Reading Envy Readers discussion

Hello All.

I know it's been a while, but I would love to continue the tradition of discussing our top reads this year. Please share what you read this year that stuck with you, moved you, angered you or something you just love and want everyone to read.

Thanks, Elizabeth, for starting this. I always looked forward to Jenny's best of the year podcasts. She is missed.

My top three (so far) are Cloud Cuckoo Land, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, and All the Light We Cannot See. Two by Anthony Doerr. If I had to pick a favorite I'd go with Cloud Cuckoo Land which hit all my buttons.

But hold on, the book I'm currently halfway through, North Woods, is fantastic so far and could be right up there with the aforementioned gems.

A book that angered me and shook me to the core was Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 which was about the US - Dakota war of 1862 which took place just west of where I live in Minnesota and resulted in hundreds of white and Native casualties, and ended with the largest mass execution in US history and the banishment of the Dakota from the State of Minnesota entirely. A difficult read to say the least.

Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow
Hello Beautiful
The Book of Goose
In Memoriam

Yes, Jenny is missed xo

Thanks Elizabeth for starting this thread. I miss Jenny terribly, and you all as well!

These aren't my only 5 star books, but they're the ones that surprised me the most for various reasons:

The Bee Sting
The Guest
In Ascension
Chain-Gang All-Stars
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
Things I have Withheld
The Memories of Stockholm Sven (Jenny would have loved this cold weather novel - I thought of her with every page)
We Play Ourselves

Some great books so far.

I agree with Anthony Doerr on any day. He’s one of my favorites.

And I too loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

I want to read The Bee Sting as I loved Skippy Dies.

Hi Elizabeth

Thanks for continuing Jenny’s tradition. I very much miss her presence especially at this bookish end of year review time.

My stand outs this year have been

Shuggie Bain
Klara and the Sun
A Woman in the Polar Night
Bandit Queens
Revelator - Daryl Gregory
Heatwave - Penelope Lively

Merry Christmas everyone!

Paula

Shuggie Bain is a heartbreaking story. I loved it.

And I do want to read The Bandit Queens, so I'm happy to see it on your list.

Some of my stands out are:

The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, Mit, and the Fight for Women in Science which I read right before Lessons in Chemistry and they paired perfectly.

Foster has stuck with me long after I read it. It's so spare, but it's powerful.

Shubeik Lubeik is an amazing graphic novel that imagines a world where wishes can be bought.

Horse is a great look at horse racing and those that were on the periphery at its inception.

Address Unknown is a gem of a book that I heard about on a podcast and couldn't believe I'd never come across it in my reading life. It is written as correspondence between two art gallery owners. Max lives in San Francisco and runs the gallery and Martin has returned to Germany where he is starting his young family during the rise of Hitler. It's powerful.