Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

The third quarter of the year has come to a close now. Just like last time, lets hand out some awards for the books that we loved in the third quarter. If you didn't get to participate in the first quarter, you still can right over here, the 2nd is here .

It's time for some wrap-up of your reads. Let's give awards to them! Using your reads from July, August, and September, choose a winner for each category. If you don't have a book for every category, just do the ones you can/want to. It's all for fun.

Categories:
Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.
Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not).
Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.

Do feel free to use any books from any challenge or side read that you read in the months of July, August, and September.

I have read 21 books so far this quarter. I haven't had many that I was completely wowed by so several of these answers are repeat winners. I am currently re-reading The Secret Garden and will most likely get another book read by the end of the month,
so maybe my answers will change in the next week. :-)

Breakout Read: The Arrival - all illustrations but told the most amazingly heartfelt story. Highly recommended.
Biggest Let Down: I am not going to name them, but I read two books in the past three months by booktubers/indy authors that I felt were rather disappointing. I think it was more just not my taste vs poor writing etc, but still disappointing.
Best Dressed:
Best Characters: The Old Man and the Sea I can not believe I have never read this before but very glad that I did. I was so sad when it ended. I so wanted to know more about the characters.
Best Place: The Old Man and the Sea
Best Story: Once
Best Feelings: The Old Man and the Sea
Best Love: I don't read books with love stories much so I would have to say again, The Old Man and the Sea. The love the old man felt for the sea and for fishing and the love the young boy felt toward the old man....very touching.
Best Shock: The Poison Diaries, "OH! It really IS about how to poison people. Wow!"
Best Author: Nobody can beat Hemingway really but Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was very well written and I enjoyed the complexities of the characters.. And Hugh Howey is a long time favorite.
Best Series: Wool: The Graphic Novel, I love anything to do with Hugh Howey and can not wait to read more of his work.
Best Read: The Old Man and the Sea or Once or The Arrival, all great books in their own way

°~Amy~° wrote: "I have read 21 books so far this quarter. I haven't had many that I was completely wowed by so several of these answers are repeat winners. I am currently re-reading The Secret Garden and will most..."

I felt the same way about The Old Man and the Sea also. Felt for him and wasn't ready for it to end.

Breakout Read: The Last Place You Look. I read a lot of mystery's and most are enjoyable but don't stand out. I really like the main character in this one. The bad guy was not obvious and the other cast of characters made for a better than average mystery.
Biggest Let Down: Swimming Lessons - I think I heard so many good things about this that I expected more; perhaps those high expectations made it fall short for me.
Best Dressed: Vinegar Girl the colors are pleasing to the eye.
Best Characters: The Thing Around Your Neck - This was a book of short stories and the characters were all so well conceived.
Best Place: The Expatriates - Hong Kong seems fascinating to me.
Best Story: Fierce Kingdom - I had heard so much about this book and wasn't sure how it could be interesting but it was. I thought it had some great twists and turns and really made me feel uneasy throughout.
Best Feelings: The Thing Around Your Neck - This big stirred up a lot of emotion.
Best Love: I think I have to go with Kate and Pyotr from Vinegar Girl most of the rest had some pretty messed up and unhealthy relationships.
Best Shock: Final Girls - I don't want to say too much so will just say the shock was more about behavior than the story.
Best Author: Robin Sloan I really enjoyed Sourdough perhaps not a good as Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore but still left me feeling good.
Best Series: I only read one book from a series so will give it to I Know a Secret
Best Read: Fierce Kingdom for the same reason I selected it best story.

Breakout Read: Howl's Moving Castle - I thought I might enjoy it. I didn't expect it to be on par with the Discworld.
Biggest Let Down: Naked Lunch - one would think that a book that Steely Dan bothered to name itself after would take the time to be halfway decent, coherent, or even feature said character on more than one page.
Best Dressed: - although, I actually read this due to the amazing cover on it's sequel.
Best Characters: Summer Lightning - you knew I was going to give this to Wodehouse. You came to my post, read it, and new damned well it would be Wodehouse.
Best Place: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Best Story: One Hundred Years of Solitude - not a particularly fair contest. None of the other books were 100 years long.
Best Feelings: Depends on the emotion. If we're talkin' fear, then it's definitely "Gramma" from Skeleton Crew
Best Love: Howl's Moving Castle
Best Shock: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Best Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - seems unfair. I read so many solid authors this quarter
Best Series: Blandings Castle
Best Read: Galápagos

Breakout Read: Heartless I usually don't connect with YA characters, but the character development in this book was surprisingly good
Biggest Let Down: The Time Traveler's Wife For a book that's so well-known, it was just meh.
Best Dressed: and it's sequels that I also read this quarter.
Best Characters: Heartless
Best Place: The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Story: Heartless
Best Feelings: A Monster Calls
Best Love: Heartless
Best Shock: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Best Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Best Series: Saga, Vol. 3
Best Read: A Monster Calls

Breakout Read: 5 to 1. I really liked the strange fomat :)

Biggest Let Down: The Serpent King

Best Dressed:

Best Characters: The Raven Boys

Best Place: it's between Heartless (Wonderland) and Tiger Lily (Neverland).

Best Story: A Taste for Monsters

Best Feelings: Oh, boy !

Best Love: I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Best Shock: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Best Author: Matthew J. Kirby (for A Taste for Monsters).

Best Series: The Raven Boys (Raven cycle).

Best Read: Culottées #1 (great non fiction graphic novel)

Breakout Read: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë Anne writes as well as Charlotte and Emily.

Biggest Let Down: Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery I just don't enjoy reading children's books as much as I used to.

Best Dressed: Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

Best Characters: News of the World by Paulette Jiles Jefferson Kyle Kidd and Johanna are just wonderful.

Best Place: News of the World Set in Texas after the Civil War.

Best Story: News of the World

Best Feelings: News of the World Guess what? This book again. I don't often tear up while reading but I did on this one.

Best Love: Persuasion by Jane Austen Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth

Best Shock: The Sellout by Paul Beatty Just because of the way it is written.

Best Author: Jane Austen Love her writing.

Best Series: The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien This is the first book following two Irish girls in 1960 as they come of age.

Best Read: News of the World

Breakout Read: The Night Circus; I was hesitant about this book based on the description, but I'm so glad I read it anyway. Such a captivating book!

Biggest Let Down: Building Stories. This had such a cool format, but it did not live up to its potential. On top of that the story was weak and uninteresting. So disappointing.

Best Dressed: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Best Characters: Nimona

Best Place: The Night Circus (I would *love* to go to the night circus!) with Honorable Mention to Akata Witch

Best Story: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; another one I wasn't sure I would like, but then once I got going I had to know what would happen next.

Best Feelings: The Fault in Our Stars

Best Love: Love, Lies and Spies. This is more of a sweet love story than a dramatic swoon-worthy one, but it makes me happy.

Best Shock: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; this is a reread for me so it didn't make my jaw drop this time, but it sure did the first time I read it!

Best Author: Mat Johnson for Pym

Best Series: Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy; I have been devouring this series.

Best Read: The Night Circus

Breakout Read: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I didn't know how I felt about this book when I started it but man oh man did I love this one! I had to keep reading to know what was going to happen!

Biggest Let Down: 11/22/63 I liked it but I think I had higher expectations for this book.

Best Dressed: Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation

Best Characters:The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I needed to know what was happening to all the characters in this book!

Best Place: Heartless I think it would be fun to visit wonderland and the other lands around it!

Best Feelings: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo this book made me run through all my emotions for sure!

Best Love: The Little French Bistro this love story made me happy!

Best Author: Going with a new author for me Taylor Jenkins Reid for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Best Series: The Diviners I am reading the second book right now! (Lair of Dreams)

Best Read: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Well it looks like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo would work for almost the slots!

Breakout Read: Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia

Biggest Let Down: The Last One by Alexandra Oliva - I wouldn't say it was a disappointment but I think it could have been a little better.

Best Dressed:

by Jane Harper

Best Characters: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Best Place: The Dry by Jane Harper

Best Story: The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Best Feelings: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Best Love: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Best Shock: The Breakdown by B.A. Paris

Best Author: Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia

Best Series: N/A

Best Read: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Breakout read: Hyperion I hate science fiction but I needed one for all three of my reading challenges. My son took it upon himself to pick out my science fiction read, I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.

Biggest Let Down: Do Not Become Alarmed This book was on some summer reading lists. I had high hopes for it but thought it was just OK, nothing special.

Best Dressed: Pachinko

Best Characters: A Gentleman in Moscow

Best Place: A Gentleman in Moscow

Best Story: Beartown

Best Feelings: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Best Love: A Gentleman in Moscow

Best Shock: The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

Best Author: Fredrik Backman

Best Series: N/A

Best Read: A Gentleman in Moscow and Beartown

Breakout Read: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Biggest Let Down: Red Rising
Best Dressed:

Best Characters: The King
Best Place: Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe
Best Story: The King
Best Feelings: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Best Love: The King
Best Shock: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Best Author: Tiffany Reisz
Best Series: The King
Best Read: The King

Breakout Read: Salt to the Sea
Biggest Let Down: City of Fallen Angels - I did this as a side read. I think they should have made it a 3 book series. This was book 4. I will finish the series but not dying to after that book.
Best Dressed: I thought the apple was cool looking.
Best Characters: Winter and Cress- It was a fun series and I'll miss the characters
Best Place: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Hogwarts of course
Best Story: Salt to the Sea
Best Feelings: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things was definitely a book with a lot of feelings in it
Best Love: City of Fallen Angels I guess that is why it is my biggest disappointment. I wanted more of Clary and Jace
Best Shock: Life of Pi
Best Author: Ruta Sepetys
Best Series: The Lunar Chronicles
Best Read: It is probably a tie between All the Ugly and Wonderful Things and Salt to the Sea. They were different from books I usually read and nice breathers if that makes sense.

Breakout Read: Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Biggest Let Down: Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay, #1) by Jill Shalvis
Best Dressed:

Best Characters: The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Place: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Best Story: The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Feelings: Barrayar (Vorkosigan Saga #7) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Love: Wildfire (Hidden Legacy, #3) by Ilona Andrews
Best Shock: Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson #10) by Patricia Briggs
Best Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Series: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (the Vorkosigan Saga)
Best Read: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Breakout Read: Probably The Thief because as much as it intrigued me, I didn't actually know that I loved the book until the very end.

Biggest Let Down: I could say Avengers Arena, Volume 1: Kill or Die, and while this was the worst of my readings in these three months, I didn't actually have high expectations of it. So, the one book I really-really tried to love, (because the premise is so interesting) but couldn't, was Throne of Glass. It wasn't exactly bad, it just... didn't make me want to continue the series.

Best Dressed: I actually read a few books with really pretty covers lately.


Best Characters: Oh, I have several picks for this one too! The Kill Switch, Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

Best Place: Um, maybe The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

Best Story: This has to be The Kill Switch.

Best Love: Definitely not a romance, but the bond between Tucker and Kane in The Kill Switch.

Best Shock: The Thief!

Best Author: James Rollins, Grant Blackwood, Becky Chambers and Matt Fraction.

Best Series: The Tucker Wayne Series, All-New Wolverine Series, Hawkeye Series and the
Wayfarers Series

Best Read: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon and The Kill Switch.

Wow, this was a great quarter overall. It was tough to choose my favourites!

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
This Savage Song. I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to love it quite as much as I did! It was one of my favourites of the year. I also have to mention The Hate U Give, because I was a little worried that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype, but it did!

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
Listen, Slowly. I loved Inside Out & Back Again by the same author last year, so I had high hopes for this one but I didn't like it much at all. Also, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor was good, but nowhere near what I thought it would be.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.
, , and . I couldn't choose between those four.

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
Illuminae, including AIDAN! The interactions between him and Kady were just fascinating.

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not).
Winter. As much as Luna sounds horrible because of Queen Levana, the world created in this book sounds very interesting.

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
Uprooted

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
History Is All You Left Me

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Winter. Pretty much for all of the relationships in there.

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
There was one particular moment in Illuminae that really caught me off-guard.

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Victoria Schwab and Sharon Guskin

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
This Savage Song and Illuminae. I'd include Winter also, but the series is over.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.
It's really, really hard to choose just one. I think if I had to choose only one it would be This Savage Song, but not by very much.

I read about 40 books this quarter (some very short ones! ). A better proportion of enjoyable reads this time, but still a few disappointments. These are mostly side reads as I finished the ATY52 challenge in August and so I started some others.


Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. The Girls I was looking for a book set in Canada for a challenge and Google found me this. I thought it was an interesting idea, but wasn't prepared for the beautiful relationship between the sisters.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment. Shame This was a disappointment for many reasons - not least because it was my first Salman Rushdie and now I'm not sure if I want to read more. I get that the writing is good and it was an interesting story but... I could rant all day about the things that I didn't like!
Also disappointing was A is for Alibi as I've heard good things about this series but I didn't really warm to the MC, I'm going to give 'B' a try though.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.

This picture doesn't do it justice! It is one of those 'linen' feel covers, which make it satisfying to hold, but also why I like it so much is that the James Bond series is supposed to be so 'macho' but the publisher dared to issue this particular story in such a cliche 'girly' colour. In 1988. I also have Casino Royale in the same series, which is a very nice blue, there's also a lilac. If I see any others it will be tempting to get them.

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of. Northanger Abbey. This was only the Austen I'd never read, I think I saved the best till last. Best male lead ( sorry Mr Darcy!)

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not). I've been re reading some Discworld novels , but I gave this award to Discworld in the first quarter. So going to give it to a real place - Giverney in France ( home of the painter Monet and setting for Black Water Lilies)

Best Story: A book with a great storyline. The Wasp Factory Loved it - so well written and many things I recognised about growing up around the same time as the MC, so I could relate to them (despite them owning up to killing three people before the age of sixteen! Not a spoiler - it's in the book description )

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional. The Girls plus honourable mention to Yerma ( I think actually seeing this play performed would be very emotional)

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book). Actal romance Northanger Abbey but the best love story was easily The Girls

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise. Black Water Lilies - I did actually *gasp* at one point because a character did something so unexpected.

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with. I have been reading quite a few of my favourite authors this quarter, but new authors to me : Michael Chabon for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (which I loved but it doesn't fit any other of the award catergories) with special mention to Iain Banks ( for The Wasp Factory)

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more. As I've been doing a few re reads this quarter I could list Discworld, James Bond, Poirot, and Harry Potter here but I've read virtually everything in them and there can be no more. So for a new series (to me) The Cuckoo's Calling introduced me to a very interesting new PI in Comoran Strike

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others. So many more to choose from this time I have five 5* books
The Old Man and the Sea, Northanger Abbey, The Wasp Factory, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (4 and a half, I didn't like the end), but I think it has to be


The Girls] by Lori Lansens 🏆

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Dark Matter
I didn't know what to expect, but I loved this one--it's actually my favorite that I read this year.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
My best friend recommended Legend, and I thought I would like it. While it was a very quick and easy read, I just never really was interested in it.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.


Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
A Man Called Ove had really unique and quirky characters. I can't wait to read this author's other books!

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not).
I thought the castle itself in Howl's Moving Castle was really cool, as was the overall world it was set in. I was curious to find out more, which probably means I should read the next book in the series!

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
Dark Matter was a pageturner. Even though I feel this question is geared towards fiction, I found Infidel to be one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. I really enjoyed reading about the author's life.


Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Tuesdays with Morrie had me in tears multiple times and so did A Man Called Ove (although the latter had more ups and downs--I was laughing one minute, crying the next, then back to laughing).

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Persuade Me, which is a modernization of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's no coincidence that Persuasion is one of my favorite romances ever.

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.

Dark Matter definitely did this.

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with. The author of A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman. I found his writing style to be beautiful, humorous, and moving.

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two
Even though this one wasn't as good as the other Harry Potter books, I still loved reading about the characters I love so much.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others. Dark Matter was outstanding.

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet by Xinran

Biggest Let Down:
Sourdough by Robin Sloan. I loved his previous book, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, so maybe I was expecting too much.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.
Winter by Marissa Meyer

Best Story:A book with a great storyline.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. It has a most unexpected twist!

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Ian McEwan

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Two very different books : A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel and The Killer Koala by Kenneth Cook. The second one is very funny (could be a good pick if you're searching for something for the 2018-prompt : "a book that makes you laugh").

Biggest Let Down: Invisible Links by Selma Lagerlöf. I've read The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and The Phantom Carriage by S. Lagerlöf and enjoyed them both, but this one was one of her first books and not so accomplished. Her landscapes descriptions were amazing, but the stories not so gripping and the characters not so well developped as in her later works.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover. The Master and Margarita(in this French version : )

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of : The Brutal Telling (I'm a real Louise Penny-fan…)

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not) : A History of Reading : set in lots of bookshops and libraries all over the world! :-)

Best Story: A book with a great storyline : Swimming to Elba by Silvia Avallone. The English title and the book cover could let you think it's a romance, but it's not. It's a powerful coming-of-age story. From the beginning of the book, I felt something dreadful would happen, but what? when? and to whom? And of course, the end was not what I had expected.

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional : Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. I think that when I'm feeling down, I could open this book at nearly any page, read it, and feel encouraged and reenergized.

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book). N/A

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise : The Master and Margarita

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with : Silvia Avallone

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more : The Brutal Telling

Best Read: The book you read that topped all the others : Long Walk to Freedom and Swimming to Elba

Breakout Read: A Conjuring of Light, I wasn't expecting to like this series as much as I did!

Biggest Let Down: One Hundred Years of Solitude, being such a loved classic, I wasn't expecting to be as bored as I was.

Best Dressed:

Best Characters: Edge of Eternity, I loved the characters of each generation of the families we follow during this trilogy and the last ones didn't disappoint.

Best Place: Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared, this book really made me want to visit Kazakhstan! The country has such an interesting story and from the pictures I have seen, it looks gorgeous!

Best Story: Big Little Lies, I loved the way the story was told.

Best Feelings: The Light Between Oceans, I had to pause the audiobook while on the train not to cry in front of people.

Best Love: Fool's Assassin, it was great to see Fitz and Molly living together after all they went through in the previous trilogies!

Best Shock: Golden Son and its crazy cliffhanger.

Best Author: Pierce Brown and V.E. Schwab.

Best Series: The Red Rising trilogy, certainly the best I've read this year and part of my all-time favourite series.

Best Read: Morning Star

Breakout Read: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?. I wanted to listen to something funny for an audiobook, and wow, I was really not expecting this to be as wonderfully hilarious as it was, so it was a great breakout surprise for me.

Biggest Let Down: All the Birds in the Sky. Amazing concept, meh execution of said concept + underwhelming characters and a haphazard plotline.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.

It's simplistic but totally gorgeous and fitting for the story.

Best Characters: Princeless, Vol. 1: Save Yourself. So many adorable characters I loved in this one.

Best Place: The Blinds. Such a creepy place, but it was so interestingly creepy and easy to picture.

Best Story: A Thousand Nights. The way this story is told like a story is done so wonderfully; it felt like an old dark fairytale in its own right rather than just a reimagining of one.

Best Feelings: What Girls Are Made Of.

Best Love: Discount Armageddon; the romantic dynamic between Verity and Dominic was both hilarious and a bit swoon-worthy despite the issues they faced as a couple.

Best Shock: The Walls Around Us. The twists and turns in this book were crafted so remarkably. I was literally in awe of how everything came together in the end.

Best Author: Virginia Woolf.

Best Series: The Secret Place. I absolutely adore Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series: she has this gorgeous aesthetic writing style, and I always find myself eager to see what tale she spins next time around, and how it connects to the rest.

Best Read: It's hard to choose just one, but if I did, I'd have to go with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Last quarter was a pretty lacklustre one for me. It's no wonder I'm in a slump now! This was definitely the hardest quarter for me to find winners in so far.

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
The Hours. After being a bit burnt out on literary fiction, especially more modern novels, I kind of expected this to be a bit too much for me, but man, it was unbelievably good.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
The Bear and the Nightingale. I'd heard so many great reviews of this one, about how atmospheric and just totally awesome it was, but I found it to be really terrible.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.

The Spider and I read this together - it's the illustrated version, and they are totally lush. The covers even feel amazing.

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
Always Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not).
We of the Never Never, because it's the Australian outback. :)

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
The Murder on the Links, because Dame Agatha Christie sure knew how to spin a yarn.

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
The very end of The Return of the King made me cry. (view spoiler)[I could really feel Sam's despair and emptiness when Frodo sailed off. (hide spoiler)]

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
I didn't enjoy the romance in the one book I read with some in it, so I'm going to go with a platonic great love that Sam has for Frodo in The Return of the King. It's exceptional. Still a better love story than Twilight.

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
Shutter Island had a great twist, which although I guessed to an extent, the way it was played out was brilliant.

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Michael Cunningham, because the way he wrote his characters in The Hours was amazing. They all got under my skin, and it was just heartbreaking.

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
Harry! I can't wait to get the next illustrated version (of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and read it with the Spider.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.
Definitely The Hours.

Breakout Read: Stoner by John Williams. I had no expectations for this one and really enjoyed it.

Biggest Let Down: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Wao just left me flat out cold.

Best Dressed: None of them were great....Never Let Me Go was probably the best.

Best Characters: Out I was fascinated by this group of tough, and often unlikeable, ladies who are helping a co-worker cover up the murder of her husband.

Best Place: I'd have to say The Road by Cormac McCarthy had the most interesting setting of the books I read this quarter. It was quiet and eerie and terrifying.

Best Story: Indignation by Philip Roth tells the story of a good boy who goes away to college to get away from his father (and to avoid being drafted). Every decision he makes has consequences!

Best Feelings: Native Son made me angry and sad all at once. Not the good feelies, but the strong feelies.

Best Love: Slouching Towards Bethlehem This was not a romance, but Joan Didion's short stories were romantic reflections on days gone by and her prose is beautiful.

Best Shock: I wouldn't say that it surprised me, but the content in American Psycho was shockingly graphic. Even more shocking is the fact that the book is a comedy.

Best Author: Cormac McCarthy probably came out on top, but there were several heavy hitters.

Best Series: I didn't read any books out of series this quarter.

Best Read: The Sellout by Paul Beatty blew me away.

Oh, Out is a Edgar nominee and a Japanese book, added to my 2018 TBR :D

I probably should have put Out on the "shock" section. I pulled it off of a challenging reading list which had a mixture of difficult books to read (like Ulysses) and books with graphic or shocking content (like American Psycho). If you shy away from graphic content, Out might not be for you. That said, I really enjoyed it.

Breakout Read: Vanishing Girls

Biggest Let down: The Watcher byRoss Armstrong Not a bad book and great twist ending, but I was thinking it would be different along the journey.

Best Dressed: The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Best Characters: Same as the choice above. The best-dressed -book above- is really the only book I have read in the last 3 months that qualify.

Best Place: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Best Story: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver Added again since books I read this quarter were just okay.

Best Feelings:The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Best Love: Same as above

Best Shock: The Watcher Ross Armstrong

Best Author: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Best Series: The Distant Echo byVal McDermid

Best Read: Again it has to be Vanishing Girls by
Lauren Oliver

I read a ton over the 3rd Quarter just shy of 50 books. So there are a few a just couldn't chose so I put down more than one answer! :)

Breakout Read: The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir this book totally blew me away. I was just expected your basic nonfiction book. But the writing in this intense book was really good!

Biggest Let Down: Sadly I had several big ones... The Underground Railroad I wanted to like it but it just didn't land for me. Still Life by Louise Penny I heard so many people rave about her books and it was such a slog to me. Gus follow up to Brightside book that I loved but this book was awful!!

Best Dressed: beautiful book but not a great story! this one is a beautiful book in side and out! :)

Best Characters: Lots of interesting characters in Do Not Become Alarmed

Best Place: In Other Words Beautifully written nonfiction book about living in Italy and learning Italian!

Best Story: Commonwealth

Best Feelings: The Storyteller

Best Love: This is How It Always Is Such a good book!! LOVED IT!

Best Shock: Behind Her Eyes

Best Author: So hard... love... Ann Patchett, and Jodi Picoult

Best Series: I am not a series person.

Best Read: This is How It Always Is Highly recommend this book, could have put it in all the slots!

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment. Shooting Lincoln: Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and the Race to Photograph the Story of the Century

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover. Before It's Too Late

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of. Pirate

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not). Edinburgh Twilight

Best Story: A book with a great storyline. The Broken Girls

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional. Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book). Extrasensory

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise. Doctor Sleep

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.Keri Arthur

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
Dark Carpathian by Christine Feehan
Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.