Goodreads Ireland discussion

I thought It would be fun to post people's top reads so far for 2017? As part of this group and outside this group?

We can compare them to our lists in December 2017.

What do ye all think?

I read The Dead House by Irish author, Billy O'Callaghan and highly recommend it! Also, Patti Callaghan Henry's The Bookshop at Water's End is wonderful: I read the ARC, and it will be out on July 11th. I also recommend One Good Mama Bone by Bren McClain. All three are Goodreads authors! And I'm reading The Cove by Ron Rash right now. He's always brilliant! Lastly, I have to mention Lisa Carey's The Stolen Child ( yes, the title is an homage to Yeats!) It's set on an island off Eire's west coast, and this group will love it!

These are my 5 star books(some were 4.5 rounded up) so far in 2017.
Beautiful Hero: How We Survived the Khmer Rouge
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
The Crossing
Coyote Waits
I posted a review on each.

#1 - Words of Radiance
#2 - The Way of Kings
#3 - In the Woods
#4 - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
#5 - Vlad: The Last Confession
#6 - Natchez Burning
#7 - The Observations

oops forgot Fahrenheit 451 which is probably joint 1st place.

Hope the 2nd half of the year is as good for reading cos the world is gone to hell :-(

Thomas wrote: "These are my 5 star books(some were 4.5 rounded up) so far in 2017.
Beautiful Hero: How We Survived the Khmer Rouge
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
The Crossing


I have The Chilbury Ladies' Choiron hold in the library Thomas. You were the first person I saw reading it :-)

It is a lovely book.

Margo wrote: "#1 - Words of Radiance
#2 - The Way of Kings
#3 - In the Woods
#4 - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
#5 - Vlad: The Last Con..."</i>

Loved in the woods too. Thinking about reading [book:The Likeness as my second book for the crime/suspense challenge. Its been sitting on my TBR for a year now.

The awards for the first six months of 2017 go to:

For biggest tear jerker Water for Elephants (because of an old man wanting to go to the circus).

For making the reader work for it House of Leaves (thankfully I didn't get a black eye when I dropped the book on myself).

For best Magical Realism Himself (this competed against two Haruki Murakami books and two selkie stories - a tough category).

For best summer read Call of the Undertow (read on beaches in Donegal and Sligo)

For blockbuster where nearly everyone dies Illuminae . (Will it out rank it's sequel Gemina we will have to see).

For best short story collection The Scattering (actually the only one read so far but I will be reading
Madness soon).

Best Audio book Allegedly .

Most unrealiable narrator is a tie between Allegedly and House of Leaves (but then House of leaves has two so maybe it wins by default?).

Claire wrote: "I read The Dead House by Irish author, Billy O'Callaghan and highly recommend it! Also, Patti Callaghan Henry's The Bookshop at Water's End is wonderful: I read the ARC, and it will be out on July ..."

I bought a beaitiful copy of the Dead House. I have also obtained a copy of Into the Grey and The Devil's Hoof - A Gothic Tale by Johnathan Barry (not on goodreads yet). As all three are of the horror/gothic tale variety and by Irish Authors - I thought I would read them all for that part of the genre challenge and then compare them against each other.

Margo wrote: "#1 - Words of Radiance
#2 - The Way of Kings
#3 - In the Woods
#4 - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
#5 - [book:Vlad: The Last Con..."

I also liked In The Woods, gave it 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5, in my review

Himself might have made my list on a different day - not sure about the ending tho :-/

Margo wrote: "Himself might have made my list on a different day - not sure about the ending tho :-/"

I like the ending it's similar to Playboy of the Western World and it is just mean in that it is not all tied up :)

I also like the ending of Tana French's In the Woods. It's also terrible in that it doesn't answer all the mysteries. My creative writing teacher said she literally accosted Tana French on the street about the shoes ! (she knows her and didn't randomly attack and author :)) I don't want to say more than that as this is well into spoiler territory.

I read and enjoyed Hombre.

I haven't had a brilliant reading year so far. I've had a lot of good reads but nothing exceptional especially fiction.
My only 5 star read so far was for the biography challenge, The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple.
Best audiobook was Alan Partridge: Nomad. It was very funny.
Best YA was Dave Rudden's Knights of the Borrowed Dark.

i must be getting less critical as I get older :)
great reading year so far

5 stars
Einstein's Dreams - series of surreal, occasionally philosophical, or satirical short stories loosely wrapped around the consequences of relativity - recommended by a fellow GRI reader

When Breath Becomes Air - a moving biography, driven ambitious young surgeon dealing with terminal illness

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - read as part of Genre Challenge
part philosophy, part how to guide for long term travellers

Pride and Prejudice - just a beautifully written story

Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory - moving biography of author's eccentric father, written as he succumbs to Alzheimer's

three more read as group read in this group
Academy Street (my thoughts) and
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (here)
Himself
House of Leaves

The Rider - a fictional first person account of a one day mountainous bike racing event

a recommendation from another GRI reader Children of a Lesser God when I was looking for from a deaf person's perspective

The Old Man and the Sea - another classic for me

two Philip K Dick's
A Scanner Darkly - - - - - - Mind
The Man in the High Castle - Bending

throw in some Chinese sci-fi
The Three Body Problem
The Dark Forest

some biographies as part of the Genre challenge
My Family and Other Animals
Nirds, Beasts and Relatives

another Irish book Solar Bones

parallel reading with eldest of Harry Potter series - a few 5 stars there too

really need to start being more picky

Andy wrote: "i must be getting less critical as I get older :)
great reading year so far

5 stars
Einstein's Dreams - series of surreal, occasionally philosophical, or satirical short stories loose..."

Einstein's Dreams was one of my top reads of last year.

Maria wrote: "Margo wrote: "Himself might have made my list on a different day - not sure about the ending tho :-/"

I like the ending it's similar to Playboy of the Western World and it is just ..."

Loose ends smack too much of real life ;-)

Andy wrote: "i must be getting less critical as I get older :)
great reading year so far

5 stars
Einstein's Dreams - series of surreal, occasionally philosophical, or satirical short stories loose..."

Andy. How many books do you read a year that you have so many favs :) It's great to have lots of favourites isn't it?

Margo wrote: "Maria wrote: "Margo wrote: "Himself might have made my list on a different day - not sure about the ending tho :-/"

I like the ending it's similar to Playboy of the Western World a..."

One day I am going to get you to read one of my short stories. The only ones have that have very tied endings have very tragic ones.

Of course, I have to go back to writing them and not staying late at work because (insert work rant here).

Margo wrote: "Einstein's Dreams was one of my top reads of last year"
-Hi Margo, I think I picked this one up based on your review, thanks for the pointer


Maria wrote: "Andy. How many books do you read a year that you have so many favs :) It's great to have lots of favourites isn't it?"
Hi Maria - almost 40% or books read so far got 5*
data on Goodreads are just crying out for a nice pie chart :)

my rating system is, roughly speaking,
5* - excellent, highly enjoyed, typically would recommend
4* - very good, might recommend with some caveats
3* - grand - in the Irish sense of the word
2* - poor enough, but enough there for me to struggle through it
1* - generally reserved for something where i lost the will to keep turning the pages

My list of my favorite books so far this year are:

1) American War byOmar El AkkadI loved this book, if it wasn't for Book of the month club I wouldn't probably have picked it up though strangely enough. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes dystonia novels

2)Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly I love anything to do with WWII and to be based on at least two real women during the war was fascinating.

3) Himself by Jess Kidd I loved this novel. I loved Mahony, I liked how Ms. Kidd had Orla's child be male instead of female like a lot of female authors do. I really hope for another book.

I really enjoys a lot of the books i have read so far this year but these three are always going to be my favorite.

I am glad you liked Himself, Kara. I will be asking Jess Kidd to answer the questions on the thread below soon. So if you have any burning ones. I still have to get around to writing a question or two myself :)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Maria wrote: "I am glad you liked Himself, Kara. I will be asking Jess Kidd to answer the questions on the thread below soon. So if you have any burning ones. I still have to get around to writing a question or ..." I've been reading the thread all the questions I have seem to be already asked lol.

I love how Kidd incorporated the dead into the novel without making it into a horror book.

Kara wrote: "My list of my favorite books so far this year are:

1) American War byOmar El AkkadI loved this book, if it wasn't for Book of the month club I wouldn't probably h..."

I read and enjoyed Lilac Girls last year.

Thomas wrote: "Kara wrote: "My list of my favorite books so far this year are:

1) American War byOmar El AkkadI loved this book, if it wasn't for Book of the month club I wouldn..."

Yes I remember my mom (Colleen) told me you recommended it to her and she loved it and told me I needed to read it. I honestly couldn't get my nose out of it.

Very cool, my recommendation was passed on.

Maria wrote: "Margo wrote: "Maria wrote: "Margo wrote: "Himself might have made my list on a different day - not sure about the ending tho :-/"

I like the ending it's similar to Playboy of the W..."

LOL Maria

Some of my favorite short stories and pretty open ended like The Cask of Amontillado and The Yellow Wallpaper. Not really sure why I felt so strongly that that one needed to be tied up - probably 'cos I badly want know who the father is :-D

Andy wrote: "Margo wrote: "Einstein's Dreams was one of my top reads of last year"
-Hi Margo, I think I picked this one up based on your review, thanks for the pointer


Maria wrote: "Andy. How many books do y..."

You're welcome Andy - I'm sure I picked it up on the basis of someone else's review! The quality of my reading matter has really improved since I became more active on GR.

By "quality" I mean of course books what is enjoyable to me, just in case anyone is temped to point out what a load of rubbish I read ;-)

My favorite books are

1. The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

2. Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice by Colum McCann

3. Beartown by Fredrik Backman

4, The Die is Cast by Jenny Rogneby

5, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

I really Enjoyed the Shadow Kand as well. Think I read it last year rather than this year though so want be on my list.

2017 has been a good reading year for me so far.

These are the books that made it onto my "lovelovelovedit"-shelf, aka "I'd have given this 6 stars if I could":
Small Great Things - I thought of Picoult as "chick-lit", but this was so much better than I expected
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - a close family member has been diagnosed with a serious mental health issue in the last few months, and I wasn't sure how I'd cope with reading this, but wow - it's genius. And actually quite lovely. And very, very different to the movie.
The Danger of a Single Story - a talk, rather than a book, but as it's listed on GR, I added it.
The Handmaid's Tale - a re-read for me - I read it when it was first published. Liked it a lot then, more now.
A Little Life - this leapt into the top spot as my favourite book ever. It's just astonishingly good.

5*
The Golem and the Jinni - really surprised me, I enjoyed it much more than I'd anticipated.
Roses of May - I was prepared to be disappointed with this, the "sort-of sequel" (but quite different) to The Butterfly Garden - but this was in many ways even better.

I've a bunch of books that almost made it to 5* for me, but as this post is already too long, I'll just link to my my 4*-honourable-mentions shelf