Constant Reader discussion

Recently a few people were acknowledging that tastes differ. I'm curious about how people assign stars. Do you base your stars only on whether you think it's well written, or do you also consider whether it's right in your wheelhouse? There are some books I've loved deeply without thinking they're in the top tier as far as the writing is concerned. I never know what to do about stars in those cases--or in the opposite cases, when I have to acknowledge that a book is well written but I just didn't care for it. Thoughts?

I believe taste has to enter the picture, but isn't the whole. Good, effective writing is essential for a high rating, and whether or not it is to a readers taste must be acknowledged. But, truth be told, how many times do we read a book that is that far from our own taste? How many readers stray so far out of their box.

I guess it ends up a mixture of taste, quality of writing, the flow of the story, credibility, not to mention factoring in the readers life experience.
I suppose I rate a book by how much it makes me feel what the characters are feeling. Even if the writing isn't the smoothest, it isn't the best put together story, if an author can make me feel.....isn't that the most important thing?

I also always wonder how to rate mysteries. They usually aren't great literary writing but I want to give them more stars if they are excellent examples of the genre. However, then I have a 4 star mystery in which the writing is not as good as a 4 star literary fiction on my list.

So many mysteries are run of the mill, nothing new. Most serial mysteries peter out, and seriously repeat themselves after a bit. I wouldn't rate something like that very highly because of the lack of imagination, even if the writing was good. But the rating has to be within the parameters of the genre, as well.

It probably would be a good thing to have ratings within genre. Hmmm, wonder if GR could/would instigate something like that.

Ah, so many books in 2014 and I read across genres but these stood out for me.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides
A Curtain Falls by Stefanie Pintoff
Truman by David McCullough
The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

The Martian by Andy Weir
The Sunne in Splendour by Elizabeth Chadwick

I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama

Spin a Silver Dollar by Alberta Hannum
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr.
Temeraire: In the Service of the King by Naomi Novik

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Heresy by S.J. Parris
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
A Taste For Death by P.D. James

Ember from the Sun by Mark Canter
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Love in the Present Tense by Katherine Ryan Hyde
Maria Antonina by Stefan Zweig
The Story of Ernie Pyle by Lee Graham Miller

Flipped by Wendlin Van Draanen (This is a little advertised book for the young YA reader and don't judge the book by the comments on back. Just check it out!)

Oh, I'm glad to see Tiptree on a list. :) Haven't read much of hers, but what I have I liked.

I've read a couple of the Novik and thought they were great fun, as was of course the Weir. That last really kept the interest!

I guess I am a too-tough GR grader; I rarely give 5 stars. But here are the books that stand out for me from 2014 (in reverse chronological order of reading them):

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
North of Hope by Jon Hassler
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
San Miguel by T.C. Boyle

Four were books I read for CR discussions - probably would not have read them otherwise!