My favourite book of 2012

The books I've read in 2012

'Before I Go To Sleep'  by S J Watson
'The Help'  by Kathryn Stockett
'The Uncommon Reader'  by Alan Bennett
'The Thirteenth Tale'  by Diana Setterfield
'Brave New World'  by Aldous Huxley
'The Casual Vacancy'  by J K Rowling
'To Kill A Mockingbird'  by Haper Lee
'Twilight'  by Stephanie Meyer
'New Moon'
'Eclipse'
'Breaking Dawn'
'The short second life of Bree Tanner'
'The Handmaid's Tale'  by Margaret Atwood
'Fallen'  by Lauren Kate
'Torment'
'Passion'
'Fallen in Love'
'Rapture'
'The Bookseller of Kabual'  by Asne Seierstad
'The five people you meet in Heaven'  by Mitch Albom
'One Day'  by David Nicholls
'The Hunger Games'  by Suzanne Collins
'Catching Fire'
'Mocking Jay'
'Pregnancy in not an illness...Hyperemesis Gravidarum IS'  by Laura Burton
'The Time Traveler's Wife'  Audrey Niffenegger
'World War Z'  by Max Brooks

When thinking about my favourite book of 2012, I think straight away to two books - 'Before I Go To Sleep' and 'The Thirteenth Tale'. I really really enjoyed both of these books and would highly recommend them both. But if I have to pick just one, I would say 'Before I Go To Sleep'.  This book had me hooked all the way through - I just couldn't put it down. I am really looking forward to when the movie comes out. If you haven't read this book yet, READ IT!!!

So the worse of my 2012 read, has to be 'Brave New World' and 'The Casual Vacancy'. The Casual vacancy was the book I never finished and still have no desire to!!!! Brave new world was just like pulling my teeth out. I have to say I also wouldn't recommend 'The Uncommon Reader' and 'The five people you meet in Heaven' (I know my friends who read this would recommend though!)

I have learnt over this last year that even though I have read some books which I have loved, others that have read them do not agree, and vice-versa. Books (reading) is a personal thing and many of us stay within the kind of same books which we like to read - this is something I had always done in the pass, read the same historical romantic novel. If I haven't listened to others and joined a bookclub then my range of books would have stayed the same. Thank you to all those who have suggested books to me and made me change my mind set in reading, especially my two friends Jen and Frances. Now I will try and read any books, books I never would have picked up, books like 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'The Bookseller of Kabul', 'World War Z' and more!!

Check out their blogs
Jen - http://www.jenthousandwords.com/  (Jen read 77books last year - 2012 and recommends some really good books)
Frances - http://50percentsuepageturners.blogspot.co.uk/

So do you have a favourite and worse book? What would you recommend me to read?

World War Z By Max Brooks

'World War Z' by Max Brooks

 

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.

 

I am not a huge fan of zombie books and wouldn't normaly choose a book about them but I had seen a clip of the new Brad Pitt film World War Z due out in the summer and while flicking through a file of books my dad gave me I came across this book and thought, well lets see what all the hype is about.

So I was very unsure what the book was going to be like but was really surprised. I have to say I really enjoyed it. I think its just what I needed over the Christmas period, a book that was so easy to put down after each section. The book is written in a journalistic style, with short chapters each containing a different interview from a different eyewitness. (Interviews were anywhere between a few pages to about ten). This is why it was easy to put down, each chapter was a different story and I felt I had finished one story at the end of each chapter before starting a new story. The book is arranged into sections covering the early outbreak and spread of the zombie plague, the great panic and humanity's reaction and then how the world adapted. Each interview was a story in its own right and some were more memorable than others but I never found any that I didn't enjoy reading. Each one had me gripped and wanting to know more. For a book that I never thought I would have picked up and read, I'm glad I did.

 

Would recommend - If I did stars, it would be a 4 out of 5, as there are other books I would suggested reading first.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audey Niffenegger

 

This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. In the face of this force they can neither prevent nor control, Henry and Clare's struggle to lead normal lives is both intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

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Well this was a really tough book for me to write about, as I'm still so unsure about the book on a whole myself. I found that even though I enjoyed the first quarter of the book, I then became bored and was saying to myself "Ok, I get the point", then about 3/4 through the book I found I kept turning pages, but I have absolutely no idea why!! This is only a short review for me, but I really don't know what to say, the book on a whole never kept me gripped as other books had, whether that was because the story went on to long or I never completely connected with the characters. I read the book for my bookclub (on camp) and it was received with mixed feelings there too. Some really loved the book and others like myself unsure. On finishing the book, I felt I was left feeling empty with no real conclusion in my mind to what I felt.

 

So recommend or not?? I think if your on holiday in a cottage and you find its the only book left on the bookshelf, then pick it up and give it a read - you may enjoy it a lot more than me. But I wouldn't spend the (around) £5.00 on a new copy of it.