21st Century Literature discussion

Share with us the three most recent 5-star reads you finished/rated...

If I had asked me this, which I guess I just did, I would not have expected these results:

- City of Saints and Madmen (Vandermeer)
- The Passenger (McCarthy)
- Keeping Two (Crane)

This Is Not a Novel by David Markson
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai

Tove Jansson's The Summer Book

Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto

Simone de Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death

The Box by Mandy-Suzanne Wong

Hangman by Maya Binyam

Things I Didn't Throw Out by Marcin Wicha—a five star read of my five star reads :-)

Most recent is definitely The House of Doors but then we hit my big reviewing backlog and I would need to think a bit to say which of those deserve 5 stars.

I never realized how dangerous this thread might be to growing my TBR list!

Study for Obedience
Old God's Time
August Blue

Zorrie

Should We Fall Behind

Sea of Tranquility

Only a few pages in, but Prophet Song is pretty compelling so far.

Cruddy by Lynda Barry
Barefoot Gen, Volume Ten: Never Give Up by Keiji Nakazawa
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Reread in July.

Strangers I Know, Claudia Durastanti

Real Estate, Deborah Levy

Childhood / Youth / Dependency, Tove Ditlevsen

Space Invaders, Nona Fernández (translated by Natasha Wimmer)
4.5 stars rounded up :)

Undiscovered, Gabriela Wiener (translated by Julia Sanches, though I did not read it in English.)

The Years, Annie Ernaux (translated by Alison L. Strayer)

The Years was actually a reread. If we're only talking about new reads, my third was La trama alternativa: Sogni e pratiche di giustizia trasformativa contro la violenza di genere by writer and activist Giusi Palomba, yet to be translated. It's a non-fiction book about transformative justice as opposed to conventional prison systems.
Quick-fire summary of the original blurb: Palomba examines our culture/narratives and argues that violence within a community is never just a private matter between perpetrator and victim. It's a different perspective on gender-based violence, and an invitation to look towards an idea of justice more akin to a collective process.

Exhalation
In Ascension
Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta

Nives
Vernon Subutex 1
Musical Tables: Poems

Nadine in California wrote: "Exhalation
In Ascension
Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta"

I loved Carlotta when I read it! I’m glad you did, too.

Some repeats for me of what others have liked as well:

- The Box by Mandy-Suzanne Wong
- Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai, tr. Polly Barton
- Out of Earth by Sheyla Smanioto, tr. Laura Garmeson and Sophie Lewis

Most recent three:

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson

Most recent three fiction:

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Cartel by Don Winslow
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Most recent three non-fiction:

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches by Stephen E. Ambrose

Most recent three 21st Century:

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Cartel by Don Winslow
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà, tr. from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem.

Left's Right, Right's Left by Han Yujoo, tr. from Korean by Janet Hong.
and
Five Preludes & a Fugue by Cheon Heerahn, tr. from Korean by Emily Yae Won.
(Two chapbooks which are individually quite short so I'll lump them together.)

Grimmish by Michael Winkler.

My other five-star read from this year (& which I must mention because I want a wider audience to read it): The Assembly of the Severed Head by Hugh Lupton.

Very dangerous Marc!

The Complete Ballet: A Fictional Essay in Five Acts by John Haskell

The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor (this is third in an absolutely delightful trilogy)

The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa

I read The Fisherman. I thought it was good..

Oh boy, this thread is going to make my TBR even longer. Here are my very eclectic most recent 3 five star reads.

Hestia Strikes a Match

Blood of Dragons

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Jennifer wrote: "I read The Fisherman. I thought it was good.."

That scared the peewadlins out of me! Highly recommend it for anyone who likes horror.

Cher wrote: "Oh boy, this thread is going to make my TBR even longer. Here are my very eclectic most recent 3 five star reads.

Hestia Strikes a Match

Blood of Dragons

[book:T..."

Thanks for the tip on Hestia - looks like fun, in a dark way. I've had mixed reactions to Robin Hobb. I'm more of an occasional high fantasy reader, but liked the Farseer Trilogy and the first book of the Liveship Traders series, but the other two books were SO long and drawn out, it sucked out all the value of the creativity. I'll get back to her eventually, but I wish she would edit more......

I don’t often rate books 5*. Here are my most recent 5* reads:

No Country For Old Men
Cormac McCarthy

The Keepers of the House
Shirley AnnGrau

Hello Beautiful
Ann Napolitano

Tracy wrote: "That scared the peewadlins out of me! Highly recommend it for anyone who likes horror."

I had to Google to see if I had "peewadlins" to have scared out of me! What a great phrase.
:D

The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues - Angela Y. Davis
A Writer's House in Wales - Jan Morris
King Hereafter - Dorothy Dunnett

Mostly nonfiction, as has been my wont with five stars this year, but the Dunnett really did blow me away.