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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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 books that we read in 2013, and it was way too hard to pick only 10!  There were so many others that I loved this year, but my husband informed me that it would be cheating if I listed 20 books on a top ten list so I narrowed it down even though leaving some titles out was extremely difficult!

What were some of your favorites this year?  Would it be hard to limit your list to your top ten?

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 books that we would love to see as a movie or TV series, assuming that it was done well!

1. Book Thief by Markus Zusak – This is actually going to be a movie coming to theaters on November 15!  I’m a little nervous, hoping that they will do the book justice, but I can’t wait to see it!
2. Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny – Another favorite that is about to hit the screen and is making me keep my fingers crossed!
3. Commissario Guido Brunetti Series by Donna Leon – I would love to see this character come to life, and the setting of Venice would be wonderful!
4. Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – Done right, this would make a great movie – touching and horrifying!
5. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – I would love to see these quirky characters come to life, and a quest full of intrigue, history, and technology would make a great movie!
6. The Giver by Lois Lowry – There has been talk about this becoming a movie for years now, and it looks like it’s finally going to happen…
7. Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer – There have been rumors around this series becoming movies for a long time, but hopefully they will finally bring this evil boy genius and the world of fairies to the big screen!
8. Thieves of Book Row by Travis McDade – This non-fiction historical book could be made into a really interesting historical drama.
9. The Spellman Series by Lisa Lutz – This wacky set of characters would make for a great comedy/drama with some romantic tension thrown in!
10. Spenser Series by Robert B. Parker – OK, I know this was a TV series in the 70s but it seriously needs to be redone!  Less corny and without cutting out all the swearing and politically incorrect conversations!

 

 

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 those books which I wish had sequels – those books that made me wish the story could just go on for at least a little longer.

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I know the story ended and that it ended well, but it just doesn’t matter.  It was so wonderful, so amazing, so all-absorbing – I just want more.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – I’m aware that there were seven books, but it may have been one of my saddest literary moments when I finished the last in the series.  I wanted that magical world to continue on so I could continue to be a part of it.
3. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – Wonderful quirky love story.  I wanted to know what happened to Eleanor and Park in the future, I wanted to travel the path with them forward to a happy ending.
4. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – I desperately want to read more about these fun, intelligent, and quirky characters!
5. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys – A great historical novel and I fell in love with Josie – I want to see where her life goes from here.
6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – A beautiful book, and most likely a sequel would ruin it, but I always wanted to see what the future would bring for Guy and those in his world.
7. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – Time for another road trip with Colin and Hassan!
8. Ungifted  by Gordon Korman – This one is for my kids – they loved the hilarity of the characters in this book and were left wanting more!
9. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – I want to know where he goes from here and what his life brings him – does he ever go back to the graveyard?
10. Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – I want them to meet up again, to go on more adventures together now that he is grown – or is it just impossible for adults to have the same childlike belief and sense of wonder?

 

Ocean at the End of the Lane

A middle-aged man returns to his home in England for a funeral.  While he is there he is drawn towards his childhood home, and ultimately to the ramshackle and sprawling farm on the ocean at the end of the lane.  As he sits on the shore he remembers the events of his childhood.  It was there, during the summer of his seventh year, where horrible and magical and wonderful events occurred.  It started with the suicide of a man that led him to Lettie Hempstock, her mother, and her grandmother at this very farm.  During the horrifically terrifying events that followed, the calming and magical Lettie promises to protect him.

The main character’s love affair with books – their ability to calm him and transport him and protect him definitely struck a chord with me who spent much of my childhood (ok – and adulthood too!) with my head stuck in a book.

“Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.” 

I loved this book – the characters, the events, the story, the prose.  The ending was fantastic, heartbreaking, and necessary.  It is an adult fairy tale, and one that I will read again and again.

“Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

Title:  Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author:  Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 192
Publication: William Morrow, June 2013