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Monday, December 22, 2014

Monday Discussion: Best Book You Read This Year-- Not Published This Year

There are 2 Monday's left in 2014 that means there are 2 more Monday Discussions.

This week is your chance to weigh in on the best books you read this year that were NOT first published in 2014 because great reads can happen with any book.

Many of the Berwyn Library folks have already weighed in  on this topic with their best picks on our staff reading blog, The Browser's Corner.  I have set those to run over the next two weeks.  Deb is up first today with her picks.

So please check the Browser's Corner for more "Best" picks from this year and year's past because if the publication date doesn't matter for why something is a great read, why should the year in which it was given that "Best" status by any given reader matter. Use our "Best of the Year" tag to pull them all up.

But I am also collecting your best reads here too.

I will go first.

I have a tie for the two best books I read this year that were NOT published in 2014, and both were read for a book club.

The first is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki [2013] which my group read and discussed in October.  You can click through to read more about this amazingly deep and thoughtful book that is still accessible and compelling.

For the same reasons, I also loved A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra which I read for an ARRT Literary Book Discussion in July.  I still have not written my review of it yet, but it will be up by the end of the year. This was as close to a perfect book as I have ever read. In fact, that is why I was having so much trouble writing the review; I am struggling to put its perfection into words.  I will have details later this week and will adjust this paragraph and link accordingly.

What about you? Please share your best read from the past year of a book with a publication date before 2014.

For past Monday Discussions, click here.

3 comments:

John BPL RA said...

I may have mentioned this already, but the best book I've read this year, by far, is The Pigman by Paul Zindel. Like most kids, I was assigned to read it in Jr. High but just skimmed through it quickly to take the test. Earlier this year I saw a delapidated old copy being sold for a quarter at the book sale and decided to re-read it with adult eyes. I'm glad I did! It has to be the most powerful work of young adult literature I've seen.

Dan said...

For me it was A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. It really spoke to me about why we did some of those crazy things in college and graduate school.

Tara BPLteen said...

I finally read The Book Thief and cried like a baby! I also really enjoyed Stardust by Neil Gaiman and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.