Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

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.

This is fun!

Breakout Read: The Mermaid. This book felt like it was written for me!

Biggest Let Down: The Poison Belt I read and loved The Lost World a few years ago but this was nothing like it. And the way everything was "magically fixed" at the end. I would have been more interested in the way the world changed after the event because I'm sure a lot of people died or had their lives affected in major ways

Best Dressed: I'm a sucker for Art Deco


Best Characters: Victory of Eagles I love Laurence and Temeraire's bromance; and Izkierka is adorable

Best Place: Spinning Silver You really get a sense of the ice kingdom, the woods, the little Russian village etc

Best Story: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Disney have been lying to me about this story for most of my life haha

Best Feelings: Record of a Spaceborn Few I cried on the train reading this

Best Series: Legendary. In the first book Donnatella didn't come across very well but now that we've had a book from her perspective, I feel like we understand her better. I am very excited for Finale to come out

Best Read: It's a tie between Legendary and The Mermaid

I'm reading less and the quarter was a bit average, so it was more difficult to pick books!

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
The Shepherd's Crown
Some of the reviews were pretty disappointed so I expected a terrible read, but I enjoyed it :)

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
The Prophet of Yonwood
This 3rd book doesn't exist in the series, it's a product of my imagination.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.


Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
Eliza and Her Monsters

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not).
The Deep. Yey for underwater exploration!

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
The Alloy of Law

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
None.

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Divergent (re-read, so no surprise)

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
The Backstagers, Vol. 1

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Forget Me Not

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
None.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.
Eliza and Her Monsters. It's my only 5 stars, so I'll use it.

Breakout Read: The Sisters Brothers I'm really not big on westerners but read this for the Bookriot Challenge and actually enjoyed it.

Biggest Let Down: A Discovery of Witches Just because a character has a PhD does not mean that "show don't tell" doesn't exist for your insistence that she is smart!

Best Dressed: In Other Lands Definitely read this because of it's cover. Unfortunately mermaids are not nearly as prevalent as the cover implies and the story line is full of high school drama, but it's still a fun quick read.

Best Characters: The Whispering Skull I know that children doing adult work is kinda an overdone troupe, but in this universe there is at least a reason for 12 year olds to be ghostbusters.

Best Place: The City & the City two countries overlap in the same city. The mental games that are played to make this location actually viable is really impressive

Best Story: Early Riser Hibernating humans!

Best Feelings: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Ouch

Best Love: The Swans of Fifth Avenue This isn't a romance in the traditional sense, but about Truman Capote and his close group of upper class women friends.

Best Shock: I Let You Go THERAPY

Best Author: A Darker Shade of Magic I read a lot of books by authors that I already enjoyed, but this is a new one that I really liked.

Best Series: Thunderhead Cause who doesn't like a good children becoming the grime reaper book?

Best Read: Elantris I'm a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson and for this to be his first novel? Wow; no longer his later work is so good.

Shelley, I have I Let You Go on my list for this year still. Glad to hear it made your awards!

Breakout Read: Us Against You

Biggest Let Down: The Last Mrs. Parrish

Best Dressed: Us Against You

Best Characters: For the sake of variety. But really Us Against You had some fantastic characters.
When Life Gives You Lululemons

Best Place: The Deep

Best Story: The Outsider

Best Feelings: Us Against You

Best Shock: The Last Mrs. Parrish

Best Author: Fredrick Backman

Best Series: Beartown/Us Against You
/
Best Read: Us Against You

So glad for this "Best Place" category to give me ideas for the sense of place prompt next year!

Laura, I think you liked Us Against You bahaha

I try to share the love and not repeat the same book for multiple categories but I read a few really great (and not so great) ones this quarter so I had to double up a bit.

Breakout Read:Grist Mill Road

Biggest Let Down: Artemis I'm really not easily offended but the slut shaming and homophobic "jokes" in this book really irritated me. Also, Robinson Crusoe was painful and I really hated the main character.

Best Dressed:

Best Characters: The Color Purple

Best Place: No contest on this one. The Night Circus

Best Story: My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton

Best Feelings: The Great Believers

Best Love: The Night Circus

Best Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

Best Read: I couldn't choose just one: The Night Circus and The Color Purple

😂 I did! But I also read a lot of “meh” books this quarter. Either that or short reads that I was inserting while I was trying to finish A Little Life. I caught myself accidentally adding books from October so my final quarter awards will be more exciting!

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman
This has been on my TBR FOREVERRRRR and I'm so glad I finally read it.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment

Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis
Ohhhhh I hated this book so much.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

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

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
I loveeee Matthew and Diana, and then they go back in time to Elizabethan England... such good characterization there

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Creepy, spooky, the house was described in exquisite detail.

Best Story: A book with a great storyline

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
This book did no wrong.

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I hated this book so much, but it also was really emotional. WWII kills me every time.

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Ove's wife is dead, but it's the loving friendships that makes this book just so good.

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

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
I mean, Agatha Christie.

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

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
I got to read Time's Convert in September and it was just everything.

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

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
It's a tie!

This is my first time trying to assign quarterly awards, and it was fun! In several categories I had a hard time narrowing down to just one book. There were a few books I really really loved that I could have put in multiple categories, but I allowed only one category per book.

Looking at my list now, I'm a little startled by how many one-word titles I chose!

Breakout Read: All Systems Red - this had great reviews but I still didn't expect to fall in love with it the way I did! Yay for Murderbot!! I can't wait to read book #2 in the series. (Soon! I've got it on hold at my library, status is "shipping" yay!)
Biggest Let Down: LOL I had MANY disappointments, and had a really hard time settling on just ONE, but here goes: Shards of Honor. This had the most praise, so it was the biggest let down. Seriously, WTF is with all the praise? This is the first book I've read by this author and I was decidedly UNimpressed.
Best Dressed: Another category where it was hard to choose just one book. I finally settled on: All the Missing Girls . That twilight image is so haunting.
Best Characters: The Song of Achilles
Best Place: The Expatriates (Hong Kong)
Best Story: welllll ... I had a tough time settling on one book for this one. So, maybe? Night of Cake & Puppets
Best Feelings: The Return of Zita the Spacegirl because I am just so charmed by plucky Zita.
Best Love: The Hating Game - I can't wait for her next book!
Best Shock: Acceptance. This was more like "the weirdest" rather than "most shocking."
Best Author: Moxyland (Lauren Beukes). I'm working on reading everything she's published.
Best Series: Gemina & Obsidio, both read this quarter. What a fun series this was!! I'm so happy the authors are collaborating again on a new series.
Best series, honorable mention: Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon, Hawkeye, Volume 2: Little Hits, Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman, Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo, which I binge read this summer. (And I never binge read!) Great story from Fraction and wonderful art from Aja. I want to go back and read it all over again.
Best Read: There There

Laura wrote: "Shelley, I have I Let You Go on my list for this year still. Glad to hear it made your awards!"

There was one thing in there that greatly brought down the rating for me (no spoilers), but ignoring that part it was really good. Shocking is definitely the right word for it. I stayed up until 2 on a work night to finish it.

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Middlesex I was so unsure about this subject matter, but this is one of the most skillfully written books I have ever read.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment. Cold Comfort Farm I had this on my TBR for such a long time and had read so many reviews praising it. Just not my cup of tea.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover. Love the scene and the colors. Very peaceful.

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of. The Towers of Silence Wonderfully character driven.

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not). The Winter Sea. Would love to just step into her books sometimes.

Best Story: A book with a great storyline. The Evening Chorus

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional. All Quiet on the Western Front

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

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise. The Word Is Murder

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with. The Return of the Soldier

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more. The Day of the Scorpion I am reading the Raj Quartet, this being the second book. I have one more to go now and I will be really sorry to have this series end. Remarkable writing.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others. The Towers of Silence

Sara, I love The Winter Sea and Susanna Kearsley! I've loved every book I've read by her.

Sara wrote: "Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Middlesex I was so unsure about this subject matter, but this is one of the most skillfully written books I ha..."

I just finished Bellewether so it will most likely be my "best dressed" for 4th quarter. Both are beautiful but I prefer this one
I loved it, btw and I agree with what you said (in your review or in a comment, I can't recall) about how the present storyline was really strong in this one. The romance aspect of it was predictable but still sweet and I really liked both timelines.

I think Kearsley is one of the best at making both her timelines work. With most split timeline books, I find myself wanting the older story and just wanting the newer one to get out of the way. Not so with Kearsley. :)

Breakout Read: Surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts is my new favorite sci-fi author!

Biggest Let Down: Thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment
The Intuitionist - Maybe not a total disappointment but I expected more!

Best Dressed: Most attractive cover
Chess Story

Best Characters: Characters you couldn't get enough of
Lonesome Dove- Without a doubt, a great ensemble of characters!

Best Place: Set in an interesting place
Jack Glass- The first half is set on an asteroid hollowed out for living and mining by prisoners!

Best Story: Great storyline
Lonesome Dove

Best Feelings: Made you really emotional
Annabel

Best Love: Romance worth swooning for - None

Best Shock: Jaw dropped in surprise
Beyond Lies the Wub - Excellent short story by Philip K. Dick

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with
Ostland by David Thomas

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
The Hobbit - Yay- finally! LOTR is next.

Best Read: The book that topped all the others
Tie: Lonesome Dove and Doña Barbara - I read them together (and they are similar in setting- American Western and a Venezuelan Western) and am having a hard time separating my feelings for both books.

I would certainly agree that Lonesome Dove has one of the best casts of characters in literature. I have not read Dona Barbara, but if it ranks with LD, I will add it to the TBR right now.

Sara wrote: "I think Kearsley is one of the best at making both her timelines work. With most split timeline books, I find myself wanting the older story and just wanting the newer one to get out of the way. No..."

Agreed! She is the author who got me interested in dual timeline books.

Emily, if you like Kearsley, add her newest, Bellewether to your TBR. It's one of my favorite of hers that I've read.

Breakout Read: Circe
Biggest Let Down: The Girl in the Tower It was by no means a bad book, but did not live up to The Bear and the Nightingale for me.
Best Dressed: Saga, Vol. 1 was the only physical book I read this quarter, so I'll go with that.
Best Characters: Autoboyography
Best Place: Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
Best Story: Home Fire
Best Feelings: The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
Best Love: Autoboyography
Best Shock:
Best Author: Madeline Miller
Best Series:
Best Read: Circe

Categories:
Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.
The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not). Tie: The Smell of Other People's Houses and American War

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, I laughed, I cried.

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book). Tie: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Smell of Other People's Houses

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

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with. Too many, I can't choose: Omar El Akkad, Gail Honeyman, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, Ken Liu and Marjane Satrapi

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood ( completed )

Best Read. The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others. Tie: American War and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Monday's Not Coming. I honestly didn't expect too much from this, and I thought it was amazing!

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
I had quite a few books that I expected to love that ended up being just okay (mostly YA contemporary, which I usually love), but if I had to pick just one I'd say The Hangman's Daughter was my biggest disappointment. It wasn't at all what I expected.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.
, with in a very close second.

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin. Honorable mention to Wires and Nerve and Gone Rogue.

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not).
I could easily say the various courts in the ACOTAR series again, but for the sake of variety, I also think Days of Blood & Starlight and Dreams of Gods & Monsters are set in a very interesting world.

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
So many to choose from! Probably A Court of Mist and Fury.

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Starfish

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Autoboyography. The romance in this was just adorable!

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
I Let You Go

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Obviously Sarah J. Maas, but in terms of new-to-me authors I would say Clare Mackintosh, Akemi Dawn Bowman and Christina Lauren.

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
No surprise here, but choosing the ACOTAR books again.

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.
Tough choice, but I think it's a three-way tie between Autoboyography, Starfish, and A Court of Mist and Fury.

Tracy wrote: "Categories:
Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Biggest Let Down: A book y..."

Tracy, I'm so glad you liked Eleanor! One of my favorites this year and I still can't believe it was a debut novel. Can't wait to see what the author does next.

Rachelnyc wrote: "Tracy, I'm so glad you liked Eleanor! One of my favorites this year and I still can't believe it was a debut novel. Can't wait to see what the author does next. ..."

I loved it!! One of the best books Ive read this year and yes, I'm curious to see what she comes up with next :-)

Tracy wrote: "Rachelnyc wrote: "Tracy, I'm so glad you liked Eleanor! One of my favorites this year and I still can't believe it was a debut novel. Can't wait to see what the author does next. ..."

I loved it!!..."

I agree and also anxious to see if she can follow it up with something just as good.

Rachel wrote: "Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Monday's Not Coming. I honestly didn't expect too much from this, and I thought it was amazing!

Biggest L..."

I have had The Hangman's Daughter on my TBR for a while. I'm thinking it might be time to drop it. I am always trying to get it down to manageable.

Breakout Read: Unbroken by Hillenbrand
Biggest Let Down: Paper Chains by Langton
Best Dressed: What If? by Munroe
Best Characters: Little Fires Everywhere
Best Place: Blood on the Water by Anne Perry
Best Story: Still Alice by Genova
Best Feelings: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Joyce
Best Love: The Fault in Our Stars by Green
Best Author: Anne Perry
Best Series: The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J. R. Ward
Best Read: Unbroken by Hillenbrand

Rachelnyc wrote: "Sara wrote: "I think Kearsley is one of the best at making both her timelines work. With most split timeline books, I find myself wanting the older story and just wanting the newer one to get out o..."

Adding now! I never really follow authors -- I barely keep up with new releases in a series I'm in, much less new standalones by authors, but I've read a few of hers and I know I love her style!

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Mind. Blown. This is far and away the best book I've read all year.



Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.

Circe by Madeline Miller

I totally loved The Song of Achilles so when I heard the author had finally written another book I was squeeee excited. But )sadface( Circe was so boring and forgettable.



Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.

The House at the Edge of the World by Julia Rochester

The Brits so often use this style for book covers and I just love it. And the story itself was super great.


Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place

Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke

A futuristic inhabited Antarctica. Brilliant. And so well described.



Best Story: A book with a great storyline.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

Creepy and gothic and twisty. And unputdownable.



Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

ALL the feels. So poignant.



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

West by Carys Davies

I was like, "Wait. What?" throughout the book. And then that ending. O.m.g.



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

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

It's like the author invented her own definition of "book." Such a unique voice and such a powerful story.



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

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

This book. X1000.

Milena wrote: "Breakout Read: Circe
Biggest Let Down: The Girl in the Tower It was by no means a bad book, but did not live up to The Bear and the Nightingale for m..."

I was the opposite. I much preferred The Girl in the Tower to The Bear and the Nightingale

Sarah, I have seen many people say that here. It's what makes us interesting, I guess. I will still read the third book.

Breakout Read: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - I really loved this one.
Biggest Let Down: The Underground Railroad - I just thought I would have liked this better
Best Dressed: None really but I guess I'll go with
Best Characters: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - I love Ron and Hermione - of course Harry. I crack up when Hermione is trying to free the house elves.
Best Place: so duh - Hogwarts Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Best Story: Little Fires Everywhere
Best Feelings: Hmmm I guess I'll go with Behind Closed Doors because I wanted to yell at the characters and I really hated one of them.
Best Love: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - you were kind of rooting for something to happen
Best Shock: The Couple Next Door - had a couple of shocks in there.
Best Author: Shirley Jackson So I don't think The Haunting of Hill House was the best one to start with but I want to read more of her books.
Best Series: This is a tie with Harry Potter and Wayward Pines Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Wayward
Best Read: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. It will be one of my favorites this year.


My picks were kind of hard this quarter because I didn't read as many books as usual. I only read 12.

I felt much the same about each of your books that I had also read. Eleanor Oliphant was a delightful surprise for me.

Breakout Read: The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
I'll read more by this author.

Biggest Let Down: Gone Girl
I've finally read this and although I didn't expect to love this, I didn't expect to hate it. I hated it.

Best Dressed: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

Best Characters: The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham - all interesting in the 1940s story

Best Place: Mistress Pat - L.M. Montgomery Silver Bush is so lovely.

Best Story: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl I learned so much about the people who survived this catastrophe. It was nonfiction, but such a good story.

Best Feelings: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Best Love: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Who did Evelyn love best?

Best Shock: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Best Author: W. Somerset Maugham
I hope to read all his novels.

Best Series: Agatha Christie Her Poirot and Marple books

Best Read: The Razor's Edge

Breakout Read: Middlesex, I never thought I’d love this book that much but the story and the writing are amazing.

Biggest Let Down: Dexter Is Dead, I glad I finished this series, because the last 2 books were really meh

Best Dressed:
I love the covers of the series

Best Characters: The House of the Spirits, the book didn’t blow me away, but what a set of characters!

Best Place: The Root, Binti’s the family house in Home is actually a tree!

Best Story: I have to go with Middlesex

Best Feelings: I have to stretch this one a bit because apart from Middlesex no books really made me emotional and I don’t want to use it again, so I’ll go for The Power, which definitely made me feel a massive range of emotions!

Best Love: not much love in my readings unfortunately

Best Shock: I didn’t like the ending of The Power and was quite shocked that she could write that

Best Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

Best Series: Binti

Best Read: Middlesex, I can’t go with anything else (and to my defence I haven’t read that much these past 3 months 😉)

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews. Hugh d’Ambray was a side-character in the Kate Daniels series, one who was unlikeable, and he is the main character in this new series. So I was surprised that this was so good.

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
Happily there were none.

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover.


Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of.
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not).
Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book).
Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Sharon Shinn

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more.
Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations.
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment.
The Bookshop

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

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictional or not).
Wife of the Gods (set in both rural and urban Ghana)

Best Story: A book with a great storyline.
Circe

Best Feelings: A book that made you really emotional.
Circe

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

Best Shock: A book that made your jaw drop in surprise.
two books here:
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with.
Madeline Miller
Curious, but I didn't much care for her first book (The Song of Achilles) but I thought Circe was one of the best books I've ever read! I absolutely loved her writing. Now I'm going to have to go back and try The Song of Achilles again.

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

Sara wrote: "Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Middlesex I was so unsure about this subject matter, but this is one of the most skillfully written books I ha..."

Sara, I'm so glad to read your comments on Middlesex. It has been on my list for quite awhile and I keep putting it off. It's on my 2019 list and now I am more encouraged to read it!

Milena wrote: "Breakout Read: Circe
Biggest Let Down: The Girl in the Tower It was by no means a bad book, but did not live up to The Bear and the Nightingale for m..."

Totally agree about Circe! It won my Best Read and Best Author, as well as a few other categories. :)

Cheri, I really liked The Song of Achilles also, just not as much as Circe. Maybe you would enjoy the audiobook, the narrator was fantastic.

Cheri wrote: "Sara wrote: "Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Middlesex I was so unsure about this subject matter, but this is one of the most skillfully writt..."

I re-read Middlesex this year and it was as good as I remembered.

Cheri, now you have me very excited about reading Circe in 2019. I was thinking of using it for the ancient civilizations rejects prompt.

Breakout Read: Homegoing I did not expect to like this one as much I did. The multi generational format really sold it for me.
Biggest Let Down: Brave New World god this was so boring i'm sorry to all the classic lit nerds but I couldn't even finish this
Best Dressed: speaks for itself
Best Characters: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Ari and dante were adorable. This one definitely had the best and most focus on character development for this quarter.
Best Place: also Daughter of Smoke & Bone it's set in Prague, Czech Republic. I was there a few months ago for study abroad so this made me a bit nostalgic.
Best Story: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban my favorite of the harry potters so far on my first time around
Best Feelings: The Hate U Give I rarely cry while reading but this shit got me
Best Love: [bookAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe|12000020] the slowburn to beat all slowburns
Best Shock: The Picture of Dorian Gray I don't know what I was expecting but murder wasn't one of them so that was surprising
Best Author: Beartown by Fredrik Backman His was my favorite style of writing from this quarter. It had a very poetic flow to it that I loved
Best Series: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I started this series for the first time this quarter and I'm really excited to continue it. I'm on book 4 now
Best Read: Beartown . It's a close call with The Hate U Give but I'm a sucker for flowey writing and small town microcosms of larger society so there ya go.

Special shoutout to Slaughterhouse-Five as well. I loved this one a lot so it gets the "classic that lives up to the hype award"

Sarah, I love Beatriz Williams and Sarah Addison Allen, and it looks like you had a great reading month!

Sarah E wrote: "Emily wrote: "Sarah, I love Beatriz Williams and Sarah Addison Allen, and it looks like you had a great reading month!"

Emily, Beatriz Williams is definitely one of my new favorite authors. I was ..."

I got it from Book of the Month Club last month but I haven't read it yet! It might end up having to wait until next year.

Breakout Read: The Undomestic Goddess
Biggest Let Down: Artemis
Best Dressed:

Best Characters: The Nightingale
Best Place: Gravity
Best Story: The Nightingale
Best Feelings: The Nightingale
Best Love: Slammed
Best Shock: Gravity
Best Author: A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Best Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best Read: A Night to Remember

Well, I actually read 29 books in this quarter, which is a lot more than I realized.

Breakout Read: Alif the Unseen I was very hesitant about this book before I started and it was very enjoyable.

Biggest Let Down: Artifact by Gigi Pandian; I thought this was going to be very National Treasure vibes, but it was just a disappointing love-triangle softcore thriller. Boooooo.

Best Dressed:

Best Characters: This One Summer; for such well drawn/written characters even in such a brief space

Best Place: Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail

Best Story: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

Best Feelings: The Best We Could Do

Best Love: My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel

Best Shock: Binti

Best Author: Anthony Horowitz for Magpie Murders

Best Series: Mayhem at the Orient Express

Best Read: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer; I don't have any fancy reasons, I just really liked it a lot.

Breakout Read: A book that was surprisingly good or exceeded expectations. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Biggest Let Down: A book you thought would be brilliant but was a total disappointment. Grendel by John Gardner

Best Dressed: The book with the most attractive cover. Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, by Deborah Heligman

Best Characters: A book with characters you couldn't get enough of. The Stand by Stephen King

Best Place: A book that was set in an interesting place (fictionnal or not). The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

Best Story: A book with a great storyline. The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware

Best Love: A book with a romance worth swooning for (does not have to be a romance book). The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich

Best Author: An author whose writing you really clicked with. Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler

Best Series: A book from a series you either can't get enough of or can't wait to indulge in more. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

Best Read: The book you read in July, August, and September that topped all the others. The Stand by Stephen King