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.
Check out their blog for their top ten and lists by other bloggers!
September 5: Ten Books I Struggled to Get Into But Ended Up Loving or Ten Books That Were A Chore To Get Through or Ten Books I’ve Most Recently Put Down (the theme is…books you had a hard time with…tweak it how ever you need)
I’m quite particular about the books I read, which cuts down on the failures, so I’m splitting this between DNFs and Struggles.
DNF
- Hue 1968; Mark Bowden. Too dry. The writing didn’t engage me, so I put it down.
2. Seven Dreams; Charlotte English. The characters felt flat, and the plot failed to catch my attention.
3. The Shape of Bones; Daniel Galera. Disjointed, with a narrative so confusing I couldn’t quite tell what was going on for some time.
4. Empire Ascendant; Cameron Hurley. The first book was dark, and this book proved to be darker.
5. Jitterbug Perfume; Tom Robbins. I found the prose overwrought, and everything that was meant to be funny didn’t amuse me.
Struggles
6. The Library of Fate; Khorana Aditi. Loved the idea, but there were too many weaknesses in character development, plot, and pacing.
7. The Massacre of Mankind; Stephen Baxter. A sequel to War of the Worlds that didn’t feel like it really added anything.
8. All the Sounds of Fear; Harlan Ellison. A collection of dark, sometimes hopeless sci fi tales, I had to spread this out among other reading. Haunting, but interesting.
9. Heartburn; Nora Ephron. I got the audio book pretty much because Meryl Streep voiced it, and she did a good enough job to keep me going.
10. The Leopard; Jo Nesbo. This is the eighth book in the series, but each one is a slog, driven by the well-written mystery, and slowed by the terrible characters.
Look like I can skip adding these to my towering TBR pile. They all sound like things I’d probably not enjoy, either. And with my severely limited reading time, I don’t mess with anything that doesn’t pull me right in. Besides, I got the new Toby Daye book yesterday, and that will definitely be the next thing I start. Can’t wait for more Toby and Tybalt. 🙂
Yes! I got The Brightest Fell last night and already finished it. Hope you like it, I found it a little dark.
Dawlyn: We just got Library of Fates in a subscription box and it’s annotated by the author. I’m interested to see how I like it!
Hope you enjoy it better than I did! 🙂
I haven’t read any of those and I’m not in a rush to! I do like Nora Ephron, so I’ll probably give Heartburn a try at some point.
I did ten that I’m ultimately glad I struggled through: https://franlaniado.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/3321/
If you like Ephron, definitely give it a try. You might like it better than I did! 🙂
It’s on my TBR, but it’s not a priority.
So, I’ve been contemplating reading The Library of Fates, but haven’t because of the description I’ve been in no rush to give it a go. Even the description made me think it would be a bit of a slog. I will definitely agree with you as far as Nesbo is concerned. Harry Hole is such a tragic character and he’s not pitted against anyone with any real redeeming qualities (including the good guys). I want to read his middle-grade series, Doctor Proctor.
My Top Ten Tuesday
If poor character development, an oddly compressed plot with lots of summarizing, and/or highly convenient last minute saves annoy you, skip Library of Fates.
I’ve read a couple of the Doctor Proctor books. They’re silly and funny. 🙂
I haven’t read any of these! I’ve been meaning to try Jo Nesbo though. Now I’m not so sure? 🙂
Nesbo writes very tightly crafted, twisty puzzles, and they’re quite gripping. But the murders are graphic, and nearly all the characters are terrible people. It’s all a question of what you like.
Ok I’ll keep it on my list to try. 🙂 thanks!!
I haven’t read any of these books myself but I do have Library of Fates on my to-read list. I’m sorry to hear that was one you struggled with though.
Great list for this week. 🙂
It had mixed reviews, so you might be one of the people who loves it. Here’s hoping! 🙂