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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Bookish Wishes
I’m lucky in that I have the best public library in the world and I can easily get access to most books I want to read. I also have very limited physical shelf space so I tend to buy almost exclusively ebooks or audiobooks at the moment. I only buy physical books now when it’s a book I really love and/or need to reference easily, so I didn’t have a lot of books for this topic. I’m excited to see what everyone else is wishing for though! I’m going with books beginning with H this week.
Top Ten Books Beginning with H
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – One of my favorite series ever! I’ve read it a million times and keep getting something new out of it.
Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman – This is the most heartwarming, wholesome series I’ve ever read, and I love the characters Nick and Charlie so much!
The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan – Reread this quite recently and it hits different the second time, but it’s still so good and haunting.
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King – One of the King’s books I have yet to read or even watched the movie adaptation. I hear it’s really good and I’m probably going to try to get to this asap, but there are always so many books on the TBR!
Her Majesty’s Wizard by Christopher Stasheff – This is book one of the series Wizard in Rhyme and I remember loving them when I read them years ago. I hope I have time for a reread soon!
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – This is one book I had to get a physical copy of because it’s so trippy and the format of the words and pages are part of the story. It was a buddy read and I absolutely enjoyed both the experience of reading it and of discussing it with others.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – I honestly don’t remember if I read the book first or watched the movie first but I loved both. I also need to read the rest of the series because I haven’t yet.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher – One of my favorite Kingfisher books, it’s got all the creepy vibes and I have fond memories of reading it completely creeped out of my mind.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons – I bought this one and its sequel recently and plan to read them soon. I read The Terror some time ago by the author and was told I needed to read this one too.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – The film adaptation by Mike Flanagan was so good and this book has been on my TBR since I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle some years ago. I cannot wait to be scared!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
I got what I wanted. I became buddy-buddy with my boss in an instant. But the cost will be hefty . . . finding a husband by tomorrow.
Scottie Price just started a new job, and it’s a real sausage fest. She’s the only woman on a team filled with Brads and Chads. Expecting a bachelor pad atmosphere, she is quickly corrected when she finds out everyone is happily married.
In an effort to impress her boss, Scottie mentions her non-existent husband in a company meeting. But eagle-eyed Chad points out her lack of wedding ring. Panicked, Scottie creates a story about her unhappy marriage. Unfortunately for Scottie, her boss has a solution – a one-on-one session with the best marriage counsellor in the Northeast, who happens to be her boss’s husband.
With no way out of her lie, Scottie agrees to see him. Frantic, she calls in help from her best friend who sets her up with his brother, an improv-obsessed millionaire.
Enter Wilder Wells. More than happy to take on the job, he teaches Scottie the main rule of always say yes. But the rule backfires during the session when Wilder signs them up for an eight-day summer marriage camp with all of Scottie’s co-workers where she’ll have to share a cabin with her way-too-handsome fake husband.
For the Reading Challenge(s): N/A
The Reason
Apparently I put myself on the waitlist for this book some time ago, so I was surprised when I finally got it! It sounds like something I’d love though, fake dating and forced proximity.
The Quotes
“This isn’t a story about me falling in love with another human. This is a story about me falling in love with myself.”
“You know, as Sabrina Carpenter would say, we have really good bed chem.”
“There isn’t one person on this earth who hasn’t opened a metaphorical suitcase and dumped in it. No life is perfect, no journey unmarred. Everyone’s carrying around something.”
“Then maybe it’s time you stop trying to save face and start living without a care. Throw caution to the wind. Do things you may never have done before…”
My Thoughts
This book is just fun. It is completely unrealistic, so silly, and a total HR sexual harrassment nightmare, but I had so much fun reading it (all the while snickering and shaking my head at the silliness) that I finished it in one sitting. I love the chemistry between Scottie and Wilder, their banter is so much fun, and the way Wilder improvised his role in their fake dating scheme made me laugh out loud at parts. I can’t take this book seriously, even as a romance, because the scenario is just so improbable and over the top, but I needed fun and light, and it gave me fun and light. Now I’m craving some more romance, maybe some better ones!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
From the author of the bestseller Eat and Run , a thrilling memoir about his grueling, exhilarating, and immensely inspiring 46-day run to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
Scott Jurek is one of the world’s best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he’s finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning’s elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
North is the story of the 2,189-mile journey that nearly shattered him. When he set out in the spring of 2015, Jurek anticipated punishing terrain, forbidding weather, and inevitable injuries. He would have to run nearly 50 miles a day, every day, for almost seven weeks. He knew he would be pushing himself to the limit, that comfort and rest would be in short supply — but he couldn’t have imagined the physical and emotional toll the trip would exact, nor the rewards it would offer.
With his wife, Jenny, friends, and the kindness of strangers supporting him, Jurek ran, hiked, and stumbled his way north, one white blaze at a time. A stunning narrative of perseverance and personal transformation, North is a portrait of a man stripped bare on the most demanding and transcendent effort of his life. It will inspire runners and non-runners alike to keep striving for their personal best.
I went down a rabbit hole of running memoirs. I have many more on my TBR list!
The Quotes
“We often think we can’t go any farther and feel like we have nothing left to give, yet there is a hidden potential and strength in all of us, begging us to find it.”
“Out there in the wild, on a long journey, you hike your own hike, blaze your own trail, and only you can find what you’re looking for.”
“In the case of pain, perhaps the one we know hurts us less than the one we fear.”
“It was just numbers. I knew I could outrun numbers.”
The Narrator(s)
The authors, Scott and Jenny Jurek.
My Thoughts
I’m a beginner runner with the hopes of running a marathon one day, but I can unequivocally say that I have zero plans to ever run the Appalachian Trail, much less break a record running it. That’s why I read about it instead! I have a mixture of admiration and perplexity for the Jureks reading about this endeavor; I admire their spirit and ambition to take on something that requires you to push your body to such great lengths and show what the human body is capable of, and I’m also perplexed because I have zero drive and ambition to ever do something close to this, and I wonder about where this drive comes from. It’s just so amazing to me.
What I love about this book is the dual narration between Scott and Jenny Jurek; Scott is the one who ran the trail and broke the record, but he couldn’t have done it without Jenny’s moral, emotional, and physical support. I loved that we get both of them telling the story because we don’t celebrate the spouse behind the scenes often enough, and this book really showed how they were a team, both in marriage and with this achievement. As we read through the book, we also see the support they get from so many of their friends. I love seeing the kind of community that can come about from a group of like-minded people who love the outdoors and achieving greatness with their physical bodies.
I also love how self-aware and honest the Jureks are about their shortcomings and the mistakes they make throughout this journey. They don’t shy away from talking about times they were upset when things didn’t go well, or when they had needs that weren’t met, or when they sometimes handled interaction with fans badly. There were times Scott in particular came across as arrogant and single-minded when it came to achieving his goal, but honestly, this guy has a resume that entitles him to be just a little arrogant. He also acknowledges that you have to have a special kind of go-getter mindset to do the things he did, and I completely understand that! All in all, this was a great read, and highly motivating to me to get better as a runner.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
The Talisman Series by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories.
In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away—and a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuing struggle between good and evil. Here Jack discovers “Twinners,” reflections of the people he knows on earth—most notably Queen Laura DeLoessian, the Twinner of Jack’s own imperiled mother. As Jack “flips” between worlds, making his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a sequence of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step.
For my Stephen King challenge and because the third book in this series is coming out this year!
The Quotes
“Everything goes away, Jack Sawyer, like the moon. Everything comes back, like the moon.”
“You don’t own a thing unless you can give it up, what does it profit a man, it profits him nothing, it profits him zilch, and you don’t learn that in school, you learn it on the road, you learn it from Ferd Janklow, and Wolf, and Richard going head-first into the rocks like a Titan II that didn’t fire off right.”
“A universe of worlds, a dimensional macrocosm of worlds—and in all of them one thing that was always the same; one unifying force that was undeniably good, even if it now happened to be imprisoned in an evil place; the Talisman, axle of all possible worlds.”
“That’s how craziness works. You make connections that aren’t real.”
The Narrator(s)
Frank Muller. He has a kind of inflection at the end of sentences that distracted me at first but I got used to them as I went further into the book and stopped noticing them. Other than that, I loved his narration! His voices and the way he portrayed the characters were amazing!
My Thoughts
These books were written years apart; The Talisman in 1984, Black House in 2001, and finally, Other Worlds Than These only coming out in October 2026 (so it’s not out yet at the time of this writing). I haven’t read many of Straub’s works (I very much intend to!), but everyone knows I’m a fan of King, and I love that he often writes stories where we see the protagonists as children and then later as adults (IT, The Shining and Doctor Sleep, etc.) and we still feel the continuity and consistency of the characters and their growth. This is my first time reading these books in The Talisman series so I’m seeing these characters for the first time. In hindsight, maybe I should’ve waited until the final book came out but I got caught up in the excitement and I wanted to be ready for it.
As usual, the best part about King’s books is his characters. Meeting Jack Sawyer for the first time as a 12-year old, I love how realistic it feels to have a boy his age facing all the difficult things that happen, the way he handles them, and how he had to step up and grow up. I feel so much for Jack having to do difficult things but I also believe in the resilience and the adaptability of children his age. They learn fast, they adapt to new realities more easily, they bounce back and try again, and I loved seeing Jack do all of those things.
I also love the other characters; Wolf, Speedy, and even Richard Sloat. Wolf is the purest and best person in the world and if you’ve read the book, you won’t wonder why he has my heart. Richard was difficult to like at first but he grew on me, and maybe claiming love for him is a little too strong but I did like him in the end.
This book was such a journey. I love how King’s books transcend genres; it’s portal fantasy, which I love, but it’s also horror, epic fantasy, thriller, adventure. He just tells the stories and disregards categorizing them – as we all should. I also want to acknowledge Straub as co-writer, I don’t mean to ignore his contribution to the book, I’m just not familiar enough with his works and have no frame of reference to comment upon who he is as a writer in relation to this book. I mean to remedy that as soon as possible! I can definitely see the difference in voice with this book as compared with other King books though, and I’m attributing that to Straub’s contribution. I’m looking forward to more of this series, and more from both these authors!
So many years have gone by since we first saw Jack Sawyer as a 12-year-old. He’s now 31 years old and a retired cop; he’s able to retire young because he’s got money from his family. He moves to a new place which is of course, in a crisis, from a serial child murderer, and is asked to come back from retirement to help catch the murderer. He resists but the killings are related to his childhood adventure and he is uniquely qualified to fix it.
I love seeing him as an adult and still recognizing the same spirit in him that we saw in the first book. Again, the characters are the best thing about this book, and one of the things I love most is how the characters are portrayed; now that Jack is an adult and the victims are children, we initially see the children as helpless and vulnerable (which is still true in a case such as this!), but we are later reminded by a 10-year old Tyler that children are also smart, resilient, and powerful. I just love that. Obviously, I don’t like that any child was hurt by a serial killer or put in any dangerous situation, but I love that King and Straub write Tyler as having his own agency and power and not just as a helpless victim.
The other characters are amazing too, no surprise there; Beezer, Doc, Dale, Judy/Sophie, and my darling Henry. I love them all. If I had read this series before knowing the third was coming out, I’d have been satisfied with the ending but definitely filling in the blanks with my own ideas of what happens next. Now I’m just anxiously waiting for the next book so I can have some questions answered.
As of this writing, I have not read The Dark Tower series but I’ve seen references to it on Stephen King’s various fan sites, and I’m so excited to see that this story has some connections to The Dark Tower series. I can’t wait to read TDT series next and see what all the hype is about!
Book 3 – Other Worlds Than These For the reading challenge(s): TBD
Coming in October 2026!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this series? Would you read this series? Did you like the books or do you think you would like them?
First loves, first songs, and the drugs and reckless high school exploits that fueled them—meet music icons Tegan and Sara as you’ve never known them before in this intimate and raw account of their formative years.
High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, growing up in the height of grunge and rave culture in the 90s, well before they became the celebrated musicians and global LGBTQ icons we know today. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents’ divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. Written in alternating chapters from both Tegan’s point of view and Sara’s, the book is a raw account of the drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendships they explored in their formative years. A transcendent story of first loves and first songs, it captures the tangle of discordant and parallel memories of two sisters who grew up in distinct ways even as they lived just down the hall from one another. This is the origin story of Tegan and Sara.
They’re from Calgary, Alberta, where I currently live, so I got interested to learn more about them.
The Quotes
“I had never considered what it would be like to be in love until I was in it.”
“I could think of nothing but her. I half listened in school, half studied for my tests, half completed my assignments, half lived when I wasn’t next to her.”
“I wasn’t a quitter, I just finally knew who I wanted to be.”
The Narrator(s)
The authors, Tegan Quin and Sara Quin. I did find it hard to tell their voices apart and often didn’t know whose chapter I was in without double checking, but I enjoyed their narration in general.
My Thoughts
I had never heard of Tegan and Sara until we moved to Calgary and while I’m still not very familiar with their music, I do enjoy a couple of their songs like Closer and Everything is Awesome. My curiosity stems mostly from the fact that they are from Calgary, and I loved that I recognized some of the places they talk about in this book.
Through my own fault, I was unprepared for all the high school drama contained within this book entitled High School. To be fair, there isn’t any more drama than what a normal high school teenager would’ve been going through, but perhaps I was more so unprepared for the stark honesty and raw emotions Tegan and Sara share in the book. I’m not sure that I would’ve been able to do the same talking about my own high school experience.
The thing that struck me most was how much it seemed that they didn’t get along at all as twin siblings, and yet were so on the same page when it came to making music together. I’m sure we don’t know the full story of their sibling experience and this book only shows us part of it, but it was quite interesting to see! Overall, I love their dedication to being open and honest about their high school experience and how they navigated being LGBTQ in a time when it wasn’t necessarily safe to be so. Some of those scenes made me well up from how emotional they were. I think this could be a great book for any teenager in high school.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Castle Rock is a small town, where word gets around quickly. That’s why Scott Carey wants to confide only in his friend Doctor Bob Ellis about his strange condition: he’s losing weight, without getting thinner, and the scales register the same when he is in his clothes or out of them, however heavy they are.
Scott also has new neighbours, who have opened a ‘fine dining experience’ in town, although it’s an experience being shunned by the locals; Deirdre McComb and her wife Missy Donaldson don’t exactly fit in with the community’s expectations. And now Scott seems trapped in a feud with the couple over their dogs dropping their business on his lawn. Missy may be friendly, but Deirdre is cold as ice.
As the town prepares for its annual Thanksgiving 12k run, Scott starts to understand the prejudices his neighbours face and he tries to help. Unlikely alliances form and the mystery of Scott’s affliction brings out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.
From master storyteller Stephen King, our ‘most precious renewable resource, like Shakespeare in the malleability of his work’ (Guardian), comes this compelling tale about finding common ground despite differences, a story with deep resonance for our time.
For my Stephen King challenge, plus it was available immediately on Libby when I was looking for a quick read.
The Quotes
“He thought he had discovered one of life’s great truths (and one he could have done without): the only thing harder than saying goodbye to yourself, a pound at a time, was saying goodbye to your friends.”
“Why feel bad about what you couldn’t change? Why not embrace it?”
“Gravity is the anchor that pulls us down into our graves. There would be no grave for this man, and no more gravity, either. He had been given a special dispensation.”
“Sometimes he thought of a saying Nora had brought home from her AA meetings: the past is history, the future’s a mystery.”
The Narrator(s)
The author himself. Stephen King!
My Thoughts
I remember reading this one some years ago, but not paying much attention to it and not remembering much about it after. I enjoy it a lot more this time around. It’s light and whimsical, which is an interesting thing to say about a Stephen King story, but that’s what I love about King; you never know what you’re going to get but you are always going to be in for a great journey. I say journey, because honestly the story is a bit of a nothing-burger, nothing of substance really happens and it feels more like a fairytale than a serious story, but I always enjoy King’s storytelling. His easy way with words, even when you’re reading his scariest book, just keeps me going back to his books over and over again.
This book is a novella at only 146 pages; the characters are interesting but conflicts get resolved quickly and easily, and it’s more of a feel-good story which I’m perfectly happy with sometimes. I also like that there’s a race scene because I’ve been getting into running and reading a few running books recently. It was a really nice, fun read.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and a popular columnist for Runner’s World , shares “commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you” (Susan Orlean).
On the verge of turning forty, Peter Sagal—brainiac Harvard grad, short bald Jew with a disposition towards heft, and a sedentary star of public radio—started running seriously. And much to his own surprise, he kept going, faster and further, running fourteen marathons and logging tens of thousands of miles on roads, sidewalks, paths, and trails all over the United States and the world, including the 2013 Boston Marathon, where he crossed the finish line moments before the bombings.
In The Incomplete Book of Running , Sagal reflects on the trails, tracks, and routes he’s traveled, from the humorous absurdity of running charity races in his underwear—in St. Louis, in February—or attempting to “quiet his colon” on runs around his neighborhood—to the experience of running as a guide to visually impaired runners, and the triumphant post-bombing running of the Boston Marathon in 2014. With humor and humanity, Sagal also writes about the emotional experience of running, body image, the similarities between endurance sports and sadomasochism, the legacy of running as passed down from parent to child, and the odd but extraordinary bonds created between strangers and friends. The result is “a brilliant book about running…What Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity” (P.J. O’Rourke).
I’m a beginner runner and trying to get myself motivated by reading memoirs about running. I loved Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and I went looking for more.
The Quotes
“Perhaps you would like to start running. You never have tried before, or you did and you hated it, and now you wonder how to begin moving in a way that will keep you going. Get up. Start. Go. Move. Take a rusty first step, like the Tin Man. You will squeak. Go.”
“We simply accept each other as we are, for in any other direction lies madness.”
“You step outside, because real running is done outside, dammit, in the open air, where the endorphins hide.”
“I had always believed that suffering was a requirement for anything worthwhile: art, educational success, professional achievement, marriage, parenthood. On this day, I had found another way, though it had taken thousands of miles to get here.”
The Narrator(s)
The author himself, Peter Sagal.
My Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book! I love the author’s humor, and the reference of this book’s title and cover to The Complete Book of Running by James Fixx. It was interesting reading about the author’s experience running at the Boston Marathon Bombing event, and I loved learning more about being a guide for blind runners. Not that I would qualify at the current level I’m at, but maybe someday.
There were parts of the book I didn’t like and couldn’t relate to. He talks about his divorce in a way that makes me feel that maybe he was the problem, which to be fair, we’re all allowed to make mistakes and grow from them, but there didn’t seem to be any self-reflection about it. However, I came for the running parts, and I enjoyed reading about the running parts. I wish there were more running parts!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
For the Reading Challenge(s): N/A
The Reason
This series has been on my TBR ever since it came out years ago but I hadn’t managed to get my hands on the books until they went on sale on Audible recently.
The Quotes
“She wasn’t interested in telling other people’s futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.”
“She recognized the strange happiness that came from loving something without knowing why you did, that strange happiness that was sometimes so big that it felt like sadness.”
“Watch for the devil. When there’s a god, there’s always a legion of devils.”
“People shout when they don’t have the vocabulary to whisper.”
The Narrator(s)
Will Patton. I love him as a narrator for Stephen King books and having him narrate this book gives it some Stephen King vibes for me.
My Thoughts
I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while because I love ravens and there’s a tarot deck based on the books, but I don’t actually know what the book is about so I went in blind. The story is a little messy and I’m struggling to follow the characters because there are so many of them and I get them mixed up sometimes. I bought the books on audio and I feel like I need to reread on print before I continue with the next books in the series.
In general, I love the vibes, maybe because of all the magic and prophecy, and also Will Patton’s narration, but I feel like I missed certain key details and I don’t know what is actually going on with the characters, and I don’t know who to root for. I haven’t connected with any of the characters either. I want to like the book and give it the benefit of the doubt, I don’t want to blame the book if my confusion is due to my poor listening skills, so I do want to try reading this book again before continuing with the next books.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books with Handwriting on the Cover
This topic was harder than I expected to curate because some of these “handwriting” fonts look so neat, but then I remember that there are people in real life who have handwriting that look neater than actual typed fonts. I frequently watch art journaling videos and despair of ever getting my journal to look as good as the ones I see! I did manage to find ten books to fit the topic though, and I’ve read all but one of them. Have you read any of these?
Top Ten Books with Handwriting on the Cover
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – A book I really enjoyed, more than I thought I would. I’d love to read more by the author.
Falling into Place by Amy Zhang – I’ve read this book a couple of times and loved it. The language is so lyrical and it was just beautiful to read.
Room by Emma Donoghue – This was a bookclub book from a long time ago and I remember getting a lot of solid discussion out of it. It still lives rent free in my head.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb – Another book that haunts me. I read this so many years ago and completely forgot all the details, but I remember that it destroyed me and that’s why I’m hesitant to reread it but I kinda still want to!
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes – Yet another haunting, heartbreaking book. So well-written though! It’s so fascinating to see Charlie’s evolution and deevolution on paper.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – I love bookish books and this one was so fun to read. I can never resist titles that feature books and bookshops.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – This was such a sweet love story. I love the sequels as well, and the film adaptation, although I don’t remember if I’ve watched them all.
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe – I will always recommend this book and this author! Her books have such great female YA protagonists, and the stories are so well-written.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver – The only book on this list I haven’t read. I want to, but I know it’s going to be a difficult read and I haven’t been in the right headspace for that.
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read
Some of these books have been on my TBR forever. Some of them are recognizable classics or pop culture books that people talk about all the time and I feel like I should read to understand. All of these are books that I can’t believe I’ve never read, but I do intend to read them eventually!
Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – I got it mixed up with The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, which I read when I was a lot younger, and was very confused when people talked about it and I was like…”wait, what? When did that happen in the book?”
Watership Down by Richard Adams – There is so much praise for this book and I keep meaning to read it but I haven’t yet.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan – I’ve tried reading it many times but haven’t been able to get through it because it hits so close to home. I’m not sure if I should let it go or push through.
The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R Tolkien – I actually did try listening to this on audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis. I loved what I heard thus far, but I couldn’t finish it at the time because I listened to it to sleep and Serkis’ Gollum voice scared me awake! I intend to try it again soon!
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk – Any book by Palahniuk, to be honest. I don’t know why I haven’t read any.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King – As a self-proclaimed King fan, I am ashamed that I haven’t read this series. In fact, there are still a whole bunch of King books I have never read! The shame!
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – I have used the “catch-22” reference a few times in my life but I have never read the book.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – I know the basic story and I already love the vibes, but I’ve just never read the book. I think I might have read an abridged children’s version once though.
Beloved by Toni Morrison – One I really want to read but I read some reviews saying it was bleak and a difficult read so I’m a little hesistant.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – This is another story that’s been told and adapted so many times in pop culture but I’ve never read the original.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
