****** Favorite Reads for Q3 2015

I can't believe it is the end of the third quarter, and time to think about the books you've read during the past three months.

What were your favorite books during July through September? Did you have any five star reads?

Have you discovered any new authors that you want to share with the group? Any surprises?

Were there any books that you really disliked, or that you were unable to finish?

Time goes by waaaaayyyy too fast for me anymore!

I didn't have any 5 star reads (at least I don't remember giving anything 5 stars!) but I thoroughly enjoyed Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson and Breakfast At Tiffany's and Three Other Stories by Truman Capote. A short while ago I finished the Universal Tone by Carlos Santana and loved it too.

I was surprised at how much I loved Capote's writing as he wasn't an author I had, with the one exception of hopefully mustering up the courage to read In Cold Blood), even considered reading before!

I don't think I'm going to finish anything else before the month ends, although if I do finish Rebecca, it will be near the top of the list.

My favorites this quarter were Framley Parsonage and The Small House at Alington by Anthony Trollope, along with A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. Editing this to add Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier as a five star read. I couldn't put it down.

I haven't read anything I disliked. I've found myself with a couple of new series, Inspector Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri and DS Alex Morrow by Denise Mina, thanks to Rebecca and Kay.

I've really been having a great reading year. Thank you all for adding to my wishlist.

I finished 12 books this quarter, and looking back at the list I've been pretty generous with the stars, but maybe not all stars are equal in my mind. Anyway, the three that stand out are Rue des boutiques obscures (Missing Person) by Patrick Modiano, Maus by Art Spiegelman and Floating Bridge by David Shumate: a novel, a graphic novel and a collection of prose poems. No 5 star non-fiction read, but the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses des Jésuites de Chine were a very nice surprise and I gave them 4 stars.

Looking back, I'm pretty happy with this quarter's reading.

I read a lot of mysteries in this quarter and while I enjoyed most of them I wouldn't count them as favorites.

My favorites were:

Phineas Redux and The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado
The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier
The Lights of Pointe-Noire bu Alain Mabanckou
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett

I don't think I'll finish anything but another mystery by the end of the month.

What were your favorite books during July through September? Did you have any five star reads?

I can't remember the last time I read a 5 star book--possibly 2013. But I did find these either enjoyable or memorable:

Capital, John Lanchester -- sprawling story set in London

The Joy of Writing Sex, Elizabeth Benedict -- as someone who often skims sex scenes because I tend to find them boring, this book shows how they are used to further plot and character in literature

The Trials of Honorable F Darcy, Sara Angelini -- really fun

Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel -- so much better than I expected

North of Normal, Cea Sunrise Person -- fascinating memoir that I recommend to everyone

Treasures of Time, Penelope Lively -- a comfort read

Summer House with Swimming Pool, Herman Koch -- disturbing and page turning

Howards End, EM Forster -- classic Edwardians--I just love them

Were there any books that you really disliked, or that you were unable to finish?

I didn't quite finish Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, but I don't fault the book or the author for my lack of interest. I was disappointed by Irma Voth just because I've liked other books by Miriam Toews so much better.

My five-star reads this quarter:

Poor Cow by Nell Dunn - a Virago Modern Classic set in the sixties in the east end of London.

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr - halcyon days of recovery after WWI.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson - Bryson's entertaining memoir of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa in the 50s.

I'm about to finish A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson that will likely be rated as another five-star read.

My 5-star reads for the past 3 months:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
My Struggle: Book One

Those three books are about as different from each other as it's possible to get!

I wasn't able to bring myself to finish Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, abandoning it in disgust at the halfway point.
I did finish The Bat, the first Harry Hole book, but I kind of wish I hadn't (although then I would have missed the spectacularly stupid ending, so there's that).

I'm probably going to finish one more book today, but it's not going to make this list. So...

I only had two books this quarter that merited 4 1/2 stars: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, and Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better by Clive Thompson.

There wasn't really anything I actively hated, but the two biggest disappointments were White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland (despite the fact that I enjoyed the previous books in the series as the fun brain candy they were intended to be) and Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson, which failed to live up to a really interesting premise.

I had 3 five star reads this quarter (am I being too generous?):

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir was totally gripping. The fall of the author from living as a rich and privileged "adopted" child of the Moroccan king in the 1960s to being banished by him to a lifetime in gruelling desert prisons was utterly horrendous yet totally compulsive reading. I loved the insight into life as part of the Moroccan royal family, and the twists and turns in the story made this a classic case of truth being way stranger than fiction. Not literary, but an incredible tale.

I also loved Girl With a Pearl Earring which was so beautifully written. I can still vividly see Griet mixing those blue colours in the attic studio.

Finally (and recently reviewed) I found Reading Like a Writer... such a rewarding book about literature, and one which I hope will positively impact my reading appreciation going forward.

Priya Parmar and Pia Juul are authors on my 'ones to watch' list going forward.

My wooden spoon award went to Shotgun Love Stories which was just too cringeworthy to continue with. I suggest the author reads Reading Like a Writer... for some much needed tips on dialogue and gesture.

>10 AlisonY: I had 3 five star reads this quarter (am I being too generous?):

Not in my opinion. I read Girl with a Pearl Earring and Reading Like a Writer, and they were both 5 star reads the years I read them.

I had a fairly productive quarter and made up for a lot of lost time. I read 21 books, one 5-star, and the rest were 4 or 4½ stars. There was a lot of escape reading this quarter, several by Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout and C.S. Forester.

Faves? 5-star reads? Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan 1475-1497 was the 5-star read, and it was totally absorbing. A wonderful book about Renaissance Milan. I probably should have given Steven Millhauser's The Barnum Museum 5 stars. It was definitely a favorite book during the quarter. And an honorable mention goes to The Castle of Perseverance, a late medieval morality play.

New authors? Surprises? Probably the most notable new author for me was C.S. Forester and his Hornblower series. I read four of them in September alone and am working on the fifth! Can't put them down: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Hotspur and Hornblower During the Crisis.

Really disliked? Unable to finish? None this quarter that I really disliked. There were a couple that I had some major quibbles with but on balance I got a lot out of them. The Garden of Allah by Robert S. Hichens was the book I had the most ambivalent feelings about while I was reading it. But in retrospect, my overall feeling about it now is of enjoyment. This happens . . .

(I found this thread fun to read through, seems like there is more commentary than normal ??)

I gave one book five stars, but...perhaps because my conflicting internal opinions always seems at war with each other, it doesn't feel like my favorite book of the quarter. Anyway, here are favorites in some kind of order

1. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

I know this book has issues and is hardly the most complex book I have ever read, but, for whatever reason, this and Suttree have grown in that background part of my brain. They seem to be taking up a lot of room. I gave it 4.5 stars.

then the rest take up a little less of whatever that is

2. The African by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio - I gave it 5 stars

3. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - the only McCarthy I would be willing to recommend. 4.5 stars

4. My Michael by Amos Oz - 4 stars

5. How Does a Poem Mean by John Ciardi - the poems are classics. But, as for the commentary, it was the last 20 pages of this 400 page book that really got my attention. 4.5 stars

honorable mentions: Uncle Ernest by Larry D. Thomas (poetry), A Malaysian Journey by Rehman Rashid

Audiobooks:

1. I Remember Nothing and I Feel Bad About My Neck by and read by Nora Ephron
2. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell - master narrator
3. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson - she reads fine, but this book should be read, not just listened to.