Top Five Books 3rd quarter 2008: July - Sept.

Well, I always open up these threads a little early which gives you all time to look over your lists of books read since June and see what jumps out at you (and then wonder if you will read anything in the next two weeks that will bump one of those reads).

And, as usual, I say five books as a guideline. If you've only read five in the three month period, you might only pick out the best one; or if you've read 100 books, maybe your top ten:-) Then there are those of us who chafe at measuring poetry against fiction or fiction against nonfiction. Apples and oranges, you see.

Last year was the first time we did these quarterly lists, mostly out of curiosity about how many books from early in the year make it to one's 'best of the year' list (do we tend to pick books that are fresh in our memories?).

Think about it and we'll see you all back here at the end of the month.

Here are mine (plus my star ratings):

Maus I - Art Spiegelman - (5) - (graphic novel)
Maus II - Art Spiegelmann - (5) - (graphic novel)
The Blessing of a Broken Heart - - Sherri Mandell - (5) - (nonfiction)
The Innocent Man - John Grisham - (5) - (nonfiction)
Survival of the Sickest – Sharon Moalem - (4) - (nonfiction)

As an aside, I read three (!) Early Reviewer books this quarter and didn't particularly care for any of them. :(

Best of the recently published that I've read this quarter.

The Spare Room, Helen Garner
The Road Home, Rose Tremain
The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
The Lost Dog, Michelle de Kretser
Breath, Tim Winton

The best of the rest

The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Unless, Carol Shields

It's probably a little premature, but here's my list so far.

Fiction
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
In Hazard by Richard Hughes
A Way of Life Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien

Nonfiction
Blood-Dark Track by Joseph O'Neill
The Dark Side by Jane Mayer

I am likely to add the two books I'm reading now, Tree of Smoke and The Cave Painters, and maybe will finish something else before the quarter is over, so this is a work in progress.

Edited in the hope that the touchstones will work this time.

Well, as rebeccanyc says above, it may be premature but:

Fiction
Measuring Time by Helon Habila -tradition vs modernity in Nigeria
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Discovering India in dual story lines.
The Journey Home by Olaf Olafsson - Coming to terms with memories on a trip home to Iceland
Kelroy by Rebecca Rush - Skewering of Philadelphia society (written in the early part of the 19th century)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - loosely connected stories most around Olive, set in Maine.

Rereads
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Satirical tale of a dystopia future.

Poetry
Incredible Good Fortune by Ursula le Guin

I am also likely to add the books I'm reading now: Why the Devil Chose New England for his Work stories by Jason Brown and, in the nonfiction category, If This be Treason: Translations and Its Dyscontents, A Memoir by Gregory Rabassa. Both are excellent.

After looking over the books I've read so far this quarter I'm pretty sure I know my tops, unless something really blows me out of the water between now and the end of the month (doubtful considering what books I have on tap.)

In order

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (young adult/urban fantasy)
Havemercy by Jaida Jones (fantasy)
Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale (urban fantasy/mystery)
Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey (young adult/fantasy)
If You Deceive by Kresley Cole (historical romance)

Top 5 manga:

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Volume 18 by Clamp (fantasy)
Mugen Spiral Volumes 1 & 2 (urban fantasy)
Gorgeous Carat (historical/adventure)
Silver Diamond (urban fantasy)
Imadoki (shojo)

There were only seven in that period I rated 4 star or better so, in no particular order:

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Farthing by Jo Walton
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

My top five:

Forever Lily-Beth Nonte Russell
An Irish Country Doctor-Patrick Taylor
Beautiful Boy-David Sheff
Bitter Sweets-Roopa Farooki
The Constant Princess-Phillipa Gregory

So far, only four that rated 5 stars:

Mistress of the Art of Death
Portrait in Sepia
The Gargoyle
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I'm going to wait until September ends to choose my fifth favorite. I've got a couple on the stack of TBRs for which I have great hopes.

I'm in the middle of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society right now. What a wonderful book!

The Book of Common Dread/a Novel of the Infernal by Brent Monahan (horror)
Escape From The Deep by Alex Kershaw (WW2, Naval History)
People Of The Book by Geraldine Brooks (Novel)
King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle (Science Fiction)
The Bedford Incident by Mark Rascovich (Naval Fiction)

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Eye of the Moon by Anonymous
Hiroshima by John Hersey
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

I had 6 this quarter, in no special order,

Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Survivor:A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Dawning of the Day;A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato

My only 5-stars seem to be:
The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (I'm halfway through and it's only getting better and better!)

I also enjoyed:
First Love, a novella by Ivan Turgenev (touchstone is close)
Look Me in the Eye, a memoir by John Elder Robison
Dewey: The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World, a memoir by Vicki Myron

The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
The Touch by Colleen McCullough
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith
Helen of Troy by Margaret George
Pompeii by Robert Harris

EDIT: I just had to bump something else to include Pompeii, which I finished last night - loved it! Robert Harris is a master.

Still ten days left in the quarter and I already have to edit my list. The pain! The pain!

I doubt that I'll get through the second volume of In Search of Lost Time before the month ends, so I'm going to go on the record now.

In the order in which I read them:
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (very strange, has a real staying power)
Songs of Enchantment by Ben Okri (second-best to The Famished Road, but so is almost anything else I've read)
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (big novel, brilliant satire, great story)
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo (funny, poignant, great characters)
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (what can I say? I'm in love)

Medellia12, Wizard of the Crow was one of my favorite books last year. I've just bought some other books by Ngugi wa Thiongo and am looking forward to reading it.

I am definitely adding Tree of Smoke to my list (#4), but I'll hold off on a completely final list until the end of the month.

It was a great 3 months of reading for me. I read 21 books, 7 of which I rated 4.5 stars. I guess I'd say my top 5 were:

Out Stealing Horses
Mosquito
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
All Passion Spent
Purple Hibiscus

I reserve the right to come back and change my mind in the next few days!!! Many great books.

Women in the Wall by Julia O'Faolain
The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Christine: SOE Agent and Churchill's Favourite Spy by Madeleine Masson

I'm with you, chritiguc, I may edit this list by the 30th. Hard to narrow it down, I read a lot of fantastic lit. I'll try.

The Girls by Lori Lansens
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Restoration by Rose Tremain

I'm almost positive that my current read, Music and Silence by Rose Tremain will also be on this list.

Also adding a couple of graphic novels that need to be in a class by themselves:
Persepolis and Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
Blankets by Craig Thompson

I've read some great stuff in the past three months (which coincides with me getting the reading bug again) so five is really tough. It is slightly easier if I address non-fiction separately.

Fiction (in no particular order)

Fup Jim Dodge
Naive Super Erlend Loe
Post Office Charles Bukowski
Choke Chuck Palahniuk
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor

Non-Fiction (not read that many so just picking two here)
The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion
84 Charing Cross Road Helen Hanff

Some great reads this quarter!

My top five - not likely to change in the next 8 days - in the order in which I read them:
* Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lemona's Tale by Ken Saro-Wiwa (published posthumously)
* Small Island by Andrea Levy
* Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

* 3 LT recommendations – thanks guys!

So I've read 50(!) books so far this quarter. I am in the middle of two and anticipate finishing one more in addition to these, but I don't think any of them are going to shove any of these books off this list, so in no particular order here it goes:

Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir
The Dracula Dossier by James Reese
Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks
Guernica by Dave Boling
One More Year by Sana Krasikov

Every one of these was sent to me for review, but that isn't a huge surprise, because that is true of all but 10 of the books I read this quarter. I'm not sure how I read 40 books for review and STILL have 40 on my shelf. I think they're breeding.

I'm pretty sure my list won't change between now and October, so here it is (in alphabetical order, because I'm unable to rank them):

1) The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
2) Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
3) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
4) Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
5) The Letters of Noel Coward by Noel Coward and Barry Day

It was a good quarter.

This quarter has been a good one! Lots of great books read. Here are my top five so far:

Sorry Gail Jones
Small Island Andrea Levy
The Road Home Rose Tremain
Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri
Disquiet Julia Leigh
The Girls Lori Lansens
The Lieutenant Kate Grenville
Two Caravans Marina Lewycka

Woops, started the list and five became eight. I am finding it too hard right now to cut out three of them, so might come back to it later!

judylou - how was the Lewycka book (I assume you liked it since it's on this list!) I was a bit underwhelmed by her Short History of Tractors in Ukranian.

teelgee - I listened to it on audio and the reader was excellent. I found it a lot funnier than "Tractors", although there were some underlying serious themes, I chose to listen to it without dwelling on them and simply *heard* the story itself.

I don't think I'll finish Kristin Lavransdatter before the end of the month, so I 'll do mine.

1. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
2. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
3. In the Woods by Tana French
4. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kaye Penman
5. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wrobelewski

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery (nonfiction on global warming)
3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
4. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
5. The Secret River by Kate Grenville

My reading is moving like sludge so I don't think I'll be finishing anything else this week. In no particular order:

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

I think that I can list my favourite books now- although I have trouble limiting my list to 5.

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Giant O'Brien by Hilary Mantel
Troll a Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo

and non fiction

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
A Royal Affair: George III and his Troublesome Siblings by Stella Tillyard.
A good reading quarter

In no particular order:

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - perfect guilty pleasure reading!
Forever by Judy Blume - hadn't read since high school and found I loved it just as much - another guilty pleasure. What can I say? It was summer.
and
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates - flawless piece of writing

My top books (in no particular order):

Silk by Alessandro Baricco
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott
Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund

Stealing Heaven was my favorite YA read of the quarter, and Rites of Spring (Break) was my favorite fluffy read.

I found my fifth 5-star book for the quarter!

Mistress of the Art of Death
Portrait in Sepia
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (LTER)
Mr. White's Confession (LTER)

I think I better stop reading for the rest of the month so I don't have to choose between one of the above titles and something else, like Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which is on my nightstand half finished, and The Somnambulist, which is also half finished.

On second thought, I think instead I'll read another Anita Blake Vampire Slayer book, which though fun is not likely to make 5 stars.

I've had an uneven quarter, a couple excellent, 3-4 mediocre, and the rest very good. My top five:

No Country for Old Men
Small Island
Loving Frank
About Alice
84 Charing Cross Road

Honorable mention to: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Sounds of the River, Skeletons at the Feast, and People of the Book.

Not as hard as I expected - I've really enjoyed my reading this quarter, but didn't have much trouble picking my top 5:

La disappariation de la langue française by Assia Djebar
Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I think it's safe to say that I will not finish anything new by Tuesday, so here are my favorites for the quarter:

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Victory of Eagles
A Walk in the Woods
The Shadow of the Wind
Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

Honorable mention (and it was close):
How to Read a Novel
The Mother Tongue

This is subject to change, as I'm almost finished with something that I think might make the list, but here are mine. They're listed in the order I read them, not my order of preference.

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Russia by Andrew Moore (touchstone wrong; this is an amazing photography book)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifteenth Annual Collection. ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Nymph by Francesca Lia Block

I'm a bit surprised at how far I had to stretch here. I read a lot of decent stuff this quarter, but very little of it was spectacular. Most of my favourites were rereads, which I don't count in summations like this.

And 8 becomes 9. I'm sorry but I have to add my latest read to this list.

The household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide

Not in any specific order:

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb
A Week in October by Elizabeth Subercaseaux

I am close enough to finishing By the Sea that I think I can post my final list. Since I have more than 5, I'm cheating by dividing them into groups!

New Fiction
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

Older Fiction
In Hazard by Richard Hughes
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
A Way of Life Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Nonfiction
Blood-Dark Track by Joseph O'Neill
The Cave Painters by Gregory Curtis
The Dark Side by Jane Mayer

Yes, I can post the final list now also.

Fiction
Measuring Time by Helon Habila -tradition vs modernity in Nigeria
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Discovering India in dual story lines.
The Journey Home by Olaf Olafsson - Coming to terms with memories on a trip home to Iceland
Kelroy by Rebecca Rush - Skewering of Philadelphia society (written in the early part of the 19th century)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - loosely connected stories most around Olive, set in Maine.
Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work : stories by Jason Brown. - short stories connected by geography, they center around the same fictional town in Maine. The title is taken from a Cotton Mather sermon.

Rereads
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Satirical tale of a dystopia future.

Poetry
Incredible Good Fortune by Ursula le Guin

Nonfiction
Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke. The Rabassa memoir will blow this entry away when I finish it but I've had to set it aside as non-related nonfiction affects my concentration on research.

1. Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima
2. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
3. The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
4. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
5. A Heart So White by Javier Marias

I'm not quite done with Kristin Lavransdatter, but I should be to at least page 900 or so by tomorrow night, so I'm including it here.

1. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
2. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
3. Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (LT Early Reviewer book)
4. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
5. 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance. I normally wouldn't include a book like this on this thread, but this one was very well done and a lot of fun.

>45 Talbin:, Your top two books are currently in contention for my favorite books of the year. I read both this year, and thought they were both excellent.

>46 shootingstarr7: They were great, weren't they? I think they're my top two books for the year so far, too.

1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. In The Woods by Tana French
3. City of Thieves by David Benioff
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer

And, unless something inexplicable happens in the last 100 or so pages
5. The Outlander a Novel by Gil Adamson

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four
2. Ender's Game
3. Brisingr
4. The Search for the Red Dragon
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns

>45 Talbin:: Shadow of the Wind was a stunning read, eh?

In chronological order of reading, my top five for the quarter are:

1. Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner
2. The Secret Scripture -- Sebastian Barry
3. Bleak House -- Charles Dickens
4. The Cellist of Sarajevo -- Steven Galloway
5. The Wife -- Sigrid Undset (Part Two of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy

The Alienist by Caleb Carr (3rd reading)
Salem’s ‘Lot by Stephen King (3rd reading)
The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy by Barbara Vine (2nd reading)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

It was kind of a bad quarter…did a lot of re-reading (as you can see) since nothing else was really resonating.

I have to break into fiction and non-, or I'll never get it down to five.

My top five fiction, alphabetical by author:

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Embers by Sandor Marai
The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

And my top three non-fiction:

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
The United States of Arugula by David Kamp
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, Charlotte Mosley, ed.

Fiction
Fingersmith***** by Sarah Waters
Oryx and Crake**** by Margaret Atwood
Back Roads**** by Tawni O'Dell
The Sister**** by Poppy Adams
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie

Honorable mention mystery edition
White Nights****1/2 by Ann Cleeves
Jar City**** by Arnaldur Indridason

Nonfiction
Take this Bread**** by Sarah Miles
Three Cups of Tea**** by Greg Mortenson
The Heart of Christianity**** by Marcus Borg

Wow! A great quarter for me...

My top five (all fiction):

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago (UK title; US title is Death with Interruptions)

Honorable mention:

Agamemnon's Daughter by Ismail Kadare
Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

top 5 in reading order
(all rated *****, read in 3rd quarter)

Wolfsroedel by Floortje Zwigtman
Meester van de Zwarte Molen by Otfried Preussler (translated in English The satanic mill)
Achter de maan by Sharon Creech (Dutch translation of Walk two moons)
Met de noorderzon by Jennifer Donnelly (Dutch translation of A northern light)
Hou van die hond by Sharon Creech (Dutch translation of Love that dog)

#54: Wow, great book list. The Remains of the Day is one of my top 5 for this year.

In chronological order:

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
3. The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
4. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
5. The Girls by Lori Lansens
6. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
7. The Road Home by Rose Tremain

Non-fiction:

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
2. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Excluding re-reads:

18-19th Century

1. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
2. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac

Honorable Mention: Against Nature, Emma, The Wings of a Dove

20th Century

1. Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust
2. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
3. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
4. The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
5. Blindness by José Saramango

Honorable Mention: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Tropic of Cancer, La Vagabonde

Non-Fiction

1. Gulag Archipelago Vol. I & II by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2. Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

Because 21/2 of those months were semi-vacation for me I read a lot of mysteries and light novels which wouldn't make this list--so I didn't have much to choose from

In order of being read:

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane--loved it; glad I waited this long to read it because I might not have liked it when I was younger.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali--a memoir of a Muslum woman who ran away from an arranged marriage and became an activist for Muslim women's rights. (The story is much better and more informative than that summary! It goes from childhood to adulthood--highly recommended.)

The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson, an LT author--Bought on a whim from a 3 for 2 table because my husband found 2 he wanted and neither one of us could find a third one we craved. Sat on my shelf until I discovered it was an LT author. so I decided to read it and it blew me away. "Science, sex and politics!" Who could ask for anything more! Seriously, one of the best nonfiction books I read this year. Highly recommended. Definitely not dry!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck--a lovely, short novel; another one that I'm glad I waited until I was older to read it. So much crammed into so few pages--that man could write!

What Do We Know and Red Bird by Mary Oliver--I read tham back to back and I couldn't choose between them. Besides together they are less than 200 pages. And Mary Oliver is a wonderful poet--suface simlplicity with hidden depths and beautiful descriptive language.

(edited to add missing words--like Bingley my thoughts run faster than I can write!)

Wow, zanix, a real powerhouse list, and yes, I am impressed. It took me nearly 30 years to get around to all those, and you did it in a quarter.

Glad to see the Gurnah getting some attention. A great book.

It was a slow reading quarter for me, so I don't have my normal crop to choose from. My top reads were:

Take This Bread by Sara Miles
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg

I glad to see so many mentions of Three Cups of Tea!

Tomorrow my local library will start its community read of that book--anyone who wants to come to the meetings (every other week usually over 2 months) receives a free copy of the book for joining. We do this twice a year and it is fun because it attracts all ages including teenagers -- a couple of the English teachers at the high school come and give extra credit to any of their students who come, also.

MusicMom, that program at your library sounds cool. It seems a good way to draw more folks to the joys of book conversation.

Top five for July-Sept. in no particular order:

1.Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
2.The Road by Cormac McCarthy (audio version)
3.Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
4.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5.In a Dark House by Deborah Crombie (audio version)

Honorable Mention:

Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson
Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith
Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling

Cheryl

My top 5 for July-Sept are:

1. I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
2. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
3. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
5. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Here's my top fiction and non-fiction for last quarter:

My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates - a scathingly satiric re-imagining of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, occasionally heavyhanded, but mostly an unputdownable story of those stuck in 'Tabloid Hell'.

America America by Ethan Canin - a bracingly old-fashioned novel about politics and family, beautifully written, and worthy of a much wider audience.

A Better Angel by Chris Adrian - Adrian's a practicing pediatrician as well as a last-year Harvard divinity student, and his brand of medical magical realism is showcased in these 9 dazzling stories.

English Passengers by Matthes Kneale - one of the most engaging historical novels I've ever read, as consistently hilarious as it was thrilling.

Indignation by Philip Roth - this is the high-water mark, and my favorite, of Roth's last 3 novellas, writing like he's 30 years younger.

And exceptional non-fiction too:

The Forever War by Dexter Filkins - reading Filkins' book is like being hit by a flame thrower, a senior war-correspondent's masterful account of his 6 years on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant - urged on by Mark Twain, Grant wrote this elegantly low-key account of his war years as he was dying of throat cancer, a rightful American classic that's never been out-of-print.

The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography by Philip Roth - after Roth details his life to age 55 in the first 3/4 of this charmingly jaunty but bloodless memoir, his greatest character Zuckerman surfaces, and spends the last quarter of the book scolding him for his failings as an autobiographer.

In no special order:

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Son of the Morning by Linda Howard

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Lush Life by Richard Price

My favorite of the lot was Remains of the Day - simple and perfect.

Hmmm, it's been a dry quarter for really good books here, but these are the best of what I've read:

13 Steps Down by Ruth Rendell
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
Tunnels by Gordon/Williams
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

>67 LouisBranning: Louis, I just saw an interview with him yesterday. Very interesting.

Now that my reading for September is done, here are my top five:

1. Watchmen by Alan Moore
2. World War Z by Max Brooks
3. Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
5. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe

Well I read exactly five books in the last quarter (reading for pleasure that is not academic!). Only 2 were books that I would recommend to a friend and the are classics which everyone has heard of:

1984 by George Orwell
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

1984 well what's not to recommend? However what made it extra special was that my boyfriend read it too. My boyfriend hasn't read many novels of late (he reads plenty of other things relating to electrical engineering) but he was keen to read this one because it's alluded to all the time in popular culture.

Love in the Time of Cholera was fantastic. I haven't watched the movie yet nor did I read any reviews beforehand so I was completely ignorant of what the book would hold. South American authors really know how to tell a good story!

Finally in academic reading I did read New Zealand and the Vietnam War: Politics and Diplomacy by Roberto Rabel and learned a lot. I had known a lot about the Vietnam War but for the first time I looked at specifically New Zealand's involvement and how it contributed to our foreign policy decisions later on.

Top five in the order read:

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelhlo
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Honorable mentions:
The Places that Scare You by Pema Chodron
Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

My top five for the third quarter of 2008:

1. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 13 edited by Stephen Jones
2. Shadow Dance by Angela Carter
3. Mirror, Mirror: Forty Folktales for Mothers and Daughters to Share edited by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple
4. The Bromeliad Trilogy Book 2: Diggers by Terry Pratchett
5. Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn

Honorable mention:

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Louis... I have looked at My Sister, My Love many times. I just can't seem to
read Joyce Carol Oates. Your summary has helped me to strike that one from my list of maybes ... thank you!

lots of interesting mentions here.

Mine are...

1. I, the Divine by Rabih Alameddine

2. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

3. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

4. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane

5. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

My top five (in order read) are:

1. In the Woods by Tana French
2. Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
3. Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
4. Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me by Martin Millar
5. Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein non-fiction but a wake-up book as to what is going on in our country.
The Writing on theWall Lynn sharon Schwartz A good story about post 911 N.Y. City.
Enchanted April Elizabeth von Arnhim Happy story of 3 English ladish who suddenly rent a villa in Italy
Ex Libris Anne Fadiman a book about book lovers
The Big house another non-fiction written by Anne Fadiman's husband about a summer house on the New Encland that has been in his family for 4 generations, but now they are selling it.