Top 3 Reads May 2008

I had a great reading month.

1. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. I already gushed about this book on another thread, any more gushing and everyone will think I'm related to the author or something.

2. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The violence will throw some people off but underneath is a thing of majestic power.

3. The Brothers K by David James Duncan. A damn-near perfect All-American novel. Mark Twain would be proud.

The Brothers K is one of the great, great American novels of the last 25 years. It's gone mostly unappreciated for so long that it always thrills me when someone discovers it again.

The top three books for May were/are

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
(I am looking for any writings about her and Truman Capote)

Middlemarch by George Eliot

oops there is a 4th too I am rereading
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and it is like reading it for the first time. Where was I the first time around? Definitely not concentrating

#1: I am coveting Wolf Totem after what I've read on the forums, but I can't really afford a new hardback these days.

Mine:
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
Towing Jehovah by James Morrow
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Two Calvinos in one month:

Cosmicomics
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

and another candidate for best-book-ever:

On the Road original scroll

I have to concur with #1 and 2, The Brothers K (not the Russian tome) is one of the best American novels. Glad to see such appreciation!

My top for May would have to be

Wild Life by Molly Gloss
Small Island by Andrea Levy
War and Peace by that Tolstoy guy

My top 3 for May:

Tied for first are The Host by Stephenie Meyer and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

Coming in 3rd is Dead Girls' Dance (Book 2 of the Morganville Vampires Series) by Rachel Caine.

Followed VERY closely by Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson.

The Host was a wonderful foray into Sci-Fi for people that don't necessarily enjoy the genre. Stephenie tells a sweeping tale of relationships and emotion.

Wicked Lovely is a stunning spin on faeries. In fact, I'd never read a faery tale quite so compelling as Melissa's.

Dead Girls' Dance moved the story forward from Glass Houses, which I enjoyed but not as much as the second book. I can only wait to see what the next two volumes hold.

And Kingdom Keepers was just a romping good time through Disney World after hours and behind the scenes. While it is a Children's Lit book, it was just as fun for an adult to read!

Okay, I do this on my blog, too, and I was unable to get it below 4.
Monique and the Mango Rains was my top pick for the month

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, and Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine were all tied for 2nd place.

Hey, does that mean I also get to list those tied for 3rd place...

These were compulsory for uni (not that i'm complaining about being 'forced' to read!)

1. Father and Son by Edmund Gosse - fascinating read.

2. Villette by Charlotte Bronte - I should really read the rest of the Bronte's works

3. Autobiographies by Janet Frame - technically it's three books but in one volume. Fantastic stuff.

I had a good month, my top three reads in order are:

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons (I'm now reading it's sequel)

3. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

Easy this month:

1. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
2. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
3. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

All of which I highly recommend.

My top three reads of May:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (an amazing book)
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

My top 3 reads of may:

Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

All 3 by Diana Gabaldon

It's time to start a reread.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Testimony by Anita Shreve
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

Hmmm...I am sensing a pattern about myself - just like last month, I only read three books! I blame Herodotus. Who better to blame than a someone who's been dead for many many centuries?

Inez of My Soul by Isabel Allende was my favorite of the three. But I also enjoyed Bless Me, Ultima and am enjoying Herodotus. So, they are all favorites of the month!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Mao II by Don DeLillo
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Picking three was surprisingly easy this month.

1. The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson. This isn't just my best book for May, it's my best new book for 2008 so far. I loved everything about it. It read just like magical realism, but without a touch of fantasy to it.

2. Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce. This book just delighted the hell out of me. I finished it a couple of days ago and found myself desperate for more. I think I'll probably be buying her next book in hardcover, and I rarely do that.

3. Gods Behaving Badly by Marine Phillips. Another one that I found just delightful. I'm a classicist with a particular interest in the way mythology seeps through into everyday life, so this was right up my alley. I had a great time with it.

The absolute best book I read in May was Perfume. Yes, Red Tent is one of my favorite books and was also read in May, but I think it has more for a bigger audience and I'm still blown away by the writing. For nonfiction, I guess I'd have to vote for Birth, despite the amazing amount of fact-checking I did when reading it.

1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. The March by E. L. Doctorow
3. Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olssen

#3 - Middlemarch is a fantastic read. It's too bad so many are put off by the novels girth; it does run a little slow, but Eliot's psychological portraits are virtually peerless.

My May:

1. Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

I'm finally turned-on to this author after a lukewarm response to Seize the Day and The Adventures of Augie March. The Nobel win leaves me scratching my head no longer: masterful.

2. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

I presume the feminist quality of this novel is responsible for it playing so minor a role in the history of the Brontë œuvre in the past. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall deserves to be as celebrated as much as any other novel of it's day; a great improvement over Anne's conventional first story Agnes Grey.

3. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

One adventure story too many detracts from a nicely realized ending to this brilliant little Russian novella (a byproduct of its serialization). That the authors own tragic death so exactly echos a scene from his own work is eerie upon reading to say the least.

Honorable Mention: All the Pretty Horses, The Innocent, and Sense and Sensibility

Hey Z, Humboldt's Gift worked for me big time too, arguably Bellow's greatest novel.

Easily Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is the best book I read in May. Followed by Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and Summer of Night by Dan Simmons.

May was a busy Month for me and not a bad book in the bunch but I'd have to say my top 3 are:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Namesake
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

And honourable mention, just for the fun factor goes to Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

I read six in May, but only two make the cut for "best":

The Piano Tuner
Pretty Birds

Both lush novels.

In no particular order:

Bellwether by Connie Willis -- just plain fun; I finished it in a day and made my mother read it

Understanding Manga and Anime by Robin Brenner -- a really useful resource for understanding some of the cultural codes in manga and giving an overview of the variety of genres within that format.

Tsubasa series by CLAMP -- I've read eight volumes so far and really enjoy it, even though I know some of it's going over my head (it's really complicated, and refers back on earlier series I haven't read).

#24 whymaggiemay

I have Piano Tuner on my tbr list, glad to know its good enough to make a top 2 list. I might have to move it up my list.

#24> I absolutely loved The Piano Tuner as well.

1. Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith
2. Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
3. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

1. Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers
2. Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston
3. A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston

In response to message 3, from YAReader2 --There are two books by Charles Shields about Harper Lee, one is a YA read called I am Scout and then there's an adult book called Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Also, there's a graphic novel called Capote in Kansas and I believe Harper Lee is in that one too.

I didn't really accomplish much reading in the month of May. I can really only come up with a top 2 as more than one would tie for third place and I can't really choose between them. So, here are my top 2:

Beastly by Alex Flinn - I really enjoyed this modernized version of Beauty and the Beast told from the Beast's POV. Easily my favorite read of the month.

Candide by Voltaire - It is unusual for me to read classics and probably more unusual for me to enjoy them at all. This book totally took me by surprise.

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
3. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

In no order:
Waiting For Godot
No Country For Old Men
The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell

But, since the first and last are rereads, I'm adding two more to represent the comic goodness:

Iron Man: Extremis Great take on MetalHead.
Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle Best superhero addiction story ever. Probably only, too.

I need to keep monthly track....

I only finished 5 books in May, and 3 of them were ok, but not great. The other 2 were my continuation of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series:

1. Rituals of the Season
2. Winter's Child, which I think was my favorite since the 1st book (Bootlegger's Daughter)

I am, however, about halfway through Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and I'm suspecting that it may end up on my list of top reads for the year.

I finished 5 in May (including one audiobook).

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver I found this absolutely haunting. I finished it about three days ago and have not stopped thinking about it.

2. Muhammad: Biography of the Prophet by Karen Armstrong As a newcomer to reading about Islam, I found this very helpful to my knowledge of the beauty of the religion.

3. Authenticity by Venerable Yifa This is a book I received as an Early Reviewer. Short but very clear writing on the practical side of Buddhist philosophy.

War and Peace has to be up there at the top really.
Emma by Jane Austen I loved. I know she's not always the most popular heroine, but I found her very sympathetic despite her total lack of perceptiveness on occasion.
After the Divorce by Grazia Deledda, who was the 1926 Nobel Laureate although from the amount I'd heard of her before I tried to find books by Sardinians, you wouldn't know it. Anyway, it was an interesting situation she placed her characters in and her evocation of the Sardinian countryside and the harshness of life within it were excellent.

In no particular order:
Pride and Prejudice
Measuring the World
Lord of the Flies

I read about a dozen books in May, and my top three are, in order:

1. The House of the Spirits

2. Tigana

3. a tie between Conspiracies: a Repairman Jack novel by F. Paul Wilson and The Case of Abraham Lincoln by Julie M. Fenster, the only nonfiction in the bunch.

ETA Touchstones.

My #1 book for May is Netherland by Joseph O'Neill. I spent most of the month reading Middlemarch, so that will have to count as #2.

#1, VisibleGhost, I didn't enjoy Wolf Totem. I found it tedious as I've posted in the general What are You Reading thread.

>31 Jenson_AKA_DL:, I enjoyed Beastly so much that it affected how much I enjoyed the next few books I read...they just didn't measure up.

#39, rebeccanyc, that's alright. I don't think Wolf Totem will have universal appeal. For me, one of favorite types of writing is nature and landscape writing. I have read enough of it to recognize a true observer and lover of nature which I think Rong is.

Certain things in nature fascinate me. The lion/hyena wars. The chimpanzee wars. Wolves and coyotes canny ability to survive up to the present date. The wolf/ horse war in Wolf Totem transported me to the scene. I could feel the cold, hear the fearsome cacophony of the battle, smell the blood, and was caught up in the fear experienced on all sides. It's one of the most vivid scenes depicted on paper that I've read.

I like writing that takes me away from humans. Of course, there are humans in the book but the wolves and the grasslands are the focus. We have plenty of writing that covers the human condition but not so much on wolves. Finally, I am a fan of descriptive writing. Rong's renderings of Inner Mongolia and the grasslands of the steppes is as good as some of the best nature writing out there.

Top book for May 2008:

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Runner up:

Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, by Christopher Hitchens

#41, VisibleGhost, I was fascinated by much of the information about the grasslands ecosystem and the human adaptations to it and, since I love dogs, wolves, and horses, I was thrilled to learn more about them. The "battle" scenes were very dramatic. What bothered me was that it is described as a novel, but the novelistic aspects of it were very poorly handled. I would have enjoyed it more as straight-up nonfiction.

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot: totally deserves its reputation as a classic
2. Split: A Memoir of Divorce by Suzanne Finnamore
3. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry: this one was an ARC, but I'll definitely be recommending it to people in July

Seven Types of Ambiguity, Elliot Perlman, c2003 ~ fiction

Loving Frank, Nancy Horan, c2008 ~ fiction

The Devil's Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea, c2004 ~ non fiction

#45, CarolynSchroeder: Elliot Perlman's Seven Types of Ambiguity isn't a book for everyone, but I thought it was terrific too.

1) Under the skin
2) The thirteenth tale
3) Timbuktu

#30

Thanks. Are you a fan of all this?

1. Sweet Mandarin by Helen Tse
(Advance copy)

2. Gardenias by Faith Sullivan

3. Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Farthing by Jo Walton
Jeeves in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse- this Wodehouse is typical and of course, blends in with all the others I've read by him, but this seemed like a good month to give him some recognition.

Honorable mention goes to Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard for making my brand new degree in English worthwhile. It's a murder mystery about English professors and it was hilarious reading about department politics and literature. There were many references that I would have missed if I had read this 4 years ago. The Thomas Hardy ones were especially delightful, since I took a Thomas Hardy class this past semester.

1. Team of Rivals
2. Armed Madhouse
3. Poisoner of Ptah

Team of Rivals was a great book (Pulitzer Prize winner) on Abraham Lincoln and his war cabinet.

Armed Madhouse was a great but depressing book on modern American politics.

Poisoner of Ptah was a good mystery set in ancient Egypt.

1. Beneath the Wheel-Hermann Hesse

2. Practical Demonkeeping-Christopher Moore

3. Cheaper by the Dozen--Frank Gilbreth

With an honorable mention to A Boy Called Hopeless -Dave Melton

Not in any order;

Escape From The Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew by Alex Kershaw
The Book Of Common Dread and
"To Move The World" both by Brent Monahan

My favorites for May were:

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and
Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts

The other 2 I read in May were just o.k.

I read many excellent books in May, but only two got a five-star rating:

1) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2) Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan

Glad to read everyone's choices - some awesome books in this thread!

To YAReader2: #48: I do reader's advisory work for a library.. sometimes I get carried away.

My Antonia by Willa Cather
Snow Flower and the Secret fan by Lisa See
Mao II by Don DeLillo