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Books I rated 5 stars

Purple Star emoji 20 items
If you've been struggling with trying to find a 5 star read recently or just stuck in a reading slump, give some of these books a try!
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Memoir

A memoir is a form of creative nonfiction, written in the first person, that recounts specific, intimate experiences, memories, or a particular period in the author's life.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
An enjoyable read, although distressing in parts. This true narrative is a must read, especially for the right thinkers. It left me pondering the profound evil that was/is slavery. What folly is a man's inhumanity towards other men! We all bear respo...
Twelve Years a Slave: Northup, Solomon
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Five HUGE stars for Trevor Noah's book! Believe the hype! I absolutely loved it. I listened to the audio. Trevor narrates his stories of growing up in South Africa. I highly recommend the audio version. He made this book come to life with his narrati...
Born a Crime: Stories from South African Childhood
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
5 stars...I am at a loss for words...upon finishing this memoir, I am so full of intense emotion yet I feel empty at the same time...this is a DEEPLY moving and powerful book about the author's experience in concentration camps and the atrocities tha...
Night: Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel - Books

Literary fiction

Literary fiction is a category of fiction that emphasizes style, character, and theme over plot, often focusing on the human condition, emotional depth and artistic merit.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Wow. Just wow. The endless gaping wound of teenage girlhood and the sharpness and bite of the voice and observations.
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Contemporary fiction

Contemporary fiction is a genre of literature set in the present day or recent past, typically reflecting the current cultural, social, and political climate.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Aiken captures the gay longing in such a perfect, powerful way & suddenly you feel your heart taking root in your body, also its cool how you can just know that a person is straight if they claim 1. They don't understand why blood and death are s...
Crush: Twentieth Anniversary Edition Volume 99 (Twentieth ...
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Marcellus the octopus!!😍😍 I was utterly charmed by this book. It was so creative and full of heart. I'd classify this as an extremely readable smart people book. Plus look at that gorgeous cover! Perfect for beach season.
Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
This is a short novel that I finished very quick. It was very interesting to read. This is the type of story that really makes you think, an unnamed thirty ish real old man is writing a letter to his father. After he found out that he doesn't have lo...
If Cats Disappeared from the World: A Novel - Barnes & Noble

Young adult

Young adult literature is a category of fiction written, marketed, and published for adolescents and young adults.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Angie Thomas did it again. She wrote the perfect book. Tens across the board.
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas, Paperback
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Macy Cashmere's one-of-a-kind, no-holds-barred teen memoir will blow your mind and break your heart. Her unforgettable voice is hard-hitting and unflinching, compassionate and street wise, delivered with a linguistic and structural playfulness that b...
The Disturbed Girl's Dictionary by Ramos
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
I really liked this, and blazed through it. It's harsh and honest. The ending is left extremely open-ended, but I honestly kind of liked that.
Fix - Albert Mann, J.: Books
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
5 BEAMING STARS! I LOVED THIS! It seems like this book is either a hit-or-miss, but for me it was a huge hit! Easily the best and my most favorite book i've read this year!!! More than loved it!!! This book became my favorite from the moment I starte...
Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum | Goodreads
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
All out of pretty snakes up on you unexpectedly. Unflinching in its depiction of a smart, yet vulnerable girl's descent into a backwoods world of violence, drugs, manipulation, and control. Andrea's story never strays too far from hope. It is this ho...
All Out of Pretty by Ingrid Palmer | Goodreads
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
This book is a very touching and honest revelation of what it is like to live with several types of mental disorders. The writing was lyrical, poetic, and even downright magical at times. But it was not always easy going. I had to put the book down a...
How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox | Goodreads
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
AMAZING!!! This book was better than I expected. It has definitely opened up my love for books that take place in the 1800's the writing, the characters, the story and that ENDING! I was drawn in from the beginning and flew through it. I can't wait t...
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
""You're still my hero, Mickey Catalan," Lydia says. "Heroine," I correct her. "Yeah, fucking irony, right?". Something impossible happens. I smile." I am emotionally drained after reading this book, McGinnis gives us the absolute real truth of what ...
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis 9780062847195
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Tiffany D. Jackson does it again. I couldn't love this book more as a Tiffany fan girl, it is impossible not to root for these characters and to fall in love with the story. 5 stars only because I can't give it a 6.
Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

Political satire

Political satire is a genre of art, literature, and performance that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose, criticize, and mock the folly, hypocrisy and corruption of political figures, institutions, and policies.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Another kind of never ending story. But everyone knows the story, right? The farm activity of the animals is a metaphor for the totalitarian activity of the humans. Keep in mind that Orwell fought with the leftist Republicans against Franco and his r...
Animal Farm: 75th Anniversary Edition

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is a broad genre of prose writing based on facts, real events, and actual people, created to inform, document, or instruct.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
I have never, been able to read a "self help" book that truly changed my outlook on life and genuinely affected my way of thinking. This book truly inspired me to do better in my life and really opened my eyes to some of my ways of thinking and the h...
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Thriller

The thriller genre is a category of fiction-in literature, film, and television-defined by its ability to elicit high levels of suspense, anticipation, anxiety, and excitement.
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Could. Not. Put. It. Down. Very few books cause me to wake up at 2:00 am to finish reading them. This heart-pounding, gripping thriller opens with two women celebrating their 45th birthday at the same pub. They meet in the loo and learn they were bor...
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
 
Cali Bowen profile picture
Achingly pretentious. Insufferably wordy, and probably one of the best books I've ever read. I don't think I've ever wished a 600+ page book was even longer. Physically I'm here, but mentally I'm part of a pretentious elitist friend group in Vermont,...
The Secret History (Vintage Contemporaries)