EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

List 3 of the best books you have read within the last year outside of our group reads! I'll go first:

1) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
3) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Are the 3 best books I have read during the past year.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

Are the best outside the group (American Gods would otherwise be on the list - so good!).

@Sarah: Ready Player One and The Ocean at the End of the Lane I am on a hold queue for - I am excited to get them!

Laura, The Nightingale is on my to read list! I've heard good things about it.

Brian, I love Hitchhiker's Guide! I need to read it again and work my way through the series. Ready Player One is one of the best, most original books I've read in awhile! You'll be flooded with nostalgia.

Thanks for the recommendations , Sarah. The Ocean at the End of the Lane looks promising!

You're welcome. :) I figured limiting to the past year would bring out some unique recommendations instead of everyone's go to recommendations.

Laura wrote: "Thanks for the recommendations , Sarah. The Ocean at the End of the Lane looks promising!"

I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane two years ago, definitely 5 stars!

I've read three books in the last year that I've given 5 stars to :
11.22.63, A Monster Calls
and Room, so I'd have to recommend those.

I've read every single book you guys listed and liked them all! How coincidental is that? ;-)

My favorites this year are Kindred Spirits, American Gods and The Colorado Kid. The second two are rereads for me, but I haven't read any others I liked better yet.

Carolyn, Room definitely would have been on my list if I had read it in the last year!

Kandice, you clearly have excellent taste, I will check those out!

Sarah wrote: "Carolyn, Room definitely would have been on my list if I had read it in the last year!"

I loved
Room and am always amazed at how many people review it badly because of the boy's "voice" used to tell the story. For me, that created enough distance from the atrocity to allow me to read it comfortably. Does that make sense?

Absolutely, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

I've noticed that people tend to criticize books written outside of the box. How boring it would be if everyone followed the guidelines for what makes art!

Outside of our group reads?

1. Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennis Lehane
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
3. Sacred by Dennis Lehane

Angie wrote: "Outside of our group reads?

1. Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennis Lehane
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
3. Sacr..."</i>

I've only read [book:Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on your list. Have you read anything else by Dick? You can never go wrong with a Dick short story collection. The man was brilliant and the absolute inventor of literary WTFery.

Lol, "WTFery." I haven't read any of Angie's picks!

1.Garden Spells
2.The Bear and the Nightingale
3.Dragonsong

Kandice wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Carolyn, Room definitely would have been on my list if I had read it in the last year!"

I loved
Room and am always amazed at how many people review it badly because o..."
Each to their own, but it's the boys voice that I like this so much about the book.

The Graveyard Book
His Majesty's Dragon
When the Moon Was Ours

(I almost put The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. But it was a reread, so I figured I'd go with new stuff. Though Calvin is pretty timeless ;)

Calvin and Hobbes= the BEST!

I loved The Graveyard Book as well!

For last year, two of my three favorite books were graphic novels:

Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
Saga, Vol. 1

And the other one could be:

House of Suns

1. The Kite Runner
2. The Book Thief
3. The Sun Also Rises

Brady - all book club reads =)

1. A Man Called Ove - Frederik Backman - one of my favorites of all time
2. Another Day in the Death of America - fascinating but sad
3. Nine Women One Dress - local book club read, very charming

I'll go with new books, since I did a lot of re-reading last year. I'll go with first book in a series.

1. The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
2. The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett.
3. The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling

Honorable Mention: People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

Fannie wrote: "For last year, two of my three favorite books were graphic novels:

Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
Saga, Vol. 1

And the other one could be:

[book:House o..."

Have you read the rest of Locke & Key? I love that series. It's so clever.

Kandice wrote: "Fannie wrote: "For last year, two of my three favorite books were graphic novels:

Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
Saga, Vol. 1

And the other one could be:..."

Only four of them. I can't find the rest right now.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard

1. The Woman in Black

2. Jackaby

3. How to Hang a Witch

Kandice,

The only Dick book I've read it Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but I have a few more on my list. I love his style.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

The Hot Kid- Elmore Leonard
The Yiddish Policemen's Union- Michael Chabon
Universal Baseball Association- Robert Coover

1. Heir of Novronby Michael J. Sullivan (though honestly, I've read three of his books in the last twelve months, 5 in the last 18, and I'd put them all here)
2. The Martian by Andy Weir
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

And like Kristin, I did really love His Majesty's Dragon so this is a hard question!

1. The Man Who Shot My Eye Out is Dead by Chanelle Benz- a great book of fascinating short stories.

2. White Tears by Hari Kunzru- it's a mystery woven around the blues that spans several time periods. Loved this book!

3. The Vine that Ate the South by JD Wilkes- kind of like a modern day Iliad journey set in the American South.

1- The Hate u give - Angie Thomas

2- The Sun is also a Star - Nicola Yoon

3- A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J Mass

1- The Hate u give - Angie Thomas

2- The Sun is also a Star - Nicola Yoon

3- A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J Mass

A Man Called Ove- Backman
Fortunately, the Milk-Gaiman (or Oceans at the End of the Lane-Gaiman) Both very enjoyable
Being Mortal- Gawande

A Thousand Splended Suns- Khaled Hosseini
Carve The Mark- Veronica Roth
The Time Travelers Wife- Audrey Niffenegger

The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn (memoir)

Dreamland by Sam Quinones (non-fiction)

Tiny Beautiful Things by Sheryl Strayed

This was harder than I thought it would be (to choose 3) -

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
(Many times true stories of real people can be more moving than fiction, and I found that to be true of this one. Most of the book is about her family and village life growing up in Pakistan (some of it through major world news-making events), her and her father's love for education, but, also, about how she was shot, her journey to recovery and afterward. To me, it is truly miraculous! Seeing "world events" through another perspective is always intriguing to me.)

A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi
(I just finished this and loved it. This is the first book I've read by this author, though it's her third book, so I'm even more interested in her previous ones now. ( "The Pearl That Broke Its Shell" is on my list)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
(The perspectives from which this book is written makes it more powerful and haunting. Again, though this is fictional, with respect to characters and story, the depiction of "world events/history" through an alternative perspective is intriguing to me.)

-Kristin H

Sarah wrote: "List 3 of the best books you have read within the last year outside of our group reads! I'll go first:

1) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
3) The Ocean at the En..."
OOH i absolutely adored The Nightingale!

1) Ink
2) Me Before You and im currently reading After You.
3) Finding Audrey

A Gentleman in Moscow
Homegoing
A Man Called Ove

I also loved the Nightingale, as mentioned above! Hard to narrow it down.

The Last Days Of Jack Sparks - Jason Arnop

The Girl With All The Gifts -M R Carey (I was a lil late to the table)


Feedback - Mira Grant

1. The eye collector by Sebastian Fitzek
2. The life changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo
3. Encuentros, el lado B del amor by Gabriel Rolón

1. A Man Called Ove
2. Mr. Mercedes
3. The hate you give

I would've included Ready Player One, but the group ended up reading it right after I did.

The Name of the Wind, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and honestly I'd have to include Superman: Secret Identity (it made me cry so I mention it for the pure emotional impact it had on me).

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
We Should All be Feminist by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I think this will change in the next few months because there are so many great books coming out this fall!

1. Poison Study
2. And Then There Were None
3. Illuminae

Picking just 3 is hard. Those were the 3 most surprising ones that I liked. I'm not big fan of fantasy (Poison Study) or sci-fi (Illuminae) but those were great.