Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten most unique books that I’ve read.  They can be unique for any reason – the narrator’s voice, the point of view, the setting, the characters – whatever it is that made them stand out in my mind as unique.

1. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick – Told through both words and beautifully intricate and moving illustrations, Selznick’s works are like nothing else I have ever seen.
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – OK, nearly anything by Neil Gaiman!  But this adult fairy tale is in a class of its own.
3. Maus by Art Spiegelman – A graphic novel about the Holocaust.  Sounds strange, but it works, amazingly.
4. Monster by Walter Dean Myers –  Steve is in juvenile detention, awaiting trial, and tells the story of how he got there through a screenplay running through his mind, along with journal entries.
5. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell – Alternate chapters tell the stories of two women through their email correspondence.  It sounds like it could be clunky, but it worked.
6. ttyl by Lauren Myracle – The entire novel is told through instant message transcripts between a group of teenage girls, it at least left me with a better vocabulary of messaging shorthand!
7. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo – Edward Tulane is a conceited china rabbit (yes – you read that right, but trust me – it works!) who is lost by his owner and goes on a journey of redemption, to learn of love and loss, from garbage piles to the bottom of the ocean to a hobo camp and beyond..
8. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – The first book that I’ve ever read about historical Iceland and the beheading of women.  Definitely different.
9. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson – Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in England 1910.  Strangled by the umbilical cord she does not survive.  Until she is born again, and dies again, and is born again…  Through each of her lives she is born into the same family, and meets many of the same people, but her life is different each time.
10. Mr.  Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – An unique melding of the ancient and technology with one of the quirkiest cast of characters.

 

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Attachments

Lincoln finally left college after over ten years of getting degrees.  Now he’s back home, living with his mom, and working the night shift in the IT department at a newspaper.  His job?  To read employee emails that have been flagged by the system, hand out warnings, and delete the emails.  But then he starts reading emails between Beth and Jennifer, a movie reviewer and a copy editor, and best friends.  For reasons even he can’t explain he reads all of their emails and never sends them a warning.  Lincoln finds himself falling in love with Beth, in spite of the fact that he has never actually seen her, even though she has a live-in boyfriend.  But where can it go from there?  Can he just find her, walk up to her, and tell her that he’s the guy that reads her email and that he’s fallen in love with her?

The chapters alternate between telling Lincoln’s story and telling Beth and Jennifer’s.  Their story is told via their emails to each other.  While this style of storytelling could be awkward, it’s not.  Their conversations flow naturally, their story is clearly told, with even their periods of silence contributing to their story.  I loved Lincoln and a situation that could’ve been creepy was instead touching and funny, even while it was a little sad.  Beth and Jennifer share their daily struggles honestly, with a nice touch of sarcasm and humor.  Even the secondary characters are memorable – Lincoln’s mother, Doris, the D&D gang, Chris, Mitch… are memorable and relatable, like real people that we all know.

I LOVED this book.  The proof is in the fact that I am typing this in spite of having burnt my hand tonight, which means I am slowly and painstakingly getting the words down while I hold an ice cube in my hand.  There is something so refreshing about Rainbow Rowell’s writing.  Her characters are likable and relatable.  Her stories are fun, touching – real.

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 336
Publication: Dutton Adult, April 2011

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