Israel SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hello,

Goodreads is running the "choice awards of 2012", so I thought we should mention the best books we've read this year (not necessarily the 2012 releases).I'll mention my top 3 here, not by order.

This year I haven't read as much as I wanted to, hopefully next year I'll read more.My top 3:

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - I really liked that book, it's a great book with lots of action, development of characters and a great plot, and it looks like the series is getting better and more complex.

Legend by David Gemmell - kind of an old fantasy book, but it's a great heroic fantasy book. Absolutely a book to remember, and I'm totally into reading all of his works.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson - That's Sanderson, this fact speaks for itself. Sanderson bring here his intelligent style and the outcome is very good, of course not in the same quality as the Mistborn trilogy, it's only a short "standalone" (a sequel is planned), but a very good one.

The best book, without contest, I've read in 2012 was Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August. It left me absolutely breathless, both in the writing and in the subject matter.

I also really enjoyed Cloud Atlas, a collection of Raymond Chandler stories, and Lolita - also a spectacularly written book, albeit disturbing.

Hmm, there really haven't been that many books this year that I really loved. I think that The Magician King by Lev Grossman was probably one of the best books I've read this year, along with The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

The Magicians series is one of the most controversial series I've heard of, it looks like many readers hates it and many other enjoy reading it.

Nimrod wrote: "The Magicians series is one of the most controversial series I've heard of, it looks like many readers hates it and many other enjoy reading it."
Well, I didn't love The Magicians but the sequel was fantastic. This was probably also the book that surprised me the most because I really had not been expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm pretty sure that the mixed reactions are limited to the first book.

When you have low to average expectations from a book then there's a better chance to enjoy it, indeed.

When I have low to average expectations from a book, there's a better chance I won't read it ;)

I had a really good start to the year with The Hunger Games trilogy, A Game of Thrones and The Left Hand of God all receiving 5 stars but it has gone sharply downhill since then.
I haven't read a 5 star book since April and to be honest most of my 4 stars were a generous 3.5.

Tzippy wrote: "When I have low to average expectations from a book, there's a better chance I won't read it ;)"
LOL in agreement.
As much as Simcha tells me that The Magician King is great I disliked The Magicians so much I cannot convince myself she is right.

Esther wrote: "Tzippy wrote: "When I have low to average expectations from a book, there's a better chance I won't read it ;)"
LOL in agreement.
As much as Simcha tells me that The Magician King is great I disli..."

Aw, come on Esther, give the book a try. Believe me, you'll enjoy it. If you don't then I'll..I'll..send you a chocolate bar (it's the best I can offer right now, but I'm sure I won't need to do it anyway ;) ).

There's probably no way that I would have given the book a try on my own but my neighbour happened to have gotten it from his father-in-law, and he lent it to me. Generally I won't bother with a book that I don't expect to enjoy, either.

This was a strange year for me, either I am getting old, or it is harder to impress me.
I found that non-fiction this year had some books that really changed the way I think. As I look over my reading list from the past 11 months (yeah nerd keep reading list on the computer) I find that all of my top five for 2012 were non-fiction!.
1) The Civil War: A Narrative LOVED it
2) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Scary! but cannot get it out of my head.
3) How to Be BlackBoth funny and very informative.
4) Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right - Amazing. (maybe the elections have made me see the real world as fantasy. )
5) The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industryagain, this could be a biography of many of our current political leaders.

Bonus book and must read - Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany This modern book examines whether the lessons of the occupation of Germany can be applied to muslim countries.

On the genre side, I guess it would have to be
Ready Player One more by default than anything else.
(no Sanderson this year, and that is no B.S.)

You read all three volumes of The civil war? any chance you can compare them with Barbara Tuchman's books?