Your Favourite Book Club Reads of 2012

[sun surfer]

Title says it all! This is for either book club. What were your favourite book club reads of the year? Any biggest surprises? If you found a great read here that didn't win, tell us about it too.

I'll start. For the general book club, my favourite of the year was Tender is the Night. Honourable mention goes to Cloud Atlas.

For the literary club, my favourite was the first edition of Leaves of Grass (thanks for the nomination, Tom!). Honourable mention goes to Middlemarch.

So what about you?

[Nyssa]

Well...as it turned out to be my only book club read for 2012, my answer is Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (translated by John Bester). This selection was nothing that I would chosen for myself, incredibly heart breaking, but so worth the read.

As I stated in my reveiw on GoodReads:

Although very sad, and at times difficult to read, Black Rain was also quite informative, and a testament to the human spirit.

[John F]

My favorites from the Literary club was Norwegian Wood. My favorite from the Mobile Read club was The Shadow of the Wind.

[Asawi]

My favourite was Shadow of the Wind. Second place for Black Rain

[Synamon]

Sorry, I can't say that any of the MobileRead bookclub books that I read were my favourite, I couldn't even finish some of them, but I'll give honorable mention to A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson which was a runner up in September and I read it anyway. If I had to choose one of the selections, I'm glad I read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

For the Literary bookclub, I loved The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Regular club, Black Rain*. Literary Club, Love in the Time of the Cholera*.

*Due to health problems and then catching up after same I missed out on June, July, August.

[fantasyfan]

For the Literary Book Club my favourite was certainly Turn Magic Wheel. It's one of the best new {for me} novels I have read in a long time.

The runner-up is tough but I think it would go to Mansfield Park because my reading experience profited so much from the discussion of the novel by other members.

For the regular club I think that 1000 Miles Up the Nile was the most fascinating--evn though I haven't quite finished it yet!

The runner-up is very difficult again. Crocodile On the Sandbank got me interested in Amelia Edwards, but I think that Neverwhere by Gaiman deserves the spot as it introduced me to Neil Gaiman and was very entertaining.

[issybird]

Main club: my favorite choice was far and away Tender is the Night, my favorite book of the year. I was blown away by the characterizations, the evocation of time and place, and most of all the staggeringly beautiful prose.

Lit club: this one's harder, as I think most were worthy and/or interesting reads. I'll echo fantasyfan and pick Mansfield Park, as the discussion truly expanded my understanding of this re-read, and Turn, Magic Wheel was just sheer pleasure.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Well...as it turned out to be my only book club read for 2012, my answer is Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (translated by John Bester). This selection was nothing that I would chosen for myself, incredibly heart breaking, but so worth the read.

As I stated in my reveiw on GoodReads:

This .

A difficult read at times, and something I would never have chosen myself. I found it absorbing, and the first book I have read about the horror written from a Japenese perspective.

[caleb72]

For the MR book club: Shadow of the Wind
For the literary book club: The Remains of the Day

[Bookatarian]

I'll go for the fast, fun read as a fave--the Amelia Peabody story Crocodile on the Sandbank as my MR Book club fave....though I only got through 3 of the selections this year.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Ethan Frome and Black Rain.

Perhaps the most bleak choices, but Black Rain still sticks with me.

Ethan Frome just mirrors certain aspects of my own life. I have lived with a significant other with chronic pain and depression and both Ethan Frome and Birthday Letters (which I nominated for poetry) deeply touched on parts of my life.

[paola]

I manage to keep up only with the literary club (by the way, Tender is the night was definitely in the Literary club), I am afraid: The remains of the day tops, and Middlemarch close second.

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by paola

Tender is the night was definitely in the Literary club)

Not that it actually matters, but I'm pretty sure it was in the "regular" club, not Literary.

I usually don't keep up with the Literary, but I did read Remains of the Day and enjoyed it thoroughly, so even if I had followed the Literary club more there's a good chance it would have been my favourite read from it!

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by paola

I manage to keep up only with the literary club (by the way, Tender is the night was definitely in the Literary club), I am afraid: The remains of the day tops, and Middlemarch close second.

Originally Posted by Asawi

Not that it actually matters, but I'm pretty sure it was in the "regular" club, not Literary.

I usually don't keep up with the Literary, but I did read Remains of the Day and enjoyed it thoroughly, so even if I had followed the Literary club more there's a good chance it would have been my favourite read from it!

Tender Is the Night was the February 2012, Romance selection for the MobileRead Book Club (a.k.a. "Regular").

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Wishing all of you a Very Merry Christmas, a Safe, Happy Holiday and a Prosperous New Year!