Your Book For 2007?

I'm in a few book groups where we read a book once a month & meet for coffee & discuss them - When I go back next week we have to say what our 'Book Of The Year' was.

Thought I'd ask here for curiosity - And to give me a few ideas for some new ones to read ;)

It doesn't have to be a new book, just anything that you read throughout last year - Your favourite one! (Or two or more if you can't decide!!!)

I read stacks of good ones, but my fav I read was 'Shantaram' - a big one (almost 1000 pages), but just loved it!

Also read 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' which I also thought was great!

Can't wait to read everyone else's fav's for 2007!

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frasier was right up there (he wrote "Cold Mountain" too). Umm, read some really really good ones this year but seem to have lost it all to baby brain! LOL

I have two;

The Memory Keepers Daughter

and

My Sister's Keeper.

Loved both of them...

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The Memory Keepers Daughter

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That was one of them!!! (How could I forget, I read it in hospital with a brand new baby...?)!

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That was one of them!!! (How could I forget, I read it in hospital with a brand new baby...?)!

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Oh My! How did you manage reading that with a new baby?!?! My DD was about 5 months when I read it and it reduced me to tears so many times!!! I was also in hospital when I was reading it and a social worker was visiting me and was just astounded I could read it with a baby!!! It was brilliant though!

I read both of them this year, too!

You guys did well reading that one with little ones!! (espec in hospital Marydean!!!)

Mmm, I enjoyed the Memory Keeper's Daughter but found it a bit depressing. My pick would be The Time Traveller's Wife. I really, really enjoyed that.

I read that one too!!!

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Oh My! How did you manage reading that with a new baby?!?!

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I sort of wondered that at the time...of course I cried a lot throughout (new baby hormones) but really I was so deliriously happy it sort of insulated me.

my book for the year was definitely 'We Need toTalk About Kevin'. i read it when i was pg and i couldn't put it down

The Time Traveller's Wife was so original. I liked that Henry was often not very likable and yet we still felt for him. The ending was great too, and I could just imagine that last scene and all those years.....very moving.

2007 was not a big book year for me, I read too much trash and not enough substance. Maybe 2008 will be better.

My book which I started in 2007 and finished today was "The road of lost innocence" by Somaly Mam.

This book made me cry quite a few times.

Nic

A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Khaled Hosseini | Books

I read that one, too Dach!

Can't decide if I liked it or The Kite Runner better?!

I needed light reading last year as I had way too much going on (and way too much stress) to read much at all. My fave was Head over Heels by Jill Mansell.

The Kite Runner was a glorious book. That book did so much to help my understanding of Islam and the conflicts between the different sects, the Taliban and how Afghanistan was like and could be like again - peaceful. It was a lovely story of friendship, betrayal, redemption and faith.

Wonder what the movie is going to be like?

I'd be interested to see about the movie - I'm such a sceptic, they never live up to the books!

The only movie that I enjoyed after reading the book was Stephen King's 'The Green Mile' - but even that left so much out!

I will definately go and see the movie though - it has a few Golden Globe nominations & Oscar rumours so you never know! ;)

Oh Nic, I just bought that book and am dying to read it, so glad to hear someone else loved it.

My Fav is The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.
A light read but so essentially about the community of women and the nature of support and acceptance. A really nice read and it inspired me to learn to knit which has become a little hobby by now.

My absolute fav too was The Kite Runner - best book in years for me. I also read a Thousand Splendid Suns which was also fabulous and probably my runner up. I agree Jen at how much it taught me.
Holly, I am a bit nervous to start Shantaram as I can't imagine reading anything else all year with such a big book. How long did it take you and was it easy to read?

I preferred The Kite Runner but The Thousand Splendid Suns has stuck in my mind more so a part of me thinks that it may be a better book although it was much bleaker and the narrative had so much more violence.

I'm like you, Dach - I think Splendid Suns has stuck with me a little more because it was about the women - not that I can relate to any of it as we are so lucky here in Aus, but I could attempt to 'put myself in a position' to feel the horror (for lack of better terminology :redface:), whereas in The Kite Runner it was little bit more distance for me. If that makes sense??!!

Dusty - We read Shantaram in one of my groups, we usually do a book a month approx 500 pages, so we just did it over 2 months.
Its set in 5 parts, so we read the first 3 parts for the first month, and the last 2 parts for the second month.
When we all met after the first month, though, most of us were almost finished.. we all just got sucked into it that much!!!

Its an incredible story - and the way he writes is captivating, you fall in love with so many characters!
The interesting thing, too, is before I read this book, I just didn't enjoy eating Indian food at all - and throughout reading it (and even now) all I did was eat Indian - DH couldn't believe it because he would have to literally drag me to Indian restaurants in the past!
The way that he wrote about the food, you could just taste it - and you wanted to eat it!!!
His descriptions were like that about everything... I can't remember the last time a book effected me that way!

A lot of the older ladies in our book group didn't like it as much (ladies over 60yrs).. they thought he was too egotistical, but I found it quite the opposite!
Made for some lively discussions in our meeting ;)
Everyone else loved it though!

They have just started filming the movie, so that will be interesting to see what they do with it - Johnny Depp is playing the lead role, and I can see that, so its a good start!

I want you to read it now so you can tell me what you think!
Everyone I've lent it to has loved it as much as I have.

*sigh* some of you have listed books that are definitely on my list of 'To read'... But until I finish my course in June (after several long years) I'm afraid it's non-fiction only for me! Loving the suggestions though.

Sonya, I asked DH to get it for me for xmas, read about half of it the first day and had to put it down as all I could think of was those innocent little girls about my DD's age. Picked it up yesterday to finish it off. I don't think I've cried so much reading a book!

Nic

holly you are quite convincing. i am ploughing through books at the moment so i should throw Shantaram into the mix.

Re Kite Runner and Thousand Splendid Suns, one of the differences for me was his use of a woman's voice/character to tell the story in TSS. i thought it gave his writing a slightly different feel and experience for the reader. i also so loved the prose and language in KR which was sometimes almost dreamy in its telling. the story of the two boys was more the focus with an overlay of the happenings of the day, where as in TSS i thought the story moved more due to the events of the times IYKWIM. such 2 splendid books - i imagine there was a bit of pressure on him to produce something that lived up to expectations after KR.

i just finished a quirky book, This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M Holmes - i loved how you never knew what was going to happen next as the story gathered more and more quirky characters and happenings. a good fun read.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!!!!

I cried when it was all over, so sad.
Didn't have much time to read books last year as I was in my final year of Uni, but I made time for Harry.

What a great thread. So many good ideas, thanks.

I read Shantaram in a week… on my honeymoon! Kinda weird, I know. I was so captivated by it, poor DH, I think he was happy though (I don’t really remember I was too busy reading). He read it after me and had the same opinion of it as the 60yo ladies you described (DH thought that he (author) was just way too egocentric).

DH and I were listening to an interview with Greg Roberts (Shantaram author) on radio national as we were driving up to Queensland for our honeymoon. After I had heard him speak I just had to read the book. I think you can get the interview as a podcast on the RN website, well worth a listen IMO (if you can find it).

My favourites for 2007

Collapse, Jared Diamond
Born on a Blue Day, Daniel Trammet
Pompeii, Robert Harris

I only got about a third of the way through the Weather Makers (Tim Flannery), it was just too scary and depressing for me.

Hmmm .... I didn't get much reading done at all in 2007 (other than baby books), but I'd have to say the best one I read was "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides, about an intersex person, Callie. It was one that I read for a bookclub I'm a part of.

For anyone wanting good reads, try the Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich. She has written books 1 - 13 with a few novellas thrown in between. These are my absolute favourite books. They are easy to read, not too serious and funny. At times I found myself giggling!