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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

15,549 members

282 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

7,069 members

246 reviews

4.1

Member: Aquila

3

A Gentleman in Moscow

12,087 members

601 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: ahef1963

4

by Nicola Griffith

282 members

10 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: Aquila

5

The Golem and the Jinni

by Helene Wecker

6,360 members

385 reviews

4.1

Member: ahef1963

6

232 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

6,611 members

207 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: ahef1963

8

To Shape a Dragon's Breath

by Monique Poirier

836 members

24 reviews

4.2

Member: Aquila

9

The Absolute Book

by Elizabeth Knox

713 members

20 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Aquila

10

Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo

by Birute M. F. Galdikas

226 members

7 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: ahef1963

11

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

9,225 members

173 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963

12

by Seanan McGuire

1,916 members

79 reviews

4

Member: Aquila

13

by Albert Camus

21,014 members

282 reviews

3.9

Member: ahef1963

14

The Relentless Moon

by Mary Robinette Kowal

743 members

48 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Aquila

15

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

by Stephen King

4,981 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

506 members

22 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

17

A Memory Called Empire

by Arkady Martine

3,921 members

162 reviews

4

Member: Aquila

18

A House for Mr Biswas

by V. S. Naipaul

3,845 members

73 reviews

3.8

Member: ahef1963

19

The House in the Cerulean Sea

10,922 members

480 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: ahef1963

20

The City in the Middle of the Night

by Charlie Jane Anders

1,487 members

42 reviews

½ 3.6

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

429 members

22 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Aquila

23

by Kate Elliott

207 members

7 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Aquila

24

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar

154 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

3,214 members

94 reviews

4.2

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

26

Unconquerable Sun

by Kate Elliott

459 members

23 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

27

7,143 members

320 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

7,380 members

324 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

30

by Jamaica Kincaid

1,285 members

16 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ahef1963

31

A Death in the Family

3,357 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

2,986 members

84 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

33

by Natalie Zina Walschots

1,276 members

88 reviews

4

Member: ahef1963

34

950 members

29 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Aquila

35

Cloud Cuckoo Land

by Anthony Doerr

5,882 members

212 reviews

4.2

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

36

135 members

13 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Aquila

37

The Girl with the Louding Voice

2,156 members

71 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963

38

Perhaps the Stars

370 members

16 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Aquila

39

The Housekeeper and the Professor

3,904 members

248 reviews

4

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

40

The Space Between Worlds

by Micaiah Johnson

1,935 members

79 reviews

3.9

Member: Aquila

About This List

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

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