Hello everybody! Today, I’m taking part in Top Ten Tuesday, for which the theme today is books out of our comfort zones that we enjoyed. Onto the post!
The Middler– if you know me you’ll know I’m not big on dystopian, but I was sent this by the publisher and was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s set in a world where birth order determines your destiny and it’s a really interesting world and story.
The Sorrow duology– I swithered for MONTHS about reading this because I tend to prefer MG fantasy, and then Anna Day (I think) described it on Twitter as West Wing but fantasy, and I was sold. I really enjoyed the first last year, and I devoured the second in under a day earlier in 2019.
Pygmalion– I read this on the advice of my English teacher so that I had read more plays for more textual analysis experience before the exam, and I really didn’t expect to enjoy this one so much after having a meh reaction to Blithe Spirit and finding Major Barbara majorly boring. But I did- it was pretty amusing in places and I loved Liza SO much.
This Is Going to Hurt– this was my first proper foray into non-fiction, and I thought it was great. It was another one I read for English- this time for folio research- and it’s just as simeltaneously heartbreaking and hilarious as everyone says.
The Many Worlds of Albie Bright– I don’t read very much sci-fi, mostly because I find it pretty confusing, and this book was pretty important in teaching me that I actually can enjoy sci-fi, and even grasp some of the concepts in it. I’ve went on to read several more Christopher Edge books (I only have the Infinite Lives of Maisie Day unread now) and I’m looking forward to his future releases because his concepts are always super interesting.
The Last Wild trilogy– I can’t remember why I read these, because they’re totally not something I usually would like based on description (It’s about a dystopian world where animals are almost extinct) but they’re so moving and brilliantly written that I fell in love with them anyway, even though they absolutely broke me.
The Lottery– this was a short story I read at school and it’s very hard to describe without spoiling the whole thing, but I didn’t think I would enjoy it and ended up being blown away by how well it was written. That ENDING.
Nightwalker– I don’t really do superheroes as a general rule, and I know next to nothing about any of them, but I rather enjoyed this Batman origin story. It’s easy to understand if you too know nothing, but I suspect there’d be lots of things in there for fans to pick up on that went over my head.
Boy in the Tower– I’ve saved the best example for last here, because I only read this since it was nominated for the Waterstones Prize back in 2015. I fell absolutely in love with Ade’s story even though it’s not got a synopsis I’d ever think could become one of my favourite books with- it’s a very hard book to describe or classify, but I am so glad I took a chance on it.
The Burning– this is quite a bit darker than most YA that I pick up, but I heard so many good things (mostly from Charlotte) that I decided I had to. I ended up really liking it, although it made me absolutely livid as well as very afraid for the state of the world in places.
What books have you taken a chance on that you ended up loving? Do we have any in common, or are you interested in reading any of mine? I’d love to hear in the comments!
Amy x
Golden Books Girl 