Best of the Fall 2015 Challenge

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

What were your favorite books of the Fall 2015 Challenge?

[Donna]

I had (2) 5-star ratings.

Freak Show Without A Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations
----this one was so hilarious. The author did a great job.

Fuzzy Nation
----which I loved. It was a fun sci-fi.

[Deborah]

I had five 5-star ratings

New to me:



Rereads:

[Donna]

I'm glad you liked Six of Crows and Uprooted.

They are on my TBR pile and I hope to get to them soon.



Deborah wrote: "I had five 5-star ratings

New to me:



Rereads:
[bookcover:Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaba..."

[Nicola]

I read a nice selection of books in this reading season and although I am very sparing of allocating 5 and 4 star ratings these are new reads which were particularly excellent.


5 star
Uncle Silas
Our Mutual Friend

4 star
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Mating Season
Becoming Queen
Rendezvous with Rama
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe

[Trish]

My favourite discovery was The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend - perfect for curling up with a glass of wine.

I also loved The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays and Homeless Cats - which proves that cats really are trying to take over the world.

[LouLouReads]

My favourites were Gilead(now perhaps my favourite book ever) and Gaudy Night.

[Jasmiina]

I read four really good books during the fall:
The Song of Achilles
Odd and the Frost Giants
Song of Susannah (reread)
Small Gods (reread)

[Janice]

I read my favorite book of the year this season. In Bears In The Caviar, Charles W. Thayer tells about his experiences as a diplomat in Russia, Germany, and Afghanistan from the 1930s - 1950s. He is an excellent storyteller who takes the reader through a range of emotions. In one chapter he comically teaches the Red Guard polo. In the next chapter, he describes how it felt to be forced to turn away a group of German Jews seeking asylum during World War II. He knew that he was their last hope. When they left his office, they would immediately commit suicide.

As a side note: Thayer was a victim of McCarthy's witch hunt and removed from office after decades of service.

I'll be reading everything this man wrote if I can get my hands on it.

[Book Concierge]

I didn't have even one 5-star book in Sept, Oct, Nov.

These all got 4 stars from me ...
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
Aloft
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

[Lulu]

Tons of great books during this challenge!

5 Stars:
A Stranger in Olondria
Kindred
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Surfacing
To Say Nothing of the Dog
A Scanner Darkly

4 Stars:
The Dark Forest
The Night Circus
Breakfast at Tiffany's
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Piercing
Binti
Of Sorrow and Such
Bird Box
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

[Kaity]

A few of stupendous 5 star reads this seasons!

Written in Red - <3333 One of my new favorite books. I've already reread it! I also read and loved the second book but am holding off on reading the third. I want to savor it more than I did the first two :P
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - I've read this before but I listened to it on audio this time... IT WAS SO PERFECT!! The actor who plays Hastings (BBC) preformed it and his character is the narrator for the book too.

[Kristen]

I had four 5-stars this challenge:


I had a number of 4-stars so I'll list a few that stood out:

[Christine]

I feel like I had some pretty good luck with my books this Fall challenge.

Five stars
Persuasion
Anne of Green Gables

Four stars
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride
Northanger Abbey
The Joy Luck Club
A Game of Thrones
The Song of Achilles
The Color Purple
Madame Bovary

[Robin (Saturndoo)]

Five Stars



Four Stars



There were a couple of others that I gave four stars to but these were the favorites.

[Camilla]

A few five stars:
Messenger
Earth Girl and next book in the series, Earth Star; the third book, Earth Flight, wasn't quite as good (as often happens to series) but still a four-star read.

Quite a long list of four stars:
A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary
Of Dreams and Rust
Demonglass
Melkein äiti
Meg : syvyyksien kauhu
Blood Bound
Ender in Exile
Doctor, Doctor: Incredible True Tales from a GP's Surgery
Gathering Blue
Tales from Siberia
Brain Jack
The Magicians
Brave New World
Miracles and Mayhem in the ER: Unbelievable True Stories from an Emergency Room Doctor

[Nick]

Two 5-Star surprises for me last fall:

The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier & the Yukon Gold Rush by Howard Blum, and

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin -- having been a LeGuin groupie for 40 years, I had never before read this early gem of hers.