Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Defied My Expectations

The new school year has now begun and summer is over: my daughter has had her first day at her new school, a slew of paperwork has been thrown at me at work, another heatwave has (somewhat gently) gripped the UK. And the backlog of reviews on my blog is continuing to grow: finishing two books last night was both satisfying and a little overwhelming! This week's theme is also one that deserves a little thought: books that defied my expectations, Submitted by Sia @ย everybookadoorway.com, which is glossed as books you thought you would didnโ€™t like that you loved, books you thought youโ€™d love but didnโ€™t, books that were not the genres they seemed to be, or in any other way subverted your expectations! Sometimes, it's great to get a book that does exactly what you expect: a favourite author, a favourite genre, a title like The Kaiju Preservation Society or The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires which really do give you a heads up about the content. But this post celebrates those that unsettled and defied my expectations.

Top Ten Tuesday:ย Forgotten Backlist Titles

This week's theme is an interesting one: Jana invites us to Spread love for books that people donโ€™t talk about much anymore! I am not exactly sure what that means, but I will offer up books that I have loved in the past but which I have not really thought about and reconsidered and which have not received as much social media hype as they deserve... perhaps underrated books.

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics February 1: Books with Character Names In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read In One Sitting (or would have if I had the time)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics June 1: Freebie: The Last Ten Books… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read In One Sitting (or would have if I had the time)

Carnegie Medal 2021 Longlist

A massive congratulations to the authors on the 2021 longlist for the Carnegie Medal, announced this week. It looks like a diverse list with some familiar names - Francis Hardinge, Elizabeth Acevado. And of course Patrick Ness. Would the Carnegie Medal be the Carnegie Medal without a book by Ness appearing on it? - and… Continue reading Carnegie Medal 2021 Longlist

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2020

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: November 10: Non-Bookish HobbiesNovember 17: Characters I'd… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2020

Top Ten Tuesday: Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: July 14: Books That Make Me SmileJuly… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors

Top Five Saturday: Young Adult

The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books in which the bookish community discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously, the meme has focused on a range of different characters (witches and werewolves), genres (thrillers, detectives and re-tellings) and thoughts about the industry and life… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Young Adult

Top Ten Tuesday Turns Ten! Books I Wish I Had Read As A Child

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: May 5: Things Iโ€™d Have at My Bookish… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday Turns Ten! Books I Wish I Had Read As A Child

Top Five Saturday: One Word (Eponymous) Titles

The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: One Word (Eponymous) Titles

Top Ten Tuesday: Opening Lines

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: April 7:ย Books I Bought/Borrowed Becauseโ€ฆApril 14:ย Books I… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Opening Lines

Top Five Saturday: Books Under 300 Pages

The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books Under 300 Pages

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with One Word Titles

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 21:ย The Ten Most Recent Additions to… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books with One Word Titles

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Hangovers

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 21: The Ten Most Recent Additions to… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Book Hangovers

Top Five Saturday: Books by Favourite Authors

Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. The list of themes currently runs at 1/4/20 โ€” Funny Books1/11/20 โ€” Books Over 5 years old1/18/20 โ€” Unreliable Narrators1/25/10 โ€” Books by Favorite Authors Five books? Only Five? Only five favourite authors? What sort of… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books by Favourite Authors

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Discoveries of 2019

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 7: Most Anticipated Book Releases for the… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Discoveries of 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2020

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 7: Most Anticipated Book Releases… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2020

2019 Book Survey

Love the idea of this Survey, from Jamieโ€™s End of Year Book Survey and having read a few, thought I'd (perhaps a little belatedly) upload my own. **2019 READING STATS** Number Of Books You Read: 40Number of Re-Reads: 0Genre You Read The Most From: Crime, Fantasy and Literary 1. Best Book You Read In 2019? The… Continue reading 2019 Book Survey

2019: A Year in Books

2019 has been a good year in books for me: many great books and some outstanding have been read, few stinkers if any. Favourite Reads I have already blogged here about my favourite reads of 2019 so perhaps just the images will suffice. Any by golly they include some stunning covers! Stinkers It seems almost… Continue reading 2019: A Year in Books