# What are the last three five-star books you’ve read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2018, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774 "2018-07-12T10:25:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/21 "2018-07-13T18:20:12Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I didn’t find them depressing. Just really good stories. Okay, fair enough! Just checking because when I looked the books up, two of them start out by referring to a dying main character. _Leaving Time_ sounds like more of a mystery, but since the only book I’ve read by Picoult is _My Sister’s Keeper_, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that one wound up being about dying, too. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > :: checks on Amazon :: > > Let’s see… that would be David McCullough’s history of the design and building of the Brooklyn Bridge, _The Great Bridge_; Robert Parker’s early Spenser detective novel, _Mortal Stakes_, about a pro baseball pitcher being blackmailed; and Susanna Clarke’s magic-returns-to-England alternative-history novel, _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_. All different; all excellent. Yes, I was just thinking to myself as I read your post how different each of the three books sounded! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/22 "2018-07-13T18:31:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I use Goodreads, but I’m not crazy about their rating system. I would like to give five stars to only mind-blowingly awesome books, but those come along so rarely. Every once in a while I just break down and give a five-star rating while I’m riding the high from a book that was merely pretty good. I kind of agree, but in practice I end up assigning ratings that are sort of analogous to letter grades, from \*\*\*\*\*=A to \*=F. (Although I give very few one-star ratings, because if a book’s that bad, I’ll usually give up on it long before the end, in which case I don’t think it’s fair to rate it at all.) > [@](#): > > And an unapologetic five stars to [The Empty Grave](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32324555-the-empty-grave) by Jonathan Stroud. It’s the last book of his Lockwood and Company series, about a group of young ghost hunters. This YA series was everything I wanted it to be, right up there with the works of the late great John Bellairs. Good to know. I liked his Bartimaeus trilogy and have had the first Lockwood book on my Kindle for awhile now, waiting for me to get around to it. Anyway, here are my three—actually I’m going to cheat and list my most recent four, so as to get at least one fiction title in there: [The Road to Character](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36686305-the-road-to-character) by David Brooks [Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30371613-reviving-old-scratch) by Richard Beck [American Dreams: The United States Since 1945](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9658409-american-dreams) by H.W. Brands (A good concise history of the USA in recent years, many of which I’ve lived through but hadn’t read about _as history_, since the history classes I had in school and books I’ve read didn’t get that far.) [The Curse of Chalion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1142011.The_Curse_of_Chalion) by Lois McMaster Bujold (One of the best fantasies I’ve read recently, well plotted and charactered.) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/23 "2018-07-13T18:34:04Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [The Curse of Chalion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1142011.The_Curse_of_Chalion) by Lois McMaster Bujold (One of the best fantasies I’ve read recently, well plotted and charactered.) It’s a wonderful book. I liked the follow up even more, but I think I’m unusual in that (though I think it’s considered good by most). ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/24 "2018-07-13T18:43:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I kind of agree, but in practice I end up assigning ratings that are sort of analogous to letter grades, from \*\*\*\*\*=A to \*=F. (Although I give very few one-star ratings, because if a book’s that bad, I’ll usually give up on it long before the end, in which case I don’t think it’s fair to rate it at all.) > > Good to know. I liked his Bartimaeus trilogy and have had the first Lockwood book on my Kindle for awhile now, waiting for me to get around to it. > > Anyway, here are my three—actually I’m going to cheat and list my most recent four, so as to get at least one fiction title in there: > > [The Road to Character](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36686305-the-road-to-character) by David Brooks > > [Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30371613-reviving-old-scratch) by Richard Beck > > [American Dreams: The United States Since 1945](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9658409-american-dreams) by H.W. Brands (A good concise history of the USA in recent years, many of which I’ve lived through but hadn’t read about _as history_, since the history classes I had in school and books I’ve read didn’t get that far.) > > [The Curse of Chalion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1142011.The_Curse_of_Chalion) by Lois McMaster Bujold (One of the best fantasies I’ve read recently, well plotted and charactered.) Oh, I’ve read _American Dreams_! I remember I discovered it because someone on the Dope recommended it in a thread asking for good nonfiction book recommendations. Just checked to see what I rated the book, since I read it a while ago, and I gave it 4 stars. Regarding the Goodreads rating system, I like their system just fine, although I’ve found that I use it differently than most people. I think a lot of people like to rate almost all books in the 3 star and 4 star range, with 5 stars reserved for the truly outstanding books and 2 and 1 stars reserved for the hellacious. I go by exactly what the rating says: 5 stars if I loved it, 4 stars if I really liked it, 3 stars if I liked it, 2 stars if it was ok, and 1 star if I didn’t like it. I am quick to DNF books that don’t capture my interest, and fine with marking them as 1 stars, since I plainly didn’t like them well enough to keep reading. 2 stars are typically for books where I skimmed chunks of it to get to the end: I liked it well enough to finish it, but not well enough to enjoy the whole experience of reading. And since I do love books, I’m not as stingy with 5 stars as some people. Though I will add that I rate books by how much I like them, and not by how “good” they actually are (i.e., not by how much literary merit I think they have). Looking at my stats so far this year, I have rated six books 5 stars, sixteen books 4 stars, seventeen books 3 stars, eight books 2 stars, and seven books 1 star. I guess I’m a little more clustered around the 3 and 4 star mark than I thought I was! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/25 "2018-07-13T18:44:31Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > … > What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Scientific Questions by Randall Munroe > … > Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin… I’ve read both of those. The first is very good; the second is excellent IMHO - in fact, it’s my all-time favorite sf book. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/26 "2018-07-13T18:46:46Z")
Watership Down by Richard Adams Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose Miracle Ball by Brian Biegel , his search for the Bobby Thomson HR ball from 1951 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/27 "2018-07-13T20:09:41Z")
I’ll try your letter-grade system, **Thudlow**! I hope you like the Lockwood books. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/28 "2018-07-13T20:23:34Z")
Working my way through the Hugo nominees & liking: Summer in Orcus - T. Kingfisher Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee Provenance - Ann Leckie ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/29 "2018-07-14T12:45:53Z")
I don’t use rating systems and I can’t imagine myself ever saying “I absolutely loved this book,” but here are three books I’ve read in the past few years I thought were pretty good that I hadn’t read before: _Flora Segunda_ by Ysabeau S. Wilce _Life of Pi_ by Yann Martel _Every Day_ by David Levithan and here’s one that I thought was pretty good that I had read before: _A Wrinkle in Time_ by Madeleine L’Engle ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/30 "2018-07-14T14:00:50Z")
I’m reviewing Goodreads and I think I was feeling more generous on the last few “5 star” books so I did some culling and here are the winners: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman- this was deliciously awkward, didn’t care that much for the backstory/tragedy but I really liked Eleanor. Saxon Stories #10 - The Flame Bearer by Bernard Cornwell- I never get tired of Uhtred. Honorable Mention: American Gods by Neil Gaiman - this is a five star that I liked more than I expected to but it’s still not my kind of genre so it’s hard to say I loved it but it does deserve 5 stars. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/31 "2018-07-14T14:21:16Z")
**Secondhand Times: The Last of the Soviets** by Svetlana Alexievich: An accumulation of real-hand accounts from soviet citizens collected from just before the fall of the USSR to the the book’s publishing in the early 2010’s. Loosely themed on people reflecting on the transition, but often drifts to observations on their recent or distant past. **The Seventh Omni Book of Science Fiction** edited by Ellen Datlow: Collection of short stories that appeared in Omni magazine. It tickled my love of short stories and being a surprise find at a book sale. Any stories I didn’t like are overshadowed by the ones I did. **The Third Bear** by Jeff VanderMeer: Short story collection of an author who wears Weird like a badge of honor. Thankfully, I like oddities, and some of the ones in here have taken up residence in my dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/32 "2018-07-14T18:16:15Z")
This is one more book that I liked a lot that I read for the first time in the past few years: _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ by Susanna Clarke ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/33 "2018-07-14T19:19:07Z")
Head On by John Scalzi Artificial Condition by Martha Wells Sourdough by Robin Sloan ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/34 "2018-07-14T21:18:19Z")
Omg yes **Dendarii Dame** , Sourdough is a great book! Have you read … man, I can’t remember the name of it. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore? It’s by Robin Sloan, too. I adore Sloan’s writing, and unfortunately, I haven’t found another author who’s a bit like him. Have you? **LvBoPeep** , I gave Eleanor Oliphant five stars, too! But I gave American Gods 1 star. It was a huge disappointment, because I’ve read seven books by Gaiman and that’s the only one I didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/35 "2018-07-15T00:27:49Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Omg yes **Dendarii Dame** , Sourdough is a great book! Have you read … man, I can’t remember the name of it. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore? It’s by Robin Sloan, too. I adore Sloan’s writing, and unfortunately, I haven’t found another author who’s a bit like him. Have you? This is the first book I’ve read by Robin Sloan. (I picked it up off the “Librarians recommend” shelf at my library.) I’m planing on reading his other books. One book that reminds me of _Sourdough_ (although the subject is different) and that I highly recommend is _Bellwether_, by Connie Willis. Have you read that? ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/36 "2018-07-15T00:33:59Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > This is the first book I’ve read by Robin Sloan. (I picked it up off the “Librarians recommend” shelf at my library.) I’m planing on reading his other books. > > One book that reminds me of _Sourdough_ (although the subject is different) and that I highly recommend is _Bellwether_, by Connie Willis. Have you read that? I have not. Thanks for the recommendation; I’ve added it to my to-read list! ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/37 "2018-07-16T01:09:20Z")
Dreamland - The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones -Absolutely fascinating, and this is a subject I thought I knew a lot about. It would be my top recommend to anybody. Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane - a twisty psychological thriller, a little slow starting but once it gained momentum, I couldn’t put it down. American War by Omar El Akkad -a novel of the second civil war. I can’t even say I liked it - it was dark and bleak and hard to read at times - virtually everyone was broken and unsympathetic- but it was an incredibly powerful novel. ---
**Author:** ![Textual\_Innuendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@Textual\_Innuendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Textual_Innuendo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/38 "2018-07-23T14:19:39Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > I’ve had my eye on _What If?_, so with your glowing recommendation I might nudge it up a bit in the queue! **What If** is definitely worth it if you have a curious / scientific mindset - I give this as gifts to sciencey / mathy folk I know who don’t know about xkcd yet (mostly older folk and/or immigrants). For my three (and using a more generous and looser definition of “5 star” that basically means “the toppish three I’ve read in the last quarter”), I’ll go with: 1. Superforecasting, the Art and Science of Prediction, by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. A very good book by the guy who showed that most “experts” perform at par with monkeys throwing darts when it comes to predictive ability, who digs into the qualities and practices that people who ACTUALLY predict better than other people engage in. These so-called “superforecasters” are an interesting bunch, and learning about their approach is well worth the read (and if you may be interested in seeing if you are/can be one, they point to resources online where they try to recruit them). 2. Unmentionable, by Therese Oneill - this was a hilarious romp through the minutiae of what it was like to be a woman in Victorian times compared to today. I was literally laughing out loud several times in this, as the author has great delivery and flow. A fun, quick read. 3. Behave, by Robert Sapolsky - the biology behind humans at their worst and best - healthy doses of neuroscience, sociology, and more, and interesting enough I checked it out from the Library twice. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/39 "2018-07-23T15:14:11Z")
> [@Textual\_Innuendo](#): > > 1. Superforecasting, the Art and Science of Prediction, by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. A very good book by the guy who showed that most “experts” perform at par with monkeys throwing darts when it comes to predictive ability, who digs into the qualities and practices that people who ACTUALLY predict better than other people engage in. These so-called “superforecasters” are an interesting bunch, and learning about their approach is well worth the read (and if you may be interested in seeing if you are/can be one, they point to resources online where they try to recruit them). That’s awesome, I just referenced Superforecasting in one of my posts last week! ([https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21092681&postcount=32](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21092681&postcount=32)) Behave looks fascinating – I’ve added it to my to read list! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774/40 "2018-07-24T01:03:55Z")
I really like _Superforecasting_ too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-last-three-five-star-books-you-ve-read/817774.md?page=3)