Five Stars (or favorites) for the Winter Challenge

[Amy]

Thought I would continue this one from the fall challenge. I know I loved looking at everyone's favorite books.

I seem to be terrible at giving books 5 stars (I've had 2 in the last 4+ months), but the first book I read for the winter challenge was a great one!
The Angel's Game

[Usako]

The Stupidest Angel A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Version 2.0 5 Stars

Review is on my thread. It brings the ho, ho, ho out :P

[Juniper]

Amy wrote: "...but the first book I read for the winter challenge was a great one! The Angel's Game ..."

Oooh..I am reading this right now; about halfway in. I am enjoying it so far but keep waiting for something 'meaty'. If that makes sense??

[Amy]

Jennifer wrote: "Amy wrote: "...but the first book I read for the winter challenge was a great one! The Angel's Game ..."

Oooh..I am reading this right now; about halfway in. I am enjoying it so far but keep waiti..."

Yeah, I understand. It never really got to that point with me until near the end, but it rolled along at such a nice pace that I really enjoyed the whole thing.

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

My first completed book for the winter challenge is a 5 star, although not for the reasons I thought it would be. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella was a book that I could NOT put down. I thought that it would be funny, but it wasn't, instead it was just a ripping good story.

[Leigh]

I absolutely loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

I have another 5 star for the challenge, and this one is even better than the last. The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf is a very compelling read. I literally could not put it down.

[Krista]

My 5 star rated books so far this challenge:

The Help

Alice in Wonderland

The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship

[Sera]

My 5 star reads so far are and

[Krista]

Wa-hoo, I've just finished another 5 star. Yes, it is a humongous book, but it's kind of nice to get so immersed in the story. I again hated to see it end. Claire and Jamie's story is so engrossing.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

[scherzo♫]

Children + the rest of us
15.2 El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero / The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Cronicas de Narnia / The Chronicles of Narnia
35.1 El Sobrino Del Mago/the Magician's Nephew
30.9 The View from Saturday
30.9 The Moorchild

Fiction
25.10 Daughters of the Stone: A Novel
25.10 The Sandman Vol. 07: Brief Lives
30.1 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
30.3 Interpreter of Maladies
30.3 Death and the King's Horseman
35.2 Fireflood and Other Stories
10.1 The Dreaming Jewels
25.5 Tracks

Non-Fiction
15.9 Anything We Love Can Be Saved
30.7 Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63
20.1 Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65
15.8 At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
15.10 Shakespeare's Division of Experience
15.3 When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

[Jenny]

I don't give a tremendous amount of five star ratings, but I feel like I read some really great books during this challenge.

These Is My Words
Catching Fire
The Weight of Silence
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

[Deedee]

My 5 * books (so far):

The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection edited by Gardner R. Dozois (Hardcover, 688 pages)
Excellent collection of 2008 Science Fiction novellas, novelettes and short stories!

Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night, and One Woman's Quest to Become a Mother by Peggy Orenstein (Hardcover, 240 pages)
Gripping, true story of how Peggy became a mother.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman (Paperback, 480 pages)
Sublimely silly! I saw the movie after I read the book, and the movie is really funny, also.

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold Story of English by John H. McWhorter (Hardback, 230 pages)
McWhorter's theory is that Celtic influenced English much more than has traditionally been believed. Convinced me :0)

Curled in the Bed of Love: Stories by Catherine Brady (Hardcover, 232 pages)
This collection won 2003 The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, deservedly so in my opinion.

Warm Springs Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven Susan Richards Shreve (Hardcover, 224 pages)
Memoir of a childhood spent as "the sick child", and how it affected her life, both then and later. Also new-to-me information about polio and how polio destroys the body.

Maybe more 5* later ... I'm mostly through Paul McCartney's Memoir (or as close to a Memoir as he's going to have) Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, I'll probably be adding this one to my 5*'s after I'm done.

[Krista]

Yeah! Another 5 star for me this challenge:


The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

[Petra]

So far, my 5* books for this Challenge are:

The Red Scarf (set in Stalinist Russia; mystery)

The Complete Maus (I recommend both parts and rated each a 5*)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (a very warm story of friendship, told in a wry, sarcastic tone)

[BJ Rose]

My 5* Books in Winter Challenge:
[image error] [image error]

[Asho]

I'm very, very stingy with my 5 star ratings, generally only giving 5 stars to books that I loved and can imagine reading again and again.
This time around I gave a 5 star rating to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

[Josalyn]

princess bride!

[Melissa]

I have decided I am a little too stingy with my 5* ratings - perhaps I just don't like to be too quick to judge, perhaps I just need to give some time to see which books truly stand out in my memory. So I have gone back and looked at my 4*s (which I give out much more freely) and upgraded a few. These are books that I find myself recommending to friends, or that have given me extra food for thought, or have left a bigger impact or stuck firmly in my mind.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King

New Found Land: Lewis & Clark's Voyage of Discovery by Allan Wolf

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Written In Blood by Caroline Graham

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

A couple other I am wavering on and may yet "promote": Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore and Lolly Willowes : Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner

[Alice]

It's interesting to see that some people have scored books 5 stars which others have scored as 1 star!

Here are my 5 stars of the season:

Incendiaryby chris cleave

The Girl Who Played with Fireby steig larrson

Water for Elephantsby sarah gruen

[Juniper]

I had one 5 start book during the winter challenge:

by Michael Crummey.

This book swallowed me whole and made me a huge fan of Crummey and eager to read more of his work. I have another book of his slotted into the Spring challenge.

[Bonnie]

I read less this challenge and so found fewer great books. But my favorites were:


1. Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe.

2. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. (how had I never read/been read this before?!?)

3. Watchmen by Alan Moore.

4. Beastly by Alex Flinn.

5. Foundation by Isaac Aasimov.

Two five-star re-reads were and . Those never get old for me.

[Rachel Erin]

5 stars:


4 stars:

[Josalyn]

I had two from winter: and

[Ms.soule]

My 5 stars from Winter 2009:


Speaker for the Dead would be 6 stars if possible!

[scherzo♫]

Mrs.soule wrote: "... Speaker for the Dead would be 6 stars if possible!"

I agree ... all the stars in the sky!

[BJ Rose]

pjreads wrote: "Mrs.soule wrote: "... Speaker for the Dead would be 6 stars if possible!"

I agree ... all the stars in the sky!"

This is very encouraging! I loved Ender's Game, and SftDead is coming up soon on my reading list

[Ms.soule]

This is very encouraging! I loved Ender's Game, and SftDead is com..."

Orson Scott Card said he was surprised by how popular Ender's Game was, since he wrote it only as a prelude to Speaker for the Dead - which was the book he REALLY wanted to write. I hope you love it too, BJ Rose - if you like listening to books on CD/tape/MP3, I can highly recommend the Audio Renaissance version.

[Louvaine]

Krista, I'm looking forward to reading , glad to hear you liked it.