Half the year is over and I still haven’t read anything that I’ll think of as “the best book I read this year”. Help me with an amazing TBR for the second half please:
The closest so far has been Trust by Hernan Diaz. It was 5 stars but just shy of the big “wow” of something like Piranesi by Susana Clark (my best book of 2022) or When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (my best of 2023).
I’m not restricted to recent books. For example, my other top winner of 2023 was Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, which is from the 1980s. I also enjoyed A Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope which is something like 1890s! (In fact, I’m quite behind on everything ever written so all suggestions welcome).
I thought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman would be wow — found it very good, but not book-hangover-inducing. His Ocean at the End of the Lane was excellent though (also a 2023 read, which was a goldmine year for me apparently).
I did really like 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker — very funny.
I keep starting Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco and forgetting about it and then Libby automatically returns it. Should I dedicate myself to this properly? Everyone tells me it has potential.
by ushmie
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I don’t really know the vibe of most of the books you mentioned, but I always recommend Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. The most beautifully written book that kicked the absolute shit out of me.
Infinite Jest also destroyed me but I don’t go around recommending that one. Unless…
My WOW this year was Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson.
Two best I’ve read so far this year are In Memoriam by Alice Winn and The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese