2020 - Your Best Five Reads of Q2 (April - June)

Another quarter gone, and half the year is over already!

What were your 5 favorite books, fiction or non-fiction, you read in the last 3 months? Please share with any comments you care to add!

Stone Heart, Diane Glancy - Fictionalized "memoir" by Sacajawea, interspersed with actual journal excerpts from members of the expedition. Unusual way to lay out a book, but it works very well here.

Soul Music, Sir Terry Pratchett - A re-read, and still among my favorites within the Discworld collection.

Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari - Nonfiction overview of how human culture evolved. Fascinating.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richards - Set in Depression-era Kentucky, Richards blends the story of the Packhorse Librarians with a tale of one of the "blue people" of the region. Nicely done.

Hunger, by Roxane Gay - Honest and at times brutal. A series of essays outlining the life of a woman who was sexually assaulted as a child and responded by hiding the assault from her family and purposely building a protective wall around herself by behavior that led to massive obesity.

The Queens of Animation The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I liked them all but I highly recommend Holt's book which was so fascinating.

>2 LyndaInOregon: >3 JulieLill: Great lists! Thank you for sharing! I just started reading my first book by Fredrik Backman.

Here are my favorites in the order I read them:

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (will definitely make my top 10 for the year list)
Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

>4 PaperbackPirate: I read Honeyman's book and I really like it.

>4 PaperbackPirate:: >5 JulieLill:
Interesting. 'Eleanor Oliphant' was a group read, and most of us felt it wasn't that good. Everyone has different tastes!

>5 JulieLill: >6 LyndaInOregon: We all bring our experiences with us when we read, don't we? LOL!

Top five:

The Siege by Ismail Kadare
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (this was tied with six others, counted it as I read it first...)

Liked these two YA novels dealing with racial bigotry -

when my name was Keoko
and
prairie lotus, both by Newbery-winner, Linda Sue Park.

I was also moved and engaged by the novel
the girl with the louding voice, Abi Dare.
Deals with abuse of girls and women in Nigeria; shocking that it takes place in contemporary times.

Only three books got at least 4 stars:

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo - 5*****
To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey - 4.5****
Work Song by Ivan Doig - 4****

>8 LisaMorr: A friend of mine with similar reading interests recommends Charlaine Harris to me!

>9 nrmay: I'll have to note your YA books for my former, now older, students.

>10 BookConcierge: I have had Doig on my tbr for a long time! Thank you for the push!

>11 PaperbackPirate: I was a huge fan of True Blood and have been making my way through her Southern Vampire Mysteries. The books are not 100% aligned with the HBO show, but I am enjoying them, and I'm finding that her writing gets better through the series. I hope you enjoy them when/if you give them a try!