It’s Monday… we have questions.
We’re, we hate to say it, getting a little bored. We really miss going out and doing stuff. Like you, we keep sane, in part, with reading. And we could use a challenge and are wondering if you could to.
We don’t read non-fiction but we think we should want to. We also have drifted from romantic suspense and miss it. So we’re looking for some help. So we want to know: in several genres, what’s the best book you’ve read this year? It doesn’t matter when they were published or if they were a re-read!
We’ll share the results of this later this week!
Bench Player by Julianna Keyes— best contemporary romance to come out in 2020 I think!
I so enjoyed that one!
I have, throughout the years, amassed a thoroughly respectable collection of nonfiction that remains largely unread to this day. I read news and periodicals and research constantly, so it’s not like I -can’t- read NF, but with kids and work and life in general all of the best intentions for “edifying” reading get thrown out of the window in favor of some reliable escapism. Especially these days.
Something I have really enjoyed lately has been done forays into fantasy, I’ve been reading Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, and plowed through 3 of Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters books earlier this year. And of course Bec McMaster’s Legends of the Storm series was time well spent too.
I listened to “The Splendid and the Vile” which I liked enormously, but then again, I like Churchill and WWII history. Larson has a great ability to tell a story with lots of people, but you can follow who is who. I just finished most of the profiles of women in “Vanity Fair’s Women on Women” which range from Emily Post (her enormously influential etiquette book was the second stolen book, only outnumbered by thefts of the Bible). Other fascinating profiles were Audrey Hepburn, Tina Turner, Gloria Steinem, Barbara Bush, etc. I loved skipping around, but to my surprise, I read all the profiles.
Like a lot of people here, I am rereading romances. I have enough anxiety in my life right now, so suspense does not appeal–in movies or in books.
Even though rereads are a smaller percentage of my reading than they were for many years, 3 of my choices were rereads and 2 of my votes were for 1 book.
Ok so apparently I don’t read Women’s Fiction because I couldn’t think of one book and in other categories I had several choices. Maybe I need to expand my genres.
I put Beach Read into my slot for Women’s Fiction . . . because I don’t really read WF either ;-) and, while I liked Beach Read a lot, it wasn’t particularly satisfying as a romance.
Same, I had Beach Read in that slot as well, for identical reasons.
Thanks for the recommendation! I put a hold on a copy but it will be a while before it comes through. I read the description and it looks right up my alley though. Looking forward to it.
I loved Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center–and I always enjoy Kristan Higgins forays into WF.
I’ll check both of them out. I am sure I’ve read something by Higgins before. Thank heavens Amazon tells me when I’m about to rebuy a book I already own. I wouldn’t be able to count the number of times I click the button and it tells me “you already bought this book in May” or three years ago. The memory must be going.
I don’t do WF either – I read a fair bit when I was younger (Mary Wesley, Joanna Trollope and the like) but it’s not a genre that appeals to me all that much these days.
I, too, loved Mary Wesley and Joanna Trollope. I have never been able to find an author who pleased me as much as they did. Unless it was Jilly Cooper whose books accompanied me on many long train commutes to work with me trying hard not to laugh out loud!!
Weird year – mostly oldie gloms, re-reads, low stress reading.
Nice Idea, the look back showed me how weird things seem to be – I am reading a lot of series romances from 30-60 years ago…
Some of the books I enjoyed most this year were gloms from new-to-me authors.
Yes, that is what happened to me.
Essie Summers, Mary Burchell, Sophie Weston: all new to me.
and as series romances, the (time and emotional intensity) investment, and the stress level, are easier to predict, and accept even in these stressful times.
“We don’t read non-fiction but we
think we shouldwant to.” This is an interesting statement. I do read a fair bit of non-fiction, about 40% of my reading is in that category but, as a long time lover of Regency-set romance, then what better than “The Regency Revolution: Jane Austen, Napoleon, Lord Byron and the Making of the Modern World” by Robert Morrison. A great survey of that amazing 9 year period, easy reading and a great demonstration of how a society on the cusp of the modern world transitioned from the old. I did put it down in the survey as my best read for this year so far!!I’ll check it out. I read endless newspapers and so non-fiction just seems like articles that are too long! But I’m trying to push myself. I really want to read The Splendid and the Vile.
Non-fiction has thus far made up 25% of my reading this year. My favorite book was published last year. Ezra Kline’s Why We’re Polarized. I also loved Killers of the Flower Moon David Grann. I have The Splendid and the Vile and hope to read it soon.
I have read (OK, listened to) one non-fiction I adored this year: Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller. Loved it and can’t stop trying to get people to check it out.
Oh yeah—if you grew up listening to Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon (like I did), you’ve got to read GIRLS LIKE US.
It’s so much richer to hear their–and James Taylor’s, Neil Young’s, CS&N’s, etc…–music now that I’ve read it.
I’ve put it in my library queue :-)
My favorite romance, favorite contemporary romance, and favorite book of the year were all the same book! N. R. Walker’s beautiful Missing Pieces Trilogy. My paranormal selection (The Best Man by Winter Renshaw) had only the faintest trace of the otherworldly about it—which is generally the way I like my paranormals. Also, my women’s fiction choice (I’d Give Anything by Marisa de Los Santos) had strong romantic elements and could easily fit the romance rather than wf category. Going back through my list of books I’ve read this year, I see that almost as soon as the quarantine started, my reading hewed very closely to almost exclusively romance or romantic suspense, with a little psychological suspense thrown in. I’ve been reading for comfort, not expanding my horizons, during quarantine and for me that’s romance.
Same here about one book filling three categories. My favorite romance,historical, and book of the year are all the same.
The audio of the first book in the Missing Pieces trilogy has just come out, and I think the other aren’t far behind, so I’m going to wait for all three and then listen to them all at once!
So I really liked a lot of Walker’s early work: Red Dirt, Thomas Elkin. But the more recent stories have been a little less compelling. And the blurbs make it plain that you really need to plan to read all three books to get the full relationship arc (ala Thomas Elkin). Given that it’s a 3-book investment, how does Missing Pieces compare to the early work? Thanks!
@nblibgirl: I really couldn’t tell you how Missing Pieces compares to Walker’s earlier books because, prior to Missing Pieces, the only book by Walker I’d read was TALLOWWOOD, which was very good, but more a murder-mystery with a strong m/m romantic subplot than a romance. But I loved, loved, loved Missing Pieces. It’s a wonderful story about two ordinary people faced with an extraordinary situation (a terrible automobile accident that leaves a man with severe physical injuries and retrograde amnesia that has wiped out the memory of his five year relationship with his partner). Yes, you do need to read all three books, but that wasn’t a problem for me—I loved seeing how one partner cared for the other and how they fell back in love again.
Thanks! I think I’ll be giving it a try. :-)
With a couple of exceptions, I unfortunately haven’t been blown away by my reading selection this year. Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian probably makes the top of my list for books I read that were actually published this year. The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite was a good runner up.
Quite a few books I thought I’d like didn’t live up to their promises, most notably Officer Clemmons, the autobiography of the man who played Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and Godshot, a literary novel about a teenage girl escaping a cult. Both had great build up and then fell apart in the last third.
Oh, and for books published a long time ago, I did enjoy Chances, the first Lucky Santangelo book, by Jackie Collins. Good, trashy fun. :)
Ouch! This was hard. I have listed things published all over the place but read this year. And if I’d spent a really long time on it, might have come up with other books. Glad I could refer to my Good Reads list as I don’t keep any records myself.
Without Goodreads, I couldn’t remember what I read last month, let alone this year!
I’ve just started making a list this month. I’ve worked out a really easy way to do it on a Word grid that suits me. I don’t do anything on GoodReads so get no clues there.
The next time we have a ‘what have you read this month?’ I will be flying!
After numerous attempts over the past decades of trying to track my reading on some sort of spreadsheet, I finally gave up on anything computerized. I found I was getting anxious about keeping the spreadsheet updated—no thanks, I read to lessen my anxiety not increase it! So for the past few years I’ve happily used a 3-1/2” three-ringer binder with tabs for authors/books I want to try, wishlist, upcoming dates, library, downloads, kindle unlimited, books I’ve finished, etc. I update as I acquire/finish books. And on January 1, I take all the pages out, file them, and put in new sheets of paper to start the new year. Hey—works for me!
I just made the grid on the computer and then scribble on it!
1 side of A4 for each month, so 2 months to a sheet. 1-31 in column to the left and wider columns for new reads, rereads, and audios. So I just fill in the title and author in the correct column on the day I start it. That’s all the info I’m bothered with. I think I might put a star by new releases to distinguish them from new-to-me reads though.
Like Wendy, I stuck to books out this year and tried to cheat because in a couple of categories I couldn’t pick just one! (You already know I’m crap at choosing!)
I wonder if one of the reasons we’ve “drifted” from romantic suspense is because there isn’t a great deal of really good RS around – not m/f RS anyway.. I read and review a fair bit of it, and I’m mostly finding that authors are concentrating more on the suspense than the romance, so while there are some great storylines out there, the romances are often rushed and unsatisfying. On the other hand, I’ve read and reviewed some fantastic m/m romantic suspense over the last few years, and that, IMO, is where the really good RS is to be found these days. Interestingly, most of those books have been part of series (Seven of Spades, Hazard and Somerset etc.), so the relationships have space to grow and develop in a way that is rarely to be found (at the moment) in the single-title m/f RS that seems to be the norm in that part of the market. Anyone looking for great RS right now who isn’t reading Gregory Ashe is seriously missing out. Intricate, clever mysteries, complex characters and slow-burn romances dripping with UST – his books are, as you say on your side of the pond, “all that and a bag of chips.” And Dal Maclean’s Bitter Legacy series is a must – the stories are linked with a different central couple in each, but both elements (romance and suspense) are really well balanced and the relationships are incredibly satisfying.
It’s because I’ve been reading these m/m series this year that I found the romantic suspense category the hardest to fill in. It put Hazard and Somerset up against the Bitter Legacy trilogy!
I actually had clear winners in historical and contemporary, the other two romance categorie I read.
That’s where I cheated and chose both!
Agree!
I too kept it to books published this year to make it simpler. Although I’ve done a lot more rereading than usual – it’s a comfort thing I’m sure.
But I agree with Caz and Wendy that romantic suspense was particularly hard. Choosing between Gregory Ashe, Dal Maclean, and Cordelia Knightsbridge (which was new to me this year but definitely deserves a mention for those that have missed her)? Ack! They are ALL really excellent choices and they stand out in my mind in ways that the rest of my romance reading has generally NOT this year. (I’ve read almost 100 books so far this year. But most of them have blurred into themselves.) I think being part of a series helps there.
Fun survey!
One reason I haven’t read much RS lately is because of long running series. I might be willing to stay with a couple for three books but series that are four plus books I won’t touch. I read too many super long series in the early nones to fall back down that rabbit hole.
I would probably say the same about m/f RS – but in m/m the long-running series (Hazard and Somerset is now 11 books plus several short stories and novellas, for instance) seem to work much better – and many of them focus on the same central couple rather than having one per book. Other than JD Robb’s In Death books, are there any long running m/f RS series with the same central couple? I can’t think of any, although I’m sure there must be some…
I didn’t know if the poll was only about books published this year or not. I have chosen books from other years, and two of them written in Spanish, so I’m not sure if my answers are going to be helpful or not. Anyway, thanks for this opportunity to remember what I have read this year!
Are the ones in Spanish able to be found in English? I used to read a lot of Spanish literature (translated) and would love to find a good one.
No, sorry, they are not. It’s usual to see a Spanish novel translated to Italian, French or German, but it’s quite difficult to see European novels translated to English in the US. If they translate anything they tend towards ‘literary fiction’ and not what I call ‘genre fiction’ (historical, romance, thriller). It’s a pity because there are some really good authors from Spain, France, Italy…
This was difficult – I stuck to books released this year to make it easier for myself!
Wow! That’s impressive!