30-day Challenge! - Day 1: What is the best book you have read this year?

[Terry]

I read a lot of 5 star books this year, including The Winter of our Discontent and In Cold Blood. Even some contemporary novels like The Four Winds. But hands down my favorite was:

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron.

This is a book that classics lovers can appreciate! It had it all — great storytelling, themes to explore, engaging plot, character development, fabulous prose. It was pure pleasure to read, although with difficult subject matter. So, on a scale of one to five, it was an “eleven.”

[Laurie]

I am hard-pressed to pick just one. Two have stood out for me.
Dombey and Son
Olive Kitteridge

I enjoyed them so much but it would be great if I read something in the next 3 months that I like even more.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

This is so darned hard, but everybody is picking books that I am just nodding up and down to! War and Peace--well YES.

[Heather L]

Wow, I have more five-star ratings than I thought, so my top five would be:

* Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
* A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
* Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
* Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
* One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty

[Linda R,]

I read hard boiled detective fiction this year and really fell in love with Raymond Chandler's writing. The Long Goodbye was a deep psychological study into the mind of men. The writing style is crisp, biting even and always fantastic.

I enjoyed this thread too. It brought up so many good books, ones I have read, and ones I have not yet but plan to.

[Linda R,]

Terry wrote: "I read a lot of 5 star books this year, including The Winter of our Discontent and In Cold Blood. Even some contemporary novels like The Four Winds. But hands down my favorite was:

Sophie’s Choice..."

All good choices.

[Wreade1872]

Ah... i meant to do this every day this month and i'm already late.. always the way.

Anyway has to be Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell .
Kon-Tiki and We Have Always Lived in the Castle were also really good.

However Cabell's sequel to his most famous work Jurgen, is even better than its predecessor and i really didn't think that was possible :) .

[LiLi]

_Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers_

[Kathleen]

I think I'd have to pick these three, all just unbelievably good writers, but in very different styles:

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I'm hoping to add two more before the year is over, for a nice set of five!