Your favorite book in 2006

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I am itching for a good book! What was the best book (fiction preferably) you read last year? It can be a new book, an old one or a classic.</p>

<p>The best book I read last year was Cry the Beloved Country. It was assigned to my daughter at school, and I picked it up. I loved it!</p>

2

<p>Dara Horn, The World to Come. It’s about a stolen Chagall painting, Yiddish literature, and modern love. I thought it was brilliant. You can read about it here: <a href=“http://www.darahorn.com/worldtocome.htm[/url]”>http://www.darahorn.com/worldtocome.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I still love John Irving (I know, a lot of people hate him) but I just finished “Until I Find You.” Made my dysfunctional family look like Ozzie & Harriet’s.</p>

4

<p>Current: Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown</p>

<p>More-than-current: Yasmina Khadra, *Les sirenes de Baghdad<a href=“not%20out%20in%20English%20yet,%20but%20made%20me%20very%20interested%20in%20reading%20his%20previous%20book,%20%5Bi%5DThe%20Attack%5B/i%5D”>/i</a></p>

<p>Perennial: Alexandre Dumas (pere), *La reine Margot<a href=“Queen%20Margot”>/i</a></p>

5

<p>me and emma by elizabeth flock</p>

6

<p>Currently reading “The Thirteenth Tale”…quite good!</p>

7

<p>“Next” by Michael Crichton was very entertaining and discusses many topics within the genetics/biotech sector through several linking stories (I know, sounds like a boring topic but read a review on amazon at least).</p>

8

<p>SpringfieldMom:</p>

<p>My college roommate put up a John Irving poster up in our dormroom…She loved him! I’ve really enjoyed most of his books (esp. A Prayer for Owen Meany).</p>

9

<p>The Book Thief by Markus Zusak…unique and very powerful book!</p>

<p>I’d also recommend:</p>

<p>The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss </p>

<p>The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon </p>

<p>Paula by Isabel Allende (one of my all time favorite books, but very sad)</p>

10

<p>Curiousmother: The World According to Garp came out my senior year in college! :eek:</p>

11

<p>I think all of the favorite books on my list are old, but I just got around to them in '06. And I’m afraid I can’t narrow down to a single favorite!</p>

<p>Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire (I was more sympathetic to the revolution before reading the book than after!)</p>

<p>The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (I probably recommended this one to everyone that would listen to me)</p>

<p>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time–a teen autistic British male narrator) </p>

<p>No paso nada by Antonio Skarmeta (don’t know if this one is available in English; very funny, sharp political piece about chileno expats in Germany after Allende was overthrown; anything by Skarmeta is worth a read–his best known book was probably El cartero de Neruda–the basis for the Italian film Il Postini)</p>

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<p>I am agreement with ripped: The Book Thief! My brother bought it for my daughter for the holidays. I picked it up just out of curiosity. Now I am buying it for everyone of my friends and family who love to read.
I also loved the History of Love by Nicole Kraus.
If you want something heavy try The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn. Deeply affecting.
If you want something lighter try I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe.
Also, try The Tender Bar. It is a memoir. I can’t remember the author’s name.</p>

13

<p>Thanks all! Lots of great ideas. I am in Spanish language book club, so ReneeV’s last book sounds like a good choice for that.</p>

<p>I also loved the Kite Runner, the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Paula by Isabel Allende (Yes, a heartbreaker!).</p>

<p>The only one I probably will not try out is Next by Michael Crichton. Sorry BusinessGuy, but Crichton is not my type.</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing!! :)</p>

14

<p>Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier author of Cold Mountain</p>

15

<p>please don’t over look me and emma…very touching and surprisingly good read…easy to read, but not light-hearted and just plain surprising…don’t miss it</p>

16

<p>Suite Francais by Irene Nemirovsky
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (African memoir)
War Trash by Ha Jin
Sky Burial by Xinran
Snow by Orhan Pamuk</p>

17

<p>

I like John Irving, too. “Dysfunctional” is the perfect word for the characters in Until I Find You. I am usally a bit sad when I come to the end of a book, but I was ready to finish that one. </p>

<p>I do like a good mystery … throw in some murder and mayhem and it’s the perfect book for me. I enjoy reading books by John Sandford. I recently read the book, The Straw Men by Michael Marshall and it kept my attention. I like Carl Hiassen, too … just finished Nature Girl last week and enjoyed it.</p>

18

<p>I’ve just started reading Pamuk’s My Name is Red for the second time, and it’s as wonderful as it was the first time.</p>

<p>Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres is wonderful.</p>

<p>And although I’m not normally a science fiction/fantasy reader, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman was also wonderful.</p>

19

<p>My favorite book of the last five years is Ian McKewn’s Atonement. Authors I read every book as they come out Lois McMasters Bujold (sci fi and fantasy - hugely fun books), Penelope Lively, Jon Hassler, Ann Tyler (all contemporary realistic fiction), Ursula LeGuin (mostly sci-fi), Tamora Pierce (YA fantasy). One of the more fun unexpected surprises this year was Vanity and Vexation a gender reversed modern version of Pride and Prejudice.</p>

20

<p>Mountains beyond Mountains.</p>