Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Forced to Read

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: books we were forced to read.

Mine are a combination of school reads, suggestions from other people, and plain old social pressures!

1. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - after years of disliking almost all of school's required reading, I was set to loathe The Fountainhead. And it's a book that comes with a long line of fair warnings of such. But I did so enjoy it. Perhaps because I'd already voluntarily read two of Rand's other works. 

2. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson - so it's short stories and it was a required read my freshman year in college. But oh, how I loved this book! 

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - my sister read the trilogy before I did and harassed me to no end until I read them myself. Of course they were fantastic (I'd have gotten to them on my own eventually.)

4. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton - while I can't say that this is the one that totally hooked me with this series, I can say that Kinsey Millhone quickly became one of my favorite characters. My ex's mother had the whole series and suggested I try them out. I read one a night (between 11 and 2) every night until I was caught up. 

5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - again one I'm sure I would have come to on my own but was required reading in college. While I didn't quite think I would hate this one, I did think that it would be more of a trial to read than it turned out to be. I zipped through it way before we were supposed to finish and loved every page!

6. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - no one actually forced me to read this one or even suggested that I do so. Instead, this was one that was doing so well in our store that I finally gave into my own curiosity and tried a few pages while shelving one morning. I soon realized I was sitting in the aisle wholeheartedly devouring pages and bought my own copy. 

7. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - back in my bookselling days a marketing person with the publishing company was actually shocked when I revealed I'd never read any Neil Gaiman. He sent me a reissued copy of this one and I fell in love with it.

8. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - this book made its way around a group of my high school friends. I bought two copies for my husband before giving into his constant prompts to read it. 

9. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin - the first time I tried this one, I gave up in chapter one. The first three books sat on my shelves for five years until I decided to give the show a go. So it was a combination of bookshelf guilt and binge watching season one that forced me to dive int. Now I'm a huge dork for the series!

10. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier - I don't know how many times I picked this book up and put it back before I read it. In the end, I'd written it off as something that wouldn't be my cup of tea until an email newsletter I belonged to sent out an excerpt of the book. I bought the trilogy the very next day.

The Prodigal by Michael Hurley

Hi, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Michael Hurley's The Prodigal.

After a well-intentioned deception on a case is revealed, hot-shot lawyer Aiden Sharpe finds himself suddenly without a job. A helpful friend sends him to Father Marcus on Ocracoke Island, a man known for helping lost souls in more ways than one. Island life is much simpler for Aiden and here he begins to put the pieces of his world back together. Soon, however, Aiden and his friends become part of a mystery that's generations in the making.

Hurley's book is packed with interesting characters - from Aiden and Marcus to Ibrahim and Zoot and of course, Sarah. And we get to spend quite a bit of time with each of them, learning their histories and their quirks, before really getting into the meat of the story. I guess, though, that the characters could really be considered the "meat" of this particular story. The promised mystery doesn't so much come into play until about 2/3 of the way through the book, which I initially found a bit confusing. After all, we begin with a prologue from 1851 and then jump directly into Aiden's story spending the next two hundred pages (give or take) wondering when they'll come back into play and how they relate to the rest of the book.

They do say patience is a virtue and The Prodigal is a book where patience pays off.

All of that said, I would be doing the book a disservice if I led you to believe that any part of it is without merit or in any way something other than a joy to read. Because it is - a joy to read. Getting to know Aiden and the islanders, learning some of the ins and outs of island life and boating, all of it is incredibly descriptive and well written. Really, it's a wonderful character driven literary read that would stack up against the best of book club choices.  

Rating: 4/5

To see more stops on the tour, check out the official TLC tour page here. For more on Michael Hurley, you can like him on Facebook.

The author has dropped the e-book price of The Prodigal from $5.99 to $0.99 for this blog tour.

Excerpt: Death and the Girl He Loves by Darynda Jones

Hello, all! I'm super happy to be part of the latest Darynda Jones tour! This time it's in honor of the latest release in the Darklight series, Death and the Girl He Loves. So today I've got the next excerpt for you and - of course - the giveaway links, too.

“Do you feel bad again?” she asked me, alarmed. 

“Yes, I do. I’m sorry.” I started to rise, but I could hardly leave Crystal alone with a bonafide psychopath. She needed to know who he was. What he was. And she needed to steer all kinds of clear of this guy. What a whack job. 

Then again, how did I explain this to her? My position was too precarious. Too much was at stake for me to risk anything. I had to survive the next few days. I had to at least try to stop the coming war. Left with little choice, I realized I had to leave. Now. I could hardly fight him. A knife in even the most inept hands was a very dangerous weapon. It wasn’t like I knew karate. Or judo. Or Pilates. I totally should have watched more Bruce Lee movies growing up. Considering my lack of experience, I didn’t stand a chance against him. He seemed quite determined. And agile. 

I’d made up my mind. Tonight I would sneak out, buy a plane ticket, and go home.

And now for the giveaway. Just a reminder, this is open internationally. Be sure to hit up the other stops on the tour for extra entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Releases 10/15/13

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

How to be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman

Killer's Art by Mari Jungstedt

Dark City by F. Paul Wilson

Copperhead by Tina Connolly

Styx & Stone by James W. Ziskin

Fiendish Schemes by K.W. Jeter

The Cusanus Game by Wolfgang Jeschke

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Wasteland Saga by Nick Cole

The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson

Crooked Numbers by Tim O'Mara

The Police by Jo Nesbo

Dead Man's Time by Peter James

The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice

Identical by Scott Turow

Behind Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander

Backlash by Lynda La Plante

The Wolves of Midwinter by Anne Rice

Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George

Chickens in the Road by Suzanne McMinn

Revealed by P.C. Cast

The Darkest Minds Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

New on DVD:
The Heat
The Colony

Blackout by Robison Wells

In the midst of a number of terrorist attacks, a virus is spreading throughout the country. It hits teens and results in a number of strange symptoms including random supernatural abilities. When it is learned that the terrorists themselves are some of these affected kids, the government begins rounding up droves of teenagers everywhere in order to test for the virus and hopefully create their own teams to combat the terrorists. 

This latest from Robison Wells (author of Variant and Feedback) is part X-Men and all action. Thing is, while the book is fine it didn't blow me away and I'm not 100% sure why.

First, it is clearly the beginning of a new series. Blackout does not have an all encompassing plot of its own and readers should definitely be prepared.

Aubrey and Jack, two of the lead characters, have a nice set up and relationship to build from. Alec and Laura are understandably much more mysterious: they're part of the terrorist group whose plot is still unclear by the end of Blackout. And perhaps that's my problem. Nothing is explained in much detail and there are no conclusions at all. Everything is left up in the air at the end of this first installment. I wanted SOME answers. Any answers at all. Who's in charge of the terrorists? What's their goal? Who created the virus?

I would have been happy with anything.

Instead we get simply a prelude with more to come. Maybe I'm just tiring of that kind of setup or maybe it's just that other series in this vein have had more satisfying series starts. I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that by the end of Blackout I felt a bit (sadly) relieved simply to be finished.

That sounds so mean! I really don't mean to be. The book isn't at all bad. Wells's writing isn't bad. Blackout was just a miss for me personally.

Rating: 3/5

Oddities and Entities by Roland Allnach

Morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Roland Allnach's Oddities and Entities.

More creepy short story reads for this so far colder than I'd like October! The collection kicks off with a tale called "Boneview," which is probably the most chilling story in the book. In this tale, a young girl possesses a strange ability and an odd friend she calls the Curmudgeon. Then we move on to "Shift/Change" in which a new morgue employee turns out to be something unexpected. Next is "My Other Me," kind of a play on multiple personalities. In "Gray" one man learns that odd product warnings are sometimes very important. "Elmer Phelps" is Allnach's own version of a vampire tale. Finally, in "Appendage" a man is hired for a job he should never have taken. 

Each of the stories in this collection is creepy and completely odd - "Gray" probably more so than the rest! They're all pretty excellent though. Everyone seems to agree that "Boneview" is the true stand out and I won't argue (it's definitely my favorite) but overall this is a really worthwhile set of shorts. Fans of quirky horror should definitely give it a try and I'm sure they'll be with me in hoping to see more from Allnach very soon indeed.

To see more stops on the tour, check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Roland Allnach and his work, you can visit his website here. You can also check out his blog, Out of the Horizon, friend him on Facebook, and become a fan on Goodreads.

Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois

Morning, all! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Jennifer duBois's Cartwheel.

For Lily, a semester abroad in Buenos Aires meant an adventure and a time for real freedom. In just five weeks, though, the twenty-one-year-old would be imprisoned, charged with killing her housemate. Katy was brutally murdered and the police believe Lily is guilty. She found the body, she called the officials, but her reactions are off and everything indicates that she and the other girl didn't really get along. It seems everyone has already made up their minds but is Lily really guilty?

Oh, this book! While I didn't dislike it, I'm not sure I can say that I completely enjoyed it. It's definitely one that needs a good chunk of time devoted to it, time that I simply didn't have while reading it. duBois is a wordy writer and at times I thought it was a poetic wordiness with every sentence built with a graceful and almost melodic style. At other times, however, I thought I'd go permanently cross eyed trying to wrap my head around the image a particular sentence was trying to convey!

I love the fact that the story is told through a variety of points of view. It forces the reader to constantly reconsider any ideas they have about Lily and the crime. The timeline shifts as well - we begin with Lily's father just after her arrest, moving to the fiscal de camara (the prosecutor), then jumping back to one month before the crime with Lily and Sebastien, and back post arrest with her father's narrative, etc.

Honestly the constant did she or didn't she and if she did, WHY?! hooked me. The impact of the case on the people directly involved was interesting as well. I would have liked to have gotten some of Katy and her family's story - Katy was a constant mystery to me. Whereas we do get some of Lily's POV, we get nothing from or about Katy that isn't skewed by another character's perceptions. And the varying perceptions people have about one another is, I believe, exactly the point of Cartwheel.

One thing everyone keeps pointing out - and yes, there's mention of it in the book as well - is that Cartwheel is loosely inspired by the Amanda Knox case. Beyond actually knowing Knox's name and the crime she was accused of, I know none of the specifics. None. Not a one. So if you followed the case, as a few of the reviewers on the tour have, then you'll catch more connections than I did for sure.

Rating: 3.5/5

To see more stops on the tour, check out the official TLC tour page here. For more on Jennifer and her work visit her official website here, You can also follow her on Twitter.