What is the best book you read this year? (optional: why?)

1. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

2.Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall by Andrew Ross Sorkin

I've read a lot of books this year (47 so far[1]) and they cover a wide range of genres, topics, etc. So it's hard to say that one is "the best" overall, so I'll break it into some categories:

1. Most interesting, overall: Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

2. Best in Hard Sci-fi: Foundation's Edge by Asimov

3. Best in Business: Customer-Centric Selling by Michael T. Bosworth, John R. Holland, Frank Visgatis

4. Best in Technology: An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems by Michael J. Wooldridge

5. Best in Mythology: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

6. Best in "Deserves a mention regardless of category": On Writing by Stephen King

7. Best in Mathematics: A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley

8. Best in Biography: The Man Who Tamed Lightning by Floyd Miller (biography of Charles Proteus Steinmetz)

[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/14999185