Top Five Books, 2008, Q2: April - June

I'm early setting this up but again wanted to do it while I remembered. June isn't over yet, but this gives us all time to think (and read a few more books).

Five is just an arbitrary number to aim for. I know how difficult it can be to whittle a list of good books down, so if you can't do so, or need to separate the apples and oranges, please do so. We just want to hear about your best reads from this quarter of 2008!

For those of you new to the quarterly threads; we did this last year noting each quarter, and at the end of the year when we listed our year's end favorites, we noted which quarter we read the books in (mostly to see if we tended to choose more recently read books as year's end favorites over, say, those read in February).

Quarter one thread is here

I can't imagine that I'm going to read anything in the next two weeks to top those already on my list so here goes. . .

Fiction (did not consider re-reads here)

1. Children of the New World, Assia Djebar (Algerian)
2. Sorry, Gail Jones (Australian)
The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi (UK)
3. The Outcast, Sadie Jones (UK)
4. Mosquito, Roma Tearne (Sri Lankan)
5. The Given Day, Dennis Lehane (US).

Poetry (of 5 read)
1. Selected Poems by Carol Anne Duffy

Mystery
1. The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason

Nonfiction (of 4 read)
1. Socialism is Great! by Lijia Zhang

*honorable mention to YA novel The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-mbachu


My comments on any of these can be read on my thread in the 75 Book Challenge group.

edited to add a book!

Not ready for this yet! I have a couple of good ones in the wings that I will probably read before the end of the month. These are going to be hard to choose this time!

I'm not quite ready for this either, particularly since I'm participating in a 24-hour read-athon. I'll probably have another 6-10 books at least read before the end of the month and some of them may be quite good.

A Bloomsday reading perhaps?

The best books I've read this quarter are:

Lisey's Story by Stephen King
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (which is an ARC and the writer's first book. I hope he writes more!)

so far not in any order;

Escape From The Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew by Alex Kershaw (History WW2)

"To Move the World" (Historical novel)
The Book of Common Dread (A new twist on vampire tales) both my Brent Monahan

This Island Earth by Raymond Jones (classic Sci Fi)

Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by E. Somerville (Irish Literature)

A very atypical quarter for me...

I completed few reads as I was busy doing other things, but both of the top two were young adults books!

The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
Feed – M.T. Anderson

Not quite as good, but worthwhile reads were
French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure – Mireille Guilliano
A Dog About Town – J.F. Englert
The Bells of Nagasaki – Takashi Nagai

FYI: J.F. Englert is an LT author who gave me a signed copy of his book. He was also featured on LT's Author Chat.

I try to make this really challenging and pick just one. This quarter, it would be: Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood. My runner-up is Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Winner in the non-fiction category is The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, by Christopher Hitchens.

I'll nominate 3 this quarter:

Unaccustomed Earth - FANTASTIC
Elizabeth and her German Garden - delightful
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - inspiring

While I read several that were on par with the Kingsolver (4*'s, imo), it was by far the one that made the most impact on me. My other 4* reads were: The Gathering, The Well, and Small Island.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Call of the Wild by Jack London

Some tough choices, but I'm going with (in chronological order):

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
Mosquito by Roma Tearne
The Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
White Teeth by Zadie Smith

I read a lot of interesting books this quarter but my favourites in no particular order.
1. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.O.k. it was my favourite
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. a great reread
3. Conceit by Mary Novik.
4. A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua
5.The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado. a memoir

1. Dark Tide byAndrew Gross Best Mystery
2. Choiring of the Trees by Donald Harington
3. Forbidden Fruit by Erica Spindler
4. The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up by Rich Blake Best Non-ficition
5. Turning Angel by Greg Iles
6. Beyond Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury Best Christian Fiction

This might change later depending on what I read. I attempted an order with the best first, but the first two really stand out.

1. The Knock at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide by Margaret Ajemian Ahnert - an account from the authors mother, blew me away.
2. How to talk so you kids will listen & listen so your kids will talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish (I know this book is a little weird for this kind of list, but it was such a good parenting book.)

Then
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4. Late Innings by Roger Angell (an old book on baseball, but it was somehow really nice to read. It got me out of a "readers block")
5. Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (fun book)
6. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits On An Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish (I had to add one more because this was just so charming and fascinating. And I'm still curious if the lining of an egg will actually help remove splinters)

I'm reading The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi at the moment and while I couldn't imagine I would pick up something incredible in the last two weeks of June; I think I have:-) Might have to edit my list.

edited to correct title!

This may change, but so far . . .

Top book: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

In no particular order:

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (counting three novels as one)
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Middlemarch

Yes, that's six, not five. Will sort out when the quarter's over and I see what else I've finished.

In no special order:

The Heaven Tree trilogy by Edith Pargeter

The house of the spirits
Isabel Allende

The Proud Tower Barbara Tuchman

The opposite of Fate
Amy Tan

The Gathering Ann Enright

I only read six (and one was You on a Diet, so it really probably shouldn't count), but these five were all worth reading or re-reading.

Catch-22 (darkly funny. I liked it years ago, but I think I appreciated its dark, desperate humor even more as an adult)

Lush Life by Richard Price (incisive portrait of the changing Lower East Side wrapped in a police procedural. Price is a master at dialogue)

William Carlos Williams White Mule/In the Money (unjustly neglected experimental novel by the great poet. It's the only adult book I know where an infant is a real character.)

Camus The Stranger (better even the second time around)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Missed it in my early education, glad I picked it up)

I hadn't found this group earlier, so I would love to put in a plug for two books I read earlier this year: The invention of Hugo Cabret, a great children's book for adults with amazing illustrations and Tree of Smoke by Dennis Johnson. Don't let the fact that it's a novel about the Vietnam War put anyone off, it is brilliant.

Re: #9. I read The Missionary Position many years ago on a long plane flight and found myself bursting out loud with laughter at Hitchens' audacity. I loaned it to a friend who is a good Catholic and never got it back. I presumed she burned it.

My top five

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I love revisionist history and this one was amazing. This was the first Philip Roth book I've read but I will pick up more of his stuff in the future.

Vanishing Point more of a filler book than anything else but still wonderful. My head was buzzing with little facts for days afterward.

Cloud Atlas I'm not usually a huge fan of short stories but this followed an unusual formula that made it good to the last page.

American Gods I had been putting off reading this book for forever, and when I did, it was so good I almost cried when it was over.

The Poisonwood Bible Another book I had put off for a long time, I didn't want to be let down because of all the hype surrounding it, but it was as good as people claimed.

I don't think I'll finish my current book before the month's close so for my secind quarter (better reads than my first quarter):

1. The Brothers K by David James Duncan
2. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
3. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
4. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
5. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

#20 bazooka

I did the same thing with American Gods and then loved it also. How funny. I often resist hyped books and almost as often like them as much as other folks...

I've had an absolutely amazing couple of months. May alone gave me three books that're hardcore contenders for my overall 2008 Top 5.

In the order I read them:

1. The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson. This is absolutely the best new book I've read this year, and the only one I've rated five stars. I'll be very surprised if it's not on my year end list.
2. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. This was just a delight to read from start to finish.
3. Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce. I think I'm addicted to this woman's writing.
4. Melusine by Sarah Monette. Ditto.
5. The Virtu by Sarah Monette. Again, this's practically a shoe-in for my year end list.

>19 pm11: pm11: Hugo Cabret was amazing!

My top five of the quarter (in no particular order) were . . .

Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
Black Orchids, Rex Stout
Washington Square, Henry James
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

Honorable mentions go to Mary Poppins, Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, The Time Traveler's Wife, and Speaking of Books: The Best Things Ever Said About Books and Book Collecting.

I think I can easily give my top five for this quarter, considering four are from the same series:

Luck in the Shadows
Stalking Darkness
Traitor's Moon
Shadows Return
all by Lynn Flewelling

and for number five:

Beastly by Alex Flinn

#22 I guess there's a reason they're so hyped. There's a few that didn't do it for me though. At one point everyone I knew was reading The Dive From Clausen's Pier and I could barely finish it.

I also didn't like A Confederacy of Dunces

So far -

The only 5-star winner is -
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Sure, it's not literature, but it is one hell of a story.

The only 4-star winners are conveniently 4 in number also -
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips. A re-read technically.
The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
In The Woods by Tana French
House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler. The only n-f on the list.

I'm such a fan of The Egyptologist, have met Phillips before, and will read anything he writes.

I've read some amazing novels this quarter (so far). These four were 9/10s (which is 5/5 on that scale):

Hotel du Lac
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Tigana
House of Spirits

Not sure if I'll finish another 9 in the 5 days remaining, but I'm currently reading Fingersmith and The Devil and Miss Prym, either or both of which could end up as 9s.

I had/am having a great reading Q2. I am having a hard time narrowing it to five books though so I'm giving up for now. Hell, I'm not even getting it down to ten.

Hands-down top read of Q2 was Brasyl by Ian McDonald. Fascinating look at three lives in flux and transition; one in modern-day Rio infested with reality TV cop shows and lunch-hour facelifts, one in a near-future Sao Paulo where handbags are ID chipped because quantum computing has made such things possible and desirable, one in 18th-century Amazonia wherein a Jesuit priest is sent form Rome to rein in a fellow Jesuit's delusions of grandeur. All interrelated, per McDonald's usual brainbebdingly complex plottiung that reads smoothly and transparently. It's only later that you realize, wait a sec...this is a profound, convoluted plot! That's excellent writing.

Four others would simply be superfluous for the sheer pleasure of discovering this one book. Please seek it out!
edited/typo

I've read some really good books this quarter, which is nice because I read some not-so-good ones the first quarter.

My top books for the second quarter (in no particular order) are:
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

The last two are lighter than the others, but I think it's good to read light things for balance.

I've read four books this quarter that I think deserve to make it onto a "best of" list. They are (in the order I read them):

The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro
Love Over Scotland - Alexander McCall Smith
The Children of Men - P.D. James
The Negotiator - Frederick Forsyth

I've just started reading City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer, which will almost certainly make it onto my list next quarter.

1. Earthly Pleasures - Karen Neches
2. The Sound of Language - Amulya Malladi
3. Failure is Not an Option - Gene Kranz
4. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
5. Driving Sideways - Jess Riley

I reviewed Earthly Pleasures and The Sound of Language on my blog, if you're interested!: http://skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com

It's been a bit slow for me this quarter, but I got in some good reads anyway. In no particular order:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami, always a favorite
Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson, took me a while to get into but definitely worth it
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee, yes, a first read for me and so worth the "hype" :)
Soul Thief - Charles Baxter, one I might need to reread to totally figure it out
Beginner's Greek - James Collins, I love a happy ending, they are so rare these days

#36: Beginner's Greek looks right up my alley. Literary love + happy ending: it bodes well. Hard-Boiled Wonderland & To Kill a Mockingbird are all-time favorites, and I enjoyed The Soul Thief earlier this year.

I'm postponing my top 5, because I'm currently reading a book that may make it on my list.

Here are my top five in order of preference:

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger - I'll be VERY surprised if I read anything that will edge this book out of my top spot for 2008

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - Unbelievable!
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
and
Stone Creek by Victoria Lustbader - this was my May ER book, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. The writing was beautiful, and for once, all of the characters flawed, but likeable (by the end).

P.S. How do you get the book covers to show up in the posts? I've always thought that was so cool!

Two for Tree of Smoke? Hope I agree when I finish. I'm just over half way now, and have no idea where it's going.

Re: 39
Please let us know what you think when you finish Tree of Smoke.

Re: 21
I've looked at A Suitable Boy before, but its length has kept me away so far. I take it you thought it was worth the time spent?

1. The Art of Racing in The Rain - Garth Stein
2. Wake - Lisa McMann (YA).
3. The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
4. The Wedding Girl - Madeline Wickham
5. Dedication - Emma McLaughlin

#40, pm11, As I've said in other threads, A Suitable Boy is one of my favorite books of all time. I loved it so much I started reading more slowly as I got to the end because I didn't want to leave the characters and their world.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire, is extraordinary. I normally don't read fantasy, but these books are great - deeply engrossing, well-written, engaging and believable characters, plots that twist and turn, politics, war, love, lust - wow. I didn't include the fourth book in the series, A Feast for Crows, because it wasn't quite as good as the others, but it is still very, very good.

#43
Thanks for the referral. I will put it on my list.

>43 Talbin:/44 One caveat on the series A Song of Ice and Fire: Martin isn't afraid to describe violence, and there is a lot of it in his books. It's wartime and lots of things happen - I didn't find it to be gratuitous, but some people may not like it.

Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell
44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith
Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

Also enjoyed My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse and Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope.

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
2. Middlemarch by George Elioot
3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
4. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
5. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

And I'm looking forward to To kill a Mockingbird and David Copperfield

1) Atonement by Ian McEwan

The rest is in no particular order;
The World According to Garp John Irving
The Invisible Wall : a Love Story That Broke Barriers Harry Bernstein
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Helen Fielding
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chealier

Picking just 5 was hard this quarter, but I think my top 5 were:

1)An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
2)If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
3)The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
4)Three Plays: Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives by Noel Coward
5)A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

Honorable Mention goes to The Sea by John Banville

Ok, if I must. This is really difficult this time, I read so many good books.

The Remains of the Day -- Kazuo Ishiguro

Small Island -- Andrea Levy

The Blind Assassin -- Margaret Atwood

Half of a Yellow Sun -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox -- Maggie O'Farrell

Mudbound -- Hillary Jordan

And I feel I must include War and Peace. For the amazing experience it was, even though I don't think of it as a favorite book.

Well I got it down to seven. Not bad.

It's now close enough to the end of the month that I think I can update #17. But I don't think I can get it down to 5, so I'll cheat and create categories.

New Books
The top two are:
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill and
Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles
followed by, in no particular order
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

Older Books, Read for the First Time
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (counting three novels as one)

Books Reread
Middlemarch by George Eliot

rebeccanyc` -- I read Plague of Doves last week - I loved it until the last 50 pages or so and really disliked the ending. What did you think??

Considering that I sort of "over-read" last quarter narrowing my selection to five is quite a challenge... so I'll cheat a bit ;)

Best of:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
2t. Barchester Towers by Trollope
2t. Humboldt's Gift by Bellow
4. A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov
5. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by A. Brönte

Honorable Mention: All the Pretty Horses, The Invention of Morel, Post Office, Steppenwolf, The Wild Geese/Gan

Disappointments:

Disgrace by Coetzee
Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
The Secret Agent by Conrad

Worst of:

The Body Artist by DeLillo
The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis

#40 pm11 -Ok, I just finished Tree of Smoke... it falls in the interesting-but-I-didn't-really-get-it category (not sure if anyone else has that kind of category. It covers a lot of books I've read).

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers
Revelation by C J Sansom
and the non-fiction
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher:A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

#53:Yes, zanix, Never Let Me Go was a disappointment for me too

#53 & #55 -- Did you know what Never Let Me Go was about before you started reading it? I absolutely loved it, but I think part of the reason was because I knew nothing about it, so it was all a surprise. It strikes me as one of those books that would be a disappointment if you had too much foreknowledge of it.

#56 -- I picked up Never Let Me Go based on the "buzz" alone, so the tale as it unraveled was a surprise for me as well. I just found premise too silly to be taken seriously. It was worth reading for the writing, but the book was not the rewarding experience I had been led to expect.

I read a lot this quarter and nothing was a disappointment, it was difficult to pick 5 but her goes...

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, I loved this, even more than The Road which I also read this quarter.
The Namesake, byJhumpa Lahiri
Unaccustomed Earth also by Lahiri
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, which I loved probably more than I shoud.

I had a good quarter, hard to pick 5, but here they are, not in any special order:

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield which I just finished

Honorable mention to 2 romances I read, which I totally loved!

Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
Smuggler's Bride by Darlene Marshall

edited to fix touchstones

#56 -- I picked up Never Let Me Go based on the "buzz" alone, so the tale as it unraveled was a surprise for me as well. I just found premise too silly to be taken seriously. It was worth reading for the writing, but the book was not the rewarding experience I had been led to expect.
---------------------

Well, I've always believed that it would be so boring if we all liked the same things!

Top books
#1 Cold comfort farm
#2 Straight man
#3 The Yiddish policemen's union
#4 The age of innocence
#5 Suite Francaise

Dissapointments
The enchantress of Florence
Goodbye to Berlin
Sorry by Gail Jones

I had a great quarter. Sort of in order:

Fiction:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Non-Fiction:
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Homegrown Democrat by Garrison Keillor
If Grace is True by Phillip Gulley

teelgee, #52, I thought the ending tried to tie up some loose ends (some that I didn't even know were loose), and the characters were less appealing (to me) than some of those earlier in the book, and the stamp collection stuff was a little confusing, but all in all I thought the way Louise Erdrich wove all the characters and history together was amazing, and the stories compelling.

Edited to fix typo.

I began the quarter on a book slump and am ending on a semi-slump, but in the middle, wow!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Testimony by Anita Shreve
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Honorable Mentions to: March by Geraldine Brooks and Pretty Birds by Scott Simon

In no particular order:
1. The Glimmer Palace by Beatrice Colin
2. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
3. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
4. Salome by Oscar Wilde
5. Sarah by Orson Scott Card

Overall I'd say it's been pretty weak for good books though. As I looked over my reading list I'd say the vast majority were mediocre.

I had a great reading quarter! My top five:

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
After You’d Gone by Maggie O’ Farrell
Mosquito by Roma Tearne
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Of the 46 books I read in Q2, I'm having trouble getting below my top 17. I'll keep thinking...

Show off! ;o)

#67 - akeela - I read Cry, The Beloved Country earlier this year and loved it.

Going through them all I came up with 2 more books I read in June, so now I'm up to 48. This isn't getting easier...

I loved it, too!

It's a definite contender for my top five at the end of 2008.

#67 - Yea! One of my top books last year, Mosquito, has found another fan.

#73 Thanks, Nickelini.

I read it on your recommendation here on LT and loved it, too! It was beautifully written.

In the order I read them:

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2. Understanding Manga and Anime by Robin Brenner
3. Tsubasa series
4. Her Majesty's Dog series
5. Princess Ben by Catherine Murdock

Honorable mention goes to 13 Little Blue Envelopes and Word Freak.

My top 5:

1. Fieldwork by Misca Berlinski
2. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
3. Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende
4. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

>75 bell7: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and Her Majesty's Dog are my two favorite manga series!

Glad you like them too! I've challenged myself to read a lot of manga and graphic novels this year. I met someone a few months ago who read a lot of manga and recommended Tsubasa to me. I read Her Majesty's Dog at your recommendation on another thread, and have enjoyed the first six volumes immensely. The next three are due back at the library today, so hopefully I'll get to read them soon!

Okay, there are 8 books that are going to be very upset with me, but here they are, in no particular order...

1. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson - this book is being released August 5th and it is going to be BIG. It is amaaaazing.

2. Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway - this is a fantastic memoir of time in the Peace Corps in Mali

3. My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar - This was my ER book for May and it was fantastic. It was the story of his father's immigration from Iraqi Kurdistan, to the newly-founded state of Israel, to the U.S. It will be released September 16th.

4. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff - another ER book (April bonus batch?), this one dealing with Mormon fundamentalism. It was split time period with historical fiction and a murder mystery. Another August 5th release.

5. The Last Queen: A Novel of Juana La Loca by C.W. Gartner - historical fiction dealing with Juana of Castille/Juana La Loca, older sister to Henry VIII's first wife. I've not read anything else about her and this was fascinating. It will be released July 29th

Honorable mentions: Alive in Necropolis, The Lace Reader, Regina's Closet, The Handmaid's Tale, Middlesex, Pride and Prejudice, Year of Wonders, and Historical Genesis.

I think it is interesting that 4/5 of my top books are ARCs...there is some good reading material coming out!

#71 -- 78, just saying

>79 DevourerOfBooks: Devourer, I am one jealous schizobibliomane, with all those ARCs you're reviewing! Do you mind sharing the publisher of The Last Queen with me? I can't seem to find the blasted thing, and I am a real fan of that era treated fictionally.

I'm off to send you a message, richardderus!

Received, and thanks! I signed up for the Early Reviewers Thingamabobber, too. I think that, unlike working in an ice-cream shop or suchlike, being a book reviewer for a living wouldn't impact my pleasure in books.

Writing intelligently, intelligibly, and on deadline, however...well, "not so much" as the saying goes.

>71 DevourerOfBooks: I was going to say that I had 49 to whittle down and if I can do it, so can you:-) but I see you have pulled through.

>73 Nickelini:, 74 She taking her trusty Canadian hunting knife and marking a tree (carefully into the outer bark and not into the cambium layer) every time one of us reads and likes Mosquito!

Attention US readers! Mosquito is on sale in the US in original paperback then end of the this month, I believe. A classic tale of love & war - and the author is donating a portion of the proceeds (last I knew) to victims of torture. It's also made the lists of three of us this quarter. Keep Nickelini busy nicking trees! (btw, the rest you outside the US can run out and buy the book NOW).

Avaland - Wait, I read almost as many books as you??? Now I feel extra good about my reading =)

>25 suzecate:, 53

Barchester Towers ... great choice!

Ok, ok, Mosquito is going on my wish list!

Fingersmith
Wise Children 2 rollicking reads
Wuthering Heights suprisingly OK
The Idea of Perfection the pull of an Australian small town.
In Defence of Food for something completely different but good.

Thank you everyone for sharing! You've convinced me to read a few books I was on the fence about. My 2 favorite books from this quarter are:

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

I wished they wouldn't end.

My top five for the second quarter of 2008:

1. Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint
2. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
3. The Bromeliad Trilogy Book 1: Truckers by Terry Pratchett
4. Deerskin by Robin McKinley
5. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Hell by Kathryn Davis (hands down the most technically accomplished and generally impressive book I've read so far this year)
Blue Bamboo by Dazai Osamu
The Power of Flies by Lydie Salvayre
Rose Melie Rose by Marie Redonnet
Wang in Love and bondage: three novellas by Wang Xiabo tied with Mandarins by Akutagawa Ryunosuke

Honorable mentions (because I read a lot of good fiction this quarter):
Lend me your character by Dubravka Ugrešić
Rivalry: a geisha's tale by Nagai Kafu
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
Ravel by Jean Echenoz
Fire in the blood by Irene Nemirovsky

Non-fiction:
NASA/Trek by Constance Penley
Jane Campion by Kathleen McHugh

Disappointments:
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (Been there, done that, the t-shirt's falling apart at the seams...)
The Lives of Dwarfs by Betty Adelson (Adelson is a passionate and persuasive advocate for little people and I greatly admire her commitment to bringing the truth and history of their lives to light. Unfortunately, she is neither an especially gifted writer nor a rigorous historian and this book really suffers from the lack of both.)
Novels in three lines by Félix Fénéon (As I've said in the NYRB group: this is Gertrude Stein's Oakland-there's no "there" there.)

Just so I don't have to mess with the touchstones again, I should note that the Lydie Salvayre novel is La puissance des mouches. Well worth reading in any language!

>84 avaland: I bought Mosquito six weeks ago in South Africa. For fellow-South Africans wanting to buy it, it's available at Paperweight for R49.99 (the equivalent of $6).

>85 DevourerOfBooks: It's really all about quality, imo, not quantity. Good grief, there are people who gooble up way more books than I do.

You do, however, have that user name to live up to: Devourer of Books:-)

marietherese, I've jotted some of your titles down, running of to investigate...

I was pulling Nickelini's leg a little above but Mosquito is a very good book, not my absolute fave of this quarter but very good, nonetheless. Most of you would like it a lot, I think (Thanks, Christiguc). Books which came to mind while I was reading it (although they are not alike and I would have to think about exactly why they came to mind) were The Hamilton Case and The Lizard Cage. The former perhaps because it is also set in Sri Lanka, the latter perhaps for it's similar atmosphere of unrest.

In the order I read them:

Before you Sleep by Linn Ullmann (and a great surprise - I bought it in a second hand shop purely because it was Norwegian and I'd never read anything from Norway).
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (another great surprise, because I never expected to like a graphic novel).
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Delirio by Laura Restrepo
Mosquito by Roma Tearne (yes, Nickelini got to me, too...)

In no particular order:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Colour by Rose Tremain
Afterwards by Rachel Seiffert
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim

My top four in the order of reading

The Story of Forgetting
Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos - to be published next January, I think
Dear American Airlines
The Story of a Marriage

Perhaps I should plan a month were I read only books that begin The Story of... Looks like I would have a winning month!

Guess you'd better read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

Ah, so right! Everyone around our bookshops is raving about it. The problem for me is the length. I have vowed to read short books...

I just purchased The Story of Edgar Sawtelle because it got raves. Hope it lives up to it. And just maybe it will be on my best of list.

I hope you all enjoy Edgar Sawtelle more than I did. It was waaaay too long, and his imposition of the Hamlet plot just didn't work for me.

>97 alphaorder: was the new Kallos better than Broken for You?

Fiction:

* Wolf Totem, Jiang Rong
* Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
* The Brothers K, David James Duncan
* Little, Big, John Crowley
* Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
* The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein

Non-Fiction

* Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin
* Earth: The Sequel, Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn
* A Land so Strange, Andres Resendez
* The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson

Ooo, nice choice, The Brothers K, VG. I loved that book, one of my alltimes.

Yeah, both The Brothers K and Little, Big rank right up there in my all-time favorites too.

I read a lot of great books in June, which made it hard to narrow down, but my top fiction in the second quarter:

Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Harbor by Lorraine Adams
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Only two nonfiction books, Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick and John Adams by David McCullough, made it into my top reads of the quarter.

For the first time, I found it impossible to make a list of five. I had to be ruthless to cut the number to six.
Top 2
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - wonderful
writing
Broken April by Ismail Kadare - fascinating culture
followed by...
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Theft by Peter Carey
Sorry by Gail Jones
My Antonia by Willa Cather

Now that the dust has settled, I'm ready to make my picks--but I can't seem to whittle it down to five, so here are my top 6:

The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

(If I gave honorable mentions, I'd be here all day. Great reading quarter!)

Damn, that's great list of books, medellia12!

#109: Isn't it? I've been having way too much fun. :)