Best book you read all year?

[Joyce Valenza]

This may be the first summer in a long time I can read just for fun. I thought it would be cool to plan our summer reading lists here. But let's really be selective. Choose one, just one, book in each category and share it here. Feel free to attach links to reviews or include delicious covers!

Best children's
Best YA
Best graphic novel/memoir, etc.
Best adult fiction
Best adult nonfiction
Best guilty pleasure(!)

[Katie]

Just found this thread, but thought I would contribute :)

Best children's - Shug by Jenny Han
Best YA - so hard to pick! But I am going to go with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Best graphic novel/memoir, etc. - for YA: American Born Chinese, for adults: Cancer Vixen: A True Story
Best adult fiction - A Thousand Splendid Suns
Best adult nonfiction - I read knitting books :)

[Robino]

Wow -- I've read some great suggestions in these posts.
I won't say BEST, but here are a few books I've really enjoyed this summer:

Children's: Listening for Lions, by Whelan
YA: DonorBoy, by Halpin, or maybe The Dark Pond by Bruchac
Occupational hazard -- I don't think I have read any adult fiction. Yikes!
Adult Non-Fiction: Here are two that have been useful to me this summer: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, + Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere by David F. Warlick
Guilty pleasure: always Meg Cabot's books, but also Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows!

[BJ Neary]

My Best YA novel this year - oh so difficult, I love so many.... I will name 2- Sold by Patricia McCormick, novel in verse about an Indian girl sold into slavery by her father! I would recommend it to any teen, boy or girl! #2 It would have to be the sequel to Dairy Queen, The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. I just love the character D.J. Schwenk and she really grows in this 2nd novel and I loved learning more about her family and Brian Nelson let me down, oh well!

Best Adult Fiction - March by Geraldine Brooks. I just love anything she writes and Mr. March's letters to his wife and his war battles and relationships were so absorbing and powerful. A must read!

Best Guilty Pleasure- Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (I can't wait for #14!!!)

Best Adult NonFiction - Long Way Gone...Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is a compelling story of a by in the Sierra Leone Civil War who is made to fight and his way back to a safe, happy, warless world.

Best Children's - I love animal stories - Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff.

Best Graphic Novels - To date my favorites hand down - Persepolis by MarJane Satrapi and Maus by Spiegelman!

[Sandy Rowland]

Best adult fiction - Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.

Best adult nonfiction- Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison by Kathleen Cairns.

Laugh-out-loud funny adult fiction - Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum the bounty hunter.

[Sue Taylor]

Currently I am llistening to Middlesex-very intriguing. I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, which was good, but Kite Runner is still a long time favorite.

Best Childrens: No David
Best YA: Left for Dead
Graphic Novel: Beowulf
Adult-listed above
Best Guilty Pleasure: I love to skim through a Nora Roberts, or the Highlander Series, although I have not had enough time to devote to them in the last couple of years.

It's back to middle school books for me:)

[Laura DElia]

Best YA for me was Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. It was loosely based on Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me." It's a romance but not at all saccharin and the relationship between the clever main character, Keturah, and Lord Death (he actually is death) is beautifully compelling and mesmerizing. It received a National Book Honor for Young People's Literature this year and I just loved it. Plus, the cover is gorgeous.

[Heather]

Best children's/YA: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I just finished this book and really enjoyed it.
Best Adult Fiction: The Quilter's Homecoming by Jennifer Chiaverini
Best adult nonfiction: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I took this book with me to read on the plane on my holiday. I couldn't put it down!! Great story.

[holli buchter]

Best children's-Boy in the striped pajamas
Best YA-Wicked lovely
Best graphic novel/memoir, etc.-still trying to understand Manga
Best adult fiction-Snowflower and the secret fan
Best adult nonfiction-Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
Best guilty pleasure(!)-the latest Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich

[Susan McConville]

Wow - cool stuff! Right off the top of my head -

YA - The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Adult Fiction - Memory Keeper's Daugher by Kim Edward
Non-Fiction - The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Guilty Pleasure - Lean Mean 13 by Janet Evanovitch

[guybrarian]

Best children's - none
Best YA - Harry Potter 7
Best graphic novel - Beast of Chicago
Best adult fiction - Water for Elephants
Best adult nonfiction -Eagle blue : a team, a tribe, and a high school basketball season in Arctic Alaska
Best guilty pleasure(!) - ?? guess I could use more guilt! (or pleasure!) :)

[M E Shenefiel]

Just finished Water for Elephants. Fantastic, well researched story about life in the circus during the depression era. Found myself laughing out loud and crying too. I don't read too much adult fiction, but I'm glad I took the time out to read this.

[Barbara Jansen]

Best YA: The book thief by Marcus Zusak
Best adult fiction: A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini
Best memoir: Don't let's go to the dogs tonight by Alexandra Fuller
Best adult nonfiction (actually ONLY nonfiction): The audacity of hope by Barack Obama