Top 10 Tuesday – 5 Books That Blew Me Away & 5 Books That…Not So Much

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is “Ten Books I Loved Less/More Than I Thought I Would (recently or all time) — or you could do something like books I liked more/less than everyone else.”

Okay, so I struggled with this topic a bit. I couldn’t think of 10 books I loved more or less than I thought I would, so I split it down the middle and did five of each.  What I went for here are books I read in 2016 that either far exceeded my expectation or else didn’t meet my expectations at all or live up to the hype that surrounded them.  In other words, I liked them well enough; I just didn’t love them like I was sure that I would.  Let’s start with the good…

5 BOOKS THAT BLEW ME AWAY

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1. THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir

To this day, I still can’t get over how much I truly loved this book.  The only reason I even picked it up was because of the Matt Damon movie and my rule about always reading the book first.  I ended up devouring it in less than a day.  It fed both my inner geek and my inner smart ass and I loved every page of it.  Talk about exceeding expectations – if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it!

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2. A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas

I’m actually finishing this book as we speak and cannot believe how quickly I’ve blown through 600+ pages.  This is one of the few books I’ve read in the past year or so that really lives up to all of the hype that has surrounded it and as much as I enjoyed A Court of Thorns and Roses, I think this book far exceeds that one.  I’ll be reviewing this book soon so don’t want to say too much, but  I’m beyond ready to get my hands on the third book!

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3. MY LADY JANE by Cynthia Hand Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

I truly had no idea what to expect when I picked up My Lady Jane but it ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2016.  Written in the vein of The Princess Bride or perhaps Monty Python, if you love random and quirky humor, definitely put this one on your TBR. It’s truly laugh-out-loud funny!

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4. THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden

I honestly chose this book because I thought the cover was so beautiful and because I was intrigued by the idea of a retelling involving Russian folklore.  I was thrilled to find that the writing inside is just as beautiful as the cover outside.  Truly exquisite. This is a title that I hope receives the acclaim I believe it deserves.  I still can’t believe it’s Arden’s debut novel.

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5. LILAC GIRLS  by Martha Hall Kelly

I’ve always been drawn to historical fiction so I picked this book up as soon as I heard it was centered during World War II and focused on a women’s concentration camp.  Lilac Girls is a powerful exploration of how women in particular were impacted by the atrocities committed by the Nazis during WWII. The primary setting of the book is the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck and its primary focus, the women — primarily Polish political prisoners — who were detained there, with special attention paid to those known as the “Ravensbruck Rabbits”, a group of prisoners who were experimented on against their will by Nazi doctors.  One of the most compelling qualities of Lilac Girls, in my opinion, is its moving portrayal of the strength and courage of the Ravensbruck prisoners. Up against inhumane treatment and almost certain death, they demonstrated such resilience, determination, and even at times, defiance, that it just blew me away. I found the sisterhood they created for themselves within the camp very moving as well – the way they worked so hard to keep hope alive, no matter how hard the Nazis tried to dehumanize them and strip that hope away.   I knew it would be a compelling read and an educational one, but I still wasn’t prepared for just how much it would blow me away.  Lilac Girls was a 2016 Goodreads Choice finalist and it’s my most recommended book of 2016.  It’s an important book because of the story that it tells and it’s also an incredibly well written book.

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5 BOOKS THAT … NOT SO MUCH

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6. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Colson Whitehead

I liked this book, but I hate that I didn’t completely love it, especially considering the widespread acclaim it has received. I thought Cora’s story was very compelling and that Whitehead’s writing is powerful in the way it exposes so many of the horrors of slavery. I also loved the imaginative idea of the Underground Railroad as an actual physical railroad — Cora’s journey on the various stops was probably my favorite part of the novel. That said, there was still just something about this book that made it a difficult one for me to get through. I’m thinking maybe it was something stylistic or maybe the point of view, but I just wasn’t as riveted by what was going on as I would have expected to be. It took me nearly two months to finish the book, which just isn’t like me at all.

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7. HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, and J.K. Rowling

I don’t know if there was anyway this could possibly live up to the hype, but I found it to be a real letdown.  I’m sure it’s a phenomenal play, but that’s the thing. It’s meant to be seen rather than read.  I found the script to be just too bare bones for my liking and many of the characters that should feel familiar just didn’t.

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8. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins

I guess maybe I was just already over the hype of “The Girl….” books with unreliable narrators and unlikable characters by the time this one came out, but The Girl on the Train just didn’t do much for me to live up to all of the hype it was generating.

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9.  MODERN LOVERS BY EMMA STRAUB

This was another super-hyped book that just didn’t do much for me.  I literally saw it on every “Most Anticipated”, “Must Read” books list I came across last year and after I read it, I just sat there like “I don’t get it. What was all the fuss about?”

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10.  RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard

I have a love-hate relationship with the Red Queen series. It’s one of the most fast-paced and entertaining series out there, which is why I love it, but it also has Mare and her endless distracted behavior when she’s around her crushes. And don’t even get me started on the love triangle/love square thing she has going on in the first book.  What the heck?  I soooo want this to be a 5 star read because so many parts of it are so epic, but every time the love gets in the way of the rest of the storyline, I want to scream and so I end up rating it as a 3 star read.  I’m still hoping for that 5 star amazing-ness when the next book comes out later this year though!

Question: What books have blown you away recently or have let you down?