Discussion: The 15 Best Books I've Read In The Past 5 Years

The Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction & It Starts At Midnight.

Have you ever looked back at your old Goodreads ratings and said, “WHY in the world did I give THAT rating to THAT book?” I have. As I looked back at my Goodreads ratings from 2014-2018, I noticed that there are a few 5-star books that I barely remember. I must have loved them if I rated them that highly, but they’ve sank into the bookish murk at the bottom of my brain. I only remember vague details.

On the other hand, there are some 3-star and 4-star books that have stuck with me. They may not be perfect, but they didn’t end up in the murk. They have staying power. I find myself thinking about them often and comparing other books to them.

I’m too lazy to go back and change old Goodreads ratings. Instead, I thought I’d examine all of my ratings from 2014-2018 and choose my 15 favorite books. This was a brutal task because I reviewed 487 books during that time period. The books on this list may not have gotten 5 stars from me, but they’re firmly lodged in my brain meat.

The 15 Best Books From The Past 5 Years

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

Why I love it: I’ve lost track of how many pages I’ve written about this book. A chunk of my graduate school experience was devoted to it. I’m pretty sure that I crammed so many sticky notes into my copy that it doubled the book’s weight. I love the nonlinear structure and the odd writing style. No matter how many times I read this one, I don’t get sick of it.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing.

Why I love it: I read it shortly after finishing a college class with an extremely opinionated professor. She hated genre fiction. Real artists write literary fiction. Reading anything else is a waste of time. I went through a phase where I only read books that college professors like. Then I picked up Battle Royale because it had been on my shelf for too long. I loved it! It’s over-the-top violent, full of underdeveloped characters, and the Japanese-to-English translations confused me a few times. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Until I picked up this book, I hadn’t realized that one professor had briefly murdered my love of reading. Read whatever you want, no matter how trashy it is.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Why I love it: According to academic types, this is one of Atwood’s weaker novels. I disagree. I like the bizarre (and sometimes jarring) mix of sci-fi and historical fiction. This is one of those rare books that hooked me from the first chapter. I wanted to know why the narrator’s sister drove a car off a bridge. What was she hiding? What did her death have to do with a science fiction story?

Different Seasons by Stephen King

This gripping collection begins with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption. Next is "Apt Pupil," the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student, Todd Bowden, and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town. In "The Body," four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me. Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in "The Breathing Method.

Why I love it: These stories are well-known for a reason. They’re really good! Whenever I read short story or novella collections, I usually forget most of the stories. Not this one. I vividly remember all 4 of them. They have intense characters and odd plots. This is one of my all-time favorite King books.

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Sutter Keely. He’s the guy you want at your party. He’ll get everyone dancing. He’ll get everyone in your parents’ pool. Okay, so he’s not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men’s shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram’s V.O., life’s pretty fabuloso, actually.

Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee’s clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it’s up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper. But Aimee’s not like other girls, and before long he’s in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life—or ruin it forever.

Why I love it: I hate Sutter Keely. I think we all knew kids like him in school. They’re loud, obnoxious, always the center of attention, don’t understand no, always take things a step too far. I love this book because it’s relatable. I knew a lot of Sutter Keelys. Some of them have changed, and some of them haven’t.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

The Bigtree alligator wrestling dynasty is in decline—think Buddenbrooks set in the Florida Everglades—and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, is swiftly being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor known as the "World of Darkness."

Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve-year-old, must manage seventy gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Her mother, Swamplandia!’s legendary headliner, has just died; her sister is having an affair with a ghost called the Dredgeman; her brother has secretly defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their sinking family afloat; and her father, Chief Bigtree, is AWOL. To save her family, Ava must journey on her own to a perilous part of the swamp called the "Underworld," a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine.

Why I love it: This novel has the textbook definition of a saggy middle, but it’s still the best magical realism novel I’ve ever read. The magic isn’t just there to be . . . well, magical. The magic has a purpose. It’s used to show how kids see the world and process the things that happen to them.

It’s Kind Of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Why I love it: I’ve read a few books about suicidal teenagers, and this is the first one that made me say, “Yes, this author gets it.”

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

At his coming-of-age party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard, "How old am I? I know I don't have a birthday like humans, but I was born."

"You were harvested," Tam Lin reminds him. "You were grown in that poor cow for nine months and then you were cut out of her."

To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. A room full of chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium—a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico—Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA.

Why I love it: I considered leaving this one off the list because the sequel ruined it a little. That sequel was really not necessary. This novel is a dystopia about cloning, which has been done before, but it’s so well-written! I love the descriptions of Mexico. And, it’s creepily distressing that Matt uses rotting meat to attract bugs so he’ll be less lonely.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan.

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Why I love it: I love all of Rainbow Rowell’s young adult books. I probably could have put any of them on this list and been happy. I chose Fangirl because Cath’s college experiences are pretty similar to mine, so I can confirm that it’s realistic. (Even though I’ve never written fan fiction and never will.)

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archenemies have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Why I love it: This is a similar situation to Fangirl. I love V.E. Schwab’s books. I could have put A Darker Shade of Magic on this list and been happy. I chose Vicious because it’s the first Schwab book I read. It started my obsession. It’s escapist literature about people who do bad things, and I had fun reading (and rereading and rereading) it.

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you've never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens.

In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon—the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter's moon, the blood moon—this is the story of Eric and Merle, whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting.

Why I love it: Have you ever had the feeling that a book was written just for you? If you took everything I love about stories and blenderized (totally a word) my story-loves, they would become this book. Midwinterblood is bizarre, atmospheric, violent, beautifully written, full of historical things, and set on a remote island. It’s basically my personality in composite novel form.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Why I love it: I taught a class on this book and didn’t loathe the book by the end of the class. Normally, if I have to read something a billion times, I get bored and never want to look at it again. I love the setting and the well-developed characters. The characters are in a bad situation, but they try to do the right thing, even if they might be killed for it.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto is struggling to find happiness after a family tragedy leaves him reeling. He's slowly remembering what happiness might feel like this summer with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, but it's his new best friend, Thomas, who really gets Aaron to open up about his past and confront his future.

As Thomas and Aaron get closer, Aaron discovers things about himself that threaten to shatter his newfound contentment. A revolutionary memory-alteration procedure, courtesy of the Leteo Institute, might be the way to straighten himself out. But what if it means forgetting who he truly is?

Why I love it: That ending! Also, I love when authors can seamlessly blend the real and the weird. On the surface, this is a contemporary story about a teenager who makes a mysterious new friend. Under the surface, there’s some sinister sci-fi stuff going on. I still think this is Adam Silvera’s best book.

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin

A tense, exciting exploration of what the Times deemed "the greatest story of the century": how Daniel Ellsberg transformed from obscure government analyst into "the most dangerous man in America," and risked everything to expose the government's deceit. On June 13, 1971, the front page of the New York Times announced the existence of a 7,000-page collection of documents containing a secret history of the Vietnam War. Known as The Pentagon Papers, these documents had been commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Chronicling every action the government had taken in the Vietnam War, they revealed a pattern of deception spanning over twenty years and four presidencies, and forever changed the relationship between American citizens and the politicians claiming to represent their interests.

Why I love it: I had to put something nonfiction on the list. I chose this one because it’s honestly one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read. Don’t let the serious suit man on the cover fool you. This book reads like a thriller. It’ll make you wonder what other secrets governments are keeping from us.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Jim Kay, and Siobhan Dowd

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting—he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

Why I love it: It’s so pretty! Seriously, the illustrations are the best. Very eerie and detailed. If you read this book, you need to read the illustrated version. The pictures add a lot to the story. The story itself is sad and sweet. This is another book where the supernatural elements serve a purpose other than being magical. They show how the character sees the world.

You made it to the end! If you read this entire post, you’re a hero. (Or a bored person.)

What are your favorite books from the past five years?