Top Ten Books I Recommend The Most

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.  The topic this week is about books that I would recommend the most.  I've tried not to included the usual suspects (Dresden Files, Parasol Protectorate, Blackbirds, vN etc) on this list because it's a given that I would recommend those books to complete strangers, not to mention that my TTTs have started to look a little samey.   

 

1.  Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

2. Katya's World - Jonathan L. Howard

3. The Lost Girl - Sangu Mandanna

 

4. The Teleportation Accident - Ned Beauman

 

5. Hell Train - Christopher Fowler

 

6.  The Troupe - Robert Jackson Bennett

 

7. The City's Son - Tom Pollock

8. The Diviners - Libba Bray

 

9. Bossypants - Tina Fey

 

10. Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick

 

Have you read any of these?  Have you got any recommendations for me?  Comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

My Life a Pancake Top Books of 2012

For me, 2012 was a great and varied year of reading.  The list bellow are all the books I gave 5* to on goodreads, which I thought was the fairest way of compiling this list.  In no particular order, here are my top ten books I read in 2012:

Nothing to Envy

 

The Killing Place

 

When She Woke

 

 

 

Hell Train

 

 

We Need To Talk About Kevin

 

 

 Atonement

 vN - Madeline Ashby

 

 

Blackbirds - Chuck Wendig
 

 

Mockingbird - Chuck Wendig

Of course, if I had included my 4* also, this list would have gone on forever!  But, if you want to know which other books narrowly missed out being on this year wrap up, have a look here.

The Troupe

I had been expecting a more of Hell Train like romp.  However, after reading I found I was making more comparisons with Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. 

Young and talented pianist George is tracking down his father.  Where his quest leads him is to a mysterious vaudeville troupe, where audience members only have a vague recollection of their performances.  George soon finds that he is not the only one looking for his father, and after integrating himself within the troupe starts to learn the many secrets of this small group.  

 My opinion of The Troupe is that it was a more intelligent version of The Night Circus.  Less focused on spectacle and romance and more on plot and lies, I found The Troupe to be a captivating read, that was not only enjoyable, but made me think about literary type things.  The characters are all written very well, every aspect of their personality is informed by their back story.  As for the narrative that followed young George's point of view, I found that even when plot twists were obvious to me, they wouldn't have been obvious to George, so the narration always stayed true to his observations as a cocky sixteen-year old-boy.  The scope of the novel was also interesting (tangents that included the creation of the world, and then stepping into the world of the fey) as it wasn't limited to the usual horror fare, and this made me question why The Troupe is placed in the horror/paranormal section while something like The Night Circus is in the 'normal' fiction section of the bookstore.  All these queries aside, The Troupe is a mesmerising page turner that rattles against the boundary of its genre.