Chicks On Lit discussion
2012 The Year in Books
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I'll go first!Best book of the year for you? Think No Evil: Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting...and Beyond. With the recent school shooting at Newtown, this book challenged and changed the way I think about violence, blame, and most especially forgiveness.
Worst book of the year for you? Rabbit, Run Ugh. Not a likable character in the bunch, all selfish, whiny jerks!
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)? Paradise Lost I wouldn't say I loved this book, but I had very low expectations and they were far exceeded. If anyone wants to attempt it, I highly recommend it in audio. The Diary of Pelly D there were a lot of stylistic things about this book that should have bothered me, but in this book, I think they added to it.
Book you recommended to people the most? Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, you will likely learn about yourself and those on the opposite end of the spectrum. This book has helped me understand why I do the things I do and why I avoid certain situations if at all possible.
Best book of the year for you? Can't pick just one!Midnight's Children and White Oleander
Midnight's Children is an epic, grand masterpiece that was challenging to read. White Oleander spoke to me on a very personal level.
Worst book of the year for you? Fifty Shades Freed
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)? The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It's not that I thought I would hate it (why would you bother starting to read a book that you anticipate hating?). But I didn't think that I would come to love it as much as I did.
Book you recommended to people the most? Gone Girl. Quick, exciting read.
Best Book: Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It was so unique and vivid. I didn't want it to end.Worst Book: Fifty Shades of Gray. I ended up skim reading to see what the fuss was about. I didn't even read the other two.
Most Surprising: The School of Essential Ingredients. I was surprised how much I liked it and how often it's popped back into my head through the year.
Book most recommended: haha, probably Nora Roberts latest trilogy. Simply because I found out it's based on a true town (about an hour from me), and several of the businesses are real. I've been scheming to get there ever since I found out.
Jennifer wrote: "Best Book: Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It was so unique and vivid. I didn't want it to end.Worst Book: Fifty Shades of Gray. I ended up skim reading to see what the fuss was about. I didn't e..."
What is her latest trilogy called? I've never read her and am thinking about picking up one of her books (or 3).
*Edit* I'm referring to Nora Roberts.
Book most recommended: haha, probably Nora Roberts latest trilogy. Simply because I found out it's based on a true town (about an hour from me), and several of the businesses are real. I've been scheming to get there ever since I found out. YES!!! I so want to go there after seeing her interviewed on "Sunday Morning" on CBS!!! I told my book club about it and we want to make a cross-country trek (we live in Idaho....) Viola, the first book is called The Next Always.
Best book of the year? So hard to choose since I read almost 160 books last year. Books that made my heart literally race in my chest: The Winter Sea, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, Room, The Little Stranger, The Invisible Bridge. So funny I nearly peed my pants: any of David Sedaris books. Books that I will reread: Frankenstein, Coraline, Their Eyes Were Watching God, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath.Worst book:
The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy I rarely rate anything one star - if I don't like it I put it down and move on without rating it. I just delete the book from my GR shelves. This was my only one star rating.
Most suprising: Frankenstein, nothing like I imagined it would be. Not scary or bloody at all.
Book I recommend to people the most: The Winter Sea and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
I'd also like to give honorable mention to Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, the first two installments of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. I listened to these on audio and the narration is excellent.
Best book of the year for you? Tied! Sorry; I can not pick between these 2 - both were equally wonderful in 2 very different genres. The Art Of Racing In The Rain and Ready Player One
Worst book of the year for you? The Rook
Most surprising book of the year for you (one you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving it)? Heart-Shaped Box
Book you recommended to people the most?
The Art Of Racing In The Rain
and Ready Player One
I had such a wonderful reading year that it's difficult to choose just one favorite so I'm giving 2 or 3 that stand out: The War of the End of the World, Midnight's Children and The Crow Road.The worst for me was Whatever, not that it was poorly written but that it left me so damned depressed.
The most pleasantly surprising book for me was Hunger. If you have ever been so broke and without means of funds for a prolonged period of time you will understand this book. The author captured this state perfectly.
The most unhappily surprising book has to be A Confederacy of Dunces which everyone raved about and I found only a repulsive protagonist.
Stacey, we seem to have the same taste in books. Your best books were ones I also loved and I felt the same about the Hunger Games and your most recommened.
Viola wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Best Book: Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It was so unique and vivid. I didn't want it to end.Worst Book: Fifty Shades of Gray. I ended up skim reading to see what the fuss was a..."
The trilogy is called Inn Boonsboro and is set in Boonsboro, MD. The inn is real, as well as the pizza place and bookstore. Nora Roberts lives just outside of town and redid all of those places herself. I like reading her books after something heavy because they are such light reads.
JenC. wrote: "Book most recommended: haha, probably Nora Roberts latest trilogy. Simply because I found out it's based on a true town (about an hour from me), and several of the businesses are real. I've been sc..."That's where I saw it too! Glad to hear from another CBS Sunday Morning viewer! :)
Best book of the year for you?
Worst Book of the Year For You?
Most surprising book
Book you recommend most?
That's where I saw it too! Glad to hear from another CBS Sunday Morning viewer! :)I've been watching that show since I was a kid! I record it on my DVR now so I never miss it. The host has a memoir that is really good: Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II. I listened to it on audio and he reads it himself.
The best book
Worst Book-
Most Surprising-
Most Surprising: Big Stone GapBest Book Of The Year: Those Who Save Us
If I don't enjoy a book, I don't stick with it and move on to the next, so I don't have a Worst Book title!
I'm stuck regarding which book I'd recommend most, but Those Who Save Us is the first that comes to mind when I think of what I read in 2012. It's one of the best books I've read, period!
These are some others I enjoyed in 2012:
This One and Magic Life: A Novel of a Southern Family
The Beach House
The Tender Mercy of Roses
Summer in the South: A Novel
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
The Meryl Streep Movie Club
Best book - it's a three way tie for me: Room, She's Come Undone and Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling FuneralWorst book - Witness by Beverly Barton. Don't promote this as a mystery when it's really a romance story - I hate that.
Most surprising- Certain Girls. I wanted to enjoy this one as much as I did Good in Bed, but didn't. Not a terrible book, but a huge let-down.
Most recommended - The Dirty Life. I've given this one to several friends to read. I love her writing style and was fascinated through the entire book with the path she chose to take in life.
Best book of the year for you? The Dovekeepers and The Lost Wife Both of these books stirred up so many emotions. Also provided a little history lesson.
Worst book of the year for you? Fifty Shades of Grey I apologize to the fans, but the horrible writing (or should I say emailing) made me fifty shades of annoyed.
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)? The Housekeeper and the Professor – This book fell outside my normal to-read list, so I was shocked how much I loved it. I would actually read it again.
Book you recommended to people the most? Gone Girl. It is a book everyone would enjoy.
The best books of the years are 11/22/63 and Snow Crash.The worst book was The Broom of the System (actually my only 1 star this year!) it was really "silly". There's no plot and the different parts are too disconnected. I nearly didn't finish it.
I've recommended The Brief History of the Dead because he's a - for me - new author, that I encountered at Booktopia in Oxford, and it's a great book.
Best book"East of Eden"
"A Suitable Boy" (close behind)
Worse book:
"Outlander"
"A Father Who Keeps His Promises"
Most surprising:
"Arabian Nights: A Thousand and One Tales" (Very different than the childhood stories these inspired. Ended up not liking it nearly as much as I had expected)
Most recommended:
"An Invisible Thread" (Everytime someone expresses doubt that one person can make a difference)
"A Suitable Boy"
I sure am glad that I keep track of all the books I read over the year. I looked over the list and was like Oh yeah.. Best Book of the year: (by a mile) Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.
Worst Book of the year: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.
I just couldn't get through it. The end was better than the middle but I felt like I was trudging through 8 feet of snow to get there.
Most Surprising: Deliverance by James Dickey. Those who know me said I would never like it due to the subject but I thought the narrator did a fantastic job. Also, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I know it's silly but I just loved this book, haven't seen the movie but I want to :)
Most Recommended:
Either Unbroken or Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.
I absolutely loved them both.
Irene, I read an Invisible Thread and while the writing had much to be desired I like the story and told my kids all about it!! :)
I love this post because I have gotten so many good suggestions from it each year (The Help, The Art of Racing in the Rain are two I can think of)....This was a year of Young Adult Reading for me so a lot of these books fall into that category.
Best book of the year for you? I have several that I loved. The one that moved me the most was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Honorable mentions:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Al Capone Does My Shirtsby Gennifer Choldenko
Worst book of the year for you? Without a doubt, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Not for the racy content, but for the writing style and the overall just ridiculous hype over such a poorly written book.
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)?
BAD surprise: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I didn't necessarily think I would love this book, but considering all of the publicity and word of mouth I thought it might be okay. Surprise!! Another BAD surprise was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I picked this up because I had heard about it and knew it was a "classic" and very popular. I just couldn't connect to the main character. She was not likeable at all (setting aside the depression issue).
GOOD surprise: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
This is an intermediate book with a very touching story about a boy with an autistic sister and his take on his sister, his mother and his father's role in his life. Very good. I also found an author I really liked in John Green. I've just finished four of his books (all four star ratings): . While I'm not raving about them all over the place, I do love his characters and his writing style.
Book you recommended to people the most? Any of the books I put above on best for the year. You should read Stargirl before Love, Stargirl so you know what's going on. I liked Stargirl, I LOVED Love, Stargirl.
Stacey wrote: Book you recommended to people the most?Another one of my favorites this year, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ..."
I loved this one too, although it's been a while since I read it.
... So relieved I'm not the only one to immediately think of FSOG under the 'worst' label!I really enjoyed The Sweetness of Forgetting as an easy, heart-warming read, also The Mirrored World which was woven with sadness.
Best book? For me this year was hard to pick - I seldom read things I don't think I'll like, so I'm going to list my top reads:East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Truman by David McCullough
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields
The Housekeeper and the Professor Yoko
Ogawa
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Best book of the year for you?Difficult question! Mandery's Q: A Novel, Laforet's Nada, Orringer's The Invisible Bridge, Calvino's Invisible Cities and Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire just to name a few ;)
Worst book of the year for you?
Lars Kepler's The Hypnotist was difficult to get through...
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)?
Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. It wasn't as dry or as depressing as I thought it would be
Book you recommended to people the most?
Evan Mandery's Q: A Novel
Nancy (NE) wrote: "Best book? For me this year was hard to pick - I seldom read things I don't think I'll like, so I'm going to list my top reads:East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
..."
Middlesex and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are on my list for this year. I read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides this past year and enjoyed it.
I loved A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. That was my first Bill Bryson book which led to many others - all very good.
Melissa, hopefully you'll enjoy both. I also read Marriage Plot - which I'm glad I read first. Middlesex was so much better that I'm not sure I would have appreciated Marriage Plot. Two entirely different books. I LOVE Bryson - he cracks me up.
Melissa -- I'm sure that you will love both Middlesex and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. They are both really good books.
Best book of the year for you? Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman.
I read several great books in 2012, but this one really stands out as one I will read again!
Worst book of the year for you?
This category is hard! I would probably have to say
Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock
Though it was well written, it was such a dark, depressing read that left me haunted and wishing I had never read it.
Most surprising book of the year for you?
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert or
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
I did not expect to enjoy these books as much as I did!
Book you recommended to people the most?
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Best books:I have several. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Sarah's Key, Still Alice, The Book Thief, and Cinder. They are all so different yet all so appealing to me.
Worst books:
Fifty Shades of Gray and Beautiful Ruins. BR - I guess I missed something along the way. I just don't get the attraction to this book.
Most surprising:
Wife 22 and Gone Girl
Most often recommended:
Wife 22 to everyone who is married or thinking of getting married. Okay, for everyone. I reflected back to my first marriage while reading it as well.
Cinder - what a great new author Marissa Meyer is for YA.
And all of my other favorites this year depending on who is asking or what genre someone is looking for.
Wow! I love seeing everyone's choices! I have a love/hate relationship with these questions because they are great fodder for the tbr, but so hard to choose my own answer!I just can't answer the first one with one book. I probably have about 5 that really were outstanding for me. Some have already been mentioned, so I'll narrow it down to a couple that haven't. The first is Cloud Atlas - an absolutely phenomenal book in both content and style. The second is Rules of Civility, a debut gem that chronicles the lives of a circle of friends in 1938 Manhatttan.
The worst? I had three books on my "couldn't get through it" shelf. Probably the worst one of those was Stuck with You. Just . . . ahh ... so stupid!
Surprises: Was really looking forward to Memoirs of a Geisha but I hated how it ended and lost a lot of respect for the main character (I know, I know . . . I'm in the absolute minority on this one). I did like the cultural glimpse tho. For book I liked more than I thought I would it's definitely Tell the Wolves I'm Home. So haunting and evocative. Beautiful, beautiful read!
An honorable mention also has to go to Drawing Breath, a refreshingly excellent Kindle freebie - a touching story with skillful characterization.
Book recommended to people the most? Probably because I read it early in the year, it got the most of my recommendations - The Invisible Bridge.
Best book of the year for you? The Fault in Our Stars was really amazing and touching. I so loved Marina and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. But I think I prefer The Hobbit.
Worst book of the year for you? Probably Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game or Fifty Shades of Grey. I can't even coment on this.
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)?
good surprises: Florence and Giles, Child 44
bad surprises: How to Train Your Dragon I loved the movie, and then I went to read the book, and it was so different. I think it was the first time ever that I prefered the movie instead of the book in which it was based.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? I didn't think it was so funny and all, just bleh...
Divergent I liked the book, but from what everyone was saying, that it was amazing and all... I got a little disappointed. In the beggining I really was enjoying it very much, but in the end I felt like things went a little too fast... I don't know
The Catcher in the Rye I really wanted to love this book, I really really did. But didn't happen.
Book you recommended to people the most? The White Queen, Marina
Worst book of the year for you? Probably Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game or Fifty Shades of Grey. I can't even coment on this.
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)?
good surprises: Florence and Giles, Child 44
bad surprises: How to Train Your Dragon I loved the movie, and then I went to read the book, and it was so different. I think it was the first time ever that I prefered the movie instead of the book in which it was based.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? I didn't think it was so funny and all, just bleh...
Divergent I liked the book, but from what everyone was saying, that it was amazing and all... I got a little disappointed. In the beggining I really was enjoying it very much, but in the end I felt like things went a little too fast... I don't know
The Catcher in the Rye I really wanted to love this book, I really really did. But didn't happen.
Book you recommended to people the most? The White Queen, Marina
Mod
BUT...
I guess the best book for me was our upcoming read Tell the Wolves I'm Home
The worst book for me, I cringe to tell you because so many of you love it, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I am the type to put a book down if I really don't like it but I kept hoping something, anything would happen and it didn't. Not a fan.
The book I still recommend to the most to people is usually The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The more I know of their reading preferences the more I might change that but overall I think it's a book most people would enjoy.
Chicks On Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
Tell the Wolves I'm Home (other topics)A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (other topics)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (other topics)
The White Queen (other topics)
Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bill Bryson (other topics)Jeffrey Eugenides (other topics)
Betty Smith (other topics)
David McCullough (other topics)
Wallace Stegner (other topics)
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Over this past year we've all read a lot of books. Think back to the most memorable for you and give these questions a go:
Best book of the year for you?
Worst book of the year for you?
Most surprising book of the year for you (either one you thought you wouldn't like or one that you thought you would love and hated)?
Book you recommended to people the most?