Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Read In One Sitting Theme: ten of the shortest books I’ve read, top ten books I read in one sitting, ten books to read when you are short on time, top ten books that will make you read the whole day away, etc.  I had a total brain freeze and could only think of about 3 short books I had read, so I ended up going the ‘books that will make you read the day away’ route.  It was easy to think of books that were so good I completely lost track of time and ended up reading the entire day away.  I tend to get sucked in by World War II stories and by survival stories of any kind because I find them so riveting, and I feel the same way about suspenseful murder mysteries.  On the other hand, however, I’ve also been known to lose myself in emotionally driven stories and even in the rich language of poetry.  Here are just a few titles that once I got started on them, I got so caught up in the story that I read on and on, even beyond the point where my butt had fallen asleep from sitting for too long and my legs were so stiff that I could barely walk!

Top Ten Books That Will Make You Read The Day Away

1. THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah

Goodreads Synopsis: Despite their differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Vianne finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her.

As the war progresses, the sisters’ relationship and strength are tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.  (Read more…)

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2. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky

Goodreads Synopsis: Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.  (Read more…)

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3. UNBROKEN: A WORLD WAR II STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE, AND REDEMPTION by Laura Hillenbrand

Goodreads Synopsis:  On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.   (Read more…)

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4. THE SURGEON by Tess Gerritsen

Goodreads Synopsis:  IN BOSTON, THERE’S A KILLER ON THE LOOSE…A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician – a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.

But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful doctor with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and shot her attacker dead.

Now the man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her…  (Read more…)

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5. THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir

Goodreads Synopsis: A mission to Mars.  A freak accident.  One man’s struggle to survive.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.  Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars’ surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark’s not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength–he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive.  But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.   (Read more…)

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6. MAYA ANGELOU:  THE COMPLETE COLLECTED POEMS

Goodsreads Synopsis:  Maya Angelou’s poetry – lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful – speaks of love, longings, partings; of Saturday night partying and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams. Of her poetry, Kirkus Reviews has written, ‘It is just as much a part of her autobiography as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas, and The Heart of a Woman’. (Read more…)

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7. MY SISTER’S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult

Goodreads Synopsis:  Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

A provocative novel that raises some important ethical issues, My Sister’s Keeper is the story of one family’s struggle for survival at all human costs and a stunning parable for all time.  (Read more…)

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8. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne

Goodreads Synopsis:  Berlin, 1942 : When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. (Read more…)

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9. THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker

Goodreads Synopsis:  The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. (Read more…)

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10. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Agatha Christie

Goodreads Synopsis:  First, there were ten – a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal – and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.  (Read more…)

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Question:  What books have made you completely lose track of the time while reading?

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?

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is “Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them (the original idea came from Andi who suggested top ten books I wish had more kissing which I thought could be fun but also realize it might not be everyone’s thing! Could also be top ten books I wish had more diversity in them or top ten books I wish had less violence in them or less romance focus in them or top ten books I wish had more dragons in them. IDK! Have some fun with this one!)”

I drew a serious blank on this topic no matter which way I tried to go. I gave up and sat down to watch the musical Grease for a while and then it hit me – what about great books that would be even more awesome if they were made into musicals?  I decided to focus on YA novels since that’s what I’ve been mostly reading lately, so here’s my list of 10 YA reads that I think would make excellent musicals. I can practically envision the costumes and hear the music just thinking about these titles!

Top 10 YA Reads That Would Make Excellent Musicals

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1. A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab

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2. A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas

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3. CINDER by Marissa Meyer

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4. FROSTBLOOD by J.K. by Elly Blake

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5. EVER THE HUNTED by Erin Summerill

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6. SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli

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7. FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

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8. RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard

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9. ANNA & THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins

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10. ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell

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Question:  What YA reads do you think would make excellent musicals?