Greetings! It’s the Fifth Tuesday of the month, so it’s time for a book bonanza! Ordinarily, I tell you about my five favorite books from the last several months. To switch things up, today I will tell you about the five most-read book reviews I have posted over the last two and a half years.
Thus, you get the “readers’ choice awards,” not just mine.
Ordinarily on Fifth Tuesday Reports, I send you to my website. But, I also post my reviews on Medium.com in a publication called Books Galore. Analytics are easy to get on Medium. They tell me how many people looked at the book review, how many actually read it, and how many people interacted with it via underlining or commenting. Before I share the top five reviews, let me also tell you…
There’s a bonus at the end of this blog!
Stay tuned after the most-read-reviews because I will offer bonus info: the ten most popular audio books of 2021 as reported by Libro.fm, the audiobook provider used by more than 1500 bookstores. It is surprising to see that three of the ten were read/performed by the same narrator!
But first, here are the most-read-reviews:
Book #1:
Title: Where the Crawdads Sing
Number of people who read the review: 763
(Commentary: I know that’s NOT viral, but it’s still thrilling for me!)
What the book’s about: Kya, the so-called Marsh Girl, is abandoned by her family at the age of ten (10!) and left alone to negotiate life in the marsh.
Book #2:
Title: The One-in-a-Million Boy
Number of people who read the review: 528
What the book’s about: The 11-year-old boy in the title dies before the book opens. As a service project he was making weekly visits to help a 104-year-old woman. His dad steps in to fulfill the son’s commitment, and learns a lot about his son – and himself – in the process.
Book #3:
Title: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Number of people who read the review: 326
What the book’s about: This is a compilation of 23 essays by the author. The stories make me not only want to read everything written by Ann Patchett, they make me want to buy them all from Parnassus, her book store.
Book #4:
Title: The Day the World Came to Town
Number of people who read the review: 275
What the book’s about: This is the heartwarming story of the 38 planes and 7000 people who could not enter U.S. air space on 9/11/01 and landed in Gander, Newfoundland instead, for a five-day layover!
Book #5:
Title: Old Filth
Number of people who read the review: 192
What the book’s about: This is the first book in the award-winning trilogy by Jane Gardam. It tells the story of Sir Edward Feathers. He was a “raj orphan” as a child. As an adult, he coined the term “Filth” to describe his career as a lawyer and judge – Failed in London, Try Hong Kong.
Bonus Info:
As promised, here are the ten most popular audio books of 2021.
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, by Michelle Zauner, narrated by the author.
- The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave, narrated by Rebecca Lowman.
- Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Julia Whelan.
- The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah, narrated by Julia Whelan.
- People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry, narrated by Julia Whelan.
- Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro, narrated by Sura Siu.
- The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, by John Green, narrated by the author.
- Broken Horses, by Brandi Carlile, narrated by the author.
- How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith, narrated by the author.
- Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty, narrated by Caroline Lee.
More Bonus Info:
Full disclosure, I found this list of audio books in Ron Charles’ Book Club in the Washington Post, the November 12th issue. If you do not already subscribe to this weekly newsletter, I suggest you sign up for it. It is always full of great book information.
In September, for instance, he gave the entire calendar for the Library of Congress National Book Festival. It featured presentations and interviews with more than 100 authors, many of which could be accessed by interested readers then – and now!
Allow me to end with a CALL TO ACTION:
As you cozy up with a good book, make your experience even warmer with a Corn Cushion! Please visit my Etsy shop to learn more about these corn heating pads.
And as always, please tell a friend about my work and suggest they join my mailing list.
Thank you!
Lorie
What a nice list. Great for holiday shopping! Thanks, Lorie!
I love lists like this, so I am glad to hear that others do too!!!!