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Best book/books of 2012 so far?


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I think we did this last year, and it was interesting to see everybody's favourite books of the year so far. :smile::readingtwo::smile:

 

So far my 4.5 and 5/5 books are

 

Me Before You (Jojo Moyes) (4.5/5)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (4.5/5)

A Land of Decoration - Grace McCleen (4.5/5)

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein (4.5/5)

Half of the Human Race - Anthony Quinn (4.5/5)

The Last Echo - Kimberley Derting (4.5/5)

Divergent - Veronica Roth (5/5)

Red Dog - Louis De Bernieres (5/5)

A thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (5/5)

 

Out of 30 books read so far I pretty pleased with how many excellent books I have already read! :smile::readingtwo::smile:

Edited by chaliepud
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Great thread! :)

 

My 5/5 are, in chronological order:

 

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

Dead Simple by Peter James

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend

Pied Piper by Nevil Shute

Man, Woman, And Child by Erich Segal

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

Literary Trivia - Over 300 Curious Lists for Bookworms by Aubrey Malone

Marathon Man by William Goldman

The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

 

The titles in red are particularly wonderful and have found a special place in my heart :)

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Great thread.

 

My 5/5's:

 

A Room With A View by E.M Forster.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Legacy of Blood by Alex Connor.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

The Green Mile by Stephen King.

Netherland by Joseph O' Neil.

The Good Father by Noah Hawley.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

 

Looks like a good first six months. Oh and I need to start rating my books out of ten. :lol:

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My 5/5 books so far are:

  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Rosie's War - Rosemary Say
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban - J.K. Rowling
  • Emotional Geology - Linda Gillard
  • The Firestone Crystal - Linda M. David
  • The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
  • I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
  • Apocalypse Cow - Michael Logan
  • Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

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Great thread. :D

 

My 5/5s so far...

 

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Pied Piper - Nevil Shute

The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass (aged 37¾ ) - Adrian Plass

Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch

Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum - Mark Stevens

A Rose for Winter - Laurie Lee

Boy - Roald Dahl

Down Under - Bill Bryson

Twopence to Cross the Mersey - Helen Forrester

The War of the Worlds - H G Wells

Carrie's War - Nina Bawden

Esio Trot - Roald Dahl

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Read a lot of great books this year but my 5/5 books are:

 

Into the Darkest Corner Elizabeth Haynes

Once In A House On Fire Andrea Ashworth

The Thorn Birds Coleen Mcullough

The Forsyte Saga Vol3 John Galsworthy

I Capture The Castle Dodie Smith

The Mammoth Hunters Jean M. Auel

Sharpe's Fortress Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Trafalgar Bernard Cornwell

The Loved & Envied Enid Bagnold

Room Emma Donoghue

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Although I never give a rating to a book on here when I review it, I do keep a record of how I would rate each book, and I'm impressed by how many top rating books you all have so far! I think I'm a little more strict with my ratings, and the book has to be something very special to get that top rating for me. I have only two top rated books so far this year:

 

William - An Englishman by Cecily Hamilton

Now All Roads Lead To France by Matthew Hollis

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My 5* reads of this year so far would be .....

 

Me Before You - Jo Jo Moyes (this being my No 1 and don't think anything will beat it this year)

Pictures of Lilly - Paige Toon

Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

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In the order I read them, my 4.5 and 5 star reads of this year are: (5 starrred books in bold):

 

A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch

Gene Kelly: A Biography, by Clive Hirschhorn

Shakespeare On Toast: Getting a Taste For the Bard, by Ben Crystal

The Legend of Colton H Bryant, by Alexandra Fuller

Starmaker, by Jay Bernstein

 

My current read - The Six Wives of Henry VIII, by Alison Weir is shaping up to be a 5 star read, as well :)

 

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I think I'm gonna go with:

 

The Final Empire: Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson

Swan Song - Robert MacCammon

Hollow Pike - James Dawson

Starters - Lissa Price

Dead Scared - S J Bolton

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M Valente

The Immortal Rules - Julie Jagawa

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The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Five by Robert McCammon

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

The Hunger Trace by Edward Hogan

Waiting For The Evening News by Tim Gautreaux

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

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So far I think....

 

The Stand by Stephen King

Ghost Light by Frank Rich

Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville

Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Bloodland by Alan Glynn

A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn

Guts by Kristen Johnston

The Boy in the Suitcase by

Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis

The Cutout by Francine Matthews

Folly by Laurie R. King

Eclipse by John Banville

Box 21

by Rosulund-Hellstrom 4/5

Edited by pontalba
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Although I never give a rating to a book on here when I review it, I do keep a record of how I would rate each book, and I'm impressed by how many top rating books you all have so far! I think I'm a little more strict with my ratings, and the book has to be something very special to get that top rating for me. I have only two top rated books so far this year:

 

I think I need to start rating out of ten rather than five, because I end up with a lot of 'top level' rates and then when I look through the list I realise that some were miles better than others. In all fairness though, I have had some fantastic reads so far, so I've probably got a lot more five star ratings than usual.

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I think I need to start rating out of ten rather than five, because I end up with a lot of 'top level' rates and then when I look through the list I realise that some were miles better than others. In all fairness though, I have had some fantastic reads so far, so I've probably got a lot more five star ratings than usual.

I just think I'm really picky, and even fantastic reads don't always get a top rating from me. A book has to be something special that gets under my skin and lodges in my brain and refuses to leave before I give it top marks.

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I just think I'm really picky, and even fantastic reads don't always get a top rating from me. A book has to be something special that gets under my skin and lodges in my brain and refuses to leave before I give it top marks.

 

That makes a lot of sense to be honest, I think I'd be the same if I rated out of ten. It'd only be the really special ones that'd get 10/10.

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The Boy In Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

 

The Piano by Jane Campion

 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 

The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis

 

The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

 

and I'm reading The Help by Katherine Stockett and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith which both promise to be excellent as well.

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Mine are:

 

 

Mister God, This is Anna ~ Fynn

The Secret Garden ~ Frances Hodson Burnett

Daddy-Long-Legs ~ Jean Webster

A Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens

Sounder ~ William H Armstrong

Morning Girl ~ Michael Dorris

Shiloh ~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

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I tend to rate quite harshly so I only have a few

 

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

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I haven't read too many books this year and the only books I've scored a perfect 10 were my re-reads of:

 

Joseph Heller Catch-22

Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth

 

I give few books 10/10, but I'm more generous with 8s and 9s. The books that I've given 9/10 are:

 

Julie Dawn Cole I Want it Now!

Norton Juster The Dot and the Line

Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

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My best books, out of the 43 read so far (16/6):

 

Coraline

Pied Piper

Before I Die

Jane Eyre

I Capture The Castle

The First Person and Other Stories

The Penal Colony

Autobiography Of Malcom X

The Shadow Of The Wind

The Princess Bride

 

Hmm, 10 out of 43 not too good. Another 4 or 5 were OK reads, the rest were forgettable . Going to change my reading pattern next year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I thought I had read some brilliant books this year but my list seems a little small

 

True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling (re-read enjoyed it so much more second time around)

Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

THe Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend

The Fry Chronicals - Stephen Fry

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My 5/5 are as follows:

 

Veronica Roth: Divergent (reading this at the moment)

Jojo Moyes: Me Before You

Addonia Sulaiman: The Consequences of Love

Magda Szabo: The Door

Sofi Oksanen: Purge

Yasmina Kadre: What the Day Owes the Night

Roma Tearne: Mosquito

Kishwar Desai: Witness the Night

Lauren Oliver: Dilirium/Pandemonium

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Wow, there are some great books here and I'm amazed how many different books there are, I was wondering if there would be just a handful of books that everyone loved but it's exciting to see there are so many books that I haven't even heard of!

 

I've added a few to my wish list -

 

Rosie's War - Rosemary Say (Thanks Laura)

William - An Englishman - Cecily Hamilton (Thanks Chesil)

The Final Empire - Mistborn Book One (Thanks Michelle and others that have mentioned it on the forum!)

Swan Song - Robert McCammon (Michelle again!)

The Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa (and again!)

The Consequences of Love - Addonia Sulaiman (Thanks Talisman)

 

I could have added more but my TBR shelf is stuffed full and my wish list is already MASSIVE!! :o

 

 

 

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