Best Reads 2nd Quarter 2011

I love lists. So here are my 4.5 and 5 star reads for this quarter. Please share yours

Nonfiction
The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by S. Bear Bergman
The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown
Radioactive by Lauren Redniss
Just Kids by Patti Smith

Fiction
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson
Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Gah! Second quarter is over already?! I've put the thread on the wiki, will be back later to add my faves.

Great idea, Nancy. Thanks for setting up the thread. Mine are all fiction.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
Away by Amy Bloom

I loved The Secret Scripture when I read it.

My Favorites are :

Fiction:
The Bird Sisters by, Rebecca Rasmussen
Changeless & Blameless by, Gail Carriger
Trespasser by, Paul Doiron
The True Meaning of Smekday by, Adam Rex

Non-Fiction
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by, Rebecca Skloot
The King’s Speech by, Mark Logue
Life by, Keith Richards

2nd Quarter Favorites (thanks to Nancy for setting this up)

Fiction:
Lester Higata's 20th Century by Barbara Hamby
22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
Hull Creek by Jim Nichols

Non-Fiction:
Townie by Andre Dubus III
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Social Animal by David Brooks

My Faves:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Jerusalem 1913 by Amy Dockser Marcus
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuckman
Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

Also rans:

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
Naming Infinity by Loren Graham
61 Hours by Lee Child
The Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn

I had a slump in the middle of the quarter, but read some excellent books both at the beginning and the end (and if I finish the two books I'm reading now before the end of the month I'll have to add them too).

Fiction
Soul and Other Stories and The Foundation Pit, both by Andrey Platonov -- stunning and creative looks at the insanity of Soviet Russia and the struggles of the people living in it.

The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago -- a wonderful story-teller, am amazing writer, great characters, and fascinating ideas. I read this for the Author Theme Reads group and it will not be my last Saramago.

The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer -- a dark satire told by a wickedly perceptive narrator; Mortimer has a great ear for dialogue.

Favourite Sherlock Holmes Stories: Selected by the Author by Arthur Conan Doyle -- as good as I remembered from my childhood.

A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o -- another winner from Ngugi, an exploration of the choices people make in times of conflict and, above all, of all forms of betrayal.

Once upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell -- a deeply unsettling, thrilling, poetic, and inspiring novel about a confident and mostly fearless teenager struggling to survive and discover her own identity after a series of horrific events. Campbell gets better and better.

Nonfiction

Gulag by Anne Applebaum - - an eye-opening, thought-provoking, comprehensive, nuanced, and readable book that combines impressive scholarship, newly released Soviet archives, and quotes from Gulag prisoners.

Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole -- an always fascinating look into the medieval documents saved in the attic of a Cairo synagogue: the scholars who found and interpreted them and the people and poetry that spring to life from their pages.

My 2nd quarter favorites, listed in the order in which I read them:

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne: A comprehensive and compelling classic study of the Algerian War for Independence from France. It was originally published in 1977, but it is currently available from NYRB Classics. (4-1/2 stars)

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna: My favorite novel of the year so far, winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, shortlisted for this year's Orange Prize, and a favorite book of the Orange January/July group, it is set in post-civil war Sierra Leone, and involves several intertwining love stories in the backdrop of Sierra Leone from Independence through the present. (5 stars)

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck: A short but powerful novel about several families who live in a house in a Brandenburg forest over several decades, and the tragedies that befall them. (4-1/2 stars)

The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan: An excellent historical analysis of the simultaneous formation of the states of India and Pakistan from British India in 1948, essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the Great Partition and how it affects the current relationship between these two uneasy neighbors. (4-1/2 stars)

The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son by Ian Brown: Brown, a journalist for the Globe & Mail in Toronto, writes poignantly about his young son, who is severely disabled with a rare genetic disorder, and provides insight on the challenges that face parents and families who have similarly affected children. (4 stars)

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson: A hauntingly beautiful novella set in an isolated Scandinavian town about the uneasy relationship between an emotionally distant young woman and a wealthy older woman. (4-1/2 stars)

Open City by Teju Cole: A novel of thoughts and ideas centered about a young psychiatry resident of mixed Nigerian and European descent in post-9/11 NYC, who explores his city and Brussels in a search for understanding and self exploration. (4 stars)

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz: A superb memoir by the famed Israeli author, which tells of his childhood and the lives of his parents, including the tragic story of his mother, along with his maternal and paternal family histories over a century, and a personal account of his experiences that followed the creation of the state of Israel. (4-1/2 stars, at least)

I'm moving Forna's book up on my TBR.

Here are my top reads of the second quarter:

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

I wonder what the next three months will bring?

my 2nd Q list in the order i read them

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld 4.5 stars

Breathers: a Zombie's Lament by S. G. Browne 4 stars

Emma, Volume 6 by Kaoru Mori 5 stars

Emma, Volume 7 by Kaoru Mori 5 stars

Emma, Volume 8 by Kaoru Mori 4.5 stars

Emma, Volume 9 by Kaoru Mori 4.5 stars

Emma, Volume 10 by Kaoru Mori 5 stars

The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone 4 stars

Echoes of Honor by David Weber 4 stars

Spaceman: Unarmed and Ready to Launch Edited by Jillian Ogle 4 stars

I didn't rate any of my2nd quarter non-fiction reads above 4 stars, but I didn't rate any of them below 5 stars, either. I don't read nearly as much fiction as I do non-fiction, but I guess I pick my non-fiction reads more carefully.

Here's my all-fiction top reads list for the 2nd quarter:

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
The Wooden Overcoat by Pamela Jean Branch
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Here are mine:

Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry - graphic novel
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Children of Chance by Elizabeth Pewsey
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - nonfiction
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Small Island by Andrea Levy

Thanks for starting the thread, Nancy!

This was a weird quarter for me. I read a lot of 4-star books, but only one that I rated higher, and more than a third of my reading consisted of Tamora Pierce. So, here's my attempt at a list:

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets, plus The Will of the Empress
A Race Like No Other

I know more of you read good books from April to June. Let's have 'em!

These were my 4 star books for the second quarter were:

The Last Song
Amelia's War
The Treacherous Teddy
Buffalo West Wing

Of the 31 books I read in the quarter, I only had 2 that weren't any good. I was terribly pleased.

Did you say good books, Nancy? Yeah, I read a few:

Nonfiction: (in the order I read them)
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure
How to Read Novels Like A Professor
I Shall Not Hate
Confederates in the Attic - my favorite!
Waiting For Snow in Havana

Fiction:
Any Human Heart
The Killer Angels
The Tiger's Wife
Anatomy Of A Murder - sentimental favorite!
Brooklyn

Ever since I have begun my new job, my reading time has been cut down drastically. I have not read that many books during the last quarter. This is my top 5 reads for the last quarter,

1. Very Good, Jeeves. P.G. Wodehouse.

2. Detective Stories. Philip Pullman (comp.).

3. The Ninth Life of Louis Drax. Liz Jensen.

4. The Crooked Hinge. John Dickson Carr.

5. Mrs. Miniver. Jan Struther.

Late as usual, King Friday. ~ Sesame Street

My list of the best books (all fiction) of the second quarter:

1. The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
3. Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
4. The Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life With Crows by Preston and Child
5. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
and
the top number one favorite of the quarter and perhaps of the entire year (though I'm not done yet), a 5+:
The Help by Katherine Stockett

>20 Storeetllr: Well, good thing you posted 'cause I starred this thread ages ago and forgot to put up my own favorite reads.

Here they are:

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
The Rest is Noise by Alan Ross
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

All these were first-time reads that I gave 4.5 stars.

My 2nd quarter favorites this year were:

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton,
Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah,
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz,
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah,
Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum &
Roman Fever & Other Stories by Edith Wharton.

Is there a thread for the third quarter?

http://www.librarything.com/topic/124664

I couldn't find this thread at the time to make the topics match. :)