What's your book of the year?

The Help was one of the few books that created complete unanimity in my book group! My DiL, not an enthusiastic reader, couldn't put it down. Our book group also read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in which he describes the vile and abusive scenes outside a school in the Deep South where young black children were being introduced. It made The Help all the more 'real' to us. I'd first read the Steinbeck in the early '60s and it's surprising how contemporary much of it seemed.

Has to be The Sense of an Ending. I know it won the Booker, but it is splendid. And short!

I've just finished "The Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obreht and it is just brilliant. I'll definitely read it again.

'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel first, closely followed by 'The Lacuna' by the same lady who wrote 'The Poisonwood Bible' which I read and enjoyed some years ago.(Sorry, her name escapes me, it's late!) I also liked 'When God was a Rabbit'

Sorry the question was book of the year NOT books

OGM Barbara Kingsolver - Lacuna is so different from Poisonwood Bible, isn't it? I loved both of them. The way she has interwoven the fictitious characters with the historical ones is most ingenious. I didn't know much about Trotsky before or Freda Kalo.

Very hard to choose. I have just finished Claire Tomalin's wonderful biography of Charles Dickens. I found Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows: How the Internet is changing the way we think, read and remember" an absolutely fascinating book and John Lanchester's "Whoops! Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay" was a brilliant insight into the economic state that we are in. For sheer pathos "A Woman in Berlin" by Anonymous was an amazing read.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I'm only on p188. I have to keep putting it down because I'm so shocked and my guts are all churned up with the horror of it. Yes, I knew about apartheid in South Africa. Yes, I knew the southern USA was openly racist at the time, but I didn't realise just how bad it was. The same bull-headed ignorance is what drives creationists now, I suppose. Gives your belief in humanity a bit of a thump, a book like this. But it is great because of that and because it is well written.

Annobel thanks for the reminder, and I totally agree. I've just read the biography of Bruce Chatwin whose work I enjoyed and who also intermingles fact with fiction. He was a hero of mine,but having read the biog. I realise he wasn't a very nice person! Oh dear!

I have read 3 really good non-fiction books lately and it is hard to choose between them...
I think though, Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich gets it, for her swingeing attack on the tidal wave of positivism that has swamped the USA and affected all of us.
Crimson Petal and the White definitely my non-fiction winner.
Looking forward to reading Tomalin on Dickens, I enjoyed her biography of Pepys.

Thanks Jess, have just read your post and downloaded The Crimson Petal and the White - I love my Kindle! Yes the Claire Tomalin Dickens biography is brilliant - what a wonderful writer she is.

Nice to see Penelope Lively has been made a Dame. Who else would we suggest?

The Secret River by Kate Grenville (this author is new to me).
It's the best book I've read for ages- it's really superb. She is a gifted writer and I highly recommend her.

Just read Pete Townsend's autobigraphy and really enjoyed it- if only Roger would write one too!

He was on Radio 6 today. He was saying that Stevie Wonder wanted to play Tommy in the film. Then I switched to Classic FM so didn't hear any more. Going to get Neil Young's autobiography which has just come out.

I was really surprised at the content - he is one deep person!

The Thread by Victoria Hislop. It was one of those books that was difficult to put down, just wanted to know what was happening next. Not a lot of housework was done for a couple of days!