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2023 Update: The Best Twenty Books You've Read in the Past Five Years

Description: There is a list like this, but it was started over a decade ago. Here's a chance to recommend a completely different set of favoured books!

Rank Title Author Added

1

The House of the Spirits

by Isabel Allende

15,618 members

283 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ahef1963, inkylectricus
Explanations: ahef1963: Beautiful, multi-generational family story. Hard to believe that this polished piece was Allende's debut novel!

2

Gideon the Ninth

7,195 members

250 reviews

4.1

Member: Aquila

3

A Gentleman in Moscow

12,200 members

605 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: ahef1963

4

by Nicola Griffith

284 members

10 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: Aquila

5

The Golem and the Jinni

by Helene Wecker

6,284 members

387 reviews

4.1

Member: ahef1963

6

234 members

8 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Aquila

7

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

by Isabel Wilkerson

6,681 members

207 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: ahef1963

8

To Shape a Dragon's Breath

by Monique Poirier

853 members

24 reviews

4.1

Member: Aquila

9

The Absolute Book

by Elizabeth Knox

717 members

20 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Aquila

10

Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo

by Birute M. F. Galdikas

227 members

7 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: ahef1963

11

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

9,275 members

174 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963

12

by Seanan McGuire

1,939 members

79 reviews

4

Member: Aquila

13

by Albert Camus

21,168 members

281 reviews

3.9

Member: ahef1963

14

The Relentless Moon

by Mary Robinette Kowal

746 members

49 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Aquila

15

The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet)

by Stephen King

4,982 members

72 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: I had resisted reading this book as it's so long, but I savoured every moment of King's mythos.

16

A Song for a New Day

by Sarah Pinsker

512 members

22 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

17

A Memory Called Empire

by Arkady Martine

3,965 members

164 reviews

4

Member: Aquila

18

A House for Mr Biswas

by V. S. Naipaul

3,868 members

73 reviews

3.8

Member: ahef1963

19

The House in the Cerulean Sea

10,993 members

487 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: ahef1963

20

The City in the Middle of the Night

by Charlie Jane Anders

1,504 members

42 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Aquila

21

The Jane Austen Project

by Kathleen A. Flynn

553 members

51 reviews

3.9

Member: ahef1963

22

A Half-Built Garden

by Ruthanna Emrys

433 members

22 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Aquila

23

by Kate Elliott

210 members

7 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Aquila

24

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar

155 members

8 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: I was fascinated by the details of daily life in a sultan's harem.

25

3,219 members

94 reviews

4.1

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: Hands-down the best historical fiction I've ever read.

26

Unconquerable Sun

by Kate Elliott

462 members

23 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

27

7,237 members

321 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: ahef1963

28

by Whiti Hereaka

30 members

3 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: Aquila

29

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar

7,508 members

325 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

30

by Jamaica Kincaid

1,286 members

16 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ahef1963

31

A Death in the Family

3,363 members

68 reviews

3.9

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: It's been a long time since I read a book where every word had been carefully selected by the author. It was like poetry.

32

She Who Became the Sun

by Shelley Parker-Chan

3,027 members

84 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

33

by Natalie Zina Walschots

1,312 members

89 reviews

4

Member: ahef1963

34

963 members

29 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Aquila

35

Cloud Cuckoo Land

by Anthony Doerr

5,963 members

215 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: This was a magical book, like a fairy tale, only better.

36

143 members

13 reviews

4.2

Member: Aquila

37

The Girl with the Louding Voice

2,192 members

72 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963

38

Perhaps the Stars

371 members

16 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Aquila

39

The Housekeeper and the Professor

3,940 members

251 reviews

4

Member: ahef1963
Explanations: ahef1963: Love as a mathematical equation - this book makes that possible.

40

The Space Between Worlds

by Micaiah Johnson

1,920 members

81 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

About This List

Started: ahef1963
November 2023
Type: Numbered
Limit: 20 books

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