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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Maus by Art Spiegelman – A graphic novel about the Holocaust. Sounds strange, but it works, amazingly.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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..
- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – The first book that I’ve ever read about historical Iceland and the beheading of women. Definitely different.
- 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.
- 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.
At the turn of the 20th century Hugo Cabret is hiding in the train station in Paris, keeping the clocks running now that his uncle is gone, and stealing to provide himself with food. His deceased father left him a notebook full of drawings and a non-working automaton – in Hugo’s spare time he works on bringing it back to life. When he meets a strange girl and her grandfather in the train station he becomes embroiled in the mysteries of their lives while still trying to preserve his own.
Wonderstruck adds another level of complexity to a story told largely through illustrations. It tells of the story of two different characters, Ben and Rose, fifty years apart in time. Ben’s story is told through words while Rose’s is told through the illustrations. Both embark on a quest to find what is missing in their lives and eventually their stories will come together. The transition between the stories, and their ultimate intertwining, is seamless. What could be confusing is instead artful and beautiful.
Watching the Words 