Best books you’ve read this year

What’s the best book you’ve read in the last year? With our literary coffee klatsch coming up tomorrow, I thought this was a good question asked here Book Geeks Anonymous – I cannot live without books. – Thomas Jefferson:

This list started with a question asked on Twitter:

I chimed in with my response, but today, I thought I’d elaborate on the answers I gave. And because I found it too hard to pick only one book, I decided to name one from each of the three main genres.

And, like the book geek, I didn’t like to think of just one book, so I thought I’d list a few of them.

That hideous strength Lewis, C.S.
The moon of Gomrath Garner, Alan.
The Chapel of the Thorn Williams, Charles.
Captain Corelli’s mandolin De Bernières, Louis.
The kite runner Hosseini, Khaled.
The silver chair Lewis, C.S.
Elidor Garner, Alan.
Inside Prince Caspian Brown, Devin.
I didn’t know you cared Tinniswood, Peter.
Adam Bede Eliot, George.
Kim Kipling, Rudyard.
The Night Ferry Robotham, Michael.
Young romantics: the Shelleys, Byron, and other tangled

lives. Hay, Daisy.
The life and times of Michael K Coetzee, J.M.
Teach Yourself Writing for Children and getting published Jones, Allan Frewin; Pollinger, Lesley.
Borderliners Hoeg, Peter.
Disgrace Coetzee, J.M.
The owl service Garner, Alan.
The Grand Sophy Heyer, Georgette.
The subtle knife Pullman, Philip.

Those are probably not objective evaluations, just how much I liked them, and in compiling the list, I was surprised to see that 8 of those 21 were books I was rereading, some for more than the second or third time.

The Book Geek divided them into genres:

Fiction: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Nonfiction: Miłosz by Andrzej Franaszek and The Fellowship by Philip and Carol Zaleski
Poetry: Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky

So what were the best books you have read in the last 12 months?