Favourite Reads 2018 Q1

Here it is, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. We hope for this



although many of us are expecting a nor'easter.

With ten days left in the quarter it's time to start thinking about what stood out in your reading for the past three months. What books kept you riveted, still linger in your mind?

Did you discover any new to you authors whose works you will explore further?

Feel free also to warn your fellow readers of any books that stood out as titles to be avoided at all costs.

I read soooooo many good books this quarter! And I am unable to pick one over the other (how does one compare an Ondaatje and a Nicola Barker?

Fiction:
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018, Canadian, not out in US until May, haven't reviewed this yet)
West by Carys Davies (2018, due out in April)
The Mountain: Stories by Paul Yoon (2017, US)
Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah (2018, T French, just out now). Remember her previous, The Last Brother?
H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker (2017, UK, not presently out in the US)

Nonfiction:
The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter (2017, biography)
It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America by David Cay Johnson
Women & Power: A Manifestoby Mary Beard (2017)

Lots of stuff that was just ok so far this year.

Books that stand out:

Fiction
The Perfect Nanny - Leila Slimani
The Power - Naomi Alderman
White is for Witching - Helen Oyeyemi (a re-read)

Non-Fiction
So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
Electoral System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World

>2 avaland: Glad you liked "West." I pre-ordered to fit with next year's novella reading theme. Always like to keep up with the literature of "my people," even though it's set in the U.S., and Davies has pretty international setting for her short stories.

The great surprise of this first quarter was Cristallisation secrète by Yoko Ogawa, a strange story about an island in which things disappear, one by one, from the collective awareness of people. It was my first book by this author and I really liked it.

On the nonfiction front, The autobiography of Malcolm X was an eye-opener for me.

The prefect by Alastair Reynolds was yet another great book in the Revelation Space series. Le ventre de Paris was a very good Zola, and The lifecycle of software objects by Ted Chiang a very touching novella about how we could relate to AIs.

>4 nohrt4me2: Your people being....

>6 avaland: Oh, sorry, Welsh.

Introvert: The Magnificent Mind's Resource For Emotional , Social , Professional, And Intellectual Success

a fornuate life by ab facey

Well, I might or might not finish the book I'm currently reading before the quarter ends, but it's definitely not going to make this list.

So, my best reads of the quarter, based on what I gave at least 4.5 stars:

Fiction:
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Mathew Sullivan

Non-fiction and Humor:
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
Science: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness by Zach Weinersmith

Easy for me as I've only read 9 books so far this quarter (a lot for me but not as much compared to others) and all have been excellent but these are my best for sure.

Ray Bradbury : Fahrenheit 451
Margaret Atwood : The Handmaid's Tale
Barbara Demick : Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Sawako Ariyoshi : The Twilight Years
Matthew Lewis : The Monk

I've also not read too many books in Q1. I've been fortunate to have lots of 4 star reads, but a couple that stand out above that would be Tove Jansson's The Summer Book and Lionel Shriver's The Post Birthday World.

My reading picked up in March, so I feel more on track for the year. I've had a couple of very good reads:

Underworld by Don DeLillo
Democracy by Joan Didion
Persuasion (re-read)

Adding Mary Beard's Women & Power: A Manifesto to my list above.

Interesting mix here. I had thought to do some kind of look at "what are we reading now?" from the favourites above. With the exceptions of The Monk, Le Ventre de Paris, and Fahrenheit 451, most of the reading is firmly in the latter part of the twentieth century and on up to current day.

Not surprisingly, Politics seems to have crept in more than usual for this group, both in nonfiction and fictional format.

One surprise though is that there is no overlap in favourites, although I know that some of the books mentioned have been discussed by several readers in the last quarter - all part of the wonderful variety that is LT.

What will the second quarter bring?

A bit late to the party, but here is my list of stand-out reads from January-March 2018:

Fiction:
Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
Sabriel - Garth Nix (a reread and a favorite)
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama
The Queen's Thief series - Megan Whalen Turner

Non-Fiction:
Shoe Dog - Phil Knight
A Jane Austen Education - William Deresiewicz

I'm late also, but here is my list.

1. The Muse by Jessie Burton
2. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
3. The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu

Me too, but I've had a minute to look back at these were my favorites.
Fiction:
Time Regained by Proust (I finished!)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Nonfiction:
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

I've also enjoyed "rereading" Jane Austen on audio and finished Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice. Her books work really well on audio.

Another one who forgot that the end of the quarter means a “best of” thread...

A lot of good stuff in Q1 for me, not easy to pick out just a few. Quite a bit of what I read was stuff that I expected to enjoy and did — Trollope, Hardy, Zola, Muriel Spark, the new Hollinghurst, the new Fred Vargas, Gehen, ging, gegangen, etc.

The things that took me by surprise in a very good way included
- The good hope by William Heinesen — a wonderful historical novel set in the Faroes in the 17th century
- Muerte Súbita (Sudden death) by Alvaro Enrique — I never thought I’d find myself enjoying a tennis novel!
- El viajero del siglo (Traveller of the century) by Andrés Neuman — fun with German romanticism

It was interesting to get to grips with Wordsworth at last, especially through the excellent biography by Stephen Gill, and also to deal at last with the African backlog on my TBR shelf, including Wole Soyinka, Doris Lessing and the monumentally impossible Mr Myombekere.

>14 SassyLassy: Interesting observations! I hope others will continue to stop in and post their favorites from quarter one. I certainly enjoy reading about them.

>19 avaland: I guess I should add my own favourites. The quarter was a really good reading one for me, although I am not caught up on my reviews as yet.

My favourites would include two completely different novels for fiction: Doruntine, also known as The Ghost Rider, by Ismail Kadare and Katalin Street, by the new to me Magda Szabó

For good old fashioned plain fun there was La Reine Margot and for non fiction, Winter Sea.

The books not reviewed as yet, although on the whole good, would not make it onto the "favourites" list.

>18 thorold: Glad to see Sudden Death up there!

I had a number of 4 star reads in the first quarter, but these books, all rated 4-1/2 stars or higher, stood above the others:

5 stars
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck

4-1/2 stars
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's by Joseph Jebelli

Nearly ready for the 2nd quarter.. oh well here's my offering:

Nonfiction/ memoir
Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives with Memory Loss by Jann Arden I have long been a fan of her song writing and musical performances and found this book touching and cathartic.

Fiction
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See - a bit too' happily ever after', but a very interesting look at the Tea industry in China, the one child policies and the 'exporting' of girls for adoption.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - I had put off reading this one and now regret that I took so long to get to it. Atwood is amazing!
Memory Wall: Stories by Anthony Doerr- I can't wait for this author to write more. His work rests in my mind for weeks after reading it. Considering that I always have a new book to get to- that's impressive.

Last quarter, I particularly enjoyed:


Fiction
Mémoire de fille by Annie Ernaux
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
Pelle the Conqueror : Childhood by Martin Andersen Nexø


Non-fiction
Histoire mondiale de la France by Patrick Boucheron
Le corps d'exception : Les artifices du pouvoir colonial et la destruction de la vie by Sidi-Mohammed Barkat

>20 SassyLassy: I'm glad other people liked Doruntine and Katalin Street. They're among my favourite novels!

>20 SassyLassy: Read Szabó's The Door if you get the chance—it's terrific. I have (though haven't read yet) Katalin Street and Iza's Ballad just because I liked that one so much.

My last quarter favorites:

Fiction
Improvement by Joan Silber
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Brass by Xhenet Aliu

Nonfiction
The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat
Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow

Tell us your favourite reads for Q2 here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/293117