This week’s Top Ten via The Broke and the Bookish is “recent five star books”. Annoyingly, I don’t enter my ratings on Goodreads immediately, so this was more fiddly than I expected!
- A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan. No surprise here, really; the first time I read it, admittedly I gave it three stars, but I appreciated it far, far more this time.
- Carry On, Rainbow Rowell. Simon and Baz and Penelope, ’nuff said.
- Vicious, V.E. Schwab. Possibly my favourite of Schwab’s books so far (I found ADSOM enjoyable, but not perfect). Must make my partner read this one…
- The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope. Another reread; I liked this even more than I did originally. It tweaks the ballad of ‘Tam Lin’ and makes a new story — one I really enjoyed.
- City of Blades, Robert Jackson Bennett. Pretty much perfect, and possibly even stronger than the first book… Apparently I didn’t read anything worth five stars between City of Stairs and this sequel, because that’s actually the next one as I go back! Though I’m seeing a lot of fours.
- The Grey King, Susan Cooper. No surprises there: I normally do a reread around Christmas every year or two, and this was an on-year. Let’s just take it as read that The Dark is Rising and Greenwitch would make the list too…
- The Color Purple, Alice Walker. From vague reviews and such, I figured this would be really depressing and not my thing. I was wrong.
- A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. Another reread — and you wouldn’t be surprised to note that The Tombs of Atuan would make the list too.
- The Mirror World of Melody Black, Gavin Extence. Gets some stuff very right about mental illness.
- The Wicked + The Divine: Fandemonium, Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie. The final couple of pages were just evilly good, and the art was beautiful throughout.
Should be interesting to see what other people have! I had to go back to September 2015 to get ten. What about you? Do you give out five stars often?
I don’t give out 5 stars often – I’ve scraped several years to get a full ten. I’m heartened to see Earthsea on your list – after TDiR last year, I think Earthsea will be one of my rereads this year, and I feel less concerned about what I’ll find there now 🙂
My wishlist is getting quite a work-out today – I’ve been meaning to add A Natural History of Dragons for a while, but I think I’ll have to add The Perilous Gard too. I must get round to actually reading City of Stairs!
imyril recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: top of the class
I’d have had to go back further without rereads, I think! Earthsea is… well, the thing I enjoy most is that it evolves: Le Guin explores tropes she used unthinkingly in the earlier books (e.g. magic being a male thing).
Cheering for A Natural History of Dragons, Vicious, and City of Blades!
They are all pretty great!