The best 5 star-rated books to read in 2024
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Unique Book Recommendations to help you find your next read
Books worth 5 stars - Historical Fiction
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkeins Reid
“Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.”
“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.”
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F.Kuang
“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
“Nice comes from the Latin word for “stupid”,’ said Griffin. ‘We do not want to be nice.”
5 star Fantasy
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstein
“The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.”
“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”
Jungle nama – a story of Sundarban by Amitav Ghosh
“Dokhin Rai, exultant, feasted his eyes on Dukhey.
‘The Rich one has kept his word, he’s left me my prey.’
His maw beagn to tingle as he watched his prize;
In an instant he assumed his tiger disguise.”
“’How long has it been sunce human flesh came my way?
What bliss to find a victim like this sad Dukhey.’
One the far mudbank Dukey caught sight of the beast.
Its amber eyes glittered, as it watched its feast;
With its nose a-twitch, it sniffed the spoor of its game;
Its ochre stripes shimmered, like tongues of burning flame.”
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
“Just because you're the same kind doesn't mean you're all one happy family. The important thing is to understand each other. That's love!”
“That's all there is to it. We look different, so we don't understand each other's inner thoughts, but we cherish each other in our own way. I respect you.”
Books worth 5 stars - Mystery/Thriller
The Maid by Nita Prose
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”
“That’s the trouble with pain. It’s a contagious as a disease. It spreads from the person who first endured it to those who love them most. Truth isn’t always the highest ideal’ sometimes it must be sacrificed to stop the spread of pain to those you love.”
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
“We're more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.”
“It's terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, branches off into a new world.”
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
“I am a bricklayer without drawings, laying words in sentences, sentences into paragraphs, allowing my walls to twist and turn on whim...no framework...just bricks interlocked...no idea what I'm building or if it will stand...no symmetry, no plan, just the chaotic unplotted bustle of human life.”
“Still, there might be something fitting about a friendship based on a common love of words being founded on an exchange of the same.”
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
“Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.”
Confessions by Kanae Minato Translated by Stephen Snyder
“The world you live in is much bigger than that. If the place in which you find yourself is too painful, I say you should be free to seek another, less painful place of refuge. There is no shame in seeking a safe place. I want you to believe that somewhere in this wide world there is a place for you, a safe haven.”
“If you’re always worrying about what other people think, you’ll never get any tougher.”
The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong Translated by Chi-Young Kim
“There are some people you just can’t love. Even when they smile, they make you want to pull on either side of that smile and rip their mouth off.”
“Mother knew exactly how to get under my skin, what to take away from me in order to get me to submit. The guilt coming from one part of her heart would have been offset by confessing in her journal just how painful it was to bully me. I turned the page.”
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
“The people you love weren’t algebra: to be calculated, subtracted, or held at arm’s length across a decimal point.”
“He smiled, put his hands on the back of her neck, fingers in her hair, and leaned in to press his forehead against hers. He’d told her before that he did it to take away half her sadness, half her headache, half her nerves before her Columbia interview. Because half less of a bad thing meant there was room for half good.”
Non-fiction - Best of the Best
Why I am an Atheist and other stories by Bhagat Singh
They can kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.
Criticism and independent thinking are the two indispensable qualities of a revolutionary.
The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things Right by Atul Gawande
“What is needed, however, isn't just that people working together be nice to each other. It is discipline.
Discipline is hard--harder than trustworthiness and skill and perhaps even than selflessness. We are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. We can't even keep from snacking between meals. We are not built for discipline. We are built for novelty and excitement, not for careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work at.”
Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Meyers
Monstrous is an impressive adolescent mature graphic bio about a Korean- American girl who uses cult and art- making to conquer racist bullying.
5 star Classics
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Montgomery
“It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
5 star Contemporary Fiction
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
“Does letting go mean losing everything you have, or does it mean gaining everything you never had?”
“But it’s what we do, what we’ve done for years now. We drag our past behind us like a weight, still shackled, but far enough back that we never have to see, never have to openly acknowledge who we once were.”
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kufaka
“You don't need to have it all. You only need to figure out how much is enough.”
“Grief was a hole. A portal to nothing. Grief was a walk so long Hazel forgot her own legs. It was a shock of blinding sun. A burst of remembering: sandals on pavement, a sleepy back seat, nails painted on the bathroom floor. Greif was a loneliness that felt like a planet.”
Boat Number Five by Monika Kompamikova
The heart-breaking yet comic story of a neglected girl who struggles to care for herself and others in post-communist Slovakia.
Romance - 5 star rated
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
“I can appreciate my body in a bikini and still want to set fire to the patriarchy.”
“I am a homebody, through and through, and there’s nothing like being home.”
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
“I’ll love you until my heart gives out. I’ll be your man for a thousand years. Longer if I’m allowed.”
“When I hug you?” Fuck. His heart was turning over and over like a car engine. “My hugs are your recharging station?”
Heartstopper I and II and III by Alice Osman
“You can't tell whether people are gay by what they look like. And gay or straight aren't the only two options.”
“I’m just… so sorry I ran away! I was just freaking out like honestly I am having a proper full-on gay crisis!”
“There's this idea that if you're not straight, you HAVE to tell all your family and friends immediately, like you owe it to them. But you don't. You don't have to do anything until you're ready.”
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