So I was thinking about last year. I read 48 books, most of which I enjoyed. I considered it an average reading year, even though I was slightly under my 52 book goal. I read eight books which I gave 5 stars to, and I’m wondering what my feelings on them are now. Do I still think of them? Do I have fond memories? Do I have bad memories? Let’s find out!
I think that Saga was a great way to start my year last year, and was a great introduction into an ongoing graphic novel series, something I hadn’t read before. When I think back on the series, I read it so quickly that I can’t distinguish one volume from the next, but overall I think the series is a 4-5 star read.
I’ll be honest, I don’t think about this book ever. I really liked it when I read it, but I haven’t thought about the details surrounding it in a long time. When I read this book I was on vacation and was sitting on a lounge chair looking out over the ocean in Haiti, so that might have something to do with my enjoyment of the book. It might be worth a re-read, but I can’t say with confidence that it would stay at 5 stars. I remember thinking the writing was beautiful, which is likely where this rating came from.
This one absolutely holds up in my mind, and I think about it all the time. I may re-read this again this year, because I tore through it so fast that I don’t remember a lot of details, but I absolutely loved it. I’ve considered listening to the audiobook because I’ve heard that it’s done by a full cast, and is fairly short due to the way it’s written. This book introduced me to Taylor Jenkins Reid, which I’m really glad for.
Another book that I think about constantly, specifically the beginning. This was the first time in such a long time that I read the beginning of a book and immediately connected with it. I didn’t feel this way about the entire series, but this was such a strong start and a great introduction to Mark Lawrence.
Sea Prayer is an interesting one, because it’s so short that it isn’t memorable in terms of plot, but it was very affecting. It led me to look into some of Khaled Hosseini’s other work to add to my TBR, which I’m excited to get to. I don’t know that I would still give this five stars, but I do think about the path it led me down a lot.
This is a book I definitely need to re-read, because I’m not sure it would hold up to a five star. When I read this I was still looking to read YA and try and see myself in it, which is what I got here. Since then, I’ve stopped reading as much YA and have switched almost entirely to reading Adult. If this one does hold up, it would be because of the character-driven nature, less so the plot.
Horrorstör in retrospect is probably my current favorite book, and absolutely holds up. I’m shocked reading back to last year that it wasn’t included in my top 5, because when people ask me what my favorite book is, this is my answer. This book came to me at exactly the right time, and I’m thrilled that it helped solidify Grady Hendrix as one of my favorite authors. I’ll definitely be re-reading this soon because I loved this book so much.
I consider Where the Crawdads Sing to be the book that re-introduced me to literary fiction, and told me that I do actually like it. Until this point, things that were heavily description based and not plot driven were very boring to me. This book was so popular that I decided to give it a try, and I’m so glad I did. I listened to the audiobook of this one, and absolutely loved it. Since this book I’ve read so much literary fiction, and I look back on this one fondly. I don’t know if it would hold up to being a five-star read as I’m learning to dial in on what type of literary fiction I like, but it’s definitely responsible for getting me into the genre.
That’s all eight of the books I rated 5 stars last year! I’m hoping to make this a yearly post to look back, because my opinions have already changed, and I’m excited to see if (or likely when) that happens in the future.
Ghost Shark Reads 