Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail HoneymanHistory Of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
first one reminded me of those films where they take the most interesting person and make her normal => happy. i dislike those.
history of wolves i don't remember much about, girl living in a cabin by a lake, something disappeared. i'd make a joke about a famous wolverhampton wanderers player here but i don't know any off the top of my head.
― koogs, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 16:03 (two years ago) link
Universal Harvester the only one I've read, it is most enjoyable and I will vote for it happily. Listened to an audio adaptation of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine but I didn't like it and never finished it and I'm not sure that would count as having 'read' it anyway (difference between an audio drama version and an audiobook, I guess).
― emil.y, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 17:52 (two years ago) link
Universal Harvester is probably my favourite novel of the last decade--a statement that probably makes me sound like a drooling fanboy, but I've lent it out to a couple people who know nothing about Darnielle or The Mountain Goats, and they loved it too.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 17:56 (two years ago) link
Voted for this, and agree w ledge: Universal Harvester by John Darnielle - recommended for those who like their mysteries to remain somewhat mysterious. But what he said about the Crowley also applies to UH: didn't find this as magical as his best works. Nevertheless, it has its own fascinations, the author's, transferred to me, for the duration of reading experience anyway---also, there's a lingering effect I associate more with music, very rarely---most recently in a Dec. 2020 Bandcamp post of a live Arthur Russell trio set, with his voice down among the microtones of his cello bow and effects: the sense of someone, incl. me, finding purchase (?) among the grains of a silo, slipping a litte up, little down, second to second---and this was before an actual damn silo showed up in the book. Really must re-read, but I know I enjoyed it, voted accordingly (and as w many of these year-by-year poll options, have only read the one).
― dow, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 18:30 (two years ago) link
Have only read Universal Harvester which I liked even though I felt there were elements of it that I just wasn’t grasping. Gotta say this list has more titles that I find vaguely irritating than usual.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 19:05 (two years ago) link
Universal Harvester. Didn’t read anything else on the list.
(Not as good as WIWV but casts a dark, scary mood that still sticks with me.)
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 22:07 (two years ago) link
The Idiot. Funny and warm and plotless.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 04:13 (two years ago) link
i'd make a joke about a famous wolverhampton wanderers player here but i don't know any off the top of my head.
― koogs, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 16:03 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
FPed
― Khafre's clown (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 08:22 (two years ago) link
I read Elmet and Little Fires for two separate book groups and thought they were shockingly dire, like badly written YA novels. Expressing this opinion made me realise why I can't take part in book groups.
― Piedie Gimbel, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 09:32 (two years ago) link
Any novel that has the missing chunk of a Hepworth sculpture as a central character gets my vote.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 12:45 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 6 January 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
I've only read Elinor Oliphant from this year's list, and while it was okay I can't call it a favorite.
― Jaq, Thursday, 6 January 2022 00:26 (two years ago) link
Need to read The Idiot…loved both Pachinko and The Sparsholt Affair
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:35 (two years ago) link
At the risk of being belatedly tiresome, I pounced on the first copy of Conversations with Friends because Kazuo Ishiguro praised it to the skies in the NYT Book Review. I…could not for the life of me understand the big whoop and am still sort of mad at Ishiguro about it. Like Austen praising some YA author or something.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:38 (two years ago) link
*first copy of Conversations with Friends I could find
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:39 (two years ago) link
Really enjoyed The Stone Sky, too
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:40 (two years ago) link
WHAT THE HELL, KAZUO ISHIGURO
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:41 (two years ago) link
tbh that’s been my reaction to Ishiguro about 75% of the time.
― JoeStork, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:43 (two years ago) link
But he has my eternal gratitude for The Remains of the Day
― horseshoe, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:45 (two years ago) link
I've read three and I'll be damned if I'm voting for Rooney. The Magnus Mills was one of the last books I read last year and my local pub has a vinyl night that I am desperate to attend as a result. Not his best, but full of his characteristically matter-of-fact uncanny, and a cuddly satire of stubborn music listeners.
― tangent x (tangenttangent), Thursday, 6 January 2022 11:19 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 7 January 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2018
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 7 January 2022 10:53 (two years ago) link