Five-Star Books

Since my last post about books dealt with works that didn’t live up to their full potential, I figured I should give equal time to those works that surpassed all my expectations.

Last year I read a lot of books for me (64), and I thoroughly enjoyed many of them, but I didn’t give out a single 5-star rating. A couple came close (Seveneves, Year of the Flood), but when I compared them to my previous 5-star books (Ready Player One, Cloud Atlas) they seemed to not quite meet the mark.

So far this year, I’ve already given three books that top mark. I’ve been trying to figure out why. Perhaps I’m in a better mood, or maybe I’m choosing my books better. Either way, I wanted to share these little gems with you.

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas

Growing up a HUGE Stephen King fan, I can’t believe I’ve never read anything by Dean Koontz before. Maybe it is because I gave up horror, but I digress. This book was recommended to me by a coworker at my last job, otherwise I probably never would have read it. I am so grateful for that recommendation.

It was surprisingly funny. At first I was trying to write down memorable quotes, but there was something noteworthy on nearly every page.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

The Last Anniversary

This is yet another prolific author that I’d never read before. What amazing character development. As I told Ms. M when I was recommending it to her, it is literary fiction meets mystery. What a delightful story following Sophie Honeywell and the boyfriend she broke up with three years before the action starts. It explores discovering what matters in life. The cast of characters is broad and includes the island where the action (the mystery) takes place.

Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley

Keep Me Posted

I won an Advanced Reader Copy of this book through Penguin Random House’s First to Read Program. I believe the release date is this month. I was looking for something light after finishing a challenging novel, and this book met my need. It is the story of two sisters living on different sides of the world who decide to eschew email and Skype for a year and write letters to each other instead. And what a year it ended up being, in great part due to this experiment. I found myself racing through it, desperately needing to know what happens next.

So what have been your best books of the past year? Or Have you recently discovered a new-to-you author that has quite a backlog of work ready for you to binge on?

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