Top 3 Reads March 2008

I'm finishing up a couple of books before April gets here but they won't make the Top 3.

1. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A huge sprawling epic that covers a lot of ground, both physically and mentally. Prubaker is one of the most endearing characters of all time although he's not the main character.

2. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. The opposite of Shantaram. A sparse succinct novel done well.

3. A tie or cop-out whichever you want to call it. My not for everyone warning applies to both of these which are surreal, bizarre and out there but I really enjoyed them. Zeroville by Steve Erickson and Weight of Numbers by Simon Ings.

Now I have to whittle my best of Jan/Feb/Mar 2008 into best of the first quarter 2008 for the other thread. I usually struggle with that task.

Not in any order;
1. Bill The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison - A sci-fi spoof of Star Ship Troopers by Heinlein and The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. If you enjoyed either of those this one will have you laughing out loud.

2. "The Black Ship" By Dudley Pope - Naval history - an account of the worst and bloodiest muntiny in British Naval history. This book makes the H.M.S. Bounty look like summer camp.

3. A Prayer For A ship by Douglas Reeman - Naval fiction (WW2) - Douglas Reemans first novel, A Prayer for the Ship, is biographical in nature, and is based on his service in the Royal Navy aboard Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) during the Second World War. A very good read for any who like naval books of that era.
Douglas Reeman might be known to some readers as Alexander Kent author of The "Bilitho series" of books his entry into of the age of sail genre.

In order:

1. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson. The Malazan Book of The Fallen series just keeps getting better and better with every installment.
2. A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas. A wonderful memoir of a woman whose life was altered dramatically after her husban suffered a traumaticin injury. Sounds depressing but is actually very uplifting.
3. Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. Another great new series.

Since I undoubtedly won't finish War and Peace by month's end, I'll vote for:

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

VisibleGhost, I loved Shantaram and Roberts has already finished writing its sequel, out next year.

The month's not quite over yet, and I'll probably start and finish Tobias Wolff's Our Story Begins before April 1, but anyway, I've read plenty of awesome stuff already:

Lush Life by Richard Price - pure dynamite, impossible to put down, and my favorite novel of the year so far.

The Blue Star by Tony Earley - the richly satisfying sequel to Earley's Jim the Boy, and just a lovely book.

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham - Maugham himself is a character in this prime example of storytelling genius, his last novel and probably his greatest too.

In non-fiction, I mightily enjoyed David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America, but Larry Woiwode's new memoir A Step From Death totally blew me away and I'm not sure I've come back yet, staggering.

Leonardo's Swans was fantastic

Even though it had quite an agenda, I really enjoyed Queens of England, plus, it was a remarkably quick read, considering it includes a thumbnail of every Queen of England since 1066.

Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire. I didn't enjoy it as much as Omnivore's Dilemna, mostly because it seemed less applicable to my life, but it was still a very interesting book

If I don't count rereads, (and I never do for Best Of lists), there was only one book this month that really spoke to me. It was an unpublished manuscript I critiqued. Maybe two more will blow me out of the water over the next few days, but I really doubt it.

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric
What's for Dinner? by James Schuyler

#5 I didn't know Shantaram had a sequel. That makes me nervous, wondering if the quality will hold up. Remember The Godfather, Dune, and whatever the follow-up to Catch 22 was called? I will give it a chance when it comes out though. Crossing fingers.

My top 3 this month:

1. Pagan's Crusade/Pagan's Vows by Catherine Jinks, two books of the same series so I'm lumping them together.

2. Discoveries by F.M. McPherson (an e-book). I really enjoyed Secrets by this author and was happy to discover she did a sequel, even if it is only available online. Very good characterization.

3. Romeo and Juliet Together (and Alive) At Last by Avi. This kids book made me laugh harder than I have in recent memory and I have to say it was a favorite just because of that.

I would lump this month with January as far as my reading life goes. I had a bunch of great reads (listed in the order in which they were read):

Nonfiction:

1. Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan

2. The River of Doubt by Candice Millard

3. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Fiction:

1. The Brontes Went to Woolworth's by Rachel Ferguson

2. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

3. The Terror by Dan Simmons

. . . and the month is not even over yet!

*Touchstones seem to be flaky again today

Unless I finish an outstanding book in the few days remaining in March, then these are my top 3:

1. Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
2. Commentaries on the Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar
3. Out by Natsuo Kirino

I won't say that Dreamers of the Day is as good as The Sparrow, but it comes close and was a delightful read!

In order:

1. That Night by Alice McDermott

2. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

3. Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

I was on a bit of a Geraldine Brooks kick this month. I loved:

#1 People of the Book, and

#2 Nine Parts of Desire.

Also, read Jeff Kinney's two youth books to tie for...

#3 Diary of A Wimpy Kid and Rodrick Rules.

#13 alcottacre: The Terror and The Sparrow were both in my top five reads of 2007.

In no special order

1. Reflections in the Nile by J. Suzanne Frank
2. When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
3. The Bride by Julie Garwood

I keep trying to whittle March done to three (or even one) and can't seem to do it. Maybe my reading was too varied this month. A mystery, social history, biography, fiction, essays...maybe nothing really stands head and shoulders above the others.

But, there's hope for April...Amazon tells me I have a new Karen Joy Fowler and Joyce Carol Oates on the way...

Out of 11 books read -

John Adams by David McCullough takes the cake.
The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber gets the strawberry/rhubarb pie.

Tie for the chewy chocolate chip cookies -
The Bridesmaid by Ruth Rendell
Twilight at Mac's Place by Ross Thomas

I think Twilight at Mac's Place was one of Ross Thomas's best books, and he had quite a few good ones too.

I'll have to add one to my list (message #4):

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Agreed about Ross Thomas...he was great and I'm slowly acquiring more of his books. Too bad he's kind of slipped through the cracks.

I have to add Lush Life by Richard Price to my list (#9).

The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

The Glamour by Christopher Priest

Thursday Next in First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (it was weaker than the previous ones in the series, but it was still really fun)

March was still a disappointing month, but now that it's over I think I can come up with three. In the order I read them:

The Fake McCoy by Mindi Scott - manuscript
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, ed. by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant - short story collection
TV Classics: Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Anne Billson - media criticism

Tough one, as march was a very good reading month for me.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

okay....I'm going to cheat and add a fourth......The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk

Choosing only 3 requires some tough choices, but that's the fun of reading terrific books:

Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Lush Life by Richard Price

Clockers by Richard Price

The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black

Tough choices but I managed to narrow it down to three in no particular order:
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

My top three for March which was not a great reading month for me.

Blonde
Waiting for the barbarians
Ignorance

>28 whymaggiemay:....You are right. I will restrain myself next month!

This is easy for me this month. And, they're actually in order:

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's gut-wrenching, a little depressing, but by far one of the best written books I've read in a long time. Two questions though, 1) Why doesn't this book have Touchtones? and 2) Why isn't it on the "1001 books you must read before you die" list?

2. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A great epic of the destiny of a pair of recessive genes. It's humorous where appropriate, sometimes irreverant, and made me want to be Greek... I so want a ya-ya!

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry. I loved this book! I love how Lowry builds a world complete with it's own rules and history. I especially appreciate that it follows the natural conclusion of a growing trend that the whole world should be safe and comfortable with no stress or danger. It's perfect dystopia; utopia for some at the cost of others. But I especially love the fact it's a great book I can enjoy with my kids!

koolaid - your first two are two of my all-time favorite books.

Hi thekoolaidmom,

I love all three of your choices. Don't know why the touchstones are not working. And I agree that Kite Runner should be on list for books to read before you die.

Excluding re-reads:

1. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
2. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
t3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
t3. A Handful of Dust

Honorable Mention: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Ninety-Three, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Worst of the Month: Diary Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Great bunch, zanix.

Nothing jumped out at me as being "OMG Wow" but I enjoyed these three:

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
In Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson