This is a book post

[mersipan]

Question for you: what's the best thing you've read this year so far? And please take 'best' however you want - most enjoyable, most well-written, most intellectually stimulating, etc etc.

So far I'm really enjoying Smiley's People by John Le Carré, and possibly because of all the hype and the fun zombie-ness of it, I enjoyed Deadline by Mira

Comments

[anaisdjuna]

Kate Chopin, "The Awakening".

[mersipan]

I have not read anything by Chopin, but that one sounds intriguing.

[anaisdjuna]

It is. It was banned for it's shocking portrayal of a woman thinking for herself and wanting out of her marriage.

[mersipan]

How ~*dare*~ she!

(sarcasm marks ~*)

[goblue]

Can I respond with two? They are different enough that I can't really decide. One was Just Kids by Patty Smith (about her life with Robert Maplethorpe) and the other is The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood's follow-up/prequel to Oryx and Crake. Both were really outstanding in my opinion.

[mersipan]

Of course. Both of those sound quite interesting!

[castallia]

I really liked Just Kids as well.

[no_touching]

I loved The Year of the Flood! I must get around to actually reading Oryx adn Crake.

[unrealfred]

It's tough to say, as I've read a lot of pretty good books this year, including a lot of graphic novels. I can easily pick my least favorite book of the year so far (Lev Grossman's The Magicians), but best? Maybe a tie between the equally terrific A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier.

[mersipan]

Yes, your review of The Magicians was excellent - I've so far avoided the book, because it sounds thoroughly disappointing.

The Illumination I'd meant to read a while back and forgot about it - thank you for the reminder.

[unrealfred]

Lots of people loved it, and even more have apparently enjoyed Grossman's sequel, so your mileage may vary.

[xtoolchickx]

I'd have to say Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and Morning Glories by Nick Spencer for graphic novels. As for fiction books I think it was over a year ago, but The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall has become one of my favorite books.

[mersipan]

I haven't heard of any of these! Raw Shark Texts looks very interesting indeed, I'm now reading a preview of it :)

[xtoolchickx]

Awesome! Let me know what you think. =]

[goddessofchaos]

"The Passage" by Justin Cronin. Someone gave it to me and I had no idea what it was about, but very soon became engrossed. Post-apocalyptic literary fiction with vampires (sort of). I loved it!

[mersipan]

Oh, that's a great one!! I enjoyed that one as well, definitely did not expect what that book delivered!