I’m always looking for book recommendations. What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year, and why did you choose to read that particular book?
I often buy books by favorite authors or continuations in a series, but I’m always looking to discover something new. I read book reviews, seek out recommendations from family and friends (particularly those whose reading tastes are similar to my own), and often times just pick up something new off the bookshelf at a library or bookstore — perhaps drawn in by nothing more than an interesting-looking cover and an enticing blurb on the back of the book. Sometimes I choose things from my Amazon recommendations list, and of course, I’m always reading new books that are sent to me for review.
How did you stumble upon some of your favorite books?
Damian Daily 
second read on this one, i think i’ve mentioned before: ‘look me in the eye: my life with asperger’s syndrome’ great memoir by john elder robison, brother of augusten burroughs, ‘running with scissors’ author. it’s quick, great storytelling, and he designed the origianl KISS effects.
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oops, didn’t answer your end question: this book literally showed up at my house. a friend of my mother-in-law’s husband is a retired psychologist. someone gave him the book, which he never got around to reading, so she dropped the book off here when she heard my son has asperger’s. i thought, okay, i’ll give it a go, and was enthralled.
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Hmmm. Depends on the genre, I guess. The best mystery: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey. It was a review book, and it’s set in Ghana. Beautifully written, very atmospheric.
Best novel? Toughie. I’ll go with Sam Savage’s ‘The Cry of the Sloth,’ about a lonely man who keeps himself going deluding himself that he’s a major journal editor. He’s divorced, misses his wife, and gets increasingly eccentric as the book progresses. He loses things one by one, ’til eventually he… Nope, you have to read it!
LG
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Of the ones I wasn’t re-reading, Toby Frost’s ‘Space Captain Smith’ takes some beating, mostly because it makes glorious fun of just about every great sci-fi book or film ever at some point. I stumbled on it in the library, though I may have been influenced by my friend James, who interviewed Toby a while back after the release of the sequel, ‘God Emperor of Didcot’.
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Those all sound like great recommendations. Thanks!
Cathy, you’re the second person to recommend “Look Me in the Eye” to me. I’ll have to check it out.
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Loved “The Help”, my favorite read this summer. Also, currently reading “Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress-Tales of Growing up Groovy and Clueless” for my bookclub and it’s very funny.
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One was an Early Reviewer for LibraryThing and the other was sent to me for review.
Saints in Limbo by River Jordan and A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents are the first two that come to mind. I still have the ARCs if you want me to pass them along to you.
I was expecting Saints in Limbo to be very literary but it has some magical elements that took me by surprise. A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents has humor and reads like smart chick lit. It does a great job of handling flashbacks.
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