Best Read of the Year from 5

With only 6 or so weeks left in the year what has been your best read so far in 2016, from your top 5?

RR = Reread

Unless something changes dramatically in the next 45 days my best read has been...

#1 The Lord of the Rings RR

followed by

#2 The Heart of Midlothian
#3 David Copperfield
#4 The Divine Comedy RR
#5 A Handful of Dust

The only thing is, on another given year, I might read the same books and re-order them, depending on how I received them!

All very good books though...

#1 Moby-Dick RR
#2 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
#3 The Mandarins
#4 Divine Comedy
#5 The House of Mirth

I've been on a Civil War history kick this year, so my top 5 are:

1. A Stillness at Appomattox
2. Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy
3. Grant and Sherman: the friendship That Won the Civil War
4. The Ionian Mission
5. Wonderboys

#1 A Canticle For Leibowitz
#2 Laurus
#3 The Worst Journey in the World
#4 The Grapes of Wrath
#5 All The King's Men

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Still thinking about the other four. One would be The Truce by Primo Levi
and The book of Ebenezer Le Page another, which I heard about in this group and found by chance in our local "free books" phone box.

1. Waterland - Graham Swift
2. If This is a Man - Primo Levi
3. The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr - ETA Hoffman
4. The Moon and Sixpence - Somerset Maugham
5. Vertigo - Pierre Boileau

1.In Cold Blood
2.Schindler's Ark
3.Interpreter of Maladies
4.Bell Jar/Dear Life
5.The Narrow Road to the Deep North

:The Defense - Nabokov (want a FS version)
:History of Rome - Mommsen
:Meditations - Aurelius
:A knight of seven kingdoms - Grrrr Martin (Sub.Press)
:The outsider - Camus

1- Capitães de Areia (Captains of the Sands) - Jorge Amado
2- All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
3- Stolen Continents - Ronald Wright
4- A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
5- Lettres de mon Moulin (Letters from my Windmill) - Alphonse Daudet

Too early. I'm optimistic that the last five books I read this year will be the best.

1. The Great Gatsby (RR) - Fitzgerald
2. Walden - Thoreau
3. Oliver Twist (RR) - Dickens
4. The Crossing - McCarthy
5. Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald
6. Child of God - McCarthy

>13 EclecticIndulgence: I was no fan of 'The Outsider' at first. It was slow and boring. But it got more interesting during part two and had to use my brain to think about past events.I will reread (stud it more) probably next year while it's still fresh.

'The Defense' for the chess link. Thanks for the tip on the other book.

>13 EclecticIndulgence:
Absolutely fantastic. What makes it interesting is not the events in themselves, but Levi's introspection and observations when undergoing horrific systematic brutality and mass slaughter. Levi, as a Chemist, injects a clarity and lucidity into the death camps that other accounts fail to match. His book is not just a portrayal of events but a snapshot of the mental state of humanity at and beyond the brink of destruction.

Couldn't recommend it more - I look forward to discussing it if you do decide to read it. I'm looking out for other FS editions of his works and will read more when I source them.

I don't think the illustrations in The Outsider consolidate with the text so chose to stave off purchase for this one, albeit being a big fan of Camus.

For Nabokov fans penguin produced a Symth-Sewn Hardback collection (except for Lolita which is glued):

https://wordery.com/the-penguin-vladimir-nabokov-hardback-collection-series

I rate my books 1-6. Eight books so far this year have achieved a 6, 3 of them being rereads. I'm therefore going to just nominate the 'new' books, in alpha order of author.

Howards End - EM Forster
The House By The Lake - Thomas Harding
The Running Hare - John Lewis-Stempel
Germany, Memories of a Nation - Neil Macgregor
The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry

My book of the year is The House By The Lake, with Germany, Memories of a Nation as the runner-up. I wouldn't claim that former is the 'best' book that I've read this year, but it's certainly been the one that I enjoyed the most. The story was totally absorbing, and it became all the more special when we had the chance to visit the house itself whilst cycling out of Berlin this summer. It's the book that sticks with me the most from one of my best year's reading lists for some time (and they've all recently been good).

BTW, the three 6-star rereads were:
Emma - Jane Austen
Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf.

Best of these was Emma, which was my first reread in almost 40 years, and was absolutely wonderful - almost certainly would have been top if counted. Winnie-the-Pooh was also a first reread in several decades, and I was delightfully surprised as to how good it still felt - I expected to be downgrading it a bit, but not a chance!

I think this is the first time ever that my book of the year has been non-fiction, let alone the top two

>15 kermaier:

I haven't read your #1, but it must be good to have beaten your #2.

>3 gmacaree:

What translation of the Comedy did you read? I have read both the Musa and Sayers' translations this year.

>6 EclecticIndulgence:

Yes that IS a long valley. I remember in June driving from Monterey to Santa Ynez thinking, when does it end?

Steinbeck is a fantastic writer. I thought Grapes of Wrath couldn't be beaten by the man, until I read East of Eden.

>23 EclecticIndulgence:
Why not #3 in >15 kermaier:?

>23 EclecticIndulgence:
Ciardi: I'm doing a MOOC at the moment using that as the guided reading translation (On FB) but I'm using Musa as my own text.

>23 EclecticIndulgence:
Yes, EOE is more War in Peace in nature. I thought it was excellent.

>21 LesMiserables: Mary Prentice Lillie, for the Grabhorn Press. Not having deeply read any other translations I can't speak to how it stacks up, but I certainly enjoyed it.

>25 EclecticIndulgence:

Do you think you might be over analysing Twist as a Dickens work rather than just enjoying it for the yarn?
It was not a conscious act to link EOE with WAP, it just came to me at the moment: they both are all encompassing lifespan works that paint a social picture (or an aspect of it) of a time and a place. EOE stands out more as a classic moral binary for me whilst WAP I love for the voyage of discovery: I think the Russian's do that particularly well, opening the inner odysseys of the mind to the reader. Much better than Woolf I think, despite I admire her SOC in To the Lighthouse for example, or even Joyce's Ulysses.

>26 gmacaree:

I haven't read that one. Of my two the Sayers' accompanying notes are both legendary and voluminous.

>30 EclecticIndulgence:

Yes, I was aware of that probable reception of that to my question! ;-) I really didn't know how else to put it though. I did consider using using a smiley but aren't they completely so banal?

Anyway, sometimes (perhaps oftentimes) I overthink things.

Stoner - John Williams (Or was that last year?)
Crime and Punishment - Fjodor Dostoevskij (Re-read)
Imperium - Ryszard Kapuscinski
The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
The Spirit-Wrestlers - Philip Marsden (Re-read)

I note that three of the five books are books I've read in the last couple of weeks, so there's a very real chance my poor memory has influenced my choice; I do not keep a list of books I've read, I'm afraid - so lapses of memory are an all too common occurrence around here!

Might as well make this my first post in this group, after lurking here for quite a while. I realize now how many great books I've read this year, despite getting through fewer books than I planned. Really hard to choose, but:

#1 Midnight's Children - Rushdie
#2 The Gulag Archipelago Abridged - Solzhenitsyn
#3 The Divine Comedy - Dante
#4 Meditations - Aurelius
#5 A Clockwork Orange - Burgess

>17 Santas_Slave: couldn't agree more re Primo Levi - and if you haven't read The Truce you must... not quite so dark as If this is a man, as there is a glimmer of humour and optimism.

>33 Mencius:
#1 Great read!

Quite a few here reading the Comedy.

>32 odderi:

#2 Need to read that.

>36 LesMiserables: - Here's the abridged version, odderi translation: (Does IMHO not contain any spoilers for anyone who knows anything about the book in addition to its title, but by all means stop here if you want to start with a totally blank canvas once you get around to reading it!)
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"Bloke kills old hag on page 15. Spends next 600 pages going mad contemplating his action."
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That's about it. A great read, though.

>37 odderi: Here's the abridged version, odderi translation:

I read this without knowing what the book was. I thought hmm, sounds just like "Crime and Punishment". Great book but low on car chases and thrills generally.

>38 folio_books: Maybe that is a niche which could be filled by some entrepreneurial devotee? "100 classics of world literature in 5 minutes"?

Moby Dick - "Whale not to be messed with messes with ditto whaler. Much misery ensues while they fight it out."

Hard to put them in order, but so far my most memorable reads of the year have been:

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M McPherson
Human Acts by Han Kang
10:04 by Ben Lerner
This House of Grief by Helen Garner

>34 overthemoon:
I really wish I had picked up the Truce at the same time!

>40 ian_curtin:
Great list

>17 Santas_Slave:
>34 overthemoon:

If you've worked through If This is a Man, The Truce, and The Periodic Table, there was a fascinating book translated this year describing Levi's brief time as a member of the resistance in Italy. The author interviewed those he could, and searched the archives for clues about the events that sent Levi to Auschwitz.

Primo Levi's Resistance

Here goes:

NONFICTION
Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

Everyone should read these two books (and I hardly ever say that). They are both beautifully written and vitally important.

FICTION
The Summer Guest - Alison Anderson
A Man of Genius - Janet Todd
The Lie Tree - Frances Hardinge

I think many Devotees would enjoy these intelligent, highly literary novels.

>41 Santas_Slave: I somehow missed The Truce when FS first published it - found it a few months ago on ebay.
>42 kcshankd: thanks for the recommendation; I'll look out for it.

I am loving these lists! Here are mine, in no order....

New Reads:
1. Lolita~Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Martian~Andy Weir
3. The Witches:Salem 1692~Stacy Schiff
4. Les Liaisons Dangereueses~ Choderlos de Laclos
5. Doctor Zhivago~Boris Pasternak

Rereads:
1. The Country Child~Alison Uttley
2. The Mill on the Floss~George Eliot
3. Madame Bovary~Gustave Flaubert
4. Howards End~E.M. Forster
5. The Great Gatsby~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Most unique reads:
1. Hoodoo Folk Magic~Rachel Patterson
2. Rena's Promise~Rena Konreich Gelissen
3. The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart~Mathias Malzieu
4. The Secrets of High Magic~Francis Melville
5. Shakespeare and Company: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart~Krista Halverson, editor

>45 Lady19thC: I liked Lolita very much as well. I don't think it beats out the Wharton for me, but it's extremely, extremely close

>46 EclecticIndulgence:
It is just a forum where people share. Nothing wrong with wanting to share a little more than was asked for. I think the majority of us love lists and getting ideas of possible titles to investigate. Luckily, the forum isn't for scientists, but book-lovers! :)

1. Lolita
2 Moby Dick
3 Clarissa
4. Cloudstreet
5. Three men and a boat.

>1 LesMiserables: >46 EclecticIndulgence:
I have read 121 books so far this year, so there is no way I can choose just five, and as a type of scientist I wouldn't want to give any colleagues an aneurysm - so no list.
In their own varied ways, I have enjoyed every book I have read from Lolita to the Siege of Malta, and the Secret History to a Biography of Ned Kelly.
Variety and eclectecism are my bywords.

>46 EclecticIndulgence: :-)
>51 LesMiserables: But if pressed Warwick...?

This also reminds me that we must organise the inaugural antipodean dismembered foliacs and oenophilic muster before Christmas.

So, my list of five:
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Truce by Primo Levi
The book of Ebenezer Le Page by G. B. Edwards
The Voyage of Argo by Apollonius of Rhodes
Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley

and one in French (I don't know if it's been translated into English)
Le Maître de Garamond by Anne Cuneo

>1 LesMiserables:
I'll see what I can do about a dismembered foliacs meeting.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (RR)
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
Beyond Biocentrism by Robert Lanza

>53 wcarter:
That would be good.

Now Warwick that is a seriously impressive haul for the year so far.

Would you list them?

How many hours per day are you reading?

>54 Betelgeuse:

How did you enjoy Vita Nuova?

What translation?

>56 LesMiserables::
Well, I'm just an ordinary guy, not a professional academic, so I found "Vita Nuova" to be ridiculously hyperbolic (I suppose a lot of courtly romantic poetry is). In today's world a reader of "Vita Nuova" might suspect Dante of having been a deranged stalker. At the same time the work was curiously calming in a cathartic way. In this latter sense it was much like Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy." On the whole, I enjoyed it. My copy of "Vita Nuova" is the recent Folio Society edition, ornamented with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Daniel Egneus. It is translated into English by Mark Musa, but the original Italian is shown on each opposite page.

I wanted to finish I Capture the Castle before adding my top five:

1. Bleak House Dickens (FS 1981, Keeping's illustrations)
2. Anna Karenina Tolstoy (FS 1975, Rosemary Edmond's translation)
3. I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith (FS 2007, beautiful book)
4. Another Country James Baldwin (Penguin 20th century classics)
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote (Penguin 20th century classics)

6. Why Not Give Eclectic an Aneurysm? (Cronshaw Library of Fiction, paper boards, no slipcase)

>57 Betelgeuse:

I think you have to read it from a Medieval cultural and Christian perspective in terms of spiritual, not sensual love, to get what Dante was saying.

>59 LesMiserables: Totally agree. Like I said, it reminded me of Boethius, another medieval (albeit early medieval) Christian work, and Boethius is one of my favorites.

I too am loving these lists!
Mine for the year to date, in the order in which they were read:
Britain Begins
A Wizard of Earthsea (FS reread)
Feet of Clay (reread)
A Little Life (I accept probably overrated by critics, but I really enjoyed, once you accept that it is not, quite, realistic)
Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories

Also read Ali Smith's Public library and other stories, which just missed the top five, but one of the above may be pushed out by her Autumn which is a slight story, but so beautiful, if you like her work. I keep putting off finishing it so that I keep mulling it over!

1. Postcards..E Annie Proulx
An extraordinary first novel from 1992.
2. Casino Royale (FS edition)
Love the Fay Dalton illustrations, and the introduction by John Banville
3. American Psycho..Bret Easton Ellis
4. Gone Girl...Gillian Flynn
Three & four sort of go together, and also bring to mind the latest Nobel winner for literature..."there must be someway outa here, said the joker to the thief"
5. The High Mountains of Portugal..Yann Martel
Missed the peak as far as I am concerned.

Having a second go as I can't limit it to five.other favourites for the year(all folio society) and some re reads include
Eugene Onegin
The Great Gatsby
Brides head revisited(the lovely specially bound one from the 1990 s with marbled. paper sides)
Alice in wonderland LE
War and Peace
O 'Brian Aubrey Maturin series that I am two books in to and really seeing why others have become addicted.

Still more than a month to go, but most likely it will end up like this (in no particular order):

Herodotus - Histories (Landmark Edition)
Shi Nai'An - All Men Are Brothers (LEC; also known as Water Margin)
Divine Comedy (in Dutch)
Canterbury Tales (Covici-Friede, illustrated by Rockwell Kent)
Asimov's I, Robot (trade edition)

>65 rmarathe:

Great list.

#1 A special read. I first discovered The Histories when I watched The English Patient. Great book and the Landmark edition is second to none.

#3. This has been in my hands twice this year. Not in Dutch though :-)

#4. On my critical TBR list.

Brothers Karamozov
The Company
The Master and Margarita
The Human Factor
The Long Goodbye

Honorable Mention - The Alchemist

>66 LesMiserables: Regarding Herodotus' Histories, I completely agree. This is one of the most impressive books that I have ever read. I wonder if Herodotus imagined that we would be reading his words today when he said he "here presents his research so that human events may not fade with time."

And yes, I briefly considered other editions (FS, LEC), but as far as I can tell (I do not own any) they are no competition for the Landmark version. It's truly fantastic with a great translation (as far as I can tell), maps, appendices, etc. Highly recommended.

>65 rmarathe:
Great list! Read The Histories for the first time last year, enjoyed it very much. Read Divine Comedy a few years ago and loved that, as well. The Asimov was my first ever "grown-up" book, read it when I was twelve and then many times since then.

>67 devilsisland: Reading Brothers Karamazov right now, only about 1/3 of the way through it.

>70 Betelgeuse:

How are you finding it and what translation are you using?

>71 LesMiserables:
I'm reading the Everyman's Library edition, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation. I read Crime and Punishment a few years ago and thought it was outstanding. I must admit I'm having a tougher time with BK so far, though I am hoping it picks up. I rarely drop something after starting it. I am also very mindful of the fact that things don't come through in translation. My Crime and Punishment was a Constance Garnett translation and though I know no Russian I had some quibbles with what I thought was awkward phrasing once translated; still, I loved it. I just finished the chapter in BK known as "The Grand Inquisitor," which was powerful, though not the way real people speak. But much until now has been introductory. I will reserve my opinion until I get further into it.

BK definitely has a slow mid section, however, it gets quite compelling during the last third of the book.

I'm afraid to saay the only Dostoyevsky I have read has been Notes from the Underground which was very good.

1. The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
4. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
5. The Monk by Matthew Lewis

I'm currently some way into a reading of T. F. Powys, following a few of the better-known titles, which I mostly hadn't read for thirty years, with a roughly chronological reading of almost everything else. Chasing up copies of the books I didn't have and in a few instances the limited and signed firsts of those I did has been a merry occupation of late, and has put the kybosh on any thoughts I might have had of Folio Society purchases for a while. An honest favourite five readings of the year would include nothing at all that's new to me:

1. Mr. Weston's Good Wine - T. F. Powys
2. Crutch - Seton Peacey
3. Fables - T. F. Powys
4. The Antiquary - Sir Walter Scott
5. Mr. Tasker's Gods - T. F. Powys.

For a mixed bag of first encounters:

1. The Ambassadors - Henry James
2. Against Everything - Mark Greif
3. The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker
4. Guy Mannering - Sir Walter Scott
5. Jason the Magnificent - Maurice Hanline,

with honourable mentions to Mort and to Andrew Michael Hurley's The Loney.

>76 terebinth:

Splendid reading.

>78 EclecticIndulgence:
Isn't All Men Are Brothers not only heavily abridged (based on the short 70-chapter Chinese version), but also a poorly regarded translation? Not sure why, as Pearl Buck was both a Nobel laureate, so I assume was rather good at writing in English, and grew up in China - and wasn't just fluent in colloquial language, but also studied Classical Chinese - so I assume she knew what she was translating. But for some reason everyone seems to say it's a bad translation.

Also, I wonder why every translator gives the book a completely different title? So there is Pearl Buck's All Men Are Brothers, Jackson's The Water Margin, Shapiro's Outlaws of the Marsh, Dent-Young's The Marshes of Mount Liang... The title of a Russian translation I know would be Backwaters in English. I wonder what the original Chinese title is, and if there is even a title.

>79 elladan0891: I didn't mind the Buck translation compared to others I've read, although I'm sadly incapable of reading in the original. The abridgment, on the other hand, removes some of the grandeur of the full novel.

>79 elladan0891: There are various editions (70, 100, 120 chapters). I am not sure, but I think one of the reasons for selecting the 70 chapter version is that the authorship is undisputed (i.e. there is consensus that these chapters were part of the original version). It seems that the origin of the later chapters is much murkier, and some people believe they were later added on. I am no academic or expert, so I am not sure. More information would be welcome.

Regarding the translation: It definitely feels clunky at times; I am not sure if this is a deficiency of the translator (as mentioned above, there are several reasons to be skeptical of this) or if this is how the original work was written. I definitely found it readable (and enjoyable!), and throughout I think the atmosphere really comes across. But there is room for improvement here.

As for the title, I thought I read somewhere that "Water Margin" is a good literal approximation to the title, but that the Chinese characters also carry some other connotations that the English "Water Margin" doesn't (but presumably some of the other translations do). I can't find where I read this though.

The Gulag Archipelago seems so promising. I didn't think I would like it, but so many people praise it!

The Mandarins and I,Robot are also high on my wishlist!

>78 EclecticIndulgence: The first character of the title (水) means water,
so you can easily spot the odd man out!

Seems worthy of the (FS) Three Kingdoms treatment...

>83 Kainzow: The Gulag Archipelago seems so promising. I didn't think I would like it, but so many people praise it!

This was a rare case where I highly enjoyed the abridged version. Approved by the author, and what is left out is clearly explained chapter by chapter. I will have to read the unabridged version one day, though.

>85 Mencius:
Why is it such a good read? Does it resemble a bit Schindler's Ark?

>86 Kainzow:
For me, it's how the true horror and absurdity of the Gulag system is portrayed through Solzhenitsyn's biting, often sarcastic prose. Definitely not an "objective" account, but I think we need these personal, angry accounts, too.

(I haven't read Schindler's Ark yet, so I can't compare).

I've read Schindler's Ark, and the unabridged Gulag Archipelago. They are very, very different books - Schindler's Ark is a story, while The Gulag Archipelago is a jeremiad. Both are unquestionably worth reading, but it's difficult to say that I enjoyed reading Solzhenitsyn, given the subject matter and the unrelenting presentation of the terrible things people did to others.

>89 EclecticIndulgence: - The Gulag Archipelago is the only Solzhenitsyn I've read. Others reside on my "get to it some time" pile, which is a step removed from my TBR pile and my "add to the TBR pile when there's room" pile.

> I would say no. Ivan is a quick snack. Gulag and (especially) The Red Wheel are multi-course meals.

>92 EclecticIndulgence:

Aye, and make sure the cook dips from the bottom of the soup kettle. Anne Applebaum's Gulag is an excellent overview of the madness, if you want a more historical account.

>93 kcshankd:
But it is no so simple!

In Birkenau the rations were so sparse that to live on them alone would be to accept gradual decline & ultimately death. Levi recounts one prisoner who was first in line every day, whilst the other prisoners squabbled for a place near the back of the queue, and therefore received the most watery soup. He would shave, shower and wash his clothes everyday ignoring the threat of being robbed and the icy water that sucked out the remainder of his body heat. Eventually the Kapo took notice of him and gave him the esteemed job of soup distributer, ensuring his survival. His larger early sacrifices protected him when he became weaker.

>2 LesMiserables:

I managed to sneak a few good books onto my read list on those last 6 weeks, but my original list remains intact.
Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot - James Stockdale and Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad being some of the late standouts.

As per my 'best read' criteria, when I ever do a reread of The Lord of the Rings it's more than likely to always get that No.#1 spot.

Zero to One from Peter Thiel, though I don't like his political view.

>96 vietle:
OMG, I'm reading this book right now! His insight is incredible.

Ready to call my five best reads of the year. It was very difficult to narrow down the list. Read 83 titles for the year, 12 Folios (purchased eight, so that represents progress), though only 3 Library of America volumes.

Best new fiction read: Underground Railroad Whitehead attempts a great deal with this novel, and accomplishes most of it.
Best new memoir: When Breath Becomes Air Haunting.
Best re-read: Suttree Down and out in Knoxville USA

'Old' works, new to me:

In Cold Blood
Moonfire - Taschen version, enjoyed this much more than I thought I would

>98 kcshankd:
I found In Cold Blood perfect in 2016!
I can read it again anytime, and just thinking about it evokes a lot of emotions - I was that absorbed!
In that sense it's a bit like One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I read in 2015.

>99 Kainzow:

I've spent significant chunks of time in Western Kansas, and thought Capote did an amazing job capturing the landscape and overall 'feel' of the place. I avoided reading it until now because the 'true crime' genre isn't at all interesting to me, but Capote won me over.

Coming from a true "insider", it just has to be incredible. ;)

1. Stoner by John Williams
2. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
3. Dr Fischer of Geneva by Graham Greene
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
5. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

>102 Ooshie: Although read a decade ago, I still really rate Beyond Black, which I prefer to her later excellent Thomas Cromwell novels. But a difficult one to gift to others as I always think of it as a marmite (love/hate) book, so I opted to give Wolf Hall this Christmas.
Beyond Black would make an excellent choice for Folio treatment, as an illustrator could really do something with the images that the book conjures.

Out of a (for me) record number of books read in a year (84), the most memorable books (not including re-reads) were:

Pompeii - Mary Beard (Folio ed)
Chain of Command - Seymour Hersh
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Folio ed)
Rural Rides - William Cobbett (Folio ed)

and, my favourite read of the year: Turner and the Sea - Christine Riding & Richard Johns