What are your five-star books?

ficbot · 08-18-2010, 07:03 AM

The other thread about Calibre ratings had me curious about other people's 5-star books. Most people seem to be using a rating where 5 stars is the highest and they reserve it for their very favourite books. So, which books have you read that you rated 5 stars? Here are some of mine:

INDIE BOOKS (free or DRM-free)

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
Overclocked by Cory Doctorow
Redchapel by Mike Resnick
Radium Halos by Shelley Stout
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

COMMERCIAL BOOKS (from major publishers and usually DRMd)

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
Naked in Death by JD Robb
NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman (non-fiction)
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

J. Strnad · 08-18-2010, 07:29 AM

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
most of John Steinbeck
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
most of P. G. Wodehouse
any Calvin and Hobbes collection by Bill Watterson

There are more, but those are some representative five-starrers.

I don't give many five-star reviews because, if I do, how many stars would I give the above?

sceadugenga · 08-18-2010, 07:37 AM

The Stand by Stephen King
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Bernard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy
Watership Down by Richard Adams
From Here To Eternity by James Jones.

GhostHawk · 08-18-2010, 07:46 AM

LOTR Tolkien

From there narrowing the list down gets hard.
I think I'd rather go with my next 4 fav authors.

David Drake
Mercedes Lackey
Anne MaCaffrey
Andre Norton

bjones6416 · 08-18-2010, 08:12 AM

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
PrairyErth, by William Least Heat-Moon
Possession, by A.S. Byatt
Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (thanks for reminding me, Sceadugenga!)

hgwlackey · 08-18-2010, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ficbot

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I loved Dark Places. I just finished Sharp Objects the other night...and now I'm sad that I'm out of Gillian Flynn to read!

These are my 5-stars for this year so far:

Horns by Joe Hill
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Nothing Man by Jim Thompson

And some long-time 5-star books:

The Temple of Gold by William Goldman
A Son of the Circus by John Irving
As I lay Dying by William Faulkner
Streets of Laredo, Dead Man's Walk & Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Rant & Diary by Chuck Palahniuk
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Phantom by Susan Kay

ficbot · 08-18-2010, 08:33 AM

I liked Dark Places much better than Sharp Objects.

rhadin · 08-18-2010, 08:38 AM

I have only come across one series by an Indie author that is either free or DRM-free that I have rated 5 stars: Shayne Parkinson's Promises to Keep quartet, which begins with the free Sentence of Marriage. I reviewed the books here and here.

For fiction to rate a 5-star review from me, it must be so compelling that I can't put it down, causing me to continue reading long into the nigt (early morning hours), plus it must compel me to write a review recommending it (something I do not do often), plus it must still make me think about it months after having read it. I think 5-star books are few and far between. There are a lot of 4.5- to 4.9-star books, but a book needs that something extra special to warrant the label of perfection.

On the commercial side of the equation, the closest to 5 stars but not quite there have been recent David Weber books and the Imager Portfolio series by LE Modesitt, Jr. I'd give Weber's recent books a 4.5 rating and the Modesitt series a 4.7 rating. They were good reads that kept me burning the midnight oil and are worthy of recommendation (but not the time to do a full-blown review), but they are now forgotten in the sense that I no longer think about them or their stories.

FlorenceArt · 08-18-2010, 08:56 AM

I check my Librarything list, and I have only one: Belle du Seigneur, by Albert Cohen - I can't find the English title

I should probably add a few though. I agree about John Steinbeck, especially East of Eden. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.

Can't think about anything else at the moment...

Sweetpea · 08-18-2010, 09:15 AM

I never rate my books, still haven't found a good management product for books.

Quake1028 · 08-18-2010, 09:26 AM

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life - Lance Armstrong
Congo - Michael Crichton
Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
That Was Then, This Is Now - S.E. Hinton

I'm sure there are more, but I am at work and drawing a blank without looking at my bookshelves. I guess you could say these are 6 of my very favorite books ever.

sceadugenga · 08-18-2010, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
PrairyErth, by William Least Heat-Moon
Possession, by A.S. Byatt
Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (thanks for reminding me, Sceadugenga!)

I bags "Lonesome Dove" as well, and McMurtry's Thalia/Duane Moore series.

JeremyZ · 08-18-2010, 10:01 AM

I really like these threads. If I can find a book or two that I really liked in someone else's list, I can be pretty confident that I will like it too.

Here are mine; I may edit this post later as more occur to me:

Sherlock Holmes (all of them), by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lord of the Rings, by: J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Bachman Books, by Stephen King
The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
short stories, by Edgar Allen Poe
The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes

I'm sure Tolkien will be a popular one. For those of you who liked LoTR and The Hobbit, look into his short stories. I bought one book, I can't recall the exact title, but it had 'green' in it, and I remember really liking it. I couldn't get through The Silmarillion though.

Patricia Ryan · 08-18-2010, 10:15 AM

NON-FICTION:

Essence and Alchemy/Mandy Aftel
Gotham/Burroughs
Blown Sideways Through Life/Claudia Shear

FICTION:

Small Town/Lawrence Block
Gone Tomorrow & Without Fail/Lee Child
Black Light & Dirty White Boys/Stephen Hunter
Heartsick, Sweetheart & Evil at Heart/Chelsea Cain
Promise Me & The Woods/Harlan Coben
The Lincoln Lawyer/Michael Connelly
In the Woods and The Likeness/Tana French
The Neighbor/Lisa Gardner
Harvest/Tess Gerritsen
A Free Man of Color & Fever Season/Barbara Hambly
The Wrong Mother/Sophie Hannah
True Evil/Greg Isles
Shutter Island, Mystic River & Darkness Take My Hand/Dennis Lehane
Devil in a Blue Dress/Walter Mosley
Rose/Martin Cruz Smith
Atonement/Ian McEwan
This is Where I Leave You & How to Talk to a Widower/Jonathan Tropper
Presumed Innocent & Innocent/Scott Turow
The Darkroom & The Sculptress/Minette Walters

Patricia Ryan · 08-18-2010, 10:16 AM

Oh! And Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth! 1,000 pages of please-don't-end!

08-18-2010, 07:03 AM	#1
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	What are your five-star books? The other thread about Calibre ratings had me curious about other people's 5-star books. Most people seem to be using a rating where 5 stars is the highest and they reserve it for their very favourite books. So, which books have you read that you rated 5 stars? Here are some of mine: INDIE BOOKS (free or DRM-free) Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka The Mouse in the Mountain by Norbert Davis Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell Overclocked by Cory Doctorow Redchapel by Mike Resnick Radium Halos by Shelley Stout Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte COMMERCIAL BOOKS (from major publishers and usually DRMd) Dark Places by Gillian Flynn Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons Naked in Death by JD Robb NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman (non-fiction) Just After Sunset by Stephen King Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

08-18-2010, 10:01 AM	#13
JeremyZ Addict Posts: 303 Karma: 1000702 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Chicago Device: Nook ST, Kindle 2, Samsung Galaxy Stellar phone	I really like these threads. If I can find a book or two that I really liked in someone else's list, I can be pretty confident that I will like it too. Here are mine; I may edit this post later as more occur to me: Sherlock Holmes (all of them), by Arthur Conan Doyle The Lord of the Rings, by: J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien The Bachman Books, by Stephen King The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens short stories, by Edgar Allen Poe The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice Dracula, by Bram Stoker Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes I'm sure Tolkien will be a popular one. For those of you who liked LoTR and The Hobbit, look into his short stories. I bought one book, I can't recall the exact title, but it had 'green' in it, and I remember really liking it. I couldn't get through The Silmarillion though.

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08-18-2010, 07:29 AM	#2
J. Strnad Guru Posts: 915 Karma: 3537194 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Paperwhite	I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes most of John Steinbeck The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain most of P. G. Wodehouse any Calvin and Hobbes collection by Bill Watterson There are more, but those are some representative five-starrers. I don't give many five-star reviews because, if I do, how many stars would I give the above?

08-18-2010, 07:37 AM	#3
sceadugenga Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 472136 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Chiang Rai Device: iPad	The Stand by Stephen King Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Bernard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy Watership Down by Richard Adams From Here To Eternity by James Jones.

08-18-2010, 07:46 AM	#4
GhostHawk Data Privateer! Posts: 586 Karma: 62887 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Fargo ND Device: Ectaco Jetbook& Jetbook Lite	LOTR Tolkien From there narrowing the list down gets hard. I think I'd rather go with my next 4 fav authors. David Drake Mercedes Lackey Anne MaCaffrey Andre Norton

08-18-2010, 08:12 AM	#5
bjones6416 ↓↓ Skirt!! Earrings!! Posts: 3,394 Karma: 17432172 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Georgia, USA Device: Acer netbook, JetBook Lite, Sony PRS-300, Kindle 2, Kindle Fire	Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry PrairyErth, by William Least Heat-Moon Possession, by A.S. Byatt Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson Watership Down, by Richard Adams (thanks for reminding me, Sceadugenga!)

08-18-2010, 08:33 AM	#7
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I liked Dark Places much better than Sharp Objects.

08-18-2010, 08:38 AM	#8
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	I have only come across one series by an Indie author that is either free or DRM-free that I have rated 5 stars: Shayne Parkinson's Promises to Keep quartet, which begins with the free Sentence of Marriage. I reviewed the books here and here. For fiction to rate a 5-star review from me, it must be so compelling that I can't put it down, causing me to continue reading long into the nigt (early morning hours), plus it must compel me to write a review recommending it (something I do not do often), plus it must still make me think about it months after having read it. I think 5-star books are few and far between. There are a lot of 4.5- to 4.9-star books, but a book needs that something extra special to warrant the label of perfection. On the commercial side of the equation, the closest to 5 stars but not quite there have been recent David Weber books and the Imager Portfolio series by LE Modesitt, Jr. I'd give Weber's recent books a 4.5 rating and the Modesitt series a 4.7 rating. They were good reads that kept me burning the midnight oil and are worthy of recommendation (but not the time to do a full-blown review), but they are now forgotten in the sense that I no longer think about them or their stories.

08-18-2010, 08:56 AM	#9
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	I check my Librarything list, and I have only one: Belle du Seigneur, by Albert Cohen - I can't find the English title I should probably add a few though. I agree about John Steinbeck, especially East of Eden. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. Can't think about anything else at the moment...

08-18-2010, 09:15 AM	#10
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	I never rate my books, still haven't found a good management product for books.

08-18-2010, 09:26 AM	#11
Quake1028 Guru Posts: 917 Karma: 9155462 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Tampa, FL Device: See signature	And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life - Lance Armstrong Congo - Michael Crichton Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton That Was Then, This Is Now - S.E. Hinton I'm sure there are more, but I am at work and drawing a blank without looking at my bookshelves. I guess you could say these are 6 of my very favorite books ever.

08-18-2010, 10:15 AM	#14
Patricia Ryan Connoisseur Posts: 90 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle, iPad	NON-FICTION: Essence and Alchemy/Mandy Aftel Gotham/Burroughs Blown Sideways Through Life/Claudia Shear FICTION: Small Town/Lawrence Block Gone Tomorrow & Without Fail/Lee Child Black Light & Dirty White Boys/Stephen Hunter Heartsick, Sweetheart & Evil at Heart/Chelsea Cain Promise Me & The Woods/Harlan Coben The Lincoln Lawyer/Michael Connelly In the Woods and The Likeness/Tana French The Neighbor/Lisa Gardner Harvest/Tess Gerritsen A Free Man of Color & Fever Season/Barbara Hambly The Wrong Mother/Sophie Hannah True Evil/Greg Isles Shutter Island, Mystic River & Darkness Take My Hand/Dennis Lehane Devil in a Blue Dress/Walter Mosley Rose/Martin Cruz Smith Atonement/Ian McEwan This is Where I Leave You & How to Talk to a Widower/Jonathan Tropper Presumed Innocent & Innocent/Scott Turow The Darkroom & The Sculptress/Minette Walters

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08-18-2010, 10:16 AM	#15
Patricia Ryan Connoisseur Posts: 90 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle, iPad	Oh! And Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth! 1,000 pages of please-don't-end!