It's the last day of Hanukkah, and the last day of our week of giveaways. WOO! Are you a little overwhelmed by the nonstop partay? I am!
The final gift I have for you is an 8GB black iPod Touch, suitable for reading many, many things, like books! Yay books!
To enter, just leave a comment and tell me the best book you read this year. Easy, huh? Just one book. Heh heh. If you're like me, this type of question makes your brain go all jittery.
No, it does not have to have been published in 2011. It could be from 1911 if you'd like, or earlier!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. In other words, I have not been paid (*snrk*) an 'insertion fee' (splutter) for this promotion. (Oh, gosh, few things make me snortlaugh like the term “insertion fee.”) Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Open to those 18 years of age and older driving tractor trailers with the windows down. International entries welcome. Word hard at what you do and be kind.
So let's build an almighty best-of list, and share the good reading we've enjoyed. Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays to everyone!
I discovered Deanna Raybourne this year, but Dark Road to Darjeeling was so moving “…That is all you have to endure. Just this minute. And it will pass.”
This is a tough one! For Fiction, I’d have to choose “A Dance With Dragons” by George R.R. Martin. I had to wait 6 years for it, and it was worth it!
Romance-wise, it’s a tie between “Silk is for Seduction” by Loretta Chase and “Something About You” by Julie James. Both wonderful stories!
My favorite read this year was the young adult book Divergent by Veronica Roth.
Naked in Death by Nora. I left the comment “who is Roarke?” to a review and now…….well, I can only say that I’m trying to pace myself.
Eileen Dreyer – Never A Gentleman
Just ONE book? But…okay, fine.
I’m going to go with book I’d read before, but only once, and I reread it because I was teaching it. I’d forgotten how darn good it was, b/c it hurt so much to read it the first time, I hadn’t read it since my all-nighter when it came out: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Skinwalker by Faith Hunter
though series I discovered by Jacqueline Carey, Ilona Andrews, Lilith Saintcrow, Richelle Mead, Rachel Caine, Jennifer Rardin and a few others I’m forgetting really held my interest this year
The Fever Series Book by Karen Marie Moning
You couldn’t read one without the others! She leaves the books needing to know what exactly what happen at the end of one book to the next book!
Pamela Clare’s BREAKING POINT – I typically do not read romantic suspense but this book blew me away.
Heaven Is For Real, by Todd and Colton Burpo. Hands down.
Jim Butcher’s Alera series OR Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice series.
But probably the best book ever, Lemony Snicket’s The End. Seriously. But not romance or even close.
After all the posts on Julie Garwood, I went on a reading binge. So I think the Bride has to be the best book I read (again) this year.
It is very silly of you to request only one book. I read / listened to 300 of them. But since this is the supposedly trashy books spot, I’ll choose my favorite historical romance of 2011: The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne.
Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Mederios
Best book I read this year was not a romance, but part of a trilogy! The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was easily my favorite book (and series) this year. There were definitely some romantic elements, but overall not a romance.
Just one book? I’m going with a series. I finally read the Kate Daniels books by Ilona Andrews. O-M-G! The next one cannot come soon enough! I had the first one and halfway through I got all the others, even the novellas, and read them all back-to-back. I just recently got the first in the Fates series and will be starting it soon-ish.
I have read SO MUCH this year thanks to my Kindle and to the library’s newish online catalog. I can’t choose just one! I’ve reread Real Men Will by Victoria Dahl and all of Julie James’s books more than any others, so 8 guess those would count as my best books read during 2011.
Happy New Year!
Best book this year? So hard to choose just one…. Maybe the first three books in Lynn Kurland’s Nine Kingdoms series. I read them on vacation and they just made me so happy for some reason. Big, satisfied sigh upon completion. Also read Karen Moning’s Fever series, which was equally satisfying in a completely different way.
Also, I have to amend my answer to the Day Six give-away. The best present by far was Magic Gifts, the free Kate Daniels novella on Ilona Andrews’ website. Woot! Gotta love it.
I loved Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison.
A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchmann. Not romance, but so good it’s gotten me to read a bunch of other history too. Highly, highly recommended for the stuffy academic in your family (if they don’t already own it).
Oh geez, how am I supposed to remember all the books I read this year? I’ll just list the one I’m currently in the middle of—In Stitches. It’s a nonfiction memoir that a now plastic surgeon wrote oh growing up/med school/etc. Very good so far.
Oh man, just one!? Okay, I can do this… Patricia McLinn’s A Stranger In The Family. Such a moving story that was the catalyst for a bunch of life changes/aha moments for me. I had never read a romance novel that made me re-evaluate my own life. o_o
For fiction, it would be The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. Solid YA romance, and I’ll be picking the series up for my niece.
For non-fiction, it would be The Sexual History of London. Fascinating stuff!
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-I found this hilarious.
Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens-Really liked this story.
I think picking a favorite book is like picking a favorite pet-impossible because they are all awesome in different ways. (Unless of course one throws up on your new rug-then all bets are off)
Oh man! That is a tough question. I’m going to say Rebel, book 3 in Zoe Archers Blades of the Rose series. I loved the entire series, this one was my fav.
Honorable mention to Natural Law, by Joey W. Hill. Published in 2004, this was my fav of her backlist that I glommed this year.
The best book I read this year… tough, tough one. :- I’ll say Force of Nature, by Suzanne Brockmann. (With Bet Me and First Lady close seconds and best author discoveries!)
I am going to give one of my fav’s from recently, because I love all the ones I have read down through the years, so its hard to pick just one. I read more PNR than anything 😀
If You Give A Girl A Viscount (Impossible Bachelors) by Kieran Kramer.
I love the Play on Cinderella but not quite…lol Some parts made me so mad I wanted to hurt someone…lmbo
Thanks for all the giveaways and I love this blog. You guys are great & I love all your reviews. Please keep up all the good work & I will keep following 😀
~Missie Jones~
missie25524 @ netzero.com
I don’t know if they were the best, but I read all the hunger games books this year and the were really fun!
Mastiff by Tamora Pierce. I love when a new Tamora Pierce book comes out; it just makes me really happy (she was my first favourite author)
I hate you forever for asking me this question.
Best book. Um. Dammit. Argh?
Okay. Inappropriate Crush, by Hanne Blank. Because it’s the one that’s best at doing what it does—I can’t decide among the mysteries or the romances or the subcategories of romance or any SFF subgenres because really, I’d be picking which *genre* I liked better first. So instead, Blank, whose book does exactly what it set out to do only more so, and no other book I read set out to do those things.
All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear
How about the best book by a new author? Right now I’m reading Firelight by Kristen Callihan and it’s all kinds of awesomesauce. It will release in Feb. and, being half-thru the book right now, I say BUY IT.
Damn you. Forget jittery, my brain went spastic. I’m flipping a coin. The coin says: The Restorer by Amanda Stevens.
Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne.
Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. It’s an old fave.
Ah! This is rough… i’ve not read as many books as I have in the past years (according to Goodreads) but I still have so many good ones. If I had to choose out of the whole “book” type it would be “The Name of the Wind”.
If we limit to Romancelandia it would be “Scandalous Desires”
Ahh, these questions make me want to pull my hair out! I’m so terrible at deciding things like this.
I think I would have to say Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. It was a re-read, and it is one of my favorite books of all time.
Before ever after, by Samantha Sotto.
Just one book?!? um… probably Susanne Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”
Me too Shannon, we can be late to the party together. The Martin series is fantastic!
I have to go with the book that came to mind first: A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness. Another dreamy vampire protagonist- I just can’t quit them!