Best books you have read in the last 12 months?

[shlomo]

Also finished FOUR from the Divergent collection. Very short, but a nice accompaniement to Divergent. Started Insurgent a couple nights ago. Just as enjoyable as the others. I do like this series very much, even though the target audience is clearly adolescent females....

Insurgent and Allegiant finished last week. Both good, but a little too much hokey and teenage girl stuff with Allegiant. almost twilight style near the end.....Still, the series was excellent and am looking forward to the films.

[shlomo]

Just finished 1Q84.

HATED IT. Got to page 300 and wondered what the F I was doing reading this....the last 600 pages were torture, but I have to finish a book I start, I cant just leave it, just like a movie, no matter how bad.

Awful, awful, book.

[shlomo]

Started on another Joe Abercrombie called Best Served Cold. After 50 pages there has been a couple gory deaths, some torture, dozens of broken bones, severed limbs, and a whole bagful of F bombs.

Ahhhh, much better!

[leftimatic]

Good Canadian author, just finished Mordecai Richler's Solomon Gursky Was Here. Oldie but a goodie. Anything by Kurt Vonnegut will do also.

[Ken Gargett]

Just finished 1Q84.

HATED IT. Got to page 300 and wondered what the F I was doing reading this....the last 600 pages were torture, but I have to finish a book I start, I cant just leave it, just like a movie, no matter how bad.

Awful, awful, book.

shlomo, whilst briefly on exile from exile, have to say i'm so disappointed you hated it. it seems one of those books people either absolutely love, like me, or utterly detest.

i think it is one of, if not, the best novels i've read in a decade. i look at some of the dodgy drivel that has earnt authors the nobel prize for literature. any justice and this book will get it for murakami. every page was like a new revelation. even though only a few months since i finished it, already thinking of reading it again.

shlomo, i'm like you with hating not to finish a book, no matter how bad, but i confess, i recently tried roberto bolano's '2666'. supposedly one of the great novels of our generation etc etc etc. same length as '1Q84'. finally gave up after 200 pages. just thought that life is too short to waste slogging through it. not that it was poor, just bored me senseless. i gather that it moves in a very different direction shortly after that stage but it was enough for me. be interested to hear if it has any fans.

just finished murakami's latest, 'colorless tsukuri tazaki and his years of pilgrimage'. some wonderful parts but i hated the finish - very unsatisfying. if you are a fan of his, still worth reading. i'm looking forward to reading a lot more of his.

[shlomo]

shlomo, whilst briefly on exile from exile, have to say i'm so disappointed you hated it. it seems one of those books people either absolutely love, like me, or utterly detest.

i think it is one of, if not, the best novels i've read in a decade. i look at some of the dodgy drivel that has earnt authors the nobel prize for literature. any justice and this book will get it for murakami. every page was like a new revelation. even though only a few months since i finished it, already thinking of reading it again.

shlomo, i'm like you with hating not to finish a book, no matter how bad, but i confess, i recently tried roberto bolano's '2666'. supposedly one of the great novels of our generation etc etc etc. same length as '1Q84'. finally gave up after 200 pages. just thought that life is too short to waste slogging through it. not that it was poor, just bored me senseless. i gather that it moves in a very different direction shortly after that stage but it was enough for me. be interested to hear if it has any fans.

just finished murakami's latest, 'colorless tsukuri tazaki and his years of pilgrimage'. some wonderful parts but i hated the finish - very unsatisfying. if you are a fan of his, still worth reading. i'm looking forward to reading a lot more of his.

I hated it in general. There were certainly aspects of the book that were utterly fascinating and completely absorbing, but not enough to redeem the novel as a whole in my very humble opinion. I know of a few others who have read this book and they loved it to the same extent that I did not.

Without going into too much detail to risk spoiling it for others who may want to read it in the future, I found it VERY repetitive with many chapters/paragraphs.sentences throughout the book. It is possible that it was due to the translation being far from perfect, but I had a sense of Murakami either forgetting what he wrote in the first book and reiterating certyain non-critical points over and over again, or that he was trying to fill a word count quota.

I found it overly wordy, almost as detailed as some of Ken Follett's works, yet the words led to very little revelations in the progression of the story that just dragged.

**SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT**

It seemd to me that there was some irony and connection in Tengo's rewriting and revamping of Fuka-Eri's Air Chrisalis story to add more details and colorful language to the novella, and to the work that Murakami published. 1Q84 could have been told in half the pages with only a slight loss of colour to the story, yet it was a hefty 1000 page novel.

Again, it seems to have been mostly me alone on this island of not enjoying it, but it will be a while before I forget it. Thats for sure. It is certainly a story that stays with a reader for a long time.

[clickbangdoh]

If you are a fan of hard sci-fi, the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey was great, the first book hooks you in so well with the mix of sci-fi, horror and even a bit of police-detective story, can't recommend it enough.

[1LegLance]

Stephan Baxter did a couple of neat books...Time, Space....some of the others I didn't enjoy as much.

Huge fan of fantasy & history...and looks like I have some good books to get from the library

[CdnLimitada]

Just finished The Price of Tides. Quite funny, witty with a little tragedy.

Reading Stephen King's Mr Mercedes now. Already very good. IMO there is no better writer that fits me as well as Mr King. Love his style.

[Ryan]

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lidwell/dp/1592530079

While I can't say I've read all of it, it's fantastic stuff.

[leftimatic]

The Anarchists Tool Chest by Chris Shwarz

Just a how to book about building a tool chest using nothing but the hand tools he plans to fill it with.

Describing each tool and its use.

A lot of good philosophy on the simple things in life. Kind of where my head is at these days.

And also I love working wood with hand tools. Silence is golden, and way less dusty.

[ZinZan]

Tom Clancy threat vector, I'm a Clancy fan since patriot of games. The book was a bit tiring at the start but it becomes quite a page turner later on.

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[tjohn7]

Best book I've read recently was The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein. Is a great primer on the investing world and its history. Definitely not for everyone, but I love reading about finance/investing in my free time. Gets me excited to get back to work and make more money!

[Phillys]

Some great suggestions, many new titles on my to read list. I am looking forward to reading 1Q84.

I have been reading older books this year, read Papillon for the 10th time while on vacation, hands down my favourite adventure book. Read it for the first time when I was 14 and have read it every year or two since then.

I have also been reading through Alexandre Dumas' books in the last year, there are so many! Read the whole d'Artagnan series, the Memoirs of a Physician and another Count of Montecristo re-read.

[skunkmilk]

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but I just read Pines by Blake Crouch. It was a lot better than I was expecting. And it's not so far off the realm of reality that the story isn't plausible. Bit of a page turner too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007FG9LIE?pc_redir=1413280667&robot_redir=1

[bobsled]

Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss is great. Also the in her name series of trilogies by Michael Hicks are cool. Also really enjoyed Stephen kings doctor sleep.

[Fosgate]

Anything by Richard Preston. One of his books was required reading in college but I was hooked. True stories told by the people that were there about ebola. Stephen King even made a statement that it was terrifying. The first book I read he was mentioned in was Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC http://www.amazon.com/Level-4-Virus-Hunters-CDC/dp/product-description/0760712085

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Preston/e/B000AQ793U/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

Richard Marcinko also has some good reads as a Seal Team Operator like "Rogue Warrior".

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=richard+marcinko+rogue+warrior+series&sprefix=richard+marcinko%2Cstripbooks%2C329

[shlomo]

perhaps the most gratuitously violent book i have ever read ... a long(ish) book that kept me riveted for a week ...

the heros ... joe abercrombie

be prewarned ... not a happy (american) ending .

derrek

Hey D, in the middle of "Best Served Cold, by Joe A. right now. I liked The Heroes very much, but this one is so much faster paced. Blood, guts, gore, sex, great dialogue....really fantastic. I strongly recommend.

[dvickery]

shlo

have read "best served cold" ... a most excellent book indeed ... tho i enjoyed "heros" more i think .

both books are a " recommended " read by me tho ... the trilogy that got me started with joe a. was better than any of his stand alone novels ... "before they are hanged " being my favorite .

derrek

[shlomo]

shlo

have read "best served cold" ... a most excellent book indeed ... tho i enjoyed "heros" more i think .

both books are a " recommended " read by me tho ... the trilogy that got me started with joe a. was better than any of his stand alone novels ... "before they are hanged " being my favorite .

derrek

Local library unfortunately does not have the First Law trilogy. I'll hunt it down. I am eager to read them.

Yes, yes...I still read paper and ink books. I like the smell and feel of them!

[fookite]

Been working through China Mieville's catalog. Read Kraken a while back and was pretty meh about it. Then I randomly picked up Railsea and thoroughly enjoyed it. Since then I've done The City & the City, Perdido Street Station, and I just finished The Scar, all of which were great. I imagine Iron Council is next.

[PuffDaddie]

Henry Kissinger - World order blending historical insight with geopolitical prognostication.

[shlomo]

Just finished Mr. Mercedes last night. Kept me into it all the way through. Simple plot, simple story and characters, but very fun and enjoyable. Was planning on getting to The Shining and Doctor Sleep next, but I just got the first in the Maze Runner trilogy. Starting that today with a cigar. Gotta bundle up big time though!

[Rushman]

Just read The Martian on my recent trip. I'm not usually a scifi guy and this didn't feel like that. Great read. Reading The Firm (about McKinsey) now. Good as well.

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[ebhead]

Just finished reading the War That Ended Peace. Written by Margaret Macmillan. It's about the causes leading up to WW1 and shows absolutely nothing has changed since then.

E