**Best (and worst) reads - Third Quarter (July- Sept) **

The three quarter mark for the year is approaching fast. Time to take stock of our recent reading.

What did we rave about? what would we recommend?, what disappointed us? Let me think about that..........

I read 17 books during the third quarter, which was a little disappointing as it would not even qualify for the 75ers club.

5 star reads
The Prince, a revised translation - Niccolo Machiavelli
Utopia, Thomas More
How strange that both the five star reads should be political theory written in the early 16th century. Both highly recommended and easy to read in the Norton Critical edition series.

I have come to be fascinated by Machiavelli and really enjoyed his three plays, which serve to put Boccaccio type stories on the stage. They are funny, thoughtful and very much of their time - The Comedies of Machiavelli

4.5 star reads
The Alliterative Morte Arthure: The owl and the Nightingale and Five other Middle English Poems. Translated by John Gardner and a delight to read
Lucrezia Borgia, Maria Bellonci At home with the Borgias an excellent biography.

4 star reads
Two more novels by Patrick White, which although excellent never quite reached the heights of Tree of Man or Voss -
The Solid Mandala
Riders in the Chariot

Baiae by Giovanni Pontano, These poems from the Italian Renaissance translated by Rodney G Dennis have a sensuous quality which I found absolutely seductive.

Lost in Translation, Eva Hoffman an autobiography that brings home the difficulties for immigrants trying to make their way in a new country, whose language is not their own.

A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney by Martin Gayford. Hockney has interesting things to say about how he looks at the world as an artist.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte I finally got round to reading this dark dark classic

An honourable mention to Danse Macabre: Francois Villon by Aubrey Burl; a biography that had me racing back to my bookshelves to re-read the poetry of Francois Villon.

Worst Book
only one really, which I finished last night and is so bad that I am not sure quite what to say in my review. Perhaps I should just say it was bad, perhaps as bad as "50 Shits of Grey" (no touchstone) - Oh the book is Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

Of only fourteen books so far this quarter, I have read none that are superstars. 2052 was informative, and Why Does the World Exist? was a little more than informative, probably necessary for an amateur in the area. Secret Ingredients and To a Mountain in Tibet entertained and colored my world a little, but nobody who wasn't planning on reading them need read them.

If something comes up in the next few days to add, I'll post again, but Madame Bovary is proving to be an exercise in overcoming tedium and may take the rest of the month or more to finish.

Robert

Thanks for setting up this thread, Barry. Now I'll have to do some thinking . . .

Strange mixture of reading for me. I read 16 books, which is good for me, but only one was a novel, and it's not listed here. I'm listing 8 of the 16 here, which would seem to mean I'm not being selective enough, but they were all really good.

The Best
Just Kids by Patti Smith - Gut instinct in calling this best. It won't lead me anywhere, except maybe to buy some more late sixties, and seventies music, and I don't feel the need to re-read it. It just puts me in a good mood every time I think about it.

Another great one
The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Visions of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman - OK, I picked this up at random and found it quite interesting. I've since learned it has it's own extensive wikipedia page and it's quite controversial for its brutal bashing of bible-driven archeology. So, I want to review it, but I've finding that means I need to practically read it again to do so, and I'm finding the ideas so eloquently worked out in such detail, that I don't even mind whether or not it's correct.

The other six:

Closing the Sea by Judith Katzir - my first look into Israeli literature. Very rich stuff here.

The Missouri Review : Volume XX, Number 2, 1997 - Rituals - an odd choice, but the short stories, as a collection, were just really terrific

Space : A Memoir by Jesse Lee Kercheval - The only one on this list with a posted review. I acquired and read this after reading Kercheval's contribution in that Missouri Review just above

Stalking the Florida Panther by Enid Shomer - an early collection from a wonderful poet.

The David Story : A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel by Robert Alter - Genesis made my first quarter list. Samuel is also strikingly well done, and literary.

Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh - Shehadeh is a lawyer and lays it out there very clean, but also very simple. It works because it's not an argument, it's a memoir and an intelligent characterization of the Palestinians position in Israel. Highly recommended.

Of the 11 books I read over the last three months, four really stand out for me: When I Left Home: My Story by Buddy Guy, Dracula, Rocket Boys and Carrying the Fire. The books I consider lowest on the list would be The Red Pony (although I still love Steinbeck) and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

I read a lot of good books this quarter, as I was largely focusing on readable books. Within categories, they are in no particular order.

The Best of the Best
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga -- A coming-of-age story and wonderful evocation of time and place that illuminates the conflicts of colonialism and feminism in late 1960s Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
Germinal/Nana/The Kill by Émile Zola -- Zola is a perceptive observer of character and place, and a wonderful story-teller. I'll be reading more in the months ahead.
The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi -- A complex and bleak novel that, with memories, nightmares, and ghosts, interweaves the story of the colonel and his five children with 20th century Iranian history and millennia of Persian literary tradition.
The Expendable Man/In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes -- Great noir mysteries with points to make, great sense of time and place, almost impossible to put down.
White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov -- The story of Kiev during the Russian Civil War, chilling and beautifully written.
The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies -- Three utterly delightful novels linked by character that focus on art in its many forms, explore myths and the mystical, delve into psychology, theology, and history, play with ideas of what is real and what is fake, treat the reader to the conversations and thoughts of daimons and souls in limbo, and poke fun at convention and the respectable.

The Best of the Rest
The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle -- A novel that shows that everyone is human, even if we don't know how to look at them that way, with fascinating characters.
Moving Parts by Magdalena Tulli -- A playful and perceptive novella that explores what it means to pluck a story out of life, how fiction and reality intersect, and how the past enters the present, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of telling a story that really represents life.
Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski -- In a Polish town at the very end of World War II, this novel portrays people who had to confront issues of ethics and conscience during the war, or are continuing to confront them, and have to decide how to act.

Nonfiction
Memoirs of a Revolutionary by Victor Serge -- A fascinating and sparklingly written look at the revolutionary tradition of Europe by a man who was present at many seminal events and who had an amazingly clear perception of what was really taking place when the vision of so many others was clouded by wishful thinking, as well as total commitment to tolerance and individual freedom.
Catherine the Great by Robert Massie -- Biography of a remarkable woman, indeed a remarkable women, and a portrait of the people around her and times; somewhat marred by the lack of contemporary sources.
Citizens by Simon Schama -- A massive, delightfully written history of the French revolution, told largely through the eyes of people who experienced it.

ETA I was fortunate not to read any really bad books, although Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami was definitely not a book for me. Who of my generation would have thought sex, drugs, and rock and roll could be so disgusting?

I read 13 this quarter, with only two nonfiction.

The top reads are:

The Gold in Makiling by Macario Pineda--a post-war (1947) Filipino classic novel, finally translated this year. It's a love story, with elements of folklores, myths, legends, and history.

Dekada '70 by Lualhati Bautista--a dictator novel set during the seventies martial law period in the Philippines. It is a family drama with strong political and feminist views.

Style by F. L. Lucas, 3rd ed.--a fine book of literary criticism in the guise of a book on writing stylish prose.

>avidmom
did you see that Buddy Guy will receive a Kennedy Center Honor in December? I love your review, When I Left Home is a must-read before then.

Thanks detailmuse for letting me know about Guy's Kennedy Center Honor. I'll certainly be watching when they broadcast the ceremony! Thanks also for the kind words about my review and hope you enjoy Guy's autobio. as much as I did.

Of 13 read my Best were:

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie by Lauren Redniss
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner \

Most Disappointing:

The Crucible by Arthur Miller
And then there were none by Agatha Christie

OK, since I don't think I'm going to finish my next book before the month is over, let's see...

July-Sept books that I rated at least 4.5 stars:

Doc by Mary Doria Russell
Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Hmm. Doesn't seem like much of a showing, really. But then, I think I read a lot of stuff I rated four stars.

The Best (of 20 read this quarter)
Castle by David Macaulay -- illustrated (children’s) story of building a castle and town in late-13th-century England

My Life in France by Julia Child/Alex Prud’homme -- biography of Julia Child: living in France, learning to cook, creating her books and television programs

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman -- exploration of decision-making and behavioral economics, presented interactively and experientially

Tinkers by Paul Harding -- beautiful novella of four male generations

The Most Fun
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees -- satire? serious? terrific

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America by Julian Montague -- excellent parody of field guides

I read 15 books this quarter (16 if I manage to finish my current read today). My favourites were:

Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

An all-female hit-list this quarter, and, I would argue, all the books are very contemporary, though they are not all set in contemporary times. Also, though the authors are all women, their novels feature prominent characters who are men.

my worst are easy. Spiral book number whatever in the tunnels series I started with my oldest son. He still loves them, but I can't wat for it to end. A Feast for Crows wasn't terrible, just a terrible disappointment. My best would be A Murmuration of Starlings a book of poetry by Jake Adam York, and two short story collections, This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz and Four New Messages by Joshua Cohen.

I had a good quarter and got through 20 books.

My favourites were:

Empire Falls, Richard Russo *
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga *
Border Songs, Jim Lynch
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Road to Urbino, Roma Tearne
Falling Man, Don DeLillo

* both Empire Falls and The White Tiger were audiobooks with great readers who added a lot to my "reading" experience.

I didn't read any stinkers this quarter that were worth mentioning or warning you away from.

#15 - yolana - Encouraging to see This is How You Lose Her on a best list. I'm curious how well it worked...although I'm not likely to read it anytime soon.

Hmm-
Best read
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
and non- fiction
The Fall of Berlin by Antony Beevor
Biggest disappointments
Afterwards by Rachel Seiffert and
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

#17 It was almost like reading a novel, the short stories all centered on Yunior and in one or two stories his father a brother. Diaz can turn a phrase that combines street vernacular with poetry and it's a treat every time he does it. And Yunior is compelling, and sympathetic, despite his inability to be faithful, which he himself deplores. I think Diaz almost pulls the reader in a a cheerleader, urging Yunior on to become the better man that he can be. This is not G-rated however, he treats sexuality very frankly, but not in a porn sort of way.

I only read 5 books last quarter, 3 of which were crime novels by Val McDermid. However, the best book read was The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon, a collection of beautifully told encounters with people, a bit of metafiction about art, music & literature, and a man's search for...

The second best would be McDermid's The Distant Echo, a complex crime novel about the legacy of being both first on the scene and suspects in an unsolved murder case.