The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

What were your favorite books of the Fall 2014 Challenge?

I had a surprising amount of 5 star books:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
The Madman's Daughter
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Lost Lake
Croak
The 5th Wave
The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare
The Winner's Curse
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
The Girl with All the Gifts

And if you haven't read The Girl with all the Gifts, I highly recommend the audio! Very good narrator and it really drew me into the story listening to it.

These were 5-star books for me


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
April in Paris
Lord of the Flies
Paula
The Book of Lost Things
The Housekeeper and the Professor

My favorites from this season were:

Looking for Alaska
The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Every Other Day

Definitely didn't have an abundance of amazing ones this time around, although both Looking for Alaska and Every Other Day made it onto my highly esteemed "favorites" shelf after I read them so I guess that makes up for it!

Book Concierge wrote: "These were 5-star books for me


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
April in Paris
Lord of the Flies
Paula
The Book of Lost Things"

wow excellent list..

If you liked Maya Angelou's work you might consider some of ZORA NEELE HURSTON'S work. My favorite is "THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD"

Their Eyes Were Watching God


Book Concierge wrote: "These were 5-star books for me


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
April in Paris
Lord of the Flies
Paula
The Book of Lost Things"

Gideon wrote: "If you liked Maya Angelou's work you might consider some of ZORA NEELE HURSTON'S work. My favorite is "THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD"

Their Eyes Were Watching God..."

I've read it - twice - once in text and then again in audio, performed by the incomparable Ruby Dee.

Here's the best of the best from my long list of 5☆ reads for fall 2014. I had a very good season this round!

Doc
Sarah's Key
Little Bee
The Bean Trees
The Virgin Cure
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Those Who Save Us
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

I really liked:

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (great group read choice!)
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I liked
Underdog
Blue Bloods
Shadow and Bone

I absolutely LOVED Man at the Helm and Rebecca--neither is really my normal fare, and they were so fantastic; it was a lovely surprise.

The Son
Honolulu
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

The books I really liked?
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
On the Jellicoe Road
The Last Time They Met
The Secret Place
The Dinner The Mermaid Chair

My five stars this season were:

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot by John Callahan This was one of the most unique books I've ever read.

North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both by Cea Sunrise Person
This is a perfect book for anyone raised by lax parents in the 70's and 80's. You will most likely relate to the author's pain and resourcefulness.

We Shook the Family Tree by Hildegarde Dolson This was my unexpected gem of the season. The blurb calls this read light- hearted, which it is, but Ms. Dolson's choice of words reminded me of poetry. Somehow, she wrote a book that is both comforting and stunning at the same time. It was wonderful.

honorable mention: Through Charley's Door by Emily Kimbrough. I really loved this memoir about working at Marshall Field's back in the 1920's. If you are a fan of the show "Mr. Selfridge", you'll probably like this too, although the book is much more humorous and the characters are more personable.

My 5 stars were:
Code Name Verity
Becoming Alice: A Memoir
Matched
A Secret Kept
The Language of Flowers
The Invention of Wings
Norwegian Wood
The Color Purple
A Tale for the Time Being
Half-truths & White Lies
Chronicle of a Death Foretold

my 5*

The Rosie Project
The Rosie Effect
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Appointment with Death

My favorites included:
The King's Deception
Safe Haven
All the Light We Cannot See
The Ghost Bride
The Invention of Wings
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal
Graceling

There were a lot of books I really enjoyed and probably would not have read if not for the SRC.

Absolutely loved
The Husband's Secret
The Lucky One
Fangirl

Really enjoyed
Looking for Alaska
Little Brother
Joyland

And started two series that I liked so much I immediately went and got the next one
The Cuckoo's Calling
The Silkworm

Airborn -- and about to start
Skybreaker

I added one more - The Housekeeper and the Professor

I had 4 5star books this season:

The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler
The Golden Egg
Murder 101
Ghosts of Burlington County: Historical Hauntings from the Mullica to the Delaware
The Housekeeper and the Professor

O.o Thirteen 5 star books for me (yay!!). Most were beloved series reads or from authors I already adored though.

Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews
This one was my favorite of the fall season. I just can't get enough of what the Ilona Andrews team comes up with. I really wanted another in the Kate Daniels series but was sooo glad I loved this book.

The Perfect Rake by Anne Gracie
The hero in this historical romance... My heart was mush for nearly the entire book. He was just so sweet.

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
I'm always surprised by how much I love the books in the Vampire Academy series. I've hated (HATED) the beginning of every single one and somehow by the end I'm practically dying for me.

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb (reread)
Maybe This Christmas by Sarah Morgan
Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones
The Madness Of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley (reread)
Assumption by Aurora Rose Reynolds
Friend-Zoned by Belle Aurora
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (reread)
Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh
Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh (reread)
Nice Girls Don't Live Forever by Molly Harper

Chris wrote: "There were a lot of books I really enjoyed and probably would not have read if not for the SRC.

Absolutely loved
The Husband's Secret
The Lucky One"

Glad to see you enjoyed the Galbraith books! I own both of them but I can't seem to make myself read them. I'm afraid my expectations are way too high. Maybe the winter season of this challenge will give me a push towards them.


Morgan wrote: "I had a surprising amount of 5 star books:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
The Madman's Daughter"

I read Daughter of Smoke & Bone this summer and loved it too! I'm actually reading the second in the series right now for 5.6 Melpomene :)

Cindie wrote: "I had 4 5star books this season:

The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler
The Golden Egg
[book:Murder 101|18698..."

I'm from Burlington County (I live in NY now, but I lived in Jersey until I was 23). Thanks for letting me know about this book - I have to check it out!

Only one 5-star for me -- We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Super dark, but just riveting. The story is compelling of course, but I was very taken with the ideas about parenting and marriage and whether compromising one's self to be generous to a loved one is a good choice.

Here are my four stars:

Hanging of Samuel Ash -- I only read this one because I needed an author named Sheldon and my library had it to lend as an e-book. haha I really enjoyed it and it turns out it is 4th in a series about a "yard dog" named Hook Runyon. Yes, he has one arm. Most entertaining, and now I have the first in the series set to read for the Winter Challenge.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz -- Nice coming-of-age YA.

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

Moon Over Manifest -- won the Newbery Medal a few years back.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress -- Being an ex-fundamental Baptist, I really identified with this memoir of a lapsed Mennonite.

Thunderstruck by Eric Larson. Could have lived with more of the murder story and a whole lot less of the scientist story, but the murder mystery intersecting with the marvels of invention got it to the four stars instead of 3.

Animal Farm

Chalcot Crescent -- near-future dystopia. I really liked the author's attitude.

We Were Liars

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Thanks for sharing your favorites and reviews. My TBR grew and thank goodness since it was just too short! :-) I know I'm late sharing but I hope some of you are still here.

I love a lot of the ones you have on your list (or the authors) and I also have Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2 slotted for this season (and I think #3 as well if I don't go with one of my other options!)

Agree about the Vampire Academy too. I pretty much devoured those. Now I'm in Bloodlines which is the series after VA ends, but same world and a lot of the same characters. (I have one or two set for Winter.)

Kait wrote: "Chris wrote: "There were a lot of books I really enjoyed and probably would not have read if not for the SRC.

Absolutely loved
The Husband's Secret
The Lucky One"

..."

Mindy wrote: "Only one 5-star for me -- We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Super dark, but just riveting. The story is compelling of course, but I was very taken with the ..."

That is the one thing with this challenge, Mindy. I joined for Fall to shrink my TBR and it's bigger than it was before now! haha. I find myself stalking the completed challenges thread and all the task threads like..."Ooooh...that looks good too....."

At least it's an acceptable addiction. ;)

I really like seeing these lists -- it helps me find good books for the next round! These were my five-star books:

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
On Photography
TransAtlantic
Leaving the Atocha Station

Maybe I don't give enough books 5 stars? Here are some 4-star ones that I really enjoyed:

The Housekeeper and the Professor
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
In the Woods
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews

Book Concierge wrote: "These were 5-star books for me


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
April in Paris
Lord of the Flies
Paula
The Book of Lost Things
[bo..."

I hadn't heard of The Housekeeper and the Professor until I came upon it during the Fall challenge. It's a wonderful book!

Kait wrote: "O.o Thirteen 5 star books for me (yay!!). Most were beloved series reads or from authors I already adored though.

Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews
This one was my favori..."

I so agree with you on the Ilona Andrews team - everything they do is amazing! And I'm so glad you read Slave to Sensation - even my husband loved that one!

Morgan wrote: "I love a lot of the ones you have on your list (or the authors) and I also have Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2 slotted for this season (and I think #3 as well if I don't go with one of my other opti..."

I have a feeling you'll be going with the third in the series once you have a chance to read the second! :P I'm going to need to fit it in soon. I just need a day when I can read it all at once because I don't think I'm going to want any interruptions. Darn holiday season...


Mrs.soule wrote: "I so agree with you on the Ilona Andrews team - everything they do is amazing! And I'm so glad you read Slave to Sensation - even my husband loved that one!"

I can't believe I waited so long to read Slave to Sensation! I'm kicking myself for that... of course now I have the rest of the series to enjoy which is exciting.

These are my favorite books last season:

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
The Quiet American
The Things They Carried
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Cannery Row
The Sirens of Titan
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Dead Babies
The Graveyard Book

Best books I read:

Hard Times by Charles Dickens (I love it when I find classics that I really like).
Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.
Suden vuosi by Virpi Hämeen-Anttila (best Finnish book I've read in a while).

And I also re-read Wizard and Glass and The Waste Lands from Stephen King because The Dark Tower is one of my favorite book series.

I had 2 reads that were 5 stars and I would highly recommend:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

Five star books for me are those that impact my life or make me think deeply. Four star books are well-written and enjoyable but without that impact on my life.

5 stars: A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Lottery Rose, Please Don't Tell

4 Stars: Breathless, Third Grave Dead Ahead, Between Mom and Jo, Cross, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Lost in a Good Book, Throne of Jade, Deadlocked, Cain His Brother

And that is just the reads from Oct 30 - November 30.

I read a lot of good books - too many to list.

Kait wrote: "I can't believe I waited so long to read Slave to Sensation! I'm kicking myself for that... of course now I have the rest of the series to enjoy which is exciting. "

i'm jealous of people just beginning the series - I try to hold off reading the most recently published until close to the release of the new one - delayed gratification and all that

Favorites Fall 2014