote: "1.Which were your favourite books of the year?

The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Inhab..."</i>

[author:Elizabeth George is totally my favourite living crime writer :-)

Of course not Jenny. I suppose the fact that I can't seem to bring myself to read the second one does say something...!

Finally getting around to this.

1.Which were your favourite books of the year?
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Undone by Cat Clarke

2.Which were your least favourite books of the year?

I have been quite lucky in that I don't have that many books that I did not like. I only have one which is The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

3. What was your most pleasant literary discovery of the year?/biggest literary surprise of the year?

Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood


I have to say, overall unlike last year I found it really easy to pick my favourites this year.