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Top 20 books of the year?

N

Nakmeister

New Member
I've recently set up a gift site - aimed at giving people ideas for presents. My books section is sadly very bare at the moment, so I was thinking of doing a 'Top 20 Books of the Year' section. Instead of doing the 20 best-selling books of the year or Amazon's Top 20 or anyone else's list, I thought I'd try and come up with one myself. So what books do you think should go in this top 20 list and why? They can be fiction, non-fiction, crime, sci-fi, whatever, as long as they were new in the last 12 months, or new in paperback at least.

Any suggestions?

Nakmeister

ps. If anyone wants to look, the site is http://www.giftique.co.uk
 
Nakmeister said:
I thought I'd try and come up with one myself. So what books do you think should go in this top 20 list and why?
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If you are coming up with one by yourself should you really be cheating by asking others?
 
Stewart said:
If you are coming up with one by yourself should you really be cheating by asking others?
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How is that cheating?:confused:

He/She wants to do a Top 20 book list. It doesn't have to be books they have read. That's why he/she is asking us.:) .
 
I’d be happy to contribute my own opinion of the top books published this year (that I’ve read, anyway):

The Ha-Ha by David King: The story of a veteran named Howard who has suffered brain damage and has lost his ability to speak or write. His ex-girlfriend asks him to look after her son while she’s in rehab. A very touching story, with a realistic (as opposed to an idealistic) ending.

Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston: If any book can be described as “high octane”, this one can. This is the continuing story of Henry Thompson, who proves the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. Huston’s writing has been described as compassionate noir. He’s the only writer I know who can write a scene that is both horrifyingly violent and funny as heck at the same time.

The Memory of Love by Nicole Krauss: The story of a lonely old man who’s lost everything in his life, who spends his days doing strange things in order to become visible to others. His story was split with the story of a young girl investigating the origin of a book, but the part with the old man was better. His story was heartbreaking, with an interesting twist at the end.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty: Smithy Ide is a sad-sack, overweight, alcoholic loser who takes one too many shocks in his life and suddenly takes off on his childhood bicycle, and keeps going. I enjoyed this story far more than I thought I would, and couldn’t stop reading to find out what would happy to Smithy next on his quest to find himself.
 
Royal Flush said:
How is that cheating?:confused:
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Think about it.

He/She wants to do a Top 20 book list. It doesn't have to be books they have read. That's why he/she is asking us.:) .
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If you are creating a list by yourself, as has been said, then by asking others it's cheating.
 
Small Island by Andrea Levy deserves a place, new in paperback this year. It won the Orange Prize, the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the overall Whitbread Book of the Year, and recently won the 'Orange of Oranges' for the best book to win the Orange Prize in its first ten years. Everyone I know who has read it thinks very highly of it.

In hardback fiction, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro has to have a chance. A guaranteed future classic.
 
I nominate Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. A really brilliant book, really had me hooked until the last minute. I'd add bonus points for the originality of the whole thing also :)
 
1776-David McCullough. McCullough's bestseller describes life for the British and the colonists in war. I found it to be an entertaining and interesting read.
 
Well actually

It would only be cheating if his post stated he was compiling a list of books he had himself read. All he said was that he thought he would come up with one himself. Obviously his intent was to use the people on this forum as a resource tool for recommendations. Not cheating.

I would recommend The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper and All My Freinds Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman.
 
I don't think it's cheating either...and "think about it" is in my opinion not an adequate justification for the charge. I'm curious to hear the logic, since I'm not following it. I use this forum all the time to update my reading list; is that cheating since I didn't discover the books on my own?

I don't read a whole lot of fiction these days, but since it wasn't stipulated that non-fiction was excluded, here are my nominations:

Richard Dawkins: "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution"
Not as rough going as Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker", and a fascinating look at how we got where we are. If you're an "intelligent design" type you won't like this, but if you're interested in evolution it's a well-written treatise on modern evolutionary theory and not too dense for the non-scientist.

Jared Diamond: "Collapse"...I forget the rest of the long-winded title and don't have it here in front of me.
I actually liked "Guns, Germs and Steel" better, but this one is new this year and is still a good read, though somewhat depressing in that it makes you realize what's inevitable for modern society.
 
Shade said:
Small Island by Andrea Levy deserves a place, new in paperback this year. It won the Orange Prize, the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the overall Whitbread Book of the Year, and recently won the 'Orange of Oranges' for the best book to win the Orange Prize in its first ten years. Everyone I know who has read it thinks very highly of it.
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I'm going to second this book. It was absolutely incredible, easily one of the best books I've read the past couple years. I think it would be great for anyone interested in WWII, race relations in mid-century Britian or the plight of minority immigrants. In fact, I'd give it as a gift if my copy hadn't already whored itself through all of the readers in my life!
 
Stewart - I get what you are saying.
People - it's not really CHEATING.
Stewart is just pointing out the irony in saying you're going to do something YOURSELF and then asking others for help.
That's all.
Right, Stewart?
 
Libre said:
People - it's not really CHEATING.
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I don't really see it as cheating either. It seems like he is trying to set up a list that contains different books than Amazon's top sellers list and the NYT best sellers list. I think it is reasonable for him to ask for suggestions. However, he should beware of people asking him questions about the books that he isn't prepared to answer, and of writing sales descriptions of books he hasn't read. By calling it the "Top Twenty Books of the Year" he is, however, implying that they are the top twenty books in his opinion. Perhaps changing the title to something like "Twenty Books from 2005" or "Twenty Books for Christmas" would make it a little less misleading.
 
Libre said:
Stewart - I get what you are saying.
People - it's not really CHEATING.
Stewart is just pointing out the irony in saying you're going to do something YOURSELF and then asking others for help.
That's all.
Right, Stewart?
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Exactly, thanks for actually seeing it. Maybe some people can't read anything without a smilie to illustrate intention. So, for them, --> :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
Heh, heh, smiles are nice.
By the way, are looking for books in English only or is anything acceptable?
 
C'mon Stewart

I'll buy the irony argument for the first post but your second post, uh-uh.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I abhor antagonism so let us return to the topic at hand and a matter where both Stewart and I agree. We both recommend The Davinci Code and Harry Potter.:D

Another wonderful book I read this year was by a Canadian author named Bill Gaston. The book is Sointula.

In short, the wife of the mayor of a prosperous town outside Toronto leaves her husband to attend the death bed and funeral of her first lover. With his ashes in tow in a cigar tube, she steals a canoe intent on walking away from her life and making the trek northward to deliver the ashes to the son she had with her lover but passed off as the son of her husband.

It is sweet, thought provoking and moving and manages to avoid ever slipping into stock sentimentality or cliche. One of my favourite books of 2005.
 
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