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…

Review: Bel Canto

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Genre: Fiction
Maturity Level: 4
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

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In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. Alas, in the opening sequence, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Among the hostages are Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Swiss Red Cross negotiator Joachim Messner comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands. Days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months. Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give.

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I don’t know how to adequately express how much I loved this book or why. It was so beautiful, and I connected with it so deeply.