Today is Top Ten Tuesday, and over at The Broke and the Bookish, the theme du jour is the top ten reads from the first half of 2013. I've read a lot of great books this year, so it was hard to decide. Here goes:
1. Graceling by Kristin Cashore: I think I like this book so much because it caught me by complete surprise. I'm not a big fan of fantasy, and picked the book up at the library on a whim after a friend posted this link on facebook. To my surprise, once I'd started, I couldn't put it down!
2. A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova: Fascinating memoir of growing up in the later years of the USSR. I felt a bit of a kinship with the author since we both strange obsessions with foreign languages.
3. The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy and Kathy Keller: I've posted so much on this book already, so there's not much else to say. :-)
4. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin: This was a book club pick. I loved the depiction of the ocean journey and of Brooklyn in the 1950s.
5. No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel: It's so hard to describe this book, but trust me, it was beautiful and strangely not as depressing as it seems.
6. Quiet. The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop
Talking by Susan Cain: This book was a gift from a friend, and found myself nodding in agreement or having "aha" moments the whole way through.
8. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett: Another book club pick. From the description, it sounded so weird and I didn't know if I'd enjoy it at all, but it really pulled me in and touches on a lot of thought-provoking topics things like medical ethics, childbearing, the pharmaceutical industry, the role of women, etc.
9. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra: I can't say much about this except WOW.
10. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: I'm cheating a little as I still have 50 pages left, but this is a really thought-provoking read.
Most of these are new to me... My daughter has been urging me to read Graceling, and Quiet has been on my to-read list practically since it came out. *sigh* So many books, so little time!
ReplyDeleteI tend to have a pretty eclectic choice, so some of these are newish, others are old. Graceling and the sequel Bitterblue are fantastic! I highly recommend them.
DeleteI started reading A Constellation of Vital Phenomena but put it down for some reason. I liked the start, should really pick it back up.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great read! You have to get all the way through to really see all the intersections between the characters.
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