Pat Conroy's South of Broad.

Heather wrote: "Maureen wrote: Yay, another Blind Assassin lover! That was the first book my face-to-face book club read (about 6 years ago now). Most everyone disliked the book, one person thought it was alright,..."

I've yet to read another Atwood, but I think I'm shooting for The Handmaid's Tale as my next one.

Liz wrote: "Heather wrote: "My most recent 5 star read was The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was my first Atwood book and it won't be my last. "
I would read The Handmaid's Tale. It's very..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Liz! I went out and bought Handmaid's Tale after I finished Blind Assassin ;)

Maureen wrote: Yay, another Blind Assassin lover! That was the first book my face-to-face book club read (about 6 years ago now). Most everyone disliked the book, one person thought it was alright, but I loved it. (I'm called The Blind Assassin apologist now.) It, too, was my first Atwood novel. I didn't really know what to expect, and based on the summary, it seemed like something that I wouldn't particularly care for. But I was riveted, and couldn't put it down. Glad you enjoyed it, too!

Maureen, I can't believe you were the only one in your group who loved it! I read it along with two other GR friends and we all ended up giving it 5 stars. Like you, I had absolutely no idea what to expect with it and was so pleasantly surprised I ended up loving it like I did! Have you read any of her other books? I have Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale and am really looking forward to reading them. I hope I enjoy them as much as BA!

Olive Kitteridge, Sad but absolutely beautiful.

Read Water for Elephants and loved the story and the way author wrote it. Our liittle book club in Alma, Wisconsin just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and everyone enjoyed it. We had a very enjoyable discussion.

Shadows sound very good! I like a little mystery!
Thanks for the recommendation.

Linda wrote: "Just beginning Water for Elephants and love the writing style of this author. I recently finished The Thirteenth Tale and thought it was EXCELLENT! What an original and gripping plot with unforget..."

I just gave Five stars to Water for Elephants. It was great! I also just gave 5 stars to Shadows in the Asylum The Case Files of Dr. Charles Marsh by D.A. Stern. It was so creepy and I loved the unusual way it was set up. It's set up like a doctor's case files with journal excerpts, clippings and such. It makes it seem very real.

I heard that its going to be a trilogy. Exciting! :)

Jo wrote: "I gave The Host 5 stars. I was so much better than i expected! "

So true! I loved it too. I thought it was so much better than Twilight. Hopefully Stephenie Meyer will write a sequel. =)

Li wrote: "Recent books I gave 5 stars to were:

- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (enjoyable from start to finish)
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (very insightfu..."

The one by Tolkien I would like to read! Every book that says "Tolkien" I just have to. :-) I think I'll buy it

Two recent books I have given 5 stars to are...
SHANGHAI GIRLS and SHUTTER ISLAND!!

Recent books I gave 5 stars to were:

- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (enjoyable from start to finish)
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (very insightful read)

This is an interesting thread. I just joined GR a couple of weeks ago and had originally mainly been using it for a giant book list of what books I have read throughout my life so that I can recommend things to various friends.

Then I found this group and the challenges and am so excited about the book club aspect (I have never been in one despite reading constantly) and the challenges look like so much fun.

Anyway, I decided to go look at what books I had rated 5-star and ended up reducing a lot of them to 4 star. I ended up with 74 5-star books (out of 2333 read books).

My most recent would be Graceling but my ultimate 5-star books are those from when I was a kid, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler and Libby on Wednesday.

Heather wrote: "My most recent 5 star read was The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was my first Atwood book and it won't be my last. "
I would read The Handmaid's Tale. It's very good!

Heather wrote: "My most recent 5 star read was The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was my first Atwood book and it won't be my last. "

Yay, another Blind Assassin lover! That was the first book my face-to-face book club read (about 6 years ago now). Most everyone disliked the book, one person thought it was alright, but I loved it. (I'm called The Blind Assassin apologist now.) It, too, was my first Atwood novel. I didn't really know what to expect, and based on the summary, it seemed like something that I wouldn't particularly care for. But I was riveted, and couldn't put it down. Glad you enjoyed it, too!

I gave The Host 5 stars. I was so much better than i expected!

My most recent 5 star read was The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was my first Atwood book and it won't be my last.

My most recent 5 star reads are:

Evermore and Revenge of the Witch.

My most recent 5 star would be Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Love that book!

I have read some Jude D books in the past but probably wouldn't pick them up now...although I do have a few Nora Roberts on my to read list. Sometimes I need something a little lighter. At the moment, I can't put Water for Elephants down! I put
The Forgotten Garden on my to do list! Sounds very interesting from the summary I read. Thanks for your suggestion.

Some of my most recent books I gave 5 stars are:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Linda, I know what you mean about your preferences changing! I recently read a Jude Deveraux romance and know I would have loved it when I was a teenager, but now...I gave it one star.

My most recent 5 star read is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I highly recommend this one!

Just beginning Water for Elephants and love the writing style of this author. I recently finished The Thirteenth Tale and thought it was EXCELLENT! What an original and gripping plot with unforgetable characters.
I have a very long "to read" list and never enough time to read as I would like. Think I'll set some goals to keep me on track. I've been keeping a list of books read, author, date read and my personal grade for the book since 1993. It's very interesting to see how your preferences change over the years!

My most recent 5-star read is Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga.

Here are some of my top 5 star reads:

Ahab's Wife Or, The Star-gazer A Novel
Water for Elephants
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Matchmaker of Perigord A Novel

Gone With The Wind
East of Eden
Lonesome Dove
Night
And so far all of the Outlander books have been 5 stars, I'm on book 4 right now!

Melissa wrote: "I probably give out too many fives. Lots of books I give fives to I have to stop and think whether it's a four or a five. These are some that I didn't question for a sec.

East of Eden
Anna Ka..."

Hi Melissa!
It's great to find someone else that has read Lonesome Dove! Such a great book! I think you and I enjoy a lot of the same books! I think I give out too many 5 stars as well, there's just so many books that I love!! :)

I just added The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini to my 5 star reads. It was a great read about a country I know little about.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

My Recent 5 Stars:

The Book Thief Thank you to the summer challenge because without it I probably would never have read this book.
The Time Traveler's Wife

Susan C wrote: "A new friend said The Jungle by Sinclair as a great long book. Other's opinions!"

It has been many moons since I read The Jungle, but remember it was amazing.

I also just gave 5 stars to Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I just gave 5 stars to The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. A book that justly deserves it. It's a great psychological horror and not all that out of date (unfortunately).

I added Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters to my list of 5 star reads, it was just amazing.

JG wrote: "I bought Winter in Madrid recently. I'm glad to hear good things about it!"

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did =D

Here are some of my 5 star reads and in no particular order...


Middlesex
The Secret History
Swimming
Nineteen Minutes
Water for Elephants
The Red Scarf
Gods in Alabama
Resistance
She's Come Undone
One Mississippi A Novel
The Kindness of Strangers

Love the idea of 5 star reads!
Here are mine:
A Land Remembered
The Red Tent
Night
The Book Thief
Those Who Save Us
Outlander
Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Innocent Traitor
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Dark Queen
A Time to Kill

Donna wrote: "Hi Kate, I am reading Ines of My Soul A Novel and finding it just a bit slow. I have read a number of other books by Allende so I will forge ahead but I am encouraged by your 5 stars."

With Allendes, i think it depends on your mood or book appetite at that moment. Good Luck!

I probably give out too many fives. Lots of books I give fives to I have to stop and think whether it's a four or a five. These are some that I didn't question for a sec.

East of Eden
Anna Karenina
Lonesome Dove
Gone With the Wind
Lonesome Dove
The Color Purple
Jane Eyre
Little Women
The Book Thief
Cold Mountain

Now I have to go rethink my stars for all the others! =/

Hi Kate, I am reading Ines of My Soul A Novel and finding it just a bit slow. I have read a number of other books by Allende so I will forge ahead but I am encouraged by your 5 stars.

I'm new here but had to put in my two cents worth!
Some 5 stars of mine are:
- Ines of My Soul: A Novel - Isabel Allende
- The Velveteen Rabbit
- Three Cups of Tea (and this was such a surprise!)
- Sandra Gulland's 'Josephine B' series
- Ahab's Wife
- Water for Elephants
- Island of the Blue Dolphins (another fav from childhood)

So many good books...So little Time!!

I bought Winter in Madrid recently. I'm glad to hear good things about it!

I'll be giving 5 stars to Maus I A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds History and Maus II A Survivor's Tale And Here My Troubles Began once I catch up on this huge backlog of books I tore through over the weekend.

Recent books I've given 5 stars to:

- Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game (fantastic read, loved the dialogue and the characters were interesting)
- C.J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid (was hooked from the first page, I can totally see this as a movie. The characters were very interesting and I love the contrasts. Really felt like you were in 1940s Madrid)

The Red Tent
East of Eden
The Concubine

I just gave 5 stars to 1001 Books for Every Mood A Bibliophile's Guide to Unwinding, Misbehaving, Forgiving, Celebrating, Commiserating. It gave me great suggestions for books I might like. The only problems I had with it was their description for Rebecca was wrong (the rest were pretty accurate, at least the ones I'd read) and there weren't quite enough horror novels listed. 90% of the ones that were I already had. i also couldn't figure out why The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was listed in the great detectives.

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite was the last book I gave 5 stars to.

I was drooling over every sentence.

I don't know about 5 stars but Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is at least a 4 star. It kept me very interested and was pretty funny at the same time. It also didn't have the snotty "I know more than the cops do" attitude to it. I'm definitely going to be looking for the rest of the series.

I'm always rethinking my stars, but here are some unwavering 5-star reads:

1. The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai
2. The Nightingales of Troy Alice Fulton
3. The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
4. The Shell Collector Anthony Doerr
5. The Fall Albert Camus

Atonement is definetely a five-star book. Another one would be Sarah's Key. Any of The Diaries of Virginia Woolf would also be five-star books. As a matter of fact, any of the Letters of Virginia Woolf are also five-star books.

Maybe I'm hard to give 5 stars to a book, but I have given 4 stars to The Thirtennth Tale; It IS really good.

I see there some Brazilians here, so I'll give 5 stars to Os Diários de Josué Montello and most definetely I'd give 5 stars to A Casa das Sete Mulheres (The House of the Seven Women) and its sequence Um Farol No Pampa ( A Lighthouse in Pampa, Pampa being the name of a region in the south of Brazil). UNFORTUNATELY both are yet to be translated into English, because these are superb historical novels by Leticia Wierzchowski who, I believe, will come to be considered as one of the best authors of the beginning of the XXI century. A Casa das Sete Mulheres has over 500 pages, and it's a book in which I do NOT remember having read any boring or unnecessay pages...

I just gave five stars to Never Let Me Go

Angela wrote: "I am going to add Hunger Games and The Help to the top of my TBR. I have been hearing a lot about both! "

Great idea.