What is the best book you have read in the past twelve months?

Such a difficult question….

http://www.fluther.com/disc/12291/what-is-the-best-book-youve-read-lately/
http://www.fluther.com/disc/1106/can-you-recommend-a-good-book/

I only started reading it yesterday, but already “Visual Arts in The Faroes” has gotten me hooked, given me chills and even brought out a sentimental tear reading about old myths and stories that inspired art back home.

Too hard to choose a best in the last year. This summer I really didn’t feel like anything deep or heavy, so I am reading the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith. I’m on the fifth book at the moment. They are light reading and entertaining. They center around a woman who inherits some money when her father dies, and decides to open her own detective agency in Botswana Africa. These really aren’t detective books or mysteries – it’s more about the people in her life, and what happens with them in every day life. You get hooked, and want to know what will happen next…...........also, reading these books has given me a good look into African culture and traditions. Very interesting.

I’ve read a ton of good ones, but the most recent is “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. Loved it!

Marley & Me by John Grogan

“The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

“The Dawkins Delusion” see it in your local library/bookstores/amazon

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

I read that one too, August.

“The Raw Shark Texts” by Steven Hall.

Holes by Louis Sachar!! Soooooo good!
u must keep reading it because if u put it down its like taking puzzle peices out of a finished puzzle!

“Ladies of Liberty” by Cokie Roberts. She takes the diaries and letters of the women behind the men of the early days of our nation and weaves them into an intriguing behind the scenes look at the movers and shakers of our nation. By getting to know the women, you get to know the Founding Fathers as humans, not just names in a history book.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Bill Bryson’s The World as Stage

Once again, I have to mention Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke.

“Animals in Translation” by Temple Grandin. This might be the best book I have read in the last 5 years! It is non fiction, but wonderful for anyone who loves animals.

This is a list of the books I’ve read so far in 2008. I think Maus is my favorite of them.

@janbb Wow, I could not finish that book. (That is a very rare thing for me too.)

@ Marina – I can see why it would not appeal to people even though I love it. It does have a very 19th century discursive style to it (but I love many 19th century books.) After a while, I did stop reading all of the footnotes, but I did really love it.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies – Jared Diamond
I simply must include these honourable mentions. All re-reads:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat – Oliver Sacks
Women In Love – D.H. Lawrence
Imperial Life in the Emerad City – Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Charles Mingus: Beneath the Underdog – Charlie Mingus
Coming Through Slaughter – Michael Ondaatje

Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Noisy outlaws, unfriendly blobs, and some other things that aren’t scary, maybe, depending on how you feel about lost lands, stray cellphones, creatures from the sky, parents who disappear in Peru, a man named Lars Farf, and one other story we couldn’t quite finish so maybe you could help us out.

(yes that whole thing is the title)

Adam Gopnik, “Through the Children’s Gate” and ‘Paris to the Moon’

Took my breath away, both of them did.

Small Island by Andrea Levy is just great. A nice easy read but certainly not lacking juiciness.

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks – properly devastating!

To Kill A Mockingbird

I read it in school