*****Best Reads of the Quarter - First Quarter 2010

Zoe said she would like to have a quarterly thread, so here it is. I am not, however, limiting the number of picks (primarily because I will never narrow down my list to just five - deal with it!)

So here are mine, thus far this year:

Nonfiction
The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns
Larry Burrows: Vietnam by Larry Burrows
The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift
Waterlog by Roger Deakin
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebekah Skloot

Fiction
Salvation by Sholem Asch
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry
The Party by Rudolph Von Abele
The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip

Young Adult
Genesis by Bernard Beckett
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright

(copied from the What Are You Reading Now? thread)

These are my top five, in the order in which I read them:

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa

Honorable mention: Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig, which was included in the collection Selected Stories, was my favorite work of fiction of the first quarter, but the book as a whole falls short of my top five list.

Here are mine, in order:

1. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
2. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4. The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
5. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Helperin

You guys are disappointing me - why only 5? lol

Haaaaaa because I've only read 14!

#5: OK, I forgive you. I am not forgiving Darryl, though :)

Probably in order of preference:

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

And a bonus nonfiction:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Fiction:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Last Days of Dogtown
Krik? Krak!
Going Bovine

Non Fiction:
Mountains Beyond Mountains
The Age of Empathy
The Harvard Psychedelic Club
In the Company of Crows and Ravens

I've narrowed by fiction down to five. For non-fiction I've only picked three as I haven't read many more.

Fiction
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson

Non-Fiction
It's only a movie by Mark Kermode
A Freewheelin Time by Suze Rotolo
Hacienda How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook

In no particular order:

Fiction

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Still Life by Louise Penny

Non-fiction

The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright.

Thanks for starting this thread, Stasia! I'm already getting lots of good ideas, not that my TBR pile needed any help.

My top 5, in the order I read them:
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

I think 5 of 19 is an appropriate number; also, these happen to be all the ones I gave 4.5 stars (5 stars are mostly reserved for books that I still love after a reread). It's impressive that 4 of the 5 were either group reads or TIOLI.

Also, there are already three mentions of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks! I will really have to read that one.

ETA authors

#11: Yes, do get to the Henrietta Lacks book, Zoe. You will not be sorry.

Copied from What Are You Reading thread:

It's been an excellent reading quarter, with a few duds. These are in no particular order.

Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

Runner-up: Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg

Favorite reread: The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy

Anyone interested in my thoughts on these an my other reads can visit my 75 Book Challenge thread or my Club Read 2010 thread.

I also posted my Top Five on the What Are You Reading thread, but I'm taking Stasia up on her generous offer to include more! These are the books I've rated 4.5 or 5 stars for this past quarter. They're listed in the order that I read them...

The Solace of Leaving Early -- Haven Kimmel
Their Eyes Were Watching God -- Zora Neale Hurston
Let the Great World Spin -- Colum McCann
The Moonflower Vine -- Jetta Carleton
The Lacuna -- Barbara Kingsolver
Mountains Beyond Mountains -- Tracy Kidder (NF)
The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck

I see people in this group (at least in this thread) do not like ratings.

My top reads of the first quarter 2010, in order of ratings (though I've removed the ratings so as to better adapt to the others in this thread).

35 The Black Shields by John Maddox Roberts (same series as #33) SF; Post-apocalyptic
17 The Whole Truth by David Baldacci Mystery, adventure/thriller
03 Altar of Eden by James Rollins Thriller/Suspense, Action/adventure; SF
33 The Islander by John Maddox Roberts (same series as #35) SF; Post-apocalyptic
36 Shroud for the Archbishop by Peter Tremayne (same series as #25) Historical Fiction, Mystery
13 Rite of Passage by Richard D'Agostino * Action/Adventure; Archaeology
25 Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne * (same series as #36) Historical Fiction, Mystery
08 Heat Wave by Richard Castle * Mystery: police
01 Honor of Spies by W.E.B. Griffin and William Butterworth IV Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Spy
27 Split Image by Robert B Parker Mystery; police

* first books I've read by those authors.

(number is order in which I read them this year)

edited: I had everything linked properly but then I had to do an edit and now I can't get some of them linked.

#14: I'm taking Stasia up on her generous offer to include more

I am glad someone has!

Since I'm not limited to 5, here are my 4.5-5 star reads of the year including rereads (in the order read):

Fiction:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Blackout by Connie Willis
Emma by Jane Austen
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell
Soulless by Gail Carriger
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

Comics:
Frequently Asked Questions and
Reader's Advisory by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes

How could I have omitted one of my few 5-star books? Sorry, Bill!

Light in August -- William Faulkner

#18: I am sure he will forgive you :)

In star order (through the 4's):

Shades of Grey
The City and the City
Boneshaker
Eye of the Red Tsar
The Black Cauldron
The Magicians and Mrs Quent
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death
The Anubis Gates

It's interesting that while I've read more nonfiction than just the one this year, I seem to have only given one of them more than 3.5 stars. I need to get better nonfiction...I'm on Thelonius Monk right now and that one's looking like it'll make the cut next quarter.

I think January has my faves do far!

The Crow Road
God of Small Things
Half of a yellow sun

Both (I think) go in my top 20 of all time.

(Edited to add Half of a yellow sun)

Here are my faves of Q1:

Beware of God by Shalom Auslander (this is a book of short stories - they aren't ALL great, but the good ones are really good)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - translation by Simon Armitage
Travels with Herodotus - Ryszard Kapuscinski
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
The New House by Lettice Cooper

#22 JanetinLondon Beware of God is one of my favorite books, in fact it went in my Christmas card 2 years ago as the best book of the year. My sister says my Christmas cards are too angry.

I’ve read 41 books so far this year here are my favorites
Cleopatra's Daughter by, Michelle Moran
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by, Beth Hoffman
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by, Sarah Addison Allen
The Poacher's Son by, Paul Dioron
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by, Alan Bradley
Midnight Fires:A Mystery with Mary Wollenstonecraft by, Nancy Means Wright
Cry Wolf and Hunting Ground by, Patricia Briggs
Still Alice by, Lisa Genova
The Glass castle by, Jeannette Walls
When You reach me by, Rebecca Stead
The garden of Eve by, K.L. Going
My Antonia by, Willa Cather

My top 5 this year are:

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Sloot
The Spare Room by Helen Garner

#23 I love the irony of a book of stories about orthodox Jews being your Christmas card book of the year!

Best reads of the quarter are:

Top 10 Fiction
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham
Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym
The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson

Non-Fiction
Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright

Natural Grace by Matthew Fox
and Rupert Sheldrake

The Collected Books of Jack Spicer
by Jack Spicer

Investigating Obsolescence by Nancy Dorian

Science: 100 Essential Scientists
by Jon Balchin

Philosophy: 100 essential Thinkers
by Philip Stokes

My top 5 this year are:

Venetian Betrayal
Lost Throne
California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War
Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President
Empire of Ivory

What surprises me the most is that it is evenly (?) distributed among non-fiction and fiction (mystery/thriller and fantasy). Does that mean that my reading of choice is evening out too?

I'm excited to see that some of the books listed so far are on my TBR for the year. Such great stuff to look forward to.

My list of however many before I finally stop myself (it's been a good quarter)

Fiction:
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - wow
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
His Majesty's Dragon and the other Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
Sugar by Bernice McFadden

Nonfiction:
Pops: a Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray

I like Stasia's categories, so I'm copying her model:

Non Fiction
The Measure of Our Days: A Spiritual Exploration of Illness by Jerome Groopman
Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain: Literary Lives from Shakespeare's Old England to Frost's New England by Eliot Engel
The Most They Ever Had by Rich Bragg

Fiction
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

Young Adult

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Favorite reads of the first quarter - 2010

In order of favor:

1. Tomcat in Love - Tim O'Brien - novel
2. The Leisure Seeker - Michael Zadoorian - novel
3. The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit - Michael Zadoorian - short stories
4. The Spare Room - Helen Garner - novel/Early Reviewer
5. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin - novel/Irish fiction

Here are my top reads for the first quarter, in no particular order:

Fiction:
Lips Touch: Three Times - Laini Taylor
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead
Soulless - Gail Carriger

Nonfiction:
The Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death - Deborah Blum
Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History - David Aaronovitch

I've read some great fiction already this year, not so many great children's or YA books so far, and I just haven't managed to read much nonfiction:
(no particular order to these)

Fiction:
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander (2007)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004)
An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (2009)
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev (2006)
Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor (1938)
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (1972)
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (2009)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)

children's & young adult:

A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines (1968)
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (2007)
Ancient Appetites by Oisin McGann (2007)

nonfiction:
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace - I only read this one essay from Gourmet Magazine (August 2004)
The Motorcycle Diaries: a journey around South America by Che Guevara (1992)

I've had a very good few reading months. Standouts for me were:

Evening Is The Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan
Cassandra At The Wedding by Dorothy Baker
Remind Me Who I Am, Again by Linda Grant

and two books in cartoon form, Alice In Sunderland by Bryan Talbot and Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan.

I also had a lot of fun reading Doomsday Book, and would recommend Women In The Wall for anyone who likes good writing and doesn't mind sometimes tough subject matter.

What a strange book Women in the Wall looks to be. You mean the one by Julia O'Faolain? After reading the description I had to put it on my wish list.

My standout books for the first quarter were:

Fiction

Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson
The Summoner: Chronicles of the Necromancer #1 - Gail Z. Martin
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik

Non-Fiction

Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin
The Book of the Courtesans - Sarah Griffin
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes - David Grann

I had a really great quarter. It is one of the many gifts of LT that the quality of books I read has increased.

Here then are my 4, 4.5 and 5 star reads for the first quarter.

Fiction
Olive Kitteredge - Elizabeth Strout
Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby
A Rule Against Murder - Louise Penny
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson

Non-fiction
Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
Love is a Mix Tape - Rob Sheffield

My favourite books of Q1:

Fiction
Persuasion by Jane Austen
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Non-fiction
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science by Mary Roach
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Love these threads. Piles more books to add to my BookMooch wishlist!

My favorites of Q1:

Fiction
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon by Jane Austen
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Non-fiction
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets by Cadillac Man
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel

YA/IR
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

My favourite reads from 1 January to 31 March were

Fiction

Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
Sarah Dunant, Sacred Hearts
Roddy Doyle, The Dead Republic
Willy Vlautin, Lean on Pete
S J Rozan, Trail of Blood - published in the US as The Shanghai Moon

Children's and Young Adult

Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Joan Aiken, The Cuckoo Tree
Kate Saunders, Beswitched

Non fiction

Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit, Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad
eds Sian Williams and Carol White, Struggle or Starve
Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child
Jenna Bailey, Can Any Mother Help Me?
Christina Hardyment, Dream Babies

My top five so far:

1) Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
2) A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
3) Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
4) Between Assasinations - Aravind Adiga
5) The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Top 5 for the year

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Alain de Botton
The Sportswriter Richard Ford
A Good Keen Man Barry Crump
Love and Poison David Barnett
The 10pm Question Kate de Goldi

>42 ThereseW:, our bookclub read The Virgin Suicides based on a few peoples high opinion of Middlesex but most of us found it not as good, have you read both? What do you think?

Going by my star ratings, my top four (all 5 star) are

A map of home
Half the sky
The invisible mountain
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (audiobook)

I had a lot of 4 star books too, and these are the ones I'd like to add as memorable:

Born to run (audiobook)
Sea of poppies
John Marsden's Tomorrow series (especially A Killing Frost) first published in Australia as The third day: the frost

>44 markon:, hey Markon, I'm interested in audio books, when do you -(you as in all people who use them) listen to them? (I actually typed "read them" before realising!)

The only people I have met who use them were people who drive, a lot. Does voice of the reader have the potential to ruin it, or do you just eventually get used to an unusual one? Are they always the whole book, or do they miss bits. What's your verdict? I seem to paw over them in the book shops but havent bought one yet.

#45 I listen while I drive, it makes the commute so much more enjoyable. I've also been known to listen while I do house or yard work. My brother and his wife used to listen to them in bed at night, but I'm sure I'd fall asleep and not know where I left off.

The narrator is very important. A book has to be very, very good to hold the listener's attention with a bad narrator. George Guidall is excellent as is Barbara Rosenblat (I think that's the spelling). I heard Madeline L'Engle read one of her books once and she was distractingly bad. Also, some authors write in a more oral fashion than others. Louise Erdrich has a style that begs to be read aloud.

I do miss some bits and have to rewind on occasion. If traffic is bad or I'm looking for directions, I always stop the book.

My best read this quarter was Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater the best and most original werewolf book I have read.

#45 - I used to use them to make my commute bearable, but I currently live only 4 miles from work (yippee!), so I use them for bedtime stories/insomnia calming.

I find that there are some light authors that I read and enjoy that don't hold up well on audio - if something is not well written, it really shows up when read aloud.

And a good narrator really makes the experience. Water for elephants was the best ever because of the two actors reading the parts.

I listen when I'm exercising or working on my needlework. Audio books are great!

#45- I listen while I'm doing dishes, cooking, cleaning the kitchen and when I shower.I am also lucky enough to listen at work.
Yes sometimes a reader can wreck a book but the majority of the time they can make the book better my favorite reader is Davina Porter.

I just finished listening to The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. The narrator, Michael Boatman, was excellent actor and had a wonderful ability to speak in various accents. Now I'm listening to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and the narrator, Doug Ordunio, is not theatrical at all. He sounds more like a professor giving a lecture which is the correct treatment of the subject.

Re: audio books....that's all so interesting! Thanks for filling me in. They aren't a big thing here (NZ) but I suspect their "readership" is growing.

I would love to go on a long road trip and listen to entire books being read to me!