1SassyLassy
Ten days left in the year. Some of us have lots more reading time left in the year, others next to none.
Whichever applies to you, take some time to tell others what the reading highlights of this last quarter were for you. There may even have been lowlights which you could mention too.
Whichever applies to you, take some time to tell others what the reading highlights of this last quarter were for you. There may even have been lowlights which you could mention too.
2labfs39
Quarter four had a lot of solid reads for me. These stand out:
The Blue Sky and The Gray Earth by Galsang Tschinag, fantastic autobiographical fiction by a Tuvan Mongolian nomad.
(Whoops, didn't mean to hit "save")
Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy by Ben Macintyre
Romek's Lost Youth: The Story of a Boy Survivor by Ken Roman and John James, a Holocaust memoir.
Runners up include Land of the Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe and Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka.
Bomb: China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
The Blue Sky and The Gray Earth by Galsang Tschinag, fantastic autobiographical fiction by a Tuvan Mongolian nomad.
(Whoops, didn't mean to hit "save")
Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy by Ben Macintyre
Romek's Lost Youth: The Story of a Boy Survivor by Ken Roman and John James, a Holocaust memoir.
Runners up include Land of the Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe and Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka.
Bomb: China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
3WelshBookworm
My highlights for the 4th quarter were The Grapes of Wrath and American Dirt.
4avaland
Nonfiction: The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet (nonfiction, 2022, USA)
Fiction:The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (fiction, 2018) OR Willnot by James Sallis (fiction, 2016)
Ask me tomorrow and I'll have different choices!
Fiction:The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (fiction, 2018) OR Willnot by James Sallis (fiction, 2016)
Ask me tomorrow and I'll have different choices!
5cindydavid4
4th quarter started with Terry Pratchett: a life with footnotes and have reread several of his discworld books in his honor, including a few that I don't remember reading night watch, feet of clay, snuff and the fifth elephant Tho the highlight of the quarter for me has been our missing hearts by the author of Little Fires everywhere as well as setting free the kites, the great passage, and the book of illusions
6rocketjk
My favorites of 4th Quarter '22:
Non-fiction:
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating Weapon by David King and Ernst Volland
Fiction:
A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr
Honorable mention (both fiction):
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Homecoming by C.P. Snow
Non-fiction:
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating Weapon by David King and Ernst Volland
Fiction:
A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr
Honorable mention (both fiction):
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Homecoming by C.P. Snow
7Nickelini
>2 labfs39: yes, China Rich Girlfriend was awful!
I’m not ready to list my books yet but I’ll be back
I’m not ready to list my books yet but I’ll be back
8arubabookwoman
Well here are my best reads of the year:
5 Stars: The Way We Live Now by Trollope
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
The Years by Annie Ernaux
The Door by Magda Szabo
4 1/2 Stars: The Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck
Phineas Redux by Trollope
The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
4 Stars: The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Foregone by Russell Banks
White Shadow by Roy Jacobsen
The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Big Cheat by David Cay Johnson
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Everyman by Philip Roth
Dog Park by Sofi Oksanen
Maus
Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. Graff
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Atoms and Ashes by Serhii Plokhy
Ethan Frome by Wharton
Fruit of the Tree by Wharton
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Summer by Edith Wharton
Katalin Street by Magda Szabo
5 Stars: The Way We Live Now by Trollope
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
The Years by Annie Ernaux
The Door by Magda Szabo
4 1/2 Stars: The Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck
Phineas Redux by Trollope
The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
4 Stars: The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Foregone by Russell Banks
White Shadow by Roy Jacobsen
The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Big Cheat by David Cay Johnson
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Everyman by Philip Roth
Dog Park by Sofi Oksanen
Maus
Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. Graff
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Atoms and Ashes by Serhii Plokhy
Ethan Frome by Wharton
Fruit of the Tree by Wharton
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Summer by Edith Wharton
Katalin Street by Magda Szabo
9dchaikin
>8 arubabookwoman: i was just listening to a bit on Nelson Algren and The Man with the Golden Arm…in Left Bank. Seems his life peaked with that book.
10LyndaInOregon
"Best" books of the 20 read in the 4th quarter this year were
-The Family Roe, by Joshua Prager
-Hawaii, - by James Michener
-The Blessed, by Remy Apepp
-This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger
Interestingly enough, they also represent four of the year's 10 Best. And for the first time, an LTER title (The Blessed) breaks into that category.
End-of-year clunkers included
-The Killing Moon, by N.K. Jemison
-Under the Rainbow, by John Carlyle
-Cleopatra's Eternal Journal, by Victoria Schroeder (which isn't coming up in Touchstones)
Okay, all you Jemison fans, back away from the keyboard and nobody gets hurt. She is an inarguably fine writer, but I just could not get into her beautifully-wrought universe. Cleopatra's Eternal Journal -- another LTER, failed to develop an interesting premise. So LTER picks made both end of this quarter's (and this year's) list.
-The Family Roe, by Joshua Prager
-Hawaii, - by James Michener
-The Blessed, by Remy Apepp
-This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger
Interestingly enough, they also represent four of the year's 10 Best. And for the first time, an LTER title (The Blessed) breaks into that category.
End-of-year clunkers included
-The Killing Moon, by N.K. Jemison
-Under the Rainbow, by John Carlyle
-Cleopatra's Eternal Journal, by Victoria Schroeder (which isn't coming up in Touchstones)
Okay, all you Jemison fans, back away from the keyboard and nobody gets hurt. She is an inarguably fine writer, but I just could not get into her beautifully-wrought universe. Cleopatra's Eternal Journal -- another LTER, failed to develop an interesting premise. So LTER picks made both end of this quarter's (and this year's) list.
11rhian_of_oz
The final quarter of the year included quite a few comfort reads so I didn't even manage a top 5.
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld
12SassyLassy
This past quarter saw only a baker's dozen of books read, so not much to choose from.
One definite highlight would be a reread of The Princess and the Goblin
New to me reads which stood out are
Klara and the Sun which seems to be a favourite around here, and
Rickshaw Boy by Lao She
One definite highlight would be a reread of The Princess and the Goblin
New to me reads which stood out are
Klara and the Sun which seems to be a favourite around here, and
Rickshaw Boy by Lao She
13labfs39
I finished Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy by Ben Macintyre with five hours to spare. It was fantastic and will definitely make my Best of list. Editing my post above >2 labfs39:.
14Nickelini
Q4 for me was fine . . . I read 13 books, nothing that really stood out as fabulously bad or great . . . I think they were all 3.5 or 4 star reads.
Probably my favourite was a reread of a now out of print gardening book: The Four Season Landscape. by Susan A Roth. I first read this in the late 1990s when I had my first garden, and it was life changing. Now I have a my second garden, and it's NOT a four season landscape, so I had to reread. Just as good 25 years later.
Probably my favourite was a reread of a now out of print gardening book: The Four Season Landscape. by Susan A Roth. I first read this in the late 1990s when I had my first garden, and it was life changing. Now I have a my second garden, and it's NOT a four season landscape, so I had to reread. Just as good 25 years later.
