Mine was The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris. Share yours in the comments!
(Credit: My bookish friend Anne Bogel posed this question to her Instagram followers last week. I loved the idea and decided to shamelessly steal it for this audience.)
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. Such an amazing story of Theodore Roosevelt's terrifying adventure through part of the Amazon river, definitely earned the 5-star review.
Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow absolutely destroyed me in the best way. I just lied on my couch for an hour thinking after I finished it.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I read this 10 months after the birth of my first son, so I think the book hit me harder than it would have if I read it at another point in my life.
Cloud Cuckoo Land. Three different story lines that take place in different times and different places: The past, the present, and the future. And they all center around an Ancient Greek story and book.
The other 5 star read for me thus far this year is Matrix by Lauren Groff, loosely based on Marie de France, a 12th century nun. It was one of our reads in the bookclub and not everyone liked it, to say the least. I thought it was one of the best books I have read this year.
4000 Weeks by Burkeman. I am currently reading another 5-star-so-far that is kind of the Christian version of 4000 Weeks, You Are Not Your Own: How to be Human in an Inhuman World by Alan Noble. It's more philosophical than theological and dovetails well with Burkeman's secular take on many of the same issues.
The Plant Hunter: a Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicine by Cassandra Leah Quave
I loved this memoir that combines Quave's personal story with her career as an ethnobotanist. She discusses the urgent need to find new treatments- especially for drug resistant bacteria. Quave learns about traditional medicines from village elders, then tests those treatments scientifically, trying to isolate the effective compounds to be used to produce mass market medicines. I learned so much!
Atomic Habits by James Clear. Honestly a really helpful book which helped me to stop biting my nails. Next goal: stop smoking permanently, wish me luck!
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier, combining science fiction, thriller, and philosophy. It was deeply funny, wonderfully structured, and disturbed the hell out of me so much that I spent weeks reading up on __________ ______ (no spoilers). I had to go back and reread passages because they were marvelous.
My husband and I got into a heated argument over this book. How's that for an endorsement?
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton. One family's reality is slowly undone. Nothing is what it seems. Love, family, friendships, the safety of your mind and body, even your idea of who you are, all of it is held together with invisible strings that can pulled apart thread by thread.
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter. It is one of the best researched crime thrillers I have ever come across. It's been really hard for me to do anything else except read that book...
Just finished the wonderful memoir-meets-history “Why We Swim” by Bonnie Tsui. Bought the book and was not a swimmer, but it’s a soulful and interesting read!
Independent People by Halldor Laxness. Unforgettable story populated with memorable characters that takes place in early 20th century Iceland. Read it before recent Laxness article in the New Yorker, but agree 100%. Salka Valkha up next!
What was your last 5-star read?
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I liked a lot about that book.
The Screwtape Letters
A Gentleman in Moscow...liked it so much I'm going for a second read and loving it all over again!
Fahrenheit 451. I read it for the first time this summer.
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. Such an amazing story of Theodore Roosevelt's terrifying adventure through part of the Amazon river, definitely earned the 5-star review.
Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow absolutely destroyed me in the best way. I just lied on my couch for an hour thinking after I finished it.
Watership Down. So incredibly good!
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid :)
Making Habits Breaking Habits by Jeremy Dean. Also, anything by LeGuin.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I read this 10 months after the birth of my first son, so I think the book hit me harder than it would have if I read it at another point in my life.
Cloud Cuckoo Land. Three different story lines that take place in different times and different places: The past, the present, and the future. And they all center around an Ancient Greek story and book.
The other 5 star read for me thus far this year is Matrix by Lauren Groff, loosely based on Marie de France, a 12th century nun. It was one of our reads in the bookclub and not everyone liked it, to say the least. I thought it was one of the best books I have read this year.
Just read Coraline for the first time back in May and loved it so much. It was a very quick but wonderful read.
Bad City by Paul Pringle
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood can flat out write. Are her other books as good as this one?
4000 Weeks by Burkeman. I am currently reading another 5-star-so-far that is kind of the Christian version of 4000 Weeks, You Are Not Your Own: How to be Human in an Inhuman World by Alan Noble. It's more philosophical than theological and dovetails well with Burkeman's secular take on many of the same issues.
Circe by Madeline Miller
4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
The Plant Hunter: a Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicine by Cassandra Leah Quave
I loved this memoir that combines Quave's personal story with her career as an ethnobotanist. She discusses the urgent need to find new treatments- especially for drug resistant bacteria. Quave learns about traditional medicines from village elders, then tests those treatments scientifically, trying to isolate the effective compounds to be used to produce mass market medicines. I learned so much!
A Gentleman in Moscow and Black Cake
Brideshead Revisited, which I read for the first time this summer.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
“Jack” by Marilynne Robinson
Atomic Habits by James Clear. Honestly a really helpful book which helped me to stop biting my nails. Next goal: stop smoking permanently, wish me luck!
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources.
My last 5-star read was "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk. It's one of the few books that I've read multiple times.
Two books.
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier, combining science fiction, thriller, and philosophy. It was deeply funny, wonderfully structured, and disturbed the hell out of me so much that I spent weeks reading up on __________ ______ (no spoilers). I had to go back and reread passages because they were marvelous.
My husband and I got into a heated argument over this book. How's that for an endorsement?
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton. One family's reality is slowly undone. Nothing is what it seems. Love, family, friendships, the safety of your mind and body, even your idea of who you are, all of it is held together with invisible strings that can pulled apart thread by thread.
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon
Pure Life by Eugene Marten
The City & The City by China Mièville. Brilliant crime novel crossed with SF.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter. It is one of the best researched crime thrillers I have ever come across. It's been really hard for me to do anything else except read that book...
The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, by Christopher Beha. Blew me away.
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara. It’s alt-history and a shockingly plausible near future for the planet.
Lessons in Chemistry
Just finished the wonderful memoir-meets-history “Why We Swim” by Bonnie Tsui. Bought the book and was not a swimmer, but it’s a soulful and interesting read!
Song of Kali, by Dan Simmons. Horrifying!!
The Lincoln Highway by Towles. Though I’m a third through the new Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow so far it’s shaping up very well.
Radley Balko's "Rise of the Warrior Cop." Incredible and necessary research.
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner
Independent People by Halldor Laxness. Unforgettable story populated with memorable characters that takes place in early 20th century Iceland. Read it before recent Laxness article in the New Yorker, but agree 100%. Salka Valkha up next!