Now, This Is The Book Of The Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Before I explain, darlings, let us review my picks.

                        1. Lovers At The Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, by Francine Prose
                         2. All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
                         3. We Are Not Ourselves, by Matthew Thomas
                         4. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
                         5. Remember Me Like This, by Bret Anthony Johnston

                        It was SO close, dolls, between the first two books.  But what put Prose's book over Doerr's was that the choppy style, extremely short chapters of his book, took me about a third of the way before I was hooked with the story. But once I was, not only could I not stop reading, I did not want it to end.  I remember, when I did, I was sitting in front of the 42nd Street branch of The New York Public Library, anxiously awaiting a dental appointment.  I finished the book, and tears poured down my face.  The whole thing was gorgeous.  Like a movie MGM or 20th Century-Fox would have made during the Forties!!!!!!!!

                        Miss Prose earned the Number One spot for her luxurious, languishing prose style, which I cannot help having a preference for, but what that style did was to evoke a world so keenly the reader could feel himself inside the club, down to the smells, and right up to staging those pastiche revue numbers, which could be clearly seen in the mind's eye.  This, the Holocaust, and an examination of the evolution of evil.  It was just too good to ignore,darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        My, this was a dark year.  "We Are Not Ourselves" is emotionally wrenching, and I cannot stress this enough--if you find yourself currently in a similarly related situation, do NOT read it!!!!!!!!!!
"Lila" completes the trilogy that began with "Gilead"--still my favorite of the three--but Marilynne brings it all to a marvelous conclusion, as only a skilled literary artist can.  Like "We Are Not Ourselves," "Remember Me Like This" is a first novel, and dark, as a family comes to terms with how they, and the child they thought they lost have changed over the course of several years?  Can they last?  Read the book, sweeties!!!!!!!!!!

                        Considering how poor The Times list was, I am amazed they had the wisdom to pick Doerr's book.  But I stand by choices, and if you are on here, you had better, too!  I am telling you, girls!!!!!!!!!!!

                          "Redeployment," indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!