We are all reading so many books, I thought it would be cool to see which ones people loved this year. Might also help people add to their "to be read" list.

What has been your favourite book(s) so far this year?

These two books earned five-star ratings from me this year.

Okay, I gave more books 5 stars, so here we go:

How embarrassing of me. Only one 5-star read this year so far. I have been critical, haven't I? :D The Chosen Book is McEwan's Atonement which I absolutely loved. I loved the movie as well, and I saw it about a year before reading the book but a friend kept telling me to read it so I did. And now I'm trying to read more McEwan but I have so many other books to read as well! Ah, so many books, so little time :)

These are books that got A- or higher.

I've had three 5 stars out of 16 read so far:
-The Handmaid's Tale
-The Book of Lost Things
-Galapagos

After re-reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, I have taken the outrageous step of placing it ahead of Pride and Prejudice.
I may never sleep again.

My highest rated books this year:

There are three that have gotten 5 stars from me so far.



And a couple 4 stars (would have given them 4.5 if it were possible)

There are my favorite books so far this year (these are books I rated 5s and 4s):

oh and

Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner) and The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

5 stars...
4 stars...

I haven't even finished it and I can tell it's one this year's faves . . .

Nonfiction -- fabulous -- a topic near and dear

Haven't even finished this one yet but I know it will be one of my tops for 2009

TWO OTHERS I LOVED:

Here are my favorites so far-

Favourite books read this year:

Agatha Christie books (pretty much any one of them)

Bloodhound --> Incredible read. Loved it to bits. Just amazing.

My five star books:


(don't let the "chick-lit" look of divorce party scare you off...it's truly an amazing read)

And a few others i enjoyed:

Tough call, but here is my top 5 so far......

So far?

I'd also like to add The Girl Who Played With Fire

I've given quite a few 4's, but these are my faves of the year:



So either I'm not really picky or I've been selecting some really good books this year!

My favourite this year has been The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

Closely followed by The 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield

Tracy wrote: My Favorites for 2009
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates

Favorites from 2008
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset

I'm already up to 48 books and I tend to give 5 stars more easily than it appears other people do.

My top five this year are:

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

My favorites this year are The Book Thief, The Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England, The People of the Book, and Stardust. All of those were fantastic!

By the way, love this group!

Some of my favourites:

The Book Thief, Sarah's Key and Homer's Odyssey. I definitely have to read Book of Lost Things since so many people like it

Norwegian Wood
The Pillars of the Earth
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The first one because it's just beautiful and the second two because they were thrilling!

So far...
My favourites are the darkest powers series by Kelley Armstrong - The Awakening and The Summoning. Can't wait for The Reckoning!
Also, the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. Absolutely adored Blood Promise.
Yup, I'm into paranormal romances at the momentl.

I re-read some of my old favorites this year from David Eddings and Alan Dean Foster.
But as to new books this year that I loved:

By Gordon R. Dickson, the first three books of the Childe Cycle
Necromancer
Tactics of Mistake
Dorsai!

Doctrine of Labyrinthes series by Sarah Monette
Melusine
The Virtu

These are books I gave 4 or 5 stars.........

I've given 5 stars to only one book this year Romeo and Juliet



Read it years ago in h.s., when we still had to read bowdlerized versions interspersed with rows of asterisks denoting the omitted naughty bits. But this spring I spent some time studying it and reading commentary. It's one of the great underrated works IMO, along with Strictly Ballroom and Pride and Prejudice, routinely considered frivolous or sentimental romances, but whose point is the struggle and suffering that result for young people when adults don't do their duty either to maintain social order or to guide their children.

These are my five and four star books so far this year. Thank you for starting this discussion. Will we do it again at the end of the year, or should we just update our lists?

This has been a great opportunity to look back at the books I have read this year and remember the really great ones.
I only gave one 5-star rating this year, to Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.

The following are books that are almost 5-star material:
Love Medicine & The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Louise Erdrich;
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer; Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger; and Parchment of Leaves by Silas House.

And The Book of Negroes: (U.S. Title: Someone Knows My Name) by Lawrence Hill

Natalee wrote: " "

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy are some of my favorite books of all time! I reread them nearly every summer along with the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. :-D

This is out of the books I've read this year not my overall favorite. Although out of these, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Lies of Locke Lamora, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and the Blade Itself are exceptional reads.

Ed wrote: "I'm already up to 48 books and I tend to give 5 stars more easily than it appears other people do.

My top five this year are:

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
[Book:Night Soldier..."

I read Man's Search for Meaning this year, too, and it was excellent. It took me forever to get through, I was really drawn to it.

Susanna wrote: "How embarrassing of me. Only one 5-star read this year so far. I have been critical, haven't I? :D


No, I don't think so. Are you like me where you just don't get easily impressed by a book? If it doesn't grab my attention and hold it, or move me terribly, I don't give it five stars. You can still enjoy what you're reading without thinking the world of it.

That being said, of books I've read this year, I loved the following:





But my all time favorite is still Pride and Prejudice

The only book that got five stars from me was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It really got to me. I cried, laughed and smiled as I turned it's pages.

These are my 5 stars fave:

. These are my five star books for the year. I'll have to add some of the books from the lists above to my to be read list.