straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2026-03-26 07:27 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2026-03-26 07:27 pm
352.
I have a request for anyone who sees this on their reading page! Could you please give me a list of five books that you, personally, gave five stars to?
Doesn’t have to be Top Favorite Of All Time (and tbh it might even be more fun if they weren’t, necessarily!), just five books that you liked enough to rate five out of five stars. Any genre is fine, as is nonfiction or other formats like poetry collections and plays!
You also don't have to tell me why you picked those books if you don't want to; just the list is enough. (But if you do want to tell me, then of course feel free to do that as well! I'm open for everything.)
(Context: there’s a reading challenge I do every April—the spring semester of the Orilium Magical Readathon—and this year, one of the prompts I need to fulfill is “ask a friend for a list of five 5 star reads; pick one & read it”, but asking my irl friends would run the risk of me getting lists filled with daddy doms or inspirational nonfiction, neither of which is precisely in my wheelhouse, so I’ve decided to turn to fannish circles instead. Though I've now also become curious & excited to see what books people will name even outside of the context of my needing to pick one to read! <3 It's a fun question, I think.)
Doesn’t have to be Top Favorite Of All Time (and tbh it might even be more fun if they weren’t, necessarily!), just five books that you liked enough to rate five out of five stars. Any genre is fine, as is nonfiction or other formats like poetry collections and plays!
You also don't have to tell me why you picked those books if you don't want to; just the list is enough. (But if you do want to tell me, then of course feel free to do that as well! I'm open for everything.)
(Context: there’s a reading challenge I do every April—the spring semester of the Orilium Magical Readathon—and this year, one of the prompts I need to fulfill is “ask a friend for a list of five 5 star reads; pick one & read it”, but asking my irl friends would run the risk of me getting lists filled with daddy doms or inspirational nonfiction, neither of which is precisely in my wheelhouse, so I’ve decided to turn to fannish circles instead. Though I've now also become curious & excited to see what books people will name even outside of the context of my needing to pick one to read! <3 It's a fun question, I think.)
no subject
I've never heard of Starless, though I've read another book by the author (unsurprisingly: it was Kushiel's Dart), but the summary intrigues me! And Swordspoint is one of those books I've heard so so many people mention over the years, but have never gotten around to reading myself.
no subject
Starless is really special—for full disclosure, Jacqueline Carey is my favourite author and I've read everything she's published since Kushiel's Dart. I think Starless is a great show of her major strengths as an author, and it feels a lot like her revisiting her storytelling roots after gaining more than a decade of experience. Which is to say, like Kushiel's Dart it includes a lot of gods/goddesses, a childhood arc and plenty of travel in service of a world-saving quest, but its main characters are an AFAB trans/NB person and a disabled woman, and it's so great. I honestly can't say enough good about it.
Swordspoint is one of those books that should feel dated by now, and I don't know why, but it never seems that way to me. I guess it feels rather timeless. It's very character-driven but with such a robust sense of place, even though its setting is barely even named, haha.
Since I meant to ask in my first comment and forgot, I'd love to hear the same question answered by you! What are five of your five-star reads?
no subject
Ooo, that makes Starless sound even more appealing... my library doesn't have it, and the ebook seems to be a little pricier than I like to pay for ebooks; otherwise, it honestly would likely have been the book I picked to read for that prompt. As it is, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for a sale, haha, and I'm strongly leaning towards choosing Swordspoint, since that one seems easier for me to get my hands on.
As for my five picks... ha, that's a question that I feel like I should have been more prepared for than I am! I just spent a fair bit of time wandering around staring at my bookshelves, contemplating, after having made a shortlist that was far too long. But here's what I settled on:
- The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton
- Chalice by Robin McKinley
- Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi
- The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan
- Dragon's Bait by Vivian Vande Velde
no subject
Thank you in return for your list, I'm very pleased to receive it. My wife enjoyed The Queens of Innis Lear, and I've always meant to read Robin McKinley, so I'll be putting Chalice on my list. ♥