I suppose I should wait until 2012 to post this, but I don’t think the book I’m in this middle of now will be a 5-star (though it is fascinating so far), so I’m going ahead anyway.
Here’s the books I’ve rated as 5-star in Goodreads, in the order I read them, with links to my reviews:
- Half the Sky – this, by the way, was my first library ebook.
- Bird of the River – Kage Baker’s last book, and it totally crushes me that there won’t be any more set in this world. (Which reminds me I need to track down the previous two.)
- The Checklist Manifesto – checklists are awesome!
- The Master Switch – the history of communications technologies from the late 1800s to the present, and the ongoing tension between control and openness. Among other things points out the non-inevitability of openness.
- Nothing to Envy – given the death of Kim Jong Il, totally worth reading. As someone else on Goodreads put it, it reads like post-apocalyptic fiction.
- Stuff – this one hit me very personally, but it’s also very good writing.
- 59 Seconds – kind of self-help-ish, yes, but always with specific recommendations and lots of references.
- Responsive Web Design – very quick read, great graphics, and for a web designer, totally inspiring.
Honorable Mentions:
- The Entire & The Rose series (4 books), which didn’t quite make it to 5-star level, but was very creative and engrossing.
- Bloodlands, which was a bit long/huge, and I got a bit lost in it, but it’s stuck with me all year.
- And some pretty good books about the financial crisis of 2008ish: 13 Bankers, All the Devils Are Here, Aftershock, and Crisis Economics. None quite rose to 5-star for me, but all together they paint a fascinating picture of how our financial system got to catastrophe.
Update, Dec 27: I spoke too soon; I ended up reading one more 5-star book. The Destiny of the Republic is the story of the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. Fascinating characters and great writing, although with some nauseating details. (The book I was reading at the time I originally posted, FWIW, was Inferno: good but not awesome.)