Half year done - what has been your favorite book so far?

[ufcasey]

Now that we're half way through the year, what has been your favorite book you have read so far? (a book you have read this year, it does not have to be published in 2018)

[bex]

Oooh good question!

I think my favorite is a tie between The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and Ten Women by Marcela Serrano. If I had to pick between them the latter would win out. It was just a really interesting and well done book. I got it for free on Amazon for World Book Day (I think?) and I gladly would have paid for it.

[rootbeerfloat]

Probably Beartown.

I also read the Raven Cycle series this year and really liked it; book 2 (The Dream Thieves) is my favorite.

[tacokick]

I liked Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht, Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny, and My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite the best of the books I’ve read this year I think.

[travella]

I have had three 5* books so far this year. It would be difficult to pick a best from these three.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Into the Light by Aleatha Romig
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

[Vespasia]

I have two:
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Circe by Madeline Miller

[Vespasia]

Jul 5, 2018 11:50:21 GMT -5 bex said:

Oooh good question!

I think my favorite is a tie between The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and Ten Women by Marcela Serrano. If I had to pick between them the latter would win out. It was just a really interesting and well done book. I got it for free on Amazon for World Book Day (I think?) and I gladly would have paid for it.

This is good to hear! I have Ten Women but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

[spedrunner]

Ohhhh great question


i would have to say “ the great alone” by Kristin Hannah 

[dorothyinAus]

I gave 5 stars to:
The League of Frightened Men
Imperial Requiem
A Spoonful of Murder
It's a Bright World to Feel Lost In
The Rubber Band
The Red Box
Paddington at the Palace
Murder in St. Giles
Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917

Imperial Requiem was interesting and told a story I really knew nothing about, Empress Zita of Austria-Hunagry. As was Caught in the Revolution, in that it told the story from a side I had previously not read, and clued me into Somerset Maugham's spying activity (who knew?).
But I think my favorite so far this year has been A Spoonful of Murder. I love Daisy & Hazel and this was Hazel's adventure, which was quite fun to read.

I gave then 4 stars, but the Verlaque & Bonnet mysteries I read by M.L. Longworth were excellent and I can't wait to find the rest of the series.

[charlatti]

I’ve had a lot of good ones this year. I think the best is The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. I also really loved Nevermoor, the beginning of a middle grade series by Jessica Townsend.

[ssmjlm]

No 5 stars for me so far this year.

I really liked Still Me by Jojo Moyes, Killman Creek by Rachel Caine, and Inarticulate by Eden Summers.

[MrsAxilla]

Jul 5, 2018 15:24:20 GMT -5 travella said:

I have had three 5* books so far this year. It would be difficult to pick a best from these three.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Into the Light by Aleatha Romig
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

I have a lot of five stars so far, but I’m not very discriminating.  I gave Fire and Fury 5 ⭐️ because I was thoroughly entertained!  The Hate U Give and The Parable of the Sower were xcellent, but my ‘favorites’ are ones I’d want to read again -  Children of Blood and Bone and The Tower of Dawn.  

[abs]

Great question!! I've read a lot of good books this year so far but I think the two that have stuck with me the most are Beartown and The Great Alone. I really liked Before We Were Yours, too.

[scribellesam]

The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, both by Katherine Arden. No other real standouts so far, but these were both five stars for me.

[rainbowchip]

My two favorites so far have been They Both Die in the End by Adam Silvera and The Last One by Alexandra Oliva.

[minzy]

I don't have an absolute favorite, but I've ranked five so far this year with 5 stars:

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories - Curtis Sittenfeld
The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
When the Moon is Low - Nadia Hashimi
Bloodsworth - The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA Evidence - Tim Junkin

[bex]

Jul 5, 2018 17:16:37 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

Jul 5, 2018 11:50:21 GMT -5 bex said:

Oooh good question!

I think my favorite is a tie between The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and Ten Women by Marcela Serrano. If I had to pick between them the latter would win out. It was just a really interesting and well done book. I got it for free on Amazon for World Book Day (I think?) and I gladly would have paid for it.

This is good to hear! I have Ten Women but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

I really loved it. It helps if you know something about Chilean history, since the stories all kind of criss cross the 20th century - but even without that its still really good.

[krystee]

Before We Were Yours and The Great Alone. I am also on a big Diane Chamberlain kick, and I'm liking those a lot.

[mrspez07]

I can’t decide between The Great Alone and My grandmother Told Me To Tell You She’s Sorry. I listened to both and the narrators were amazing on both, making the stories even better.
I also liked Before We Were Yours, which I visually read.

[suzubell]

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

[tcu2003]

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones is probably my favorite so far this year.

[gibbinator]

The Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey (Wool, Shift, Dust). Great post-apocalyptic fiction. Hint:

SPOILER: Click to show

don't get attached to anyone...

[ally]

I also went back to Goodreads to see what I had rated 4 1/2 or 5 stars and found five books.

Wonder - RJ Palacio
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
The Fifth Season - NK Jemison
The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden

[oliviapope]

Surely we can pick more than one? Lol
This Is How It Always Is
An American Marriage
The Poet X

[oliviapope]

Jul 8, 2018 20:16:50 GMT -5 oliviapope said:

Surely we can pick more than one? Lol
This Is How It Always Is
An American Marriage
The Poet X

(I'm also reading Children of Blood and Bone, which I have loved so far.)

[scm1011]

Britt-Marie Was Here
The Great Alone
Little Fires Everywhere

[froggy76]

A Gentleman in Moscow

[ufcasey]

My favorite so far is:
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (sequel to Beartown)

Other books rated 4.5 and up:
The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #5) by Louise Penny - mystery/thriller
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - classic (listen to the audiobook!)
Ghosted by J.M. Darhower - contemporary romance
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - fiction
Love in the Afternoon (The Hathaways, #5) by Lisa Kleypas - historical romance
The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #2) by Katherine Arden - fantasy
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - classic
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder - non-fiction

[Gato]

The real standout for me is An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.

Runners up are:
Elinor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Selfie by Will Storr
The Destiny Thief by Richard Russo
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

[Nonny]

Jul 8, 2018 11:50:12 GMT -5 gibbinator said:

The Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey (Wool, Shift, Dust). Great post-apocalyptic fiction.

SPOILER: Click to show

I haven't started Dust yet, but I loved the opening story of Wool.  There is a part of me that wishes I'd read that, and nothing else.

Jul 8, 2018 18:19:56 GMT -5 ally said:

I also went back to Goodreads to see what I had rated 4 1/2 or 5 stars and found five books.

Wonder - RJ Palacio
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
The Fifth Season - NK Jemison
The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden

When I read Station Eleven I loved it so hard that I went around recommending it to anyone who would listen, and then had both of my book clubs read it so that I could reread it just a couple of months later.