Happy Friday! I am off to meet a friend in a woodland today, can’t wait!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads. Each Friday, bloggers will write posts about a particular topic and share on their blog.
This week we’re talking about those exciting and elusive 5 star reads.
What makes a book a 5-star read for you? Do you give books 5 stars easily, or are you more selective with them?
Is there anything that makes a book automatically 5 stars for you? Or the opposite — what makes you drop to 4 stars?
This will be a fairly short one this week, so I am answering most of the prompts in one go. It’s short because, and if you read my reviews you’ll probably have noticed this, I don’t star rate.
I’ve said before, but I am a vibes reader. (Only talking fiction here.) I read for fun and relaxation, and honestly, it’s been so long since I critiqued a book properly that I genuinely don’t know if I could do it! Of course, there are definitely points I will note as I read, maybe some things that I am not a fan of, but for the most part, I don’t fuss over the finer details of a book when I read it.
I’ve also been a reader my whole life, with no drop-off as many of us have when we start university or work. That’s nearly 34 years of reading (or being read to when I was very small). I have spent a looong time honing my reading tastes and I rarely miss these days. I know what I like, and because of that most books I pick up I enjoy. If I don’t enjoy, I DNF pretty quickly and those books don’t get rated anyway.
Because of those points, I stopped star rating books a couple of years ago. If I still rated, basically everything would be 4+ stars, and I don’t think that’s particularly helpful for anybody! There are places where you will see stars from me, and that is basically NetGalley and if I am obligated to rate for a review. That’s it, and honestly, I don’t know if they’re accurate haha.
I do like to make sure I write a thoughtful review for each book I read in place of a star rating. I try my best to touch on pacing, plot, writing and characters in a way that is not just me going, ‘yes, amazing’.
In saying all the above, however, I do get standout books that in a normal system would come under the ‘top tier 5-star’ rating. They’re ones that transcend my usual chilling out having a good time reading, and really connect with me on some other level. You all know by now I don’t get emotional, but there is the odd book that has made me so! There are also books I just cannot stop thinking about or recommending, and those would also come under that list.
What are your all-time favourite “can’t-live-can’t-breathe-without-them” 5-star reads?
Okay, if I rated, these would be my top 5 stars! These books are all ones that have made my top-5 of the year, and ones that I suspect will be in my top-5 this year.
Let’s be honest, nobody is surprised by the first two here. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer genuinely changed my life and I think everyone should read it. Green Rider by Kristen Britain was my first fantasy series and I adore it to this day. Sistersong by Lucy Holland made me sob, and you guys know I don’t so that. This book is incredible and really affected me. (Probably why I haven’t reviewed it over a year later lol.)
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse has some fantastic characters and I just got totally swept up in the world. The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao is such a unique and fascinating science-fantasy and I couldn’t get enough. Jade City by Fonda Lee floored me with the incredible character work and politicking.
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor… I just can’t get enough of her writing. I’d reread this forever. The Garden of Delights by Amal Singh is so sumptuous and lush, honestly, one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read. And Gorse by Sam K. Horton has so much atmosphere you can feel it seeping off the page, and I am a huge sucker for British folklore.
Pages of Emma 
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