Play Book Tag discussion

I mentioned a couple of books in the September tag thread and NancyJ said she was curious what the rest of my list looked like. Rather than bog that thread down, I decided to create a new thread here.

Normally, I’d share this list either at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year. However, because I wasn't available emotionally at that time, I missed the opportunity to share my favorite books from the last decade, between 2010 and 2019.

I couldn’t narrow the list down to a top ten so I decided to do a top thirty for the decade. To qualify for this list, I had to’ve read the book for the first time between 2010 and 2019. I got this idea from my friend.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my list in alphabetical order by title: (The ones with hearts are on the list because they became favorites and the ones without are on the list because they impacted me in some way.)

♥ Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
♥ Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
By Your Side by Kasie West
♥ Cinder by Marissa Meyer
♥ City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
♥ Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
♥ Defy by Sara B. Larson
Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
♥ Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
♥ Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
♥ My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows
♥ The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
On the Fence by Kasie West
♥ The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Summerlost by Ally Condie
♥ Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Have you read any of these books? Did they make as big of an impression on you as they did on me?

What were some of your favorite books of the last decade?

I loved The Night Circus, not as much her 2nd book, The Starless Sea.

I only give a few 5 star ratings a year, so here's what I have between 2010 and 2019, in no particular order:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
His Majesty's Dragon series by Naomi Novik
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Driftless by David Rhodes
The Martian by Andy Weir
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I liked Big Little Lies and The Hate U Give a lot, they just didn't make the highest rating.

Jenni Elyse wrote: "I mentioned a couple of books in the September tag thread and NancyJ said she was curious what the rest of my list looked like. Rather than bog that thread down, I decided to create a new thread he..."

From your list, I loved Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood. And The Night Circus is one of my favorite books, along with The Starless Sea by the same author.

Rounding out my all-time favorites from the last 10 years:
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

If you can name them without looking, right off the bat, those were the hits-

The Hearts Invisible Furies
The Weight of Ink
Ordinary Grace
The Dovekeepers
The Marriage of Opposites
The Storyteller
Gentleman in Moscow
All the Light We Cannot See

I love reading everyone's lists. I've only read some of the books on everyone else's lists, but some of the books are on my TBR.

To clarify with my list, not every book I listed was a 5-star read for me. Some of them were, but a lot of them were only 4-star reads. I just chose them because they impacted me in some way.

I'm a little late to this...but then I am quite busy with work - and reading a bunch of witch books for August!

Not necessarily in ranked order:

1. Proust - Remembrance of Things Past - all 7 books in 3 volumes. How could this not be on this list after spending 9 months on this bucket list read? And it is number 1, always.
2. The Last Watchman of Old Cairo
3. Station Eleven
4. The Book of Emma Reyes
5. The Word Is Murder
6. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
7. The History of Bees
8. The Hate U Give
9. The Night Circus
10. Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West

There are many more, including many on the lists already posted, that I regularly rhapsodize about to others. My reading is very eclectic and I chose some of these to show that specifically - that I have top reads in many genres.