Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and feature lists related to all things bookish–characters, authors, titles, and favorites. They’re an excellent way to find new interesting books on a variety of topics, and to find bloggers that love the books you do.
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December 16: Top Ten Books I Read In 2014.
These are all 5-star books I’ve read this year.
1) 14; Peter Clines. Horror is hit-or-miss with me, but this one is a winner for sure. It’s about a weird apartment building, with a new tenant who decides to start investigating–and the more he finds, the stranger things get.
2) Ancillary Sword; Ann Leckie. (#2) The first book introduced Breq the ancillary (AI run bodies of captured enemies), who had her ship-body and all but one ancillary destroyed, and wants vengeance. This book is focused less on world-building, explaining the ideas, and how angry the main character is, and more on her acting, her thought processes, and her attempts to make change.
3) The Brothers Cabal; Johnathan L. Hubbard (#4). A book about a necromancer who isn’t as bad as he wants people to think–and likable despite himself. And his brother–watching siblings squabble is always fun.
4) Burn for Me; Ilona Andrews (#1). I am so excited to see how this magic family-run world develops, especially since these are mobster style families, with power-hungry killers in them. And the characters have a real spark, though it is nowhere so near as romance-driven as the cover suggests.
5) Future Falls;Tanya Huff (#3). This book has a character really coming into her own, a weird magic dominated family, some science, and an asteroid about to destroy the Earth.
6) Raising Steam; Terry Pratchett (#40). Steam power comes to Discworld! Can they handle the changes a train will bring?
7) The Raven Boys; Maggie Stiefvater (#1). I finally got around to this book about magic seeping into the life of some private school boys, who tangle with the daughter of a psychic. There’s a scary promise made in the beginning, that having read Stiefvater before, will happen–but not how you expect.
8) Republic; Lindsay Buroker (#8). This is actually the last book in a series about a woman and a rather unusual collection of individuals trying to clear their names and/or help the emperor. A few of them got 5 stars from me, but this one has a bunch of character development with its usual madcap adventure.
9) Skin Game; Jim Butcher (#15). Hey, it’s Dresden. He’s an amazing wizard. But this one has some extra special maneuvering. If you like Urban Fantasy, and you haven’t started this series… you should.
10) Swamp Ghosts; Marcia Meara (#1). I’m totally biased for the author on this one, but it has just the right balance of creepy–but not too creepy–a nice twisty puzzle, laughs and mayhem, and some illegal use of wildlife.
THE RAVEN BOYS!!! Yay! I’m so glad you read it! I agree that it’s definitely not going to happen in a way anyone expects.
My TTT!
Book 4 will be the last, right? So all I have to do is read 2 and 3, and wait…
As far as I know, book 4 will be the last, which is incredibly sad.
Everything has to end sometime. And I’m happier when books end strong, instead of trailing off into some I then pretend don’t belong to the series!
I agree. I just don’t want to leave that world, but then I guess that’s what rereads are for!
Burn for Me was sooooo good! I need No.2 – NOW.
Lynn 😀
One day, they’ll invent time travel. And we’ll spend it hopping to release dates.
I sadly haven’t read any of those yet, but there are quite a few on your list I’ve been meaning to read! This only makes me want to pick them up even more now. Oh, if only I had all the time in the world to read every book out there!
I hear you there!
Oh man, I’m getting the chills already just reading your description of 14. (To which I will say: never will I ever investigate a creepy apartment building LOL).
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
Never ever investigate a creepy any kind of building, I think. Especially big ones, like warehouses, office buildings, and apartment buildings. Too many nooks and crannies for the boogeymen.
That being said, if you like horror, you should check it out.
Curiosity will destroy me–like how I’m iffy with large insects (or perhaps massive spiders) but I will watch every single “spider v.s. [insert animal here]” video available.
You’re one of those people the audience is screaming at in a scary movie–‘don’t go into the basement!’–aren’t you? Those characters never live long…
Haha, I might not scream it I definitely do think of the possibility sometimes: “oh…here it comes… (stupid, stupid character).”
Awesome list! I loved Burn for Me too. I only wish that book 2 wasn’t so far away!
They’re always too far away, aren’t they? No matter how fast the author writes…