Calendar Girls August: Best Book You’ve Read This Year

Well, today I go back to work. Summer is officially over. *cries* On the bright side, today is also my favorite day of the month, Calendar Girls! *cheers* This month we are celebrating Book Lovers Day by sharing our favorite book we’ve read so far this year.

Rather than doing what many of my fellow Calendar Girls participants do and give a list of runners up, I’m going to link to my Top 10 of the year page. I keep a running tally of my favorite books of the year, and boy has it been a good year so far! So if you’re interested, that’s there. Now, my favorite book of the year is…

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

This book made me cry ugly tears for a half hour after I’d finished reading it. It made me laugh, it made me feel all of the feels. It’s so lovely, and witty, and moving, and just amazing. This is easily going to be one of my favorite novels of all time.

The basic premise is that in some country in South America, the government hosts a renowned opera singer to celebrate the birthday of a Japanese businessman in order to butter him up to building a factory in their country. However, in an attempt to kidnap the president of the country, some rather inexperienced terrorists instead end up taking the entire group hostage. In the ensuing months the guests and hostages alike get to know each other and become increasingly human.

I had been eyeing this book forever and finally added it to my tbr after seeing it on Amazon’s Top 100 books list. When I saw it on sale at the library’s $1 section I took it as a sign. Y’all, this book won the Orange Prize AND the Faulkner Award. Now, usually award winning books aren’t my cup of tea, but this one wasn’t depressing or jaded, it was hopeful and full of love. This book is everything.

Book Lovers Day
Best Book You’ve Read This Year

Our Picks

Bel Canto – Katie (that’s me!) @ Never Not Reading
The Poet X – Adrienne @ Darque Dreamer Reads
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads
Aurora Rising – Teri Polen
The Merciful Crow – Dani @ Mousai Books
Sorcery of Thorns – Sophie @ Beware of the Reader
Skyward – Sophie @ Beware of the Reader
Salt to Sea – Sophie @ Beware of the Reader
The Wicked King – Flavia @ Flavia the Bibliophile
Sadie – Deanna @ Deanna Writes About
American Princess – Clarissa @ Clarissa Reads it All

Calendar Girls is a monthly blog event created by Melanie at MNBernard Books, and Flavia at Flavia the Bibliophile, and is now be hosted by me (!), Katie, and Adrienne at Darque Dreamer Reads. It is designed to ignite bookish discussions among readers, and was inspired by the 1961 Neil Sedaka song, Calendar Girl.

Just like the song, each month has a different theme. Each blogger picks their favorite book from the theme, and on the first Monday of the month reveals their pick in a Calendar Girls post. Make sure to post back to the hostess’s post, and I will make a master list for the month. The master lists allow everyone to see the other Calendar Girls’ picks and to pop on over to their blogs. Thus, we all get to chat about books and even make some new friends!