Top 3 Reads August 2008

Nobody started this thread this month that I could find and I always enjoy it, so I'm going for it:
What were your top three reads on August 2008?

I'm totally breaking the rules, because I have a 6-way tie for 1st place, but that's okay. My choices are:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Guernica by Dave Boling
One More Year by Sana Krasikov
Far World: Water Keep by J. Scott Savage
SweetSmoke by David Fuller
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

I'm amazed the Zoe's Tale made my list, because I don't generally read Science Fiction, but it was really very good.

Hmmm...I apparently didn't read nearly as many books as I thought I did in August.

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler was by far the best book I read last month. (One of the best all year, actually.)

If I had to pick two more:
Fables: Legends in Exile
Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

1. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes. Not much exactly like it out there.

2. Year Million:Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge, edited by Damien Broderick. Fourteen essays speculating on the next 997,992 years. Some made my head explode. Some made me kinda queasy. Not for everyone.

3. The Prefect, Alastair Reynolds. Good solid science fiction.

I read 10 this month, but only 3 make my "best" list:

The 23rd Psalm, a Holocaust Memoir
About Alice
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

It's hard to narrow my August books down to three, so I'm cheating a little:

1) Bleak House by Charles Dickens because it's epic and wonderful and Dickens is really a master at setting moods.

2) The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell because of the quality of his prose - some of these books read almost like poetry, the language is so beautiful.

3) Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman because Gaiman is awesome and I'd never read him before. The best stories are the Susan Pevensie one, and the one where the writer writes "fantasy" novels about stockbrokers, etc. And the Sherlock Holmes-ish one.

honorable mention goes to Amsterdam

I only read 6 in August--I discovered how to maneuver on the Lt group threads and spent more time that last part of the month reading posts than reading books!

The 3 best (I loved all of these!)

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali--the story of a woman born in Somalia, raised Muslim who fled from an arranged marriage to become a fighter for the rights of Muslim in the West. Talk about incredible journey!

The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson (LT author, BTW)--sex, science and politics--who could ask for more! Of course we are talking about lobster sex, here. Seriously, this one far exceeded my expectations--very informative while being very entertaining. (I'm hinting y'all should read it!)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck--deservedly a classic. Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking--a real surprise in a story about bunkhouse cowboys in the 1930's.

@5 jfetting: I found Bleak House more than equal to it's name, but then I find Dickens to be an incredibly oppressive author.

And on to August:

Despite reading 24 books this month, I must say my expectations were continually disappointed to one degree or another. The only book that really caught me off-guard was 'Blindness' which was brilliant. Thomas Mann finally won me over after enduring 300 pages of skepticism whereupon he became a rewarding chore. I enjoyed the Victorian sprawl of Collins and Eliot, although I was underwhelmed by Oliver Twist and Kim. Ran into a few "interesting" reads: Against Nature, Demian and The Satanic Verses that kept me bemused if not necessarily amused.

Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood last month.

1t. Blindness by José Saramago
1t. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
3. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Honorable Mentions: The Moonstone, The Three Musketeers

Really?: Survivor, Northanger Abbey

#7 - 24 books in August! Amazing....

August wasn't a great reading month for me. The one book I did fall in love with was All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison. Unfortunately, none of my other reads are worthy of noting...

I really enjoyed Wife in the North, which was my July ER book. Although I couldn't say I enjoyed it, Night by Elie Wiesel was one of the most disturbing, powerful, and important books I've ever read.

Bleak House by Dickens and Remains of the Day by Ishiguro were my favorites this month.

At the other end of the specturm....The Shack by William Young which I horsewhipped myself through for my book club.

This is a tough call, I read lots of good books. I'll have to go with:

The Girls by Lori Lansens - unique, well written, fascinating story and perspective

Restoration by Rose Tremain - great historical fiction

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean - ditto;

Runners up: March by Geraldine Brooks, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

Top of the poo pile: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. Trite, predictable, irritating.

Unlike July, August was a good reading month for me, and I have more than 3 bests.

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
In Hazard by Richard Hughes
Blood-Dark Track by Joseph O'Neill

my top 3 were easy picks this month:

Disquiet by Julia Leigh
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I only read 6 books in August, and most were just average, so I'm only going to list one favourite:

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits--short stories based on strange historical anecdotes, each followed by a brief note on the historical facts.

I finished 6 books in August and my top 3 were:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I found this book absolutely stunning.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammett. I loved his descriptions of how his mind works and how he sees numbers and words.

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Fictionalized account of the true story of the author's ancestor Martha Carrier, who was hanged as a witch in Salem in the 1690s. The language is lyrical and the book captured my interest and held it.

#1 DevourerOfBooks - I loved Zoe's Tale too and it surprised me for the same reason - I very rarely read SF. I absolutely hated One More Year, though - go figure!

#5 jfetting - I have had The Alexandria Quartet on my shelves forever. In what order should I read the books? I'm thinking that they will be good to start early next year (this year is already "booked" up.)

In August I did a bunch of reading about food allergy since my son's diagnosis as peanut allergic. If anyone is interested, the best of the books I read on the topic is Food Allergies for Dummies by Robert A. Wood.

Otherwise, I have two top reads for the month:
Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell
White Nights by Ann Cleeves

Finished 9 books in August. No real stand outs; average rating of 3/3.5

Two four stars -
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais - the latest Elvis Cole novel
The Maltese Falcon by Dasheill Hammett

3.5 star books that were more memorable than the other 3.5 books -
Martha Peake by Patrick McGrath
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Worst of the lot w/2.5 stars -
Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier - what a snoozefest.

My favorite for August was the widely debated Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. My other two top favorites were Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Volume 18 by Clamp and rare re-read of Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

I had a slow reading month, so I'll only list two. But both were wonderful:
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

#15 karenmarie - I think the official order goes Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and then Clea. You should definitely read them when you get a chance!

I spent nearly all of this month on A Monarchy Transformed (my other reading was mostly fluff when I was too sleepy to read my main book). Why? Well, because of the Ravelympics. (Long story.)

I read 8 books which is a lot for me and I enjoyed most of them. The best:

1. The Historian - this seems to be a love it or hate it one with LTers, but I loved it.

2. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman - fabulous historical fiction!

3. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - well-written tear-jerker.

honorable mention - Of Mice and Men

I read several very good books. The two high stand-outs were

Women in the Wall by Julia O'Faolain

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

I read several above-average books, but unfortunately, nothing really knocked it out of the park for me. My four-star books were:

1. Sweetsmoke by David Fuller: Very good as a first novel
2. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan: Pollan describes the way we should all eat
3. The Judas Strain by James Rollins: I almost never give a thriller 4 stars, but - although the story strains the limits of belief - it was well-written and even made me tear up a bit at the end.

ETA: Not sure why the touchstone for The Judas Strain isn't showing in the message.

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
The Touch by Colleen McCullough
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith

Hm. I read some good stuff this month, but I wasn't blown away the way I was with other books I read earlier this year. My top three books for August are:

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
2. Silk by Alessandro Baricco
3. Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer

Sweet Love was perhaps the biggest surprise of the bunch. I was expecting the other two to be good, but this one was a random pickup based on the cover art (yes, sometimes I am that person). I expected fluffy chick lit and got an interesting take on familial relationships instead.

What a fun idea for a thread! But now that I think about it I have trouble picking just three. I finished Moby Dick at the very start of August, and I think such a classic probably should rank high, but I really loved Ethan Frome and Summer by Edith Wharton, she writes such beautiful tragedies. I also embarrassingly read the whole Twilight series, which I will just count as one. Embarrassing but fun. But that leaves out Life of Pi and Penguin Island, which I feel bad excluding but didn't absolutely love, and the nonfiction Common Sense and Temptations of the West, which were both quite good. I'm obviously bad at this.

I post my month's reading in another group (Book of the Month Club) and the writing down of my feelings about the books helps me focus in on what really worked and what didn't for me. By the end of my writing about each book and looking at them all in context with each other, it becomes pretty easy for me to rank them.

Of course this may not work for everyone.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James

Nothing really wowed me during the month of August, but the best that I read were:

Son of the Morning by Linda Howard
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Lush Life by Richard Price

August wasn't so great for me.

1. The Queen in Winter, solely for the Sarah Monette novella. The rest of the book wasn't really on the same level; the Sharon Shinn novella was good, but I really don't care if I never read the other two again.

2. The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifteenth Annual Collection, ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Several stories really did it for me, and I enjoyed almost all the rest.

3. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb. I enjoyed it quite a bit while I was reading it, but the sequel was one of the most disappointing things I read last month. That taints my enjoyment of it, to a certain extent.

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Once in Every Life by Kristin Hannah Thanks to LT for introducing me to this author!!

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

Sympathy Between Humans by Jodi Compton

August was okay but not a stellar month. I read two 4.5s:

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (historical mystery)
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (ditto)

and a number of 4s, of which this one stands out:

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. (mystery thriller)

My tops for August are...

Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
The Making of a Philosopher by Colin McGinn

and a four-way tie for third: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, The Lords of the North, and Sword Song, all by Bernard Cornwell.

Taste: The Story of Britain Through its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun comes in a close fourth (and probably would have scored better if it hadn't grown more and more breezy at is progressed).

My favorite August reads are:

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
How to Read a Novel by John Sutherland

All of these stood head and shoulders above the rest of the month's reads.

I read lots in August and really enjoyed most of them so it has been very difficult to pick three.

Fup by Jim Dodge - absolutely delightful and so different from anything else I've read. Just a little book though - I read it in an hour.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - I'd wanted to read this for ages and wasn't disappointed by it. So beautifully written but without being mawkish.

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas - so many ideas in here, so much to think about. One of those books that I wish I was clever enough to have written.

Special mention should also go to 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills, which were also wonderful.

My top three:

1) Ines of my soul by Isabel Allende
2) My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
3) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Here are mine. Reviews are available at The Book Lady's Blog .

1. The Handmaid's Tale--far and away one of the best books I've read all year. Excellent!

2. Why We Hate Us--I just loved everything about it and could agree with Dick Meyer any more.

3. Matrimony by Joshua Henkin--wonderful story about real, flawed, human characters.

Lots of good books, but the three best were (in no special order),

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Dawning of the Day:A Jerusalem Tale

Survivor: A Novel , my first by Chuck Palahniuk but definitely not my last.

I read six, which I think is a personal record for one month, not sure. It helped that I enjoyed them all.

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - I gave it 5 stars because it took over my mind for a bit and really got me thinking
2. The Secret River by Kate Grenville - because it's just an unforgettable story.
3. To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck - Hard to explain why since I haven't really figured this one out.