2017 - Your Best Five Reads of Q2 (April - June)

Another quarter gone, and half the year is over already!

What were your 5 favorite books, fiction or non-fiction, you read in the last 3 months? Please share with any comments you care to add!

My five favorite books, in the order I read them, are:

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
New Boy (Hogarth Shakespeare) by Tracy Chevalier
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
One Good Dog by Susan Wilson
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

(Looking back to last year's thread from this quarter I see that Jim53 chose All the Light We Cannot See as a favorite, and TooBusyReading enjoyed it as well. Thanks for spurring me on, even though it took a year!)

In the order in which I read them:

The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

Honorable mentions:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L. A. by Eve Babitz
Fathers by Sam Miller

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg
Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flim Flam by Pope Brock
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
Seinfeldia by Keishin Armstrong
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

Jane Steele--how can you not love Jane Eyre as a serial killer?
Tears We Cannot Stop--moving sermon on what it means to be black and white in America
War for the Oaks--an older fantasy that I had missed but enjoyed a lot
Like One of the Family--domestic worker tells it like she sees it
Just One Damned Thing after Another--more time-travelling historians

Five books I loved in Q2

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels - a Greek geologist rescues a young Polish boy during WW2 - wonderful characters and poignant tale during and after the war
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink - also set during and after WW2, a young man tries to reconcile his youthful love affair with a woman later accused of war crimes - surprisingly poignant and philosophical
Her Privates We by Frederic Manning - an account of some months spent on the Western Front during WW1, loosely based on the author's own experience - insightful on many levels, not least the daily life of the 'Tommy'
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis - satire of English red-brick university campus life in the 50s - still hilarious, in a very non-pc way
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov - a novel disguised as an academic review of a recently deceased poet's opus 'Pale Fire', its unreliable reviewer/narrator puts down layers of clues as to his own identity and motivations. I read several academic reviews of this book as I was so determined to get to the nub of it (this was the best https://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/boydpf1.htm ). I'm in awe of its cleverness and so far it's the best book I've read this year.

Only one title worthy of mention when talking about bests. That and I haven't been reading lately. Just buying books.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

From my review:

Elegant, serene, and spare novel about how kindness and accommodation make a family out of three lonely people in modern Japan.

>7 Limelite: I loved The Housekeeper and the Professor, which is one of those quiet little gems that we remember for years.

My best this quarter were either middle grade/teen or non-fiction books

The War That Saved My Life
Counting By 7s
Franklin & Winston
Rescue at Los Banos, the Most Daring Prison Camp Rescue of World War II

I also re-read the Millennium series and especially loved The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest

>8 whymaggiemay:
Speaking of small gems. . .I seek them out! And I've discovered some real treasures. Here are 10 more of my favorites. Perhaps you've read them, too?

The Samurai's Garden
Silk
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
The Blind Contessa's New Machine
Death in Venice
Housekeeping
Einstein's Dreams
On Chesil Beach
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Mr. Pip

>9 Limelite: I can ditto 5 of your 10. The others are either on my radar or soon to be.

Me Talk Pretty One Day was my first encounter with David Sedaris, and it was wonderful. I haven't laughed that much at a book in many, many years.

The Thirst is Jo Nesbo's latest Harry Hole novel, and shows Nesbo at his absolute best.

Elizabeth is Missing was so beautiful and so intricately detailed.

However, none of these books can touch Suite Francaise, which I read in March, and which is still number one for the year.

>11 ahef1963: I haven't read Me Talk Pretty One Day yet, but every David Sedaris book I have read has made me laugh!

>12 PaperbackPirate: I loved Me Talk Pretty One Day. There is a scene in one chapter where he is describing his attempt to create great art while stoned on crystal meth that is the funniest scene I think I've ever read. I look forward to reading more of his books.

>13 ahef1963: His new book Theft by Finding just came out. It is volume one of his diaries, which he has kept for decades. I was lucky enough to catch him on his book tour last month and he invited me to sit on the chair they set up for him behind a desk, so I was literally a few feet away from him as he stood at the podium reading to a roomful of fans in the bookstore!

Of the many books I've read in the last few months only A Gentleman in Moscow stands out. For some reason it reminded me of 84, Charing Cross Road in the way it crosses over decades introducing us to characters we love to meet again and again. Not a great written review, but I loved both books.

Best books from last quarter:

Connectography (Mapping The Future of Global Civilization)
by Parag Khanna

Dark Money (The HIDDEN HISTORY of the BILLIONAIRES BEHIND the RISE of the RADICAL RIGHT)
by Jane Mayer

The Divided Dominion (Social Conflict and Indian Hatred in Early Virginia)
by Ethan A. Schmidt

The Undoing Project (A Friendship That Changed Our Minds)
by Michael Lewis

White Trash (The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America)
by Nancy Isenberg