Tuesday 23 April 2013

Top Ten Books That Pleasantly Surprised Me



Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, with a different topic set each week. This week the top ten topic is:
 

Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like MORE/LESS Than I Did


Oooh, it’s an interesting topic this week! I expect this will depend a lot on how hyped something was, and whether we read it before or after all the praise or derision.

As I’m doing a ‘my favourites’ theme for my blogoversary, I’m going to stick with books that I ended up liking more than I thought I would. In other words, the ones that pleasantly surprised me.

1) The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa. Yes, I admit to being slightly put off by the ‘The Next Twilight’ sticker on the front. Something about the cover suggested a very airy-fairy type of faery story too, I’m not sure why. This book surprised me in all sorts of good ways. Non-stop things happening, disturbing evil faeries, danger, some genuinely scary and funny moments, and characters I actually liked. Really enjoyed it!


2) Holes, by Louis Sachar. I knew it won an award, so I was expecting it to be good, but I didn’t think it would be that good! This is exactly the kind of story I love, one that wraps up all the elements in it, so that even seemingly insignificant details are important, that ties past and present, that slowly unravels layer after layer, that is entertaining as well as having something to say about the world, and that has a sense of fatalism and a slight folklorish feel. A truly amazing book.


3) Catch 22, by Joseph Heller. I’m not usually a fan of war stories so I thought I might not like this, but this is hardly a typical war story. I actually didn’t know much about it before reading it, and at first was baffled, and then started to grin at how quirky and clever the whole thing was. Very glad I read it.


4) The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula le Guin. Id’ always heard that this is a great work of science fiction, and that it’s an important feminist story, which sounded good, but I have to admit that I was expecting something dryer than what I got. It is those things, but it’s also an exciting story with an epic feel, about two people battling against extreme elements. It’s perfectly paced, with great worldbuilding and psychology, some wonderful chapters that explore the myths of the planet, and finally a very touching love story.


5) Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong. I’d never read a Kelley Armstrong book before and expected it to be your average paranormal read. But Kelley’s writing is fantastic and the book gripped me and just didn’t let go. It was completely addictive.


6) Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion. I’ve never had a great love for zombie stories, and now they are totally overdone. I’d love to read a zombie book featuring magic and a zombie-master, but it seems like all zombie stories are some variant of the ‘zombie disease’ idea now. I was interested in this book because of seeing trailers for the movie, as I thought it might be funny. It was so much more than funny. It was really clever, written in a literary style from the zombie point-of-view, and it managed to be quite a dark story while still being very funny and romantic.

 
7) Life As We Knew It, by Susan Pfeffer. Natural disaster brings about the end of the world as we know it, yawn. Only, this is good. Really good. Great characters, believable circumstances and actions, a slowly growing sense of doom rather than instant mayhem, and some really nail-biting tension.


8) Geek Girl, by Holly Smale. I thought this would be a light, fun read. It was, but it was also incredibly funny, moving and real. Holly Smale is not only a fantastic writer, she completely gets what it means to be a teenage girl, and the friendship between the main character and her best friend is inspiring. I adored it!


9) Embassytown, by China Mieville. A lot of people seemed to think this wasn’t a great example of his books, some pointed out how flawed it is, and then there was that whole Christopher Priest thing... yeah. But this book really blew me away. I thought it was fantastic. It’s quite different from the usual Mieville stuff, I suppose, and perhaps even more difficult, so I can see why some might not like it. But this is just the kind of science fiction story I love.


10) The Eternity Cure, by Julie Kagawa. I know, another Kagawa. I’m so unfair to her aren’t I? I did actually expect to like this one, as I loved The Immortal Rules, but I was also nervous. Now the character will surely go find Kanin and get into a love triangle and blah blah urgh. I should have trusted the author more. This book is pretty perfect.




16 comments:

  1. I absolutely agree with you on Warm Bodies! I didn't expect to like it as much as I did either. It was wonderful! Great list!

    TTT at Krista's Dust Jacket

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    1. Thanks Krista! Yes it was a brilliant book wasn't it? :-)

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  2. I really enjoyed Bitten, but not the few books of hers I tried after this.

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    1. Oh what a shame! I haven't actually had a chance to try any of her others yet, but will do at some point.

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  3. Oooh I still need to read the Iron Fey series, glad you enjoyed them. Bitten is amazing! I also have Warm Bodies waiting to be!

    My Top Ten!

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    1. I haven't read any past The Iron King (and Winter's Passage, which is 1.5), so not sure if the whole series is good, but hopefully will be reading them very soon! :-) Ooh hope you enjoy Warm Bodies!

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  4. I read Holes as an educational thing when in school and didn't think much of it at the time.. Well, I did think it was good. Perhaps I shall give it a reread some time, my opinion may have changed...

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    1. I think it's really hard to like books we read in school. Depends whether the teacher was good or not, and how difficult the essays were, etc. You can so easily just end up hating the book because it represents work! I loved The Handmaid's Tale, which we did for A Level English, but hated a lot of the books we were forced to read at GCSE and write about OVER and OVER. Might be worth giving it a re-read though. :-)

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  5. Interesting list! I should take a look at some of these, particularly Holes, which I have (of course) been hearing about for years.

    I also need to give The Iron King another try. I wasn't in a good place to read it when I picked it up the first time. I liked The Lost Prince once Ethan stopped being obnoxious, so I suspect I'll enjoy The Iron King.

    my TTT list

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    1. I know what you mean, sometimes you're just not in the mood for a certain type of book and then it's impossible to enjoy it, even if you normally would. Of course, might just be that it's not for you. :-) Hope you enjoy Holes if you do read it!

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  6. Yay for Susan Beth Pfeffer -- I love her Shades of the Moon series. It totally sucked me in and made me think. Did you hear another book in the series will be published soon? I'm SO excited!

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    1. Oh really? I didn't know! :-) Yes, it made me realise I'd be lousy at surviving something like that, as there was so much that I didn't think about that her mother did - she really had it all together. Brilliant book!

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  7. I loved Eternity Cure too. I do wonder if there will be a love triangle in the next book. I kinda wish she and Jackal were together.

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    1. Haha, that would be... odd, but strangely fun! xD I think they think of each other too much as brother and sister though. I did love Jackal's character. He really added some much-needed humour didn't he?

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  8. One thing I hate about Mira is all the "next Twilight" crap they put on books. I love you Mira, I do.. but c'mon. We don't want the next Twilight, we want something new and fun. Give these authors some credit!

    I need to venture into Ursula le Guin's work. I have the Earthsea Quartet (unread of course) but there's so much more I need to get hold of as well.

    And Warm Bodies is intriguing me since the movie and great reviews it's getting. Reminds me.. I still have Dearly Beloved to read from NetGalley. Loved Lia Habel's take on "zombie romance".

    Your last choice is a little uplifting, too. I'm nervous about The Eternity Cure.. I keep seeing good reviews but YA paranormal is either wonderful or very very MEH. And I can't help but worry that considering my tastes and current cravings it'll be the latter... but I also have 2 copies. >.< Really should read it.

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    1. Yes, Mira do seem to compare everything to Twilight don't they? I'm sure it can't actually be good for the authors or the books - I'm not convinced it helps sell them at all.

      Ooh yes, The Eternity Cure is really good, definitely read it! You should read The Immortal Rules first though, if you haven't read that. The Immortal Rules was very good, but there were sections that annoyed me a bit. The Eternity Cure is much better paced, and the story is really good. It's one of those books where you keep thinking the characters are going to do annoying cliched things and then they don't. Like, uh oh here comes the bit where she's going to keep a secret that the guy will never forgive, or where she's going to be all noble and tell him she doesn't love him to drive him away for his own safety, blah blah. And then she doesn't. So refreshing!

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