What are you best ROOTS for 2013?

I loved Passing by Nella Larsen, The Conspiracy by John Hersey, and Nausea and Jean-Paul Sartre. All of my other ROOTS have been passable to excellent, which shows how ridiculous it is for me to avoid books I own. It seems I know what I like when I buy books, but not so much when I read them online. I just have to get past that barrier of picking up a book that doesn't interest me anymore.

So what has everyone else enjoyed?

My favourite ROOTS this year have been Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman, and Starter for Ten, by David Nicholls.

So hard to choose as I've had so many outstanding ROOTS so far. If I had to pick I suppose it would be either Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride or The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen but either of those only by a hair! Others, for other reasons were just as good!

Small Island by Andrea Levy and Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin were my two favorite.

If I had Neverwhere as a ROOT, it would be my favourite! Such a great book.

Off the top of my head, I think The Children's Book and the books I've read by Anita Brookner. The Brookners were such a treat -- and to think they had been sitting on my shelf ignored all this time.

Now that I think about it, it was a bad idea to have this thread here. I don't own any of those books...

My best ROOT reads of 2013 so far are:

1. Bella Poldark by Winston Graham
2. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
3. Midnight by Rutherford Montgomery

Quite a mishmash of genres...

Lots of great reading - and like Anoplophora stated in the first post, I just don't understand why I didn't read these books before. I believed they were great when I bought them!

Best ROOTS so far:
Øen (The Island) by Maria Giacobbe
Stalin's Cows by Sofi Oksanen

I'm going to have to replace The Conspiracy with The Golden Days, The Golden Days was just that good.

Part of the fun of this group is looking at all the threads. I think the difference between what people read really comes out. I know a lot more about books than your average person, but I really have no name recognition of all of mysteries, romance, historical fiction, or anything else outside of my few chosen genres. So I can go through a thread and not recognize a single book or author.

Since this is the end of the year, does anyone have any more to add?

Seabiscuit: An American Legend should be added, excellent book!

I will have a look at my reading list when I get home. I'm at work now!

My best ROOTS for 2013:

Cold Granite - Stuart MacBride
The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
The Poet - Michael Connelly
The Keeper of Lost Causes - Jussi Adler-Olsen
Fugitive Prince - Janny Wurts

My favorite ROOTs of the year were:

Anna Gavalda, Hunting and Gathering, a charming French love story with depth.
Anthony Berkeley, The Poisoned Chocolates Case, an extremely clever mystery that also examines the philosophical underpinnings of detective fiction.
Sarah Addison Allen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, another lovely and magical book by SAA.
Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest, an inventive alternate history in which Shakespeare's plays are factual, and characters speak in iambic pentameter.
Kate Ross, Whom the Gods Love, a mystery set in Regency England.

I have read several really good books in 2013.

one book got 5 stars:
Kamer by Emma Donoghue

one got 4,74 stars:
De witte veer by John Boyne

9 books got 4,5 stars.
1. Een keukenmeidenroman by Kathryn Stockett
2. Het laatste rijk by Brandon Sanderson
3. De opkomst van Nyphron by Michael J. Sullivan
4. Kind van sneeuw by Eowyn Ivey
5. Donker hart by Gillian Flynn
6. Het ongeluk by Linwood Barclay
7. De kunst van het rijden in de regen by Garth Stein
8. Citadel by Kate Mosse
9. De tijger in de put by Philip Pullmann

The one I enjoyed most was Shy Leopardess. I thought I could read and then discard the series, but it is definitely a keeper.

My best ROOTS of the year (unless I add any more in the next couple of weeks) are:

Fiction:
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
The October Country by Ray Bradbury
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Non-fiction:
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work) in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

That's based on the ratings I gave them; all of those books scored at least 4 and a half stars. Looking over that list, I'd say it was a pretty good ROOT year!

My top ROOTs were at the very beginning of the year, believe it or not. I gave them all ★★★★★!!!

When Christ and His Saints Slept: A Novel
Bring on the Blessings
There Is a Season

My favorite ROOTs this year:

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

My top ones for this year are:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon

My favorites were:

If on a winters night a traveller by Italo Calvino
Open by Andre Agassi
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi