What's your book of the year?

The Hare with Amber Eyes. It's so good in so many ways. It's beautifully written, the story is fascinating and it's such an unusual approach to telling family history.

My favourite book this year- The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell,
closely followed by Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which I had never read. Do read it if you haven't already!!

And The Hare With Amber Eyes was brilliant too Lilygran!!

"Room " by Emma Donoghue is my choice, but I loved "The Help" too.

I share Susceicb's enthusiasm for 'Major Pettigrew's last stand'. Not fiction but I am currently reading 'The Barbed-wire University' about all the studying and educational activities that went on in Prisoner of War camps in Europe and the Far East. Books about POWs are usually all gung ho prison escape or horror stories. This is a quite amazing, upbeat and at times very funny book. I will never waste a piece of string again.

MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson, I enjoyed the village-type story and slow-growing platonic love between the Major and the shop-keeper Mrs. Ali. The homely description of the Major's cottage and gentle life-style is relaxing and then suddenly there is conflict and violence, very unexpectedly. But it all works out well.
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Alexander McCall Smith is prodigiously talented, and I enjoy all his books, from No.1. Ladies' Detective Agency ones, to the Isabel Dalhousie Novels and the 44 Scotland Street Novels. And I'm very jealous of him!
THE LOST ART OF GRATITUDE is an Isabel Dalhousie Novel, philosophical, thoughtful, a bit slow-moving, but I was intrigued and enjoyed it. Isabel is a pleasant, clever and kind woman, she explores her own thoughts endlessly, as many of us do, and tries to understand other peoples' motives, and gets justifiably angry when a so-called friend tries to trick her. I would call this a peaceful novel, nothing really exciting occurs, but I could empathise with Isabel and her thoughts.

'Heatherley' by Flora Thompson (her lost sequel to Lark Rise to Candleford) it is about a time that most of us can remember and conjurers up nostalgia. A time when things were still sane but full of change and pretension that has only got worse. Can we recreate these old values in our lives? (I was a Miss Read fan but have read them all).

The Help is certainly one of the top books I've read this year - also a great film. I loved Jerusalem by Simon Montefiore too.

I've just started The Help and enjoying it immensely - best book of the year so far.

Many of you seem to have chosen emotionally moving stories ...but please can I ask everyone to include the author??? as it makes finding the book harder

Personally ...I prefer stories that take me away from my everyday life ...so I'm going with the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

And yes ...I only found them this year ..had to read them back to back as desperate to find out what would happen next in the saga

Such a shame that he died before his achievements were recognised ...or the series completed.

I really enjoy the huge range of Scandinavian crime/thriller writers that have now been translated into English ...wonderful to read stories set in countries that I have visited.

If it was last year I read Wolf Hall, then it would "Sense of an Ending". There was something about it seemed to gel. Will have to read it again to find out what specifically.

"We need to talk about Kevin" definitely NewGranLin. I read it twice which is not something I would normally do but I loved it so much. I have seen the film and that is brilliant too. Well worth seeing. They have adapted it very well and Tilda Swinton should get an Oscar.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway which I have just re-read after many years; published after his death in 1964, it's about his time in Paris as a very young, recently married man in the 1920's. I was living in Paris in the late 60's and read it then but this time round it is far more poignant and meaningful.

Thanks for reminding me of A Moveable Feast, Gally. I got it when it was first published and loved it then. I am sure I will get far more out of it now.

The Crimson Petal and the White, read after enjoying the stunning TV series starring Romola Garai. Its by Michel Faber. This is a novel of Dickensian scope, which reveals to us the world of a London prostitute in 19th Century London. Just like a Dickens heroine, the main character, Sugar, rises from society's dark depths to be the mistress of a rich man - but will she continue her rise or fall back into the mire? I think Dickens would be proud approve.

Just finished 'When God was a Rabbit' a first novel by Sarah Winman. A good read that was sad and funny at the same time'

My book is by Anne Tyler and is called 'Digging to America' about two families who both adopt a little girl from Korea. Its about the family dynamics and the two grandmothers. One an American and the other an Iranean who has lived in the States for over 20 years. Its got everything - a real page turner.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - an extraordinary book that subtlely illustrates the misunderstandings between cultures - very clever - and quite disturbing - brilliantly written.

Carbon..... I do so identify with your comment about book groups.
My favourite book is The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brian, and I recommended it to a book group that I belonged to. They did not like it and tore it apart - as it is a book I have read over and over, it almost feels as though it is part of me, so I felt as though I was being torn apart!
Keep it to yourself - treasure it!!

Mishap Minaret by Leila Aboulela is another book about the clash of cultures. I read it as a real book, but it is on Kindle.

expatmaggie I've read all of Ann Tyler's books and love them. She has such a good understanding of family dynamics. Do try and read some others, I'd recommend When we were Growing Up and Ladder of Years, but they are all good.

Forgot my favourite! Australian writer Kate Grenville's, first book I think called Lilian's Story. It tells the moving life story, of an unconventional woman who starts life as middle class and ends as a cheerfully eccentric bag lady. It is both moving and funny. Also highly recommend two other books of hers - The Secret River and The Lieutenant, both set in the early days of the settlers.

I also loved 'The Hand that first held mine' by Maggie O'Farrell, but I read that last year.
This year, 'The Fear Index' by Robert Harris
'A visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan

Choices, choices. Best of the Booker, Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey, Best of the Orange, The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forma. Lots mentioned by other people but I think the most beautifully written, with believable characters I cared about, is The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay. It is about an odd happening in a Catholic church in contemporary London, and it's effect on a group of people who worship there. I thought it was wonderful, and will be interested to see if it resonates with other Gransnetters, lCatholic or not. Happy Christmas reading to you all, if you get time to pick up a book!!! [fsmile, fsmile, fsmile]

I have just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett and, for me, this is the best book I've read this year. A good read, and so illuminating about the recency of segregation in Mississippi.