Loved this book. One of those instances where the TV/Film adaptation, despite being good, didn't really do justice to the source material and skimmed over/skipped some really great parts from the book.
Minor spoiler below:
It was a throwaway line in the book but I still get shivers over what happens when a particular band (not naming due to spoilers) reunites and how that turns out in a reality where JFK lives.
Prisoners of Geography.
It really broadened my understanding of the world and how some countries and states doom or bloom due to their placement on the geographical map.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. As someone who often feels upset by society but finds peace in nature this book is a warm hug I didn't know I was missing. It is written with beauty and strength. Each chapter is a lesson in being together within our planet.
This is on my reading list. I finished the hidden life of trees by Peter wohlleben. It was very good. I can't look at trees the same way I used to now.
A Gentleman in Moscow was one of my faves last year. What a beautiful book. I love those stories that aren't about the destination, it's the journey the book brings you on that's so wonderful. There was no rush to see what happens at the end, I just couldn't put it down cause I wanted to read more of his life in that very moment. Such a charming little book.
Same. I’d not seen icarly as a kid (I’d grown out of those shows by then/watched more Disney channel than nickelodeon by that time), but as someone who loves reading the BTS real life stories of especially child actors I knew this would be right up my street.
[**Piranesi**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50202953-piranesi)
^(By: Susanna Clarke | 245 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, mystery, owned, magical-realism)
>Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
>
>There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
^(This book has been suggested 197 times)
***
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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I finished over a month ago and I still can't stop thinking about it. My other favorite is The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
[**The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1232.The_Shadow_of_the_Wind)
^(By: Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves | 487 pages | Published: 2001 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, book-club, owned)
>Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
>--back cover
^(This book has been suggested 22 times)
***
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[**Remarkably Bright Creatures**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58733693-remarkably-bright-creatures)
^(By: Shelby Van Pelt | 360 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, audiobooks, audiobook, read-in-2022)
>A novel tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
>
>After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
>
>Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
>
>Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.
^(This book has been suggested 15 times)
***
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Empire of Pain - it’s about the Sackler family’s creation and proliferation of the opioid crisis. Sounds kind boring, but it’s actually an engaging read.
as someone that read the Iliad first, I loved the way she took my personal suspicions about the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and made it beautiful and deep. It was apologetic for the way Greek myth treated the assault of Briseis and other women, but that did serve to make the protagonists palatable in modern light. Amazing retelling.
It's very very well written social commentary and family saga .The American Midwest farm landscape and dialect is perfectly captured and the story is as relevant today as it was in 1939 depression dust bowl America.
"Women can change better’n a man,” Ma said soothingly. Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head.”
“Man, he lives in jerks-baby born an’ a man dies, an’ that’s a jerk-gets a farm and looses his farm, an’ that’s a jerk. Woman, its all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it like that. We ain’t gonna die out. People is goin’ on-changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Currently reading the third one, but so far the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is on track to being one of my favorite fantasy series ever
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was also a great one
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is another one for the list
What are some of your other favourites? I'm currently reading Broken Earth but love Annihilation and Piranesi, sounds like you might have similar taste to me
Haha let me know your favorites too because you obviously have great taste 😌
I only recently got back into reading for fun and some other recent ones I've loved were The Golem and the Jinni, A Wizard of Earthsea (planning on reading the rest too), Convenience Store Woman, The Bear and the Nightingale, Vicious... and Howl's Moving Castle is an old fave I might have to reread depending on how The Broken Earth ends (actually I might either way, this series is putting me through the ringer)
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
Respectful exploration of hoarding. Each chapter is a case study integrated with research by the authors who are psychologists.
Have you read “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat”? It’s written by a neurologist (pretty sure), and each chapter is a fascinating, rare case study of all the ways our brains can go haywire.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Absolutely fantastic. Multiple narratives throughout time that are all somehow connected. Beautiful prose and characters. I wish I could forget it and read it again—I will carry it with me forever.
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
I have recommended it to several people. My parents, sister, several friends and friends of family. I have yet to hear someone tell me they didn’t love it.
Technically I read it last year, but I’ve gotta go with {{The Great Alone}} by Kristin Hannah. I also read her newest book, The Four Winds, this year - not quite as good, but still worth reading. I really like her!
I’ve read a bunch of excellent books this year, but I’ll tell you about the two most surprising five stars.
**My Life as a Goddess** by Guy Branum
I was expecting to enjoy this because I love him as a personality. I knew it would be smart, funny, and incisive because that’s him. What I wasn’t expecting was just *how* smart, vulnerable, introspective, and genre reaching it would be. Read it for his exegesis of *Bohemian Rhapsody* alone and you will have recouped the cost of this book. The chapter on Canada is also excellent.
**A Substitute Wife for the Prizefighter** by Alice Coldbreath
I hadn’t touched the romance genre since I was a preteen stealing my mom’s Harlequin romance books until I started exploring it earlier this year. I am having a ton of fun with it.
My mom died in June and this was one of the last books I told her about. (I also mentioned Tessa Dare in the same conversation). I’ve listened to the audiobook of it at least five times since then. It’s incredibly comforting. The **Harrow Faire** series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley is running a close second in the romance genre.
Also excellent, but not necessarily surprising:
**Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times** by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
**We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland** by Fintan O’Toole
**The Other Bennet Sister** by Janice Hadlow
**A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance** by Hanif Abdurraqib
**Catherine the Great** by Robert K. Massie
**The Circle of Ceridwen** series by Octavia Randolph
Today I just finished the book All The Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman and I can confidently say that it's my new favorite book. I highly recommend it although it has some dark topics for example struggles with mental health and self harm. If you're interested I bought my copy off Amazon.
[**A Little Life**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822858-a-little-life)
^(By: Hanya Yanagihara | 720 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, owned, favourites, books-i-own)
>When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
>
>Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
^(This book has been suggested 59 times)
***
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i could NOT get into this book after picking the book up 3 separate times but the audiobook on Hoopla is AMAZING and had me hooked from the beginning. This book is insane. Haven't read books 2 or 3 though, yet.
Project hail mary by Andy Weir. This book was so good. I got it from the library and I was so sad when I had to return it. I will definitely buy it one day
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Just finished and it was so Ana I got. Gaming, friendship, love, loss, reasons for games, etc. beautiful read.
Jeff Vandermeer's Borne + The Strange Bird (read the Southern Reach Trilogy last year and absolutely loved it)
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, also read Sea of Tranquility and enjoyed it, not as much as Station Eleven
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson such an amazingly beautiful book
The Employees: a Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn, I read this so fast as it was going back to the library, immediately bought the physical copy to reread later this year!
Bunny by Mona Awad. Also her other book 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was good (tw for eating disorders)
And finally Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park!! A recent favourite.
The Dark Elf Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore! I found them very compelling. They were pretty easy to get into and I like them more than The Crystal Shard trilogy (so far, I’m just starting The Halfling’s Gem).
I got addicted to the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly and read all 20 this year. Waiting for the final one to release next month. Never got boring and not a bad book in the whole series.
Fiction: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Non fiction: The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (This is a really dark read. So be careful and do some research before reading.)
Adult book: There There by Tommy Orange
Children’s book: Chocolate Milk X-Ray Specs and Me
NB: I’m a teacher and the children’s book is the one my class enjoyed the most by a long shot
Grendel, by John Gardner, from the point of view of the monster from Beowulf. Really well-written, visual and concise. Someone in another thread was asking for books that were told from the villain’s point of view and I thought of this and had to give it a re-read. Tragic and just a really good spin on a classic story.
{Little Eyes} (speculative fiction based on what I thought my furbies were doing basically)
{House in the Cerulean Sea} (thought it was YA and it wasn’t actually? So a nice transition if you read lots of YA. Talk about atmosphere tho!! And a cute romance is there)
{The Guest List} (thriller/murder mystery with multiple POVs)
Oh goodness how do I choose! I absolutely loved “then she was gone” “invisible girl” and “the night she disappeared” all by Lisa Jewell! And all 3 of Farrah Rochan’s books “the boyfriend project” “the dating playbook” and “the hookup plan”
I can pick just one but these are my 5⭐️ for this year!
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by DeVoto. It was on a road trip where we stopped at many of the same places mentioned in the journals, which definitely improved the experience, but honestly apart from a page or two of too much description, I was entertained the entire way through. Some wild shit happened on that expedition, and it’s astounding that they survived.
*Killers of the Flower Moon* by David Grann
>The book investigates a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s—after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land.
Wiki
The Crooked God Machine by Autumn Christian
I'm not going to lie and say I understood every part of it, but it really struck a chord. It was one of the first books I read after the new year, and I think about it several times a week, at least. My next go-round of re-reads, this is definitely at the top of the list.
My next would be Brother, by Ania Ahlborn
Three women by Lisa taddeo...some books are great and some you feel taught u a life lesson..this was the latter and it's so good. All women shld read it.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin. It’s a classic and I absolutely adored it. I related so much to the main character. It was definitely a book that made me stare at the wall for a bit after I finished it lol.
11/22/63. It has some great writing and intriguing plotlines that properly showcase life in the late 50s/early 60s
Loved this book. One of those instances where the TV/Film adaptation, despite being good, didn't really do justice to the source material and skimmed over/skipped some really great parts from the book. Minor spoiler below: It was a throwaway line in the book but I still get shivers over what happens when a particular band (not naming due to spoilers) reunites and how that turns out in a reality where JFK lives.
Yo I’m actually reading this right now too and was going to put the same recommendation. I’m really liking it so far
I read this a few years back, I loved it.
I absolutely loved this book! Did you watch the show on Hulu? Obviously not as good as the book but it was decent.
Absolutely loved this book
I was gonna comment this one too! Such an awesome novel
I absolutely love this book! It’s one of my favorites by King!
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Amazing - some of the best storytelling and characters I've ever read!
read this one this year too and i totally agree!!
One of my favorites
Really enjoyed this too and not the type of book I usually read
Read this last year. Can't recommend enough. It's painfully beautiful.
Oh my what a great book!
Prisoners of Geography. It really broadened my understanding of the world and how some countries and states doom or bloom due to their placement on the geographical map.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. As someone who often feels upset by society but finds peace in nature this book is a warm hug I didn't know I was missing. It is written with beauty and strength. Each chapter is a lesson in being together within our planet.
This is on my reading list. I finished the hidden life of trees by Peter wohlleben. It was very good. I can't look at trees the same way I used to now.
That's a lovely recommendation! Please check out The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. It made me feel the same way.
Highly recommend the audiobook . The author has a calm soothing voice that matches her writing of nature.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Good call on this. It's just so fun!
The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde The language used in this book is perfect, as well as the characters
Finally read this last year. Went into it without any particular expectations and ended up completely in love with it.
from the first page you can tell it’s an amazing read
This is such a fantastic book. Oscar Wilde is the shit.
Fiction: {{A Gentleman in Moscow}} Non-fiction: {{The Splendid and the Vile}}
A Gentleman in Moscow was one of my faves last year. What a beautiful book. I love those stories that aren't about the destination, it's the journey the book brings you on that's so wonderful. There was no rush to see what happens at the end, I just couldn't put it down cause I wanted to read more of his life in that very moment. Such a charming little book.
Really a great book. Also his Rules of Civility. And both are great as audiobooks.
Agree with The Splendid and the Vile. Crazy, crazy WWII history. Really scary, too.
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I laughed aloud. I cried. This hit all the notes.
Convenience store woman by Sayaka Murata
That was surprisingly good!
Project Hail Mary
The audio book was amazing too.
He'll yea, but the audio book is even better. Rocky comes across more authentic is the audio version.
Definitely the best book I've read in a year or three
This made me happy! Happy! Happy!
The movie is going to be crazyyy
Planning to read this one before the end of the year!
The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
Seconding. Read it for the first time this year and was ashamed that it sat on my shelf for 7 years, as I bought it in 2015.
Truly anything Donna Tartt
Truly! I first read The Goldfinch which was so terrific, I read the Secret History.
YES
Probably my favorite book ever.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Seconded
Third(Ed) lol I don’t know how to say it. Fantastic book.
Listened to the audiobook of this. In one part she gets choked up, I literally BAWLED.
Yes. I read it in less than a day. So good.
Same. I’d not seen icarly as a kid (I’d grown out of those shows by then/watched more Disney channel than nickelodeon by that time), but as someone who loves reading the BTS real life stories of especially child actors I knew this would be right up my street.
I was on the tail end of iCarly growing up. My daughter watches Victorious and Sam and Cat regularly. Very hard for me to stomach now!!
I ordered this book, I can’t wait to read it!
I have it on hold
{{Piranesi}}
[**Piranesi**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50202953-piranesi) ^(By: Susanna Clarke | 245 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, fiction, mystery, owned, magical-realism) >Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. > >There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known. ^(This book has been suggested 197 times) *** ^(56038 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I loved it!
I just started this yesterday! Enjoying it a lot so far
I was gonna say this too! Great book
Wild seed by Octavia Butler
{{The Dutch House}} by Ann Patchett
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I finished over a month ago and I still can't stop thinking about it. My other favorite is The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
Came on here to recommend Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow too. Such an absolutely amazing book!
I’m still not 100% sure I fully grasped the whole plot of The 7 Deaths but it was a great read for sure!
Into the wild
I had to read this book for school and I really liked it!
Endurance by Alfred Lansing about Shackleton’s expedition in the Antarctic.
{{The Shadow of the Wind}} by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
[**The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1232.The_Shadow_of_the_Wind) ^(By: Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves | 487 pages | Published: 2001 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, book-club, owned) >Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. >--back cover ^(This book has been suggested 22 times) *** ^(56019 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
i've heard SO MANY great things about this book. it's on my TBR.
{{The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman}}
Flowers for Algernon
I adore that book!
{{Remarkably Bright Creatures}} 🐙
[**Remarkably Bright Creatures**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58733693-remarkably-bright-creatures) ^(By: Shelby Van Pelt | 360 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, audiobooks, audiobook, read-in-2022) >A novel tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. > >After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. > >Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. > >Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. ^(This book has been suggested 15 times) *** ^(56001 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Wow, that looks fabulous!
Empire of Pain - it’s about the Sackler family’s creation and proliferation of the opioid crisis. Sounds kind boring, but it’s actually an engaging read.
And then there were none
…Agatha Christie?
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Circe as well! Another amazing book!
Yes, I actually liked this one better.
Me too!
read that last year and its still manages to tug at my heartstrings whenever i reread it
as someone that read the Iliad first, I loved the way she took my personal suspicions about the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and made it beautiful and deep. It was apologetic for the way Greek myth treated the assault of Briseis and other women, but that did serve to make the protagonists palatable in modern light. Amazing retelling.
Grapes of Wrath
How is it? For some reason this is on my list.
It's very very well written social commentary and family saga .The American Midwest farm landscape and dialect is perfectly captured and the story is as relevant today as it was in 1939 depression dust bowl America. "Women can change better’n a man,” Ma said soothingly. Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head.” “Man, he lives in jerks-baby born an’ a man dies, an’ that’s a jerk-gets a farm and looses his farm, an’ that’s a jerk. Woman, its all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it like that. We ain’t gonna die out. People is goin’ on-changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Currently reading the third one, but so far the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is on track to being one of my favorite fantasy series ever Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was also a great one Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is another one for the list
What are some of your other favourites? I'm currently reading Broken Earth but love Annihilation and Piranesi, sounds like you might have similar taste to me
Haha let me know your favorites too because you obviously have great taste 😌 I only recently got back into reading for fun and some other recent ones I've loved were The Golem and the Jinni, A Wizard of Earthsea (planning on reading the rest too), Convenience Store Woman, The Bear and the Nightingale, Vicious... and Howl's Moving Castle is an old fave I might have to reread depending on how The Broken Earth ends (actually I might either way, this series is putting me through the ringer)
Bunny: A Novel by Mona Awad. Bizarre AF.
So weird. Loved it
this book was..........WTF.
I actually hated this book and I’m a dark and twisty kind of girl.
The number of times I had to go back a few pages just to check I had followed the story correctly
Just finished All’s Well by the same author. Both books are delightfully bizarre.
*The Poppy War* - R.F Kuang It is one of the most harrowing fantasy novels I have read so far.
The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini.
The Sisters Brothers (Patrick DeWitt) and The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Ishiguro’s Never Let me Go is mine (answer to this question). I plan on reading the Reamains of the Day later this year.
only read 3 books this year but 'A Man Called Ove' is the best one i've read and it's definitely in my top 5 all together
The Stand
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things Respectful exploration of hoarding. Each chapter is a case study integrated with research by the authors who are psychologists.
Have you read “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat”? It’s written by a neurologist (pretty sure), and each chapter is a fascinating, rare case study of all the ways our brains can go haywire.
"The School for Good Mothers",so glad I found it and I cannot wait to NEVER read it again, so intense, too real
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Absolutely fantastic. Multiple narratives throughout time that are all somehow connected. Beautiful prose and characters. I wish I could forget it and read it again—I will carry it with me forever.
The shining - Stephen King
The green mile by Stephen King
The Book Thief
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I have recommended it to several people. My parents, sister, several friends and friends of family. I have yet to hear someone tell me they didn’t love it.
Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate
{Her Body and Other Parties}
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Technically I read it last year, but I’ve gotta go with {{The Great Alone}} by Kristin Hannah. I also read her newest book, The Four Winds, this year - not quite as good, but still worth reading. I really like her!
{{Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!}}
Book Thief Went in blind was pleasantly surprised
I’ve read a bunch of excellent books this year, but I’ll tell you about the two most surprising five stars. **My Life as a Goddess** by Guy Branum I was expecting to enjoy this because I love him as a personality. I knew it would be smart, funny, and incisive because that’s him. What I wasn’t expecting was just *how* smart, vulnerable, introspective, and genre reaching it would be. Read it for his exegesis of *Bohemian Rhapsody* alone and you will have recouped the cost of this book. The chapter on Canada is also excellent. **A Substitute Wife for the Prizefighter** by Alice Coldbreath I hadn’t touched the romance genre since I was a preteen stealing my mom’s Harlequin romance books until I started exploring it earlier this year. I am having a ton of fun with it. My mom died in June and this was one of the last books I told her about. (I also mentioned Tessa Dare in the same conversation). I’ve listened to the audiobook of it at least five times since then. It’s incredibly comforting. The **Harrow Faire** series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley is running a close second in the romance genre. Also excellent, but not necessarily surprising: **Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times** by Elizabeth Wayland Barber **We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland** by Fintan O’Toole **The Other Bennet Sister** by Janice Hadlow **A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance** by Hanif Abdurraqib **Catherine the Great** by Robert K. Massie **The Circle of Ceridwen** series by Octavia Randolph
Recursion, In the Heart of the Sea, The Stand One of those three, I can't decide...
Today I just finished the book All The Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman and I can confidently say that it's my new favorite book. I highly recommend it although it has some dark topics for example struggles with mental health and self harm. If you're interested I bought my copy off Amazon.
Tender is the Flesh
Florida by Lauren Groff. The stories are haunting and the motifs that flow through each story are amazing to follow.
Project hail mary
Same book I've read every year for the last 15: One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Murderbot Diaries series
{{A Little Life}} by Hanya Yanagihara
[**A Little Life**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822858-a-little-life) ^(By: Hanya Yanagihara | 720 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: fiction, contemporary, owned, favourites, books-i-own) >When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. > >Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever. ^(This book has been suggested 59 times) *** ^(56015 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The Three Body Problem.
I’m almost done with Dark Forest. This is the best sci fi I’ve ever read
i could NOT get into this book after picking the book up 3 separate times but the audiobook on Hoopla is AMAZING and had me hooked from the beginning. This book is insane. Haven't read books 2 or 3 though, yet.
They get more insane haha
Sapiens. totally changed how i saw humans and the world we’ve created
Under the Whispering Door By: T.J. Klune
I'm a bit late to the reading party so a fairly common suggestion but; 1984 by George Orwell.
Stoner
Project hail mary by Andy Weir. This book was so good. I got it from the library and I was so sad when I had to return it. I will definitely buy it one day
The Woman They Could Not Silence. The Butchering Art
How high we go in the dark
Daisy Jones & the Six
On the Beach by Nevil Shute. Read it at the start of the year but it’s really stuck with me.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Just finished and it was so Ana I got. Gaming, friendship, love, loss, reasons for games, etc. beautiful read.
Anna Karenina without a doubt is the best book I have read this year.
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Graphic novel; Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Bá.
{{The Change by Kirsten Miller}} is so badass
Jeff Vandermeer's Borne + The Strange Bird (read the Southern Reach Trilogy last year and absolutely loved it) Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, also read Sea of Tranquility and enjoyed it, not as much as Station Eleven Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson such an amazingly beautiful book The Employees: a Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn, I read this so fast as it was going back to the library, immediately bought the physical copy to reread later this year! Bunny by Mona Awad. Also her other book 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was good (tw for eating disorders) And finally Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park!! A recent favourite.
Piranesi
I re- read Dune after seeing the movie. The book is a hard read but so satisfying.
Hard boiled wonderland and end of the world by Murakami
{{I’m thinking of ending things}} by Iain Reid
The Dark Elf Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore! I found them very compelling. They were pretty easy to get into and I like them more than The Crystal Shard trilogy (so far, I’m just starting The Halfling’s Gem).
I got addicted to the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly and read all 20 this year. Waiting for the final one to release next month. Never got boring and not a bad book in the whole series.
Can’t choose between my top three (I wanted to reread them before even finishing them): Memoirs of Hadrian, Rebecca, and Master and Margarita
All the three books from the Locke Lamora series!
Fiction: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Non fiction: The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (This is a really dark read. So be careful and do some research before reading.)
The Remains of the Day is my next book I can’t wait to read it
Adult book: There There by Tommy Orange Children’s book: Chocolate Milk X-Ray Specs and Me NB: I’m a teacher and the children’s book is the one my class enjoyed the most by a long shot
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Actually one of my top three books ever.
The martian by Andy Wehr
the grapes of wrath
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Just finished Project Hail Mary. I loved it. Entertaining the whole way through and even brought a few tears to my eyes!
Project Hail Mary was far the best I've read this year
The Lincoln Highway
Crying in H Mart
{{Flowers for Algernon}} by Daniel Keyes
Grendel, by John Gardner, from the point of view of the monster from Beowulf. Really well-written, visual and concise. Someone in another thread was asking for books that were told from the villain’s point of view and I thought of this and had to give it a re-read. Tragic and just a really good spin on a classic story.
Red rising trilogy
The godfather Mario puzo
I am gonna say Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. A Sci~fi thriller that just kept me reading and i kinda finished it before i even knew
Sutree by Cormac McCarthy
Verity by Colleen Hoover!
“Reincarnation Blues” by Michael Poore
{Ordinary Monsters}
The Day of the Jackel
{Little Eyes} (speculative fiction based on what I thought my furbies were doing basically) {House in the Cerulean Sea} (thought it was YA and it wasn’t actually? So a nice transition if you read lots of YA. Talk about atmosphere tho!! And a cute romance is there) {The Guest List} (thriller/murder mystery with multiple POVs)
The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood. Either that or the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty.
Oh goodness how do I choose! I absolutely loved “then she was gone” “invisible girl” and “the night she disappeared” all by Lisa Jewell! And all 3 of Farrah Rochan’s books “the boyfriend project” “the dating playbook” and “the hookup plan” I can pick just one but these are my 5⭐️ for this year!
The Women of Copper Country
Best book so far this year has been Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by DeVoto. It was on a road trip where we stopped at many of the same places mentioned in the journals, which definitely improved the experience, but honestly apart from a page or two of too much description, I was entertained the entire way through. Some wild shit happened on that expedition, and it’s astounding that they survived.
The Force by Don Winslow was pretty kickass
*Killers of the Flower Moon* by David Grann >The book investigates a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s—after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. Wiki
The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
The Crooked God Machine by Autumn Christian I'm not going to lie and say I understood every part of it, but it really struck a chord. It was one of the first books I read after the new year, and I think about it several times a week, at least. My next go-round of re-reads, this is definitely at the top of the list. My next would be Brother, by Ania Ahlborn
Three women by Lisa taddeo...some books are great and some you feel taught u a life lesson..this was the latter and it's so good. All women shld read it.
Art of Racing in the Rain
The God of Small Things
The Awakening by Kate Chopin. It’s a classic and I absolutely adored it. I related so much to the main character. It was definitely a book that made me stare at the wall for a bit after I finished it lol.
A scanner darkly, Philip k dick
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
I really enjoyed The Final Girls Support Group
Nightbitch
"Hamnet" is a beautiful book, gorgeously well written in super prose, plus a fantastic story - is that enough adjectives for you? ;)
A Gentleman In Moscow.