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Old 12-28-2013, 11:47 AM   #16
Synamon
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I don't rate books, but here's a list of the books I enjoyed the most this year:

Non-fiction
Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand
Longitude by Dava Sobel
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen


Fiction
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Blackhouse by Peter May
A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute
Faithful Place by Tana French (also In The Woods)
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (plus the rest of the Department Q series)
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling
Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey
The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
The Caves of Perigord by Martin Walker
The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home
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Old 12-28-2013, 11:49 AM   #17
MickeyC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BelleZora View Post
This year I read 125 books, but gave 5 stars on Goodreads to only 4 books:

The Best of Frank O'Connor (one of my best finds ever, thanks to Fantasyfan at the MR Literary Book Club.)
Thus Was Adonis Murdered - Sarah Caudwell (brilliant, hilarious mystery)
The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse (I'm surprised I gave that 5 stars, but I won't alter it now)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin
Definitely agree with Thus Was Adonis Murdered. I read it based on your reco and it was a real giggle and a very good mystery.
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Old 12-28-2013, 12:03 PM   #18
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A Thousand Splendid Suns (My favorite of Khaled Hosseni's books)
Brideshead Revisited, which I hadn't read until this year but loved
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Tuck Everlasting, which I read out loud to my daughter
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
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Old 12-28-2013, 12:05 PM   #19
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I started Behind the Beautiful Forevers and then put it aside .... I need to get back to it!
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Old 12-28-2013, 01:50 PM   #20
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Das Boot (The Boat) , Lothar Buchheim

Embers of War: The Fall of An Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, Fredrik Logevall

The Best of Connie Willis : Award-winning Stories , Connie Willis

Azincourt , Bernard Cornwell

Albion's Seed : Four British Folkways in America , David Hackett Fischer

Thucydides : The Reinvention of History , Donald Kagan

The Road of Danger , David Drake

The Guts , Roddy Doyle

A Short History of a Small Place , T.R. Pearson

In the Garden of Beasts , Erik Larsen

Excellent Women , Barbara Pym

re-reads

God Is An Englishman , R. F. Delderfield

A Dance to the Music of Time cycle , Anthony Powell

The Barrytown Trilogy , Roddy Doyle (now a quartet )

The Killer Angels , Michael Shaara

Can You Forgive Her? , Anthony Trollope
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Old 12-28-2013, 02:38 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes View Post
Do you really need any more given how fine a book that is?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc View Post
I reread it a couple of times this year.
When compared to Cannery Row everything I read afterwards fell short. Perhaps, I should place the high quality classic fiction into a separate category to make it more fair to modern authors. But then what's stopping them from writing a book better than Cannery Row?

The same thing happened after I read Way Station and Nightfall. They were so good (imo) that other sci-fi I read had trouble comparing.
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Old 12-28-2013, 03:03 PM   #22
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Non-Fiction:
Packing for Mars - Mary Roach
Stiff - Mary Roach
Gulp - Mary Roach
So much information. So much fun
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy - Antony Bevor
Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Fiction:
7 Terry Pratchett novels
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!
Going Postal
4 Patrick O'Brian novels
H.M.S. Surprise
The Mauritius Command
Desolation Island
The Fortune of War
World War Z - Max Brooks
Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey
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Old 12-28-2013, 03:04 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone View Post
...

The same thing happened after I read Way Station and Nightfall. They were so good (imo) that other sci-fi I read had trouble comparing.
Try some Ted Chiang.
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Old 12-28-2013, 03:08 PM   #24
kennyc
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Originally Posted by bfisher View Post
.....
The Best of Connie Willis : Award-winning Stories , Connie Willis
....
OH MY! I didn't know she had a new best of out! And Double OH MY it opens with "A Letter from the Clearys" one of my all time favorites and which was my introduction to her.....what a wonderful story!
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Old 12-28-2013, 05:42 PM   #25
astrangerhere
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Winter's Bone - Daniel Wooddrell
Guests on Earth - Lee Smith
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote (re-read)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman
Foxfire - Joyce Carol Oates
Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter
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Old 12-28-2013, 09:16 PM   #26
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Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
Kate Atkinson - Life after Life
Angela Carter - Nothing Sacred
John Hemming - The Conquest of the Incas
David Malouf - Remembering Babylon
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Frank O'Connor - The Best of Frank O'Connor (thanks from me too, fantasyfan!)
Amos Oz - A Tale of Love and Darkness

Rereads:
Jane Austen - Persuasion
Kate Grenville - The Secret River
Siegfried Sassoon - The War Poems
Lytton Strachey - Queen Victoria

The Literary Book Club has been a great way of reading books and authors new to me - I can't recommend it too highly!
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Old 12-29-2013, 01:43 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc View Post
OH MY! I didn't know she had a new best of out! And Double OH MY it opens with "A Letter from the Clearys" one of my all time favorites and which was my introduction to her.....what a wonderful story!
Also my first introduction to her, and a great story . I have Doomsday Book and Blackout high on my TBR, after having read "Fire Watch" and "The Winds of Marble Arch".
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Old 12-29-2013, 04:15 PM   #28
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The Island by Victoria Hislop
The Penal Colony by Richard Herley - didn't think I would like it at first.
The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
La Catedral del Mar (Cathedral of the Sea) by Ildefonso Falcones
Stasiland by Anna Funder
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Every Man dies alone by Hans Fallada

Many of my favourite books are associated with places I know well (Berlin, Barcelona, Pays Cathare in France) or places I want to visit (Istanbul - going there in Feb) but these are all very good reads and some are exceptionally good IMO.
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Old 12-29-2013, 05:43 PM   #29
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OK, the 5/5 books from the ones I've read this year. Ones in bold are stand-alone, or the first one in a series.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
How Dark the World Becomes by Frank Chadwick
Dragon Ship by Lee and Miller
Necessity's Child by Lee and Miller
Limits by Larry Niven
Shadow of Freedom by David Weber
The Road of Danger by David Drake
A Few Good Men by Sarah A. Hoyt
Grantville Gazette #46 edited by Paula Goodlett
Lens of the World by R. A. MacAvoy
Loot by Aaron Elkins
Rage of a Demon King by Raymond E. Feist
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
The Enchanter Reborn by L. Sprague de Camp et al.
Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer
Thraxas and the Ice Dragon by Martin Scott
Elfhome by Wen Spencer
The King’s Peace by Jo Walton
The King’s Name by Jo Walton
Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead
Fire Season by David Weber
Dark Fire by C J Sansom
Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo
Treecat Wars by David Weber and Jane Lindskold
1635: Music and Murder by David Carrico
Man Who Sold The Moon/Orphans in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Man-Kzin Wars XIV
A Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
Phylogenesis by Alan Dean Foster
Sovereign by C. J. Samson

The top two are
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

with

The King’s Peace by Jo Walton
How Dark the World Becomes by Frank Chadwick
Phylogenesis by Alan Dean Foster
Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer

coming in joint third. (Cheating, I know!)
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Old 12-29-2013, 06:03 PM   #30
latepaul
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Since I missed this thread last year and my lists are short I hope you'll all forgive me if I do this:

2013:
Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was, Barry Hughart
(29 books read in total)

2012:
Moon Over Soho, Ben Aaronovitch
Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch
London Falling, Paul Cornell
(34 books read)

2011:
Killer Move, Michael Marshall
Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
(30 books read)

2010:
Scott Pilgrim vol 1-6, Brian Lee O'Malley
The Rapture, Liz Jensen
(14 books read)

2009:
Let the Right One In, John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Servants, M.M. Smith (aka Michael Marshall, aka Michael Marshall Smith)
(18 books read)
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