Best reads of the year so far?

[Judy]

We're almost halfway through the year, so I was just wondering what people's favourite reads of 2017 so far are? Will be back a bit later with my own. :)

[Betsy]

Just mysteries?

[Marcus]

In the mystery category: Nero Wolf's FER-DE-LANCE.
Best read of the year so far: John Grisham, A TIME TO KILL (I'm actually reading it).

[Judy]

Betsy wrote: "Just mysteries?"

No, whatever you like.

[Brina]

In that case I have a lot. I try to divide into 4 categories.

Nonfiction
Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson
97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman

Poetry
The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo

Contemporary
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Classics
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Zorba the Greek
Anna Karenina
Lonesome Dove
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Best overall & best reread

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne duMaurier

Best new to me

Katherine by Anya Seton

Best work by a New Zealander

Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird (poetry)

Best book read with this group

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

[Judy]

My favourites of the year so far are - mystery: Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - I am really in love with the Martin Beck series now.

Non-mystery: Broken April by Ismail Kadare.

I've read a lot of good books this year so far so it is hard to choose but will stick with those for now...

[Judy]

Brina, that is quite a list! I love Anna Karenina and also liked The Namesake.

[Betsy]

Non-fiction: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah by Wiley Sword

Fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Drowning King by Emily Holleman

[Brina]

Thanks, Judy. It was fascinating, and I like everyone else's choices too. I also read Murder at the Vicarage before I joined this group and Carol left a comment and that's how I joined :)

[Jan C]

Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most by Gwendolyn Bounds
A Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories

[Abigail]

Two that leap to my mind are (1) Edgar and Emma: A Novel After Jane Austen by Robert Rodi—one of the few who really gets Jane Austen! It is based on one of the unfinished stories JA wrote as a child. And (2) I just finished The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge, an oldie but a goodie. It’s about renewal and connection in a small English village.

[Lady Clementina]

I've had quite a few good reads-
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Cuckoo's Calling and the Silkworm
The Berlin Stories

[Susan]

My big discovery of the year has been Mick Herron, without a doubt. Other favourite crime novels this year:
Sympathy for the Devil
A Dark So Deadly
Little Deaths

Non Fiction
Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life
Ray Davies: A Complicated Life
Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World
In Cold Blood
[book:The Holocaust: A New History|32048753

[Sandy]

It was fun to review my "read" list. I'm a tough marker and my only five star read was A Gentleman in Moscow but there were some high fours: Lincoln in the Bardo, Conclave and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars.

For mysteries, Miss Marple, and my favorite series (Monk, Mary Russell, Three Pines, Ruth Galloway).

For discoveries: Nero Wolfe and Jade Dragon Mountain.

On to the second half of 2017!

[Michelle]

Too many best books (a great situation) so the best of the best would be

The Power by Naomi Alderman (and many agree with me as it has won The Baileys' Prize 2017)

The New Woman

The Improbability of Love

My Cousin Rachel

And the best of the best of the best:

Our Mutual Friend. Many are put off by Dickens and this is a long one, but it's wonderful.

[Pamela]

Mysteries - several 4 stars, probably the best so far were Ruso and the Demented Doctor and The Baklava Club

Other fiction Lincoln in the Bardo and The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times (both pretty weird but fascinating)

Some good non-fiction but nothing outstanding so far this year

[Lady Clementina]

Michelle wrote: "Too many best books (a great situation) so the best of the best would be

The Power by Naomi Alderman (and many agree with me as it has won The Baileys' Prize 2017)

[book:The New W..."
OMF IS a great read- I love most of Dickens really- he can really tell a story.

[Martha]

I finished reading the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Allen books this year, #25 through #32 since January. I just really love her style of writing, and feel so sad to have come to the end of that series. My other favorite for the year was Christie's The Mirror Crack'd.

[Michelle]

Lady Clementina wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Too many best books (a great situation) so the best of the best would be

The Power by Naomi Alderman (and many agree with me as it has won The Baileys' Prize 2017)..."

The only Dickens I can 't bear is The Old Curiosity Shop. Not about a shop but instead a mammoth walk around England while readers (view spoiler)[Wait for Little Nell to hurry up and die, oops no here is the next random stranger who is going to help them and save them for a few pages more til they are at death's door again and waiting for the next random stranger. (hide spoiler)] For far too many pages. Definitely one he was writing by installments and getting a pay cheque for each one. Have to love though the massive laugh he must have had by naming a central character Dick Swivler. Usually I love Dickens but if this hadn't been such a heavy tome it would have gone flying across the room in disgust.

[Lady Clementina]

Michelle wrote: "Lady Clementina wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Too many best books (a great situation) so the best of the best would be

The Power by Naomi Alderman (and many agree with me as it has won ..."
I loved Dick Swiveler and the marchioness- and also Kit and how he takes his family out etc.

[Judy]

I love all Dickens and Dick and the Marchioness are wonderful, although Curiosity Shop overall isn't a favourite of mine. I should really reread it. Also love Our Mutual Friend.