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The Best Books of Cannonball Read III

By Tamatha Uhmelmahaye | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (20)

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As Cannonball Read III is coming to a close, I put out a call to the Cannonballers asking them to share their favorite books from CBR-III. Knowing that it might prove impossible to limit themselves to just one book, I said they could give me up to three. The response was fantastic! Here are their recommendations (with links to reviews, when available).

This should keep your reading list full for some time.


mswas:
Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz

denesteak:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Saturday by Ian McEwan
War by Sebastian Junger

Siege:
Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

ambern:
Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCollough

Ashley:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Feed by Mira Grant
World War Z by Max Brooks

The Scruffy Rube:
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (That’s two recommendations for this book.)

Pinky McLadybits:
Room by Emma Donoghue
Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Mrs. Smith:
What You See in the Dark by Manuel Muñoz
The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff

KatSings:
The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin

Janel:
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

Tara:
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

scootsa1000:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Divergent by Veronica Roth (Yes, this is the second recommendation for this book.)
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Alli:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
In the Path of an Avalanche by Vivian Bowers
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Samantha:
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger

Doctor Controversy:
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President by Josh Lieb
Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver

Krista:
Bossypants by Tina Fey

Caitlin:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgensturn

Sara H.:
Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Jelinas:
Native Son by Richard Wright
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Even Stevens:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Another book with two recommendations.)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Melody:
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (You can find a review of it—by Cruzich—here.)

Malin:
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley

crabtree:
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (For those of you keeping track at home, that’s three recommendations for this book.)

MelBivDevoe:
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
(crabtree and MelBivDevoe’s recommendations came in back-to-back. Maybe we should take that as a sign?)

llp:
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Allison Arngrim

Amy:
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

leedock:
The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey
Foundling by D.M. Cornish
Unwind by Neal Shusterman

sevenstories:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Four! Four recommendations! Ha ha ha ha!)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

amurph11:
Big Girls Don’t Cry by Rebecca Traister

jasper:
Treason by Orson Scott Card

generic white girl
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

dsbs:
Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Mr. Vlach:
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Jen K:
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
The Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

Figgy:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir
The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

Karo:
How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Heathpie:
The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose

Sophia:
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

effcubed:
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Captain Steve:
The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkland, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, and Tony Moore
To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert Heinlein


See? I told you that would keep you busy. No surprise that Neil Gaiman showed up as frequently as he did, nor George R.R. Martin. Of course, it seems like if you haven’t checked out The Night Circus, The Magicians, The Magician King, or Divergent, you probably should. And I encourage you to give any (or all) of these books a try. Thanks to the Cannonballers for their recommendations! Who doesn’t love a good book suggestion?


For more information about Cannonball Read III, click here.

If you’d like to join Cannonball Read IV, start here.









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Comments

The night circus was the last book I read and I wished I had gotten to recommend it as well. It's in one more magical.

Posted by: Ashley at December 28, 2011 9:09 AM

It's in one word magical. That is what I get for hitting submit too fast.

Posted by: Ashley at December 28, 2011 9:10 AM

Cool. Many of these, in particular the multi-recommended ones are on my CBR4 list.

Posted by: NateS1973 at December 28, 2011 10:39 AM

I’m sure American Gods is a wonderful book. I read it a month ago and didn’t get much out of it because I’m not at all familiar enough with mythology to appreciate it.

I’m very curious about The Night Circus. It’s been recommended to me by several people. I might just pick it up soon.

Thank you, reviewers!

Posted by: Scully at December 28, 2011 10:51 AM

crabtree knows what's up.

I was JUST at the library the other day and couldn't think of anything I wanted to read. Thanks for compiling this list, tamatha!

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at December 28, 2011 11:08 AM

This is awesome! I'm adding so many to my list.

I'd heartily endorse some recommendations here that I've read before, like Lamb by Christopher Moore, Neverwhere and American Gods by Neil Gaiman (though not Anansi Boys which I kind of hated) and Bossypants.

And I'd like to add that all three on my list I read because of Pajiba. Y'all know your good books.

Posted by: figgy at December 28, 2011 11:12 AM

Night Circus is on my list for CBR IV. As is Room, as I totally forgot to get to it this year. I also agree with the love for The Magicians, although admittedly I would NOT recommend The Magician King, but that's just me. If you click my link for the Martin reviews, you can see my reviews on why I didn't like the sequel as much as the original.

Posted by: KatSings at December 28, 2011 11:14 AM

Hands down,the best book I read all year was Emma Forrest's memoir, Your Voice Inside my Head.

Posted by: Az at December 28, 2011 11:22 AM

The Night Circus is the book I'm currently pushing on friends.

Actually, I've ended up calling 2011 the Year of the Circus, because while I didn't read many books with circuses in them, all of them were books I'd whole-heartedly recommend.

The others? Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Trisaulti, and Johannes Cabal the Necromancer.

Posted by: Tyburn Blossom at December 28, 2011 12:27 PM

This list is exactly what I needed. There are so many books that I want to read!

Posted by: Sophia at December 28, 2011 12:27 PM

I second (or third) Divergent and Daughter of Smoke and Bone! All you YA lovers out there need to read Jellicoe Road by M Marchetta - a-mah-zing!

While I really enjoyed reading about the circus in The Night Circus, I felt like the character development was kind of meh. It left me wanting so much more.

Posted by: amanda at December 28, 2011 12:48 PM

Please Ignore Vera Dietz was another great one. I'd like to give a shout-out to Will Grayson, Will Grayson too - what an amazing book! Co-written by whatshisname, the guy who wrote Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist.

Posted by: amanda at December 28, 2011 12:50 PM

The Night Circus was amazing. I couldn't put it down. The amount of detail Morgenstern uses to describe the circus makes you feel like you are actually there.

Posted by: greenblue at December 28, 2011 2:36 PM

Oohh, the guy who wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist wrote another book I read this year: The Lover's Dictionary. His name is David Levithan :)

Thanks for the awesome suggestions, everyone! Definitely going to take The Night Circus on my plane ride tomorrow...

Posted by: amy at December 28, 2011 2:44 PM

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy was so goddamn excellent, I didn't have any trouble giving just one book for an answer when Tamatha asked.

BUT! (oh twist my arm...)

Runners-up:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell OR Cloud Atlas by him, as denesteak listed up there. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through that one and it's EXCELLENT.

Other runner-up: Just Kids by Patti Smith. Seriously. Get in. The woman is a legend and she can write too.

Posted by: Sara H at December 28, 2011 3:30 PM

the audiobook of The Night Cirucs is narrated by Jim Dale!
it's astounding.

Posted by: countfosco at December 28, 2011 4:57 PM

The Night Circus was so close to being in my top three, so I can heartily recommend it as well.

Posted by: Malin at December 28, 2011 5:12 PM

pip pip on the Jellicoe Road suggestion. Love that book to bits.

I want to read American Gods but is that the place to bust my Neil Gaiman cherry?

And the husband says you've got to play video games to enjoy Ready Player One, but goodreads keeps pushing it on me, nevertheless.

Posted by: ugh god at December 29, 2011 12:57 AM

Tams, I love the "Sesame Street" ref on the fourth mention of The Night Circus. And I love this list. Thanks so much for overseeing CBR-III!!!!! :)

I'm glad someone got the reference!--TU

Posted by: Jelinas at December 29, 2011 1:46 AM

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