best reads last year

Life After Life, The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace, The Thread, Kate Morton's latest, can't remember the name, The House We Grew Up In and just finished Elizabeth Jane's Howard's last book All Change also very good.

Thicket I read London a while ago which I enjoyed. I also have Edward Rutherford's Sarum which I am told is also very good, slightly put off by the very small print, must get a Kindle.

forgot Sarum, read it ages ago, very good - maybe your library has it in large print? I love the feel of books and the selecting of them, putting off Kindle - somewhat IT phobic! PS , its A fraction of the whole by Toltz, still reading it and still getting huge pleasure therefrom.

Cutting for Stone. Big readable book, totally absorbable. One of the best I have read for a while.

Wolf Hall [Hilary Mantel]
The Little Stranger [Sarah Waters]
Curfew [Phil Rickman]
I'm The King Of The Castle [Susan Hill?]
Strange Meeting [Susan Hill]
Shakespeare [Bill Bryson]

I've just done my top ten for my online book group. Several were books of the month chosen by members but I gave them all 9/10

1.The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney
2.The Secrets Between Us by Louise Douglas
3.Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach
4.Annabel by Kathleen Winter
5.Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
6.The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
7.The Red House by Mark Haddon
8.Exit Music by Ian Rankin
9.The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
10.The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Just coming to the end of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I will need to read it again, there is so much to absorb She is surely going to be one of the great novelists of the 21st century??? Have just bought Secret History. Going backwards, chronologically.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Will make you laugh, cry, empathise with the characters and appreciate again the wonders of our world. Wonderful book.

I LOVED The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, great book, I had forgotten that one. May have to read it again soon.Just got The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt for my Kindle, I have read all her books, brilliant author, but her editor needs to be more ruthless as in parts they are ALL too long.So many good books around and not enough time to read them all.In spite of all the modern techie things we have for amusement, books seem to be having a new lease of life, I do think the Jindle has helped that way [yes, I know, it's another tech thing BUT it gets us reading.]I still buy paperbacks though, especially for poetry as I like to dip in and out of it.

Jindle?! Kindle!!!!!

Our book club has just read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. It is her first novel and was a Pulitzer prize finalist. We give books a score out of ten after our discussion and this book was the first one to get a 10 from one member and most people gave it a 9 and everyone loved it.