Crossroads discussion

If you have read a 5 star book please let us know about it, be sure to give us a short description of the book. I hope we all read lots of them this year.

A Guide to Berlin by OZ author Gail Jones..

The title is taken from a short story by the author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.

The narrator is a young Australian who meets other fellow aficionados, and a trusting group then meets weekly. The telling of their own tales leads to tragedy, that will changes all their lives.. Berlin , the city, past and present informs many decisions.

I have read Lolita many years ago but now feel I would like to read some of the short stories, like the title, that are referenced. I am a very 'narrow' reader and enjoyed this one, immensely.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. The Major, a widower, has just lost his brother. He forms a friendship with a Pakistani-Englishwoman (born in Cambridge) that begins to grow into something more, despite opposition from all sides. In addition, his relationship with is son is a bit of a strain on him, even more so with his son's American girlfriend, and he is very stressed over a gun, a family heirloom, part of a pair split between him and his brother on the condition, not in writing, that they be reunited after the death of either son.

Karin wrote: "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. The Major, a widower, has just lost his brother. He forms a friendship with a Pakistani-Englishwoman (born in Cambridge) that begins t..."

Thanks, have ordered it.

Karin wrote: "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. The Major, a widower, has just lost his brother. He forms a friendship with a Pakistani-Englishwoman (born in Cambridge) that begins t..."

It was a 5 star book for me as well.

Lesley wrote: "Karin wrote: "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. The Major, a widower, has just lost his brother. He forms a friendship with a Pakistani-Englishwoman (born in Cambridge)..."

I hope you like it :.

Denizen--I think you were one of the people that got me interested in this book.

The Tsar of Love and Techno

With only two books under his belt, Anthony Marra has quickly become one of my favorite authors and while I do not want him to write so quickly that he writes without the care and skill which his two works display, I have a great need to read more from him. When I saw Anthony Marra after I read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, he explained that he does many rewrites before he considers the book completed. He considers each sentence carefully, so this painstaking process takes time, but he is only 31 so we can expect much more from him.

While Love and Techno is set in Russia with visits to Siberia and Chechnya, it differs in style of construction from Constellation. Like David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas it is a series of interlocking stories. Do not think that it is simply a short story collection, because each story fits together with the other ones strung together like a spider web. It is a thing of beauty.

Reading The Tsar of Love and Techno, I was compelled to highlight (relax I read on a kindle) sentence after sentence of the book, as I did with Constellation. I just have to share some of these with you:

He'd received the only sentence suitable for a madman who poisoned others with the delusion that heaven awaits us. Paradise is possible only here on earth, possible only if we engineer it. One shouldn't envy this woman's blind devotion to a man who has proven himself unworthy of love. One mustn't.

The stomach is not the only vital organ that hungers.

The portrait artist must acknowledge human complexity with each brush stroke. The eyes, nose and mouth that compose a sitters face just like the suffering and joy that compose his soul are similar to those ten million others yet still singular to him. This acknowledgment is where art begins. It may also be where mercy begins. If criminals drew the faces of their victims before perpetrating their crimes and judges drew faces of the guilty before sentencing them, then there would be no faces for executioners to draw.

Hipsterdom's a tightrope strung across the canyon of douche-baggery. He clung by a finger.

I loved this book. It was my first 5 star of 2016 and I hope that I can encourage other readers.

Booknblues wrote: "The Tsar of Love and Techno

With only two books under his belt, Anthony Marra has quickly become one of my favorite authors and while I do not want him to write so quickly that he ..."

Will order.

Booknblues wrote: "The Tsar of Love and Techno

With only two books under his belt, Anthony Marra has quickly become one of my favorite authors and while I do not want him to write so quickly that he ..."

Yay!

Denizen wrote: "Yay! ."

Indeed, I love to get a five star.

Lesley wrote: Will order.

Have you read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena?

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand was a 5 for me a few years back.

I'm starting my year off well with 2 (or 5, depending how you count it) 5 star reads.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis was my first. It's about what happens when the gods Hermes and Apollo decide to give human consciousness and language to a pack of dogs.

The Elena Ferrante Neapolitan series was also a 5 star read for me. I've never read anything quite like them.
My Brilliant Friend
The Story of a New Name
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
The Story of the Lost Child

Storyheart wrote: "

I'm starting my year off well with 2 (or 5, depending how you count it) 5 star reads.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis w..."

5 -5 stars that is a great start to a year. I haveMy Brilliant Friend, so I need to move it closer to the top.

Storyheart wrote: I'm starting my year off well with 2 (or 5, depending how you count it) 5 star reads.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis w..."

I've looked at Fifteen Dogs before but was waiting for feedback before adding it to my TBR. It's definitely an intriguing premise. Off to explore whether I can get it from the library.

And, I will be reading Ferrante's series soon.

Mostly, I'm not sitting to read anything but Goodreads/Leafmarks while moving my shelves.... but I have listened to 8 books out of the ten I've completed this year.

The firm 5 star book was Memory Wall by Doerr. Great short stories.

I was stingy about giving 5 stars to G.G. Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan. I called 4.5. But I think I'll go for the last half point. It's a great book and it shouldn't be downgraded because my attention was elsewhere.

BooknBlues:
Have you read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena?

Excellent book. I gave it 4 stars. Don't remember why I didn't give it 5.

My last 5 star was Kitchens of the Great Midwest. I first gave it 4 stars (4.5 on Leafmarks where they allow have stars). But then I changed it later to 5 stars. Sometimes I may give a book 4 stars if I think it was really good but but not quite a "superstar" book. But then if it is still in my mind later and when I see the title I think "What a great book" then I change it to 5 stars.

Blueberry wrote: "BooknBlues:
Have you read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena?

Excellent book. I gave it 4 stars. Don't remember why I didn't give it 5."
Yes, I read it and loved it. I gave it 5 stars.

I have Kitchens of the Great Midwest on my coffee table and want to get to it soon. I'm happy that you liked it so much. I need to get to it soon.

Fieldwork by Misha Berlinski was a re-read for me so I was happy it remained a 5 star experience the 2nd time around. (Not always the case which makes a person realize how much of our ratings are related to mood.)

Judith--glad to hear Memory Wall by Doerr was good. I'm waiting for another one of his collections The Shell Collector to arrive from the library.

Life After Life hit the 5 star mark strongly for me. The book was an absolute delight from start to finish lending creativity to the "road not taken".

Denizen wrote: "Life After Life hit the 5 star mark strongly for me. The book was an absolute delight from start to finish lending creativity to the "road not taken"."



I liked the companion A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, not quite as much, but compared to some I've read lately, feel maybe a half star extra for both would be nearer the mark.

I feel a 5 star coming on with ' The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau..
As I lived in an 'hippy town', Kuranda in the Rainforest, for 20 years, these 'people' feel very familiar. They are mostly apiarists, struggling to keep their hives alive in the face of modern life. Fracking, GM, aerial spraying..etc..

YES YES it was... It was like reading a book by or about someone from my own village.. However, the details of apiary were so instructive, and paralleled the human lives. What is a family?

Tour de force for me.. The World Without Us

I haven't had many five star reads this year - a book really has to touch something in me to make it five stars and I'm a cold-hearted reader. However, The Railway Man moved me to my frozen core. I nearly cried at the end. This poor man spent most of WWII as a prisoner of the Japanese. At first it didn't sound so bad but then he his captors found out he and his mates had made a radio and he went through hell. Once he returned to England his hell continued for fifty years until he finally met the interpreter who represented in Lomax's mind all the evil that was done to him. Incredible!

Oh, my gosh, I have forgotten to update, and I even had a 5 stars and 3 hearts book! That one was All the Light We Cannot See

Other 5 star reads:
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
audiobook (4.5 rounded up) Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
audiobook The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

That's it so far. I don't usually give out a lot of 5 stars as I have to REALLY like it and think it's something special (lots of books that I like a lot get 4 stars).

Karin wrote: "Oh, my gosh, I have forgotten to update, and I even had a 5 stars and 3 hearts book! That one was All the Light We Cannot See

Other 5 star reads:
Our Mutual Friend by ..."

My favourite radio presenter had just seen the film of The Light Between Oceans and couldn't stop raving about it, just, he said , as he had raved about the book. I liked it too.

5 stars since last posting:

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Recent 5 stars for:
The Good Lord Bird--McBride's tale of a young boy posing as a girl in John Brown's abolitionist crew (thank you BnB)
Christodora-- Tim Muphy's debut that spans the lives of people affected by and fighting the AIDS epidemic from the 80s on
Do Not Say We Have Nothing-- family saga by Madelein Thien in China in the post-war period with lots of insights on music as a lens for reality (Giller Prize winner)
Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel--Carl Safina's wonderful exploration of the minds and emotional life of elephants, whales, and primates

All but last have been reviewed.

One more 5 star read for this year. Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges.

The Children's Book
The Luminaries
Leap
A Guide to Berlin
Where the Trees Were
The World Without Us
The Natural Way of Things