Top 3 Reads of January 2008

Since no one else has stated this thread I thought I would so we could see "the best of January" from everyone. My picks:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Half of a Yellow Sun
Three Cups of Tea

My top 3 of January are
Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

For me:

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I'm not over the moon about any of these, but they are the best I read in January:

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrevzani
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan

#2 Never Let Me Go is high on my list of most disappointing books.

An Ordinary Man – Paul Rusesabagina
Looking for Alaska – John Green
Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast – Bill Richardson

SqueakyChu -

I thought An Ordinary Man is a very powerful and important book. I met Paul Rusesabagina. What a humble and wonderful man.

Mine are:
1. In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
2. A Wolf at the Table - Augusten Burroughs
3. Old School - Tobias Wolff

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini loved it - one of the best books I've ever read.
The Virgin's Lover so so, not bad
Charming the Highlander, I unexpectedly really enjoyed it!

If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn
Schrödinger's Ball by Adam Felber
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

Here are my top choices:

1) The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
2) On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
3) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

fyrefly, say more about the Quinn book please! I have it on my shelf. His Ishmael and My Ishmael are two of my alltime favorites.

>10 teelgee: teelgee - I think Story of B is my favorite, but to each their own. :)

If They Give You Lined Paper... is set up as a dialogue between Quinn and a reader, trying to explore the question of how Quinn does what he does, and what it really means to think about things in a new way.

My full review of it is here, but in general, I think you should bump it up your reading list - it's an extremely fast read, so even if you don't really care for it you haven't spent much time. I mostly used it as a "test" to see if my mind was as changed as I thought it was.

Only two books I'd recommend this month:

Storm Front by Jim Butcher
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Shortride, looks like it was a "stormy" month!

Same here, Shortride ~ January wasn't the best reading month I've ever had, and out of 6 read I can recommend only two, and neither was a 10 (but both were close to it):

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Rome on Five Denarii a Day by Philip Matyszak

I only have two to recommend as well (but I only read 4 and the other 2 weren't bad):

The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block (4.5/5)
Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper (4/5)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was amazing; by Michael Chabon

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett was just as "bel" the second time around

Reluctant Genius by Charlotte Gray

Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede

The Ruins of Gorlan
The Burning Bridge
The Icebound Land

All by John Flanagan. It was a really good month for children's/YA lit.

LynnB, even years after reading it, I must agree that Michael Chabon's novel remains a completely wonderful thing.

I only read 8 books in Jan., but I especially enjoyed Robert Morgan's Boone: A Biography, and loved Jim Shepard's spectacular short stories in Like You'd Understand, Anyway, but far-and-away the best book of the month was Zachary Lazar's Sway, a mesmerizing paean to sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll that immediately became my first 'Favorite Book' of the new year.

(I also had 2 hard-core guilty pleasures last month: Bill Bryan's zinger of a novel Keep It Real, and Kenneth Anger's celebrity death-porn masterpiece Hollywood Babylon.

Jonathan Harr - A civil action A big book but interesting on every page.

Leaving Brooklyn Lynn Sharon Schwartz An older book found on the library's discard cart, but well worth reading & wonder how I missed it the first time around.

Leave me alone, I'm Reading Maureen Corrigan
The title alone makes it my kind of book

Reading wise, I've had a great 2008 so far! The books I've read this year have all been 4 stars or more. My top 3 are:
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
Thirteen Reasons Why (young adult novel) and
The Gum Thief by one of my favorites, Douglas Coupland.

Renegade's Magic - Robin Hobb
The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Wow, three red touchstones, they must not like me today. I also really liked A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick.

Started a new series in January and have loved it so far.

The Guardian
The Negotiator
both by Dee Henderson

Also enjoyed Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

My top 3 in January were:
Cry, the Beloved Country
Astrid and Veronika
The Secret River

Close runner-up was March.

I had a busier January than usual, so unfortunately read many less books than I would have liked. My top three were
- People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
- The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom
- The Great Awakening by Thomas S. Kidd

Not a stunning way to start the year, but here's my best for January:

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Eavesdropping by Stephen Kuusisto
A Year in Van Nuys by Sandra Tsing Loh

I've read some great books in January.

Atonement by Ian McEwan just before I saw the movie
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini which I loved even more than The Kite Runner
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande which is very well written nonfiction.

Beauty and the Spy by Julie Anne Long
Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn
Sula by Toni Morrison

Top three standouts for me in Jan.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer.

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell.

253 by Geoff Ryman
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Disappointment of the month was: Baudolino by Umberto Eco

I have had such a wonderful reading month that cutting my list for January down to just three seems a shame. After going through what could be about my top ten for the year just in January, here are my top 3:

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
3. Saturday by Ian McEwan (Touchstone for this book does not appear to be working)

Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill
(Yes, just the one, sadly.)

My three were:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman, an audiobook read by the author, which hubby and I listened to together on our long journeying at the start of the month and both really enjoyed.
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, which I think I've probably done enough raving about already....
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, upon which I fall firmly into the "it was fantastic" camp.

I'd go with

The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block
and
Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz

I don't think any of the other books I read in January are on track to make my top five for the quarter (unless I have a really disappointing couple of months!).

#28 suzanney - I remember really liking Jenna Starborn when I read it, too. :-) Oh and #33, LizT, I don't think one can ever do enough raving about Fictions, I agree it's absolutely great.

I guess my top three for January are:
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie (although I got hung up about three-quarters of the way through, it was worth it to push through, and it's still one of the best books I read last month)
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

Hmmm. Gonna go with

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
third is harder to select but I think it is
Never Enough by Joe McGinniss

My top three:

1) The year of magical thinking
2) The pursuit of happyness
3) Middlesex

Only one book worth mentioning:

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

Out of 5 books for January -
Duma Key by Stephen King (five stars)
and a three-way tie with four stars each -
New England White by Stephen J. Carter
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
and
Briarpatch by Ross Thomas

Of three books and most of a fourth,

Persuasion, by Jane Austen, and
Queen Isabella, by Alison Weir, are more or less tied for top honors.
Good Wives, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich comes in reasonably close.

Let's see:

Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga. A young woman's coming-of-age story set in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).
Tropical Fish Tales from Entebbe, Doreen Baingana. Related stories which focus on one of each of three sisters, set in relatively contemporary Ghana.
The House on Fortune Street, Margot Livesey. 4 narratives which are ultimately about two long-time friends (although it says this on the book blurb, one is not sure at first..). Beautifully done characters, thoughtful story.

Avaland -

I just opened a box from my Harper rep not five seconds ago. She sent me the Margot Livsey with at "This is Great!" note on top. We are supposed to get a foot of snow tonight, so I am thinking I will be home tomorrow reading...

My top read for January was Cuentos Completos 1 by Julio Cortazar, the first of a three volume set of his short stories.
Right behind that would be Kafka on the Shore, then House of Leaves.

alphaorder, I thought the book was great, although I think the book blurb needs tweaking. It indicates that the book is about two friends, Dara and Abigail, which is it ultimately, but the first two narratives are 1. Sean (Abigail's boyfriend) and 2. Cameron (Dara's father) and one does get caught up in those character's lives also. One is halfway through the book before Dara becomes the focus (3rd narrative), then Abigail (4th). It works in the end but a bit confusing at the beginning.

Avaland -

Thanks the heads up. I am sure it will help.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseni Five stars, out of this world good.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher - 4 stars: new and different

As Nature Made Him 3 1/2 stars: I rated the book lower than others I read this month because I thought it was not well-written, but the subject matter is hard core and will stay with me.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Tales of a Drama Queen by Lee Nichols

Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Non - fiction: Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer

The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Then we Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

So far I have one for the best of 2008
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan...will discuss it next week in a book group. Should be lively.

Benighted by Kit Whitfield
Have a Nice Doomsday by Nicholas Guyatt
Boot Camp by Todd Strasser

Out Stealing Horses by Per Patterson was really really good.

others:
2. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
3. The Subtle Knife or The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman - take your pick, they go together.

#51: Is that that Frank Lloyd Wright? Is that a novel based on fact? about a mistress of his?

#52 I read Loving Frank. It was OK. Yes, it's based on fact; Wright and Mamah Cheney were both married to others when they eloped. I did like that the book also details her own work as a feminist instead of just focusing on the affair.

#55 thanks for replying. An "OK" is luke-warm review may not rush out to get it just now have way too many to get to for now, will definatly put it on my short list for future reading. Thanks

Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley
Mrs. Daffodil by Gladys Taber
Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham

My top three were:

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

A slow month of quality books for me. The only one that has stayed with me is Animal, vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

I wasn't really overwhelmed by any of the books I read in January. If I had to pick three, they would all be romances:

Total Control by Pamlea Britton
Seven Year Seduction by Heidi Betts
Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day

However, I've read one book in February that I really liked that I'm sure will be a favorite!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum
Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian
Angel by Colleen McCullough a hard to find novel that came to me..
quirky .. about a number of people living in a particular house, surrounded by brothals...and a perfect Sunday read!

that link is wrong for Angel.. I do not see it on the list....

http://www.librarything.com/work/1119288/book/26231560

I have to echo others above in recommending The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. I just loved that one.

The other two I most enjoyed in January were
Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchet and
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perotta (although I found the ending of that one a little unsatisfying.)

Lindsayg, Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher was one of my favorite books from last year, but I had no quarrel with the ending at all, thought it fit perfectly.

I only read four...unfortunately.

Top 3...

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk
Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

And because I was quite torn with which ones to add I'll also say that Interview with the vampire by Anne Rice was great.

#1.The Lost Fleet, Dauntless
#2. The Lost Fleet, Fearless
#3. The lost Fleet, Courageous
by Jack Campbell
#4. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
l

Best of January '08

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
2. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
3. A tough decision... I'll go with Being There by Jerzy Kosinski

Only 2 made the list:
1. Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

What do you think of Shattered Dreams? I couldn't put it down, not only that but neither could my husband and he's not much of a reader. I happen to be LDS but haven't known much at all about the sect that broke off from us and became polygamists. For me, this book was endlessly fascinating and heart-rending.

islandgal, are you addressing your message to anyone in particular? (always a good idea to identify the person by "name" or by message number, some of us deal with so many messages we lose track of ourselves!)

#68 Rarcar1 I just picked up Mary from the library on (I think) your recommendation. :) I read the first few paragraphs and am already hooked! Thanks!

I'm glad to hear you read Leaving Brooklyn. I met Lynn Sharon Schwartz at a retreat center this past summer - she was teaching writing classes. I've had her books on my wishlist ever since. She's a fascinating person and an amazing writing teacher, although I admit I haven't read her books yet.

Just starting on La Magdalena by William Valtos

I read his Authenticator and loved it...

I just finished an advance copy of Dorothy on the Rocks by Barbara Suter
and although I expected to not like it, it was surprisingly good, considering.
I doubt I will read it again though....

#68 and #71...Mary is GREAT and so is the author Janis Cooke Newman...such a lovely person.