Top Ten Tuesday -- Books Evoking Strong Emotions

The meme Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. 

  I haven't participated in this meme in a while but this week's topic -- Ten Books that caused a strong emotional reaction -- got me thinking, so here is my list, in no particular order:

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  There were several times in the book where I felt like I was punched in the gut. 
2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.  I closed the book, thought for a minute, and just sobbed.
3. The Department of Lost & Found by Allison Winn Scotch.  I read this not long after my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and of course the story wasn't exactly the same but many parts of it hit home for me (ps Dad's been in remission for 3 years!  Woot!)
4. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.  I find it hard to say I hated a book, but this one comes really close.  There came a point where I wanted to throw it against the wall because to me it got too unbelievable.
5. I'll Mature When I'm Dead by Dave Barry.  His essay about getting a colonoscopy is hysterical, especially if you have gone through one yourself.  I laughed so hard I cried, both reading it the first time and reading it to my husband.  (The vasectomy piece is also very funny).
6. Room by Emma Donoghue.  Who wouldn't have an emotional reaction to what Jack and his "ma" had to endure, both in and out of the room?
7. How to Be A Canadian by Will & Ian Ferguson.  A very funny book about all of those quirky things that make Canadians (even expats like me) the way they are.
8. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Both of these books made me mad at the injustices Black Americans suffered in the not-so-recent past. 
9. The Ominvore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.  These books, in different ways, changed the way I think about food and put me on the road to becoming a vegetarian.

 

Top Ten Books I Just Had to Buy

 

  Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and The Bookish.  This week they want to know about the top 10 books we just had to buy.... but are still sitting on the bookshelf.

  Ha.Ha.Ha.

  This is one topic where I could probably do a top 100 list (my name is Suzanne and I am a bookaholic), but I will keep it to 10 and I will also refer you to the books I am reading for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge.

1. How to Live, or A Life of Montaigne  by Sarah Bakewell
2. The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson
3. First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite
4. The Great Typo Hunt by Jeff Deck & Benjamin D Herson
5. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
6. Annexed by Sharon Dogar
7. Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber
8. Heart of Lies by M.L. Malcolm
9. Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank
10. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

  I plan to read all of these -- really!

Ten Books I Resolve to Read in 2011

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.  This week we are asked to list the 10 books we resolve to read in 2011.

 I have about 30 books I have resolved to read for the challenges in which I am participating, but there are several other books on the ol' to-read pile that I am eager to get to.  So, in no particular order, here are the books I resolve to read in 2011:

1. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
3. The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
4. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
5. Possession by A.S. Byatt
6. The Great Typo Hunt by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson
7. Bloodlands:  Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
8. Nine Lives:  In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple
9. How to Live by Sarah Bakewell
10. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

  Have you read any of these titles?  What are you resolving to read this year?

Ten Favorite Books of 2010

 Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's question is to list your top 10 favorite books of 2010.

  I read a lot of good books this year, so I had to really think about my favorites.  But here they are, in no particular order:

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
3. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
4. A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka
5. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
6. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
7. The Tower,The Zoo and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart
8. The Journal of Helene Berr by Helene Berr
9. Room by Emma Donoghue
10. A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse

  Have you read any of these books?  What were your thoughts on them?  What were your favorites of 2010?

Top Ten Tuesday

 
  Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's question is to list the top 10 characters with whom you would want to be BFF's.

1. Lisbeth Salander (from Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy):  She's not a very friendly person, but I'd totally want her to be on my side rather than be the enemy.  And I wouldn't mind learning a few things from her ...
2. Rebecca Brandon (nee Bloomwood) (from Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series):  Yeah, she's flaky, and downright annoying at times, but I do think she'd be a lot of fun to hang around with; and it goes without saying that she would be a wonderful shopping companion.
3. Renee and Paloma (from Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog):  We could sit and talk for hours about anything and everything.
4. Nancy Drew:  I wanted to be Nancy Drew when I was a kid, and I think I still do.
5. The gang in the 100 Acre Wood:  because I don't think you could ever be sad with that group (yep, even Eeyore makes me smile)

Top Ten Tuesday -- Books that made me cry

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's question is to list your top 10 books that made you cry:

   1.  Terry Fox's autobiography.  Terry Fox was an amazing Canadian who attempted to run across Canada on one good leg and one prosthetic one to raise money for cancer research. I can't remember the title because I read it when I was about 12 (many many years ago) but I distinctly remember crying my eyes out when his cancer returned and he wrote about giving up the run and accepting that he was going to die.  His mother, Betty, was one of the final torchbearers at the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony in Vancouver this year and I cried at that too (yep, I'm a marshmallow)

   2.  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.  That ending.  I closed the book at the end and just thought for a moment, then the tears started.

   3.  Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  OK, I did see the musical first and bawled through most of the second act, so when I cried while reading the book it could have been a Pavlovian response (I still can't hear some of the songs without weeping) but the scene where Eponine dies in Marius' arms gets me every time.

   4.  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  My response to this one was proof that I could never own a pet.  Too emotionally draining.

   There have been other books that have made me horribly sad:  The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Tower the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart, but I can't say that I cried upon reading them. 


   What books make you cry?

Top Ten Tuesday -- Books I'll Never Read

  Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's question is to list your top 10 books that you will never read.

  Warning:  I understand that some of the books I have listed here are very popular and loved by many people.  They just aren't my cup of tea. 

  That said, in no particular order, the books I will never read:

• The Twilight Series
• The Hunger Games trilogy
• Snooki's novel
• The Secret
• I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
• The Shack
• The Left Behind Series

  Of course, never is a REALLY long time and sometime down the road I might pick up one of these books (in Snooki's case, though, the temperature in Hell would have to be 33 degrees and falling and pigs would be getting ready for takeoff)

Top Ten Tuesday -- Favorite Authors

  Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created  at The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's question is to list your top 10 favorite authors.
  
  My top 10, in no particular order, along with my favorite work of each, are:

• Margaret Atwood  (The Handmaid's Tale)
• Jennifer Weiner    (Good in Bed)
• Andrea Levy         (Small Island)
• Rohinton Mistry    (A Fine Balance)
• Bill Bryson           (Neither Here nor There:  Travels in Europe)
• Sophie Kinsella    (Twenties Girl)
• A.J. Jacobs       (The Guinea Pig Diaries)
• Khaled Hosseini  (The Kite Runner)
• Nick Hornby    (How to be Good)
• Kate Atkinson  (Case Histories)

  The list seems to change periodically, though, as I discover new and new-to-me writers.