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I count George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss as one of my all-time favorites, so I was eager to start Scenes of Clerical Life as my Spin #38 pick for Classics Club Challenge. I was also fortunate to find the Librivox Recording by Bruce Pirie (available in Podcast formats too) and it was so good — highly recommended!
Scenes of Clerical Life has 3 stories, each one progressively longer and more impactful.
This week’s Top 10 Tuesday is about listing books that you have picked up – or avoided – because of the hype around them. I fall in neither group — I’m a little wary of Hyped Books, so while I add them to my TBR, but save them for a later day. Instead, it’s the lesser known books which catch my eye… hoping to find some hidden gem perhaps?
So — here’s a list of some obscure books that I really think deserve a lot more love! Er, you may have seen these recommended around these parts before…
I am ready to write bad angsty poetry on my never-ending reading/ blogging slump! Still, somehow, pushing myself to do this mid-year 2024 blogpost on stuff I have liked till now.
Let’s all pledge to move out of Slump Valley! And just in case these recs reach you, hope you’ll like some of these.
I have not been a great fan or follower of the Grishaverse, so was hesitant in picking this up. But what a marvelous story this turned out to be. We peer into the ages of 16th century when anti-semitism was rife. Luzia is desperately trying to escape her confined pitiful life with her displays of magical craft… but soon ends up getting embroiled in a larger political net. Everything in this book was so impressive – the Spanish Golden Age/ Renaissance feel, the worldbuilding, the writing, the prose, the characterizations. Aaaaand, it is a standalone. If you’ve liked Mistress of the Art of Death, you’ll love this one too.
Happy New Year ’24, everyone! And at last, my favorite topic for the yearly wrap-up to Top 10 Tuesday: favorite books of 2023. We save the best for the end, and it is so much fun adding those best to Mount TBR. Here’s my list too.
Three great December reads — all mysteries, all within this month, and all pretty good! I am already adding some of them to my Best of 2023 list.
Phenomenally well-written, terse suspense. Astronomer Vivvy Bouchet also has unsettling psychic insight and gets pulled into looking for a missing girl by cops. Is she a quack or is it real – nobody can make up their mind about it. As a narrator, Vivvy is unusually talkative but also just a bit unreliable, and this makes her a supremely interesting character. Equally interesting is her public fight with a cult-ish conspiracy podcaster Bubba Guns.
The tense pacing of the first half dwindles later, but Heaberlin still manages a very decent wrap-up at the end. I hear the book’s already up for TV adaptation. And with a title like that, how can you possibly ignore this book? Highly recommended!
Another solid thriller from Armstrong. Recently divorced single mother Aubrey Finch believes she has spotted a kidnapping, but nobody wants to believe her. But Finch has other ghosts from her past, which compel her to pursue the case and in the process, reveal her own ghosts to the public eye. The pacing is excellent. If you can ignore the fact that most of Armstrong’s heroines seem very alike, you will like this one — not as much as the Rockton series, but still quite engrossing.
Happy Halloween! And right on cue, we have Top 10 Tuesday giving out a Halloween freebie treat. I’m by no means a horror fan, but I will try to wrap up the month with top 10 spooktastic and deliciously dark reads.
1 / The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig
Phenomenally gothic and creepy. This duology took me completely by surprise and got me out of my reader’s block. Absolutely mindblowing world-building, plot AND writing.
2 / The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
In Udolpho, young Emily St. Aubere finds herself orphaned and in the clutches of her wicked uncle-in-law, Montoni. Montoni is up to no good, and more than one skeleton hides in his closet. This is Gothic suspense at its finest, and is highly recommended.
3 / Cry Baby Hollow by Aimee Love
I found this on Goodreads for lesser known Urban Fantasy reads. One of the reviewers said that the “Hollow” was for “holler” — and this is not about your friendly neighborhood wolf. It was such a change from the usual Urban Fantasy, recommended.
It’s time for Top 10 Tuesday again! This week we are looking at books that caught us by surprise – for better or for worse – and I’m sticking to the “plot twist”. Here are 10 books that went to a totally unexpected place for me.
All that obsession with the first Mrs. Maxim de Winter was bound to end some time.
A thief ends up marrying the lady who cut off his hand.
A brainiac, an athlete, a princess, a criminal and a “basket case” walk into detention.
No, Jane – Rochester is not the hero you thought him to be…
There are worlds within worlds, and nothing is as simple as it seems.
Anyone remember the infamous Red Wedding scene (from the show)? Phew!
Epic and sensational – not a Biblical premise anyone could’ve guessed.
The reveal of the culprit was slow and right at the end – made me rant full time.
Not the whodunnit, but the how-dunnit was the real plot twist here.
Heart-wrenching tale full of strange experiments and the repercussions.
So, what’s your list looking like? Any jaw-dropping plot twists, unexpected endings, other things that caught you by surprise?
For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, we are looking at bookish wishes. I am taking it rather literally, about bad bargains, perilous wishes and the hazards of ambition. Here’s a quick list:
1 | Shakespeare’s Macbeth – Prophecies, anyone?
2 | Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine – This heroine has been given the gift of obedience!
3 | Half Magic by Edward Eager – Only half of what these kids wish for comes true
4 | Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit – These kids’ wishes will expire promptly at sunset.
5 | Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – Tall or short, please can she make up her mind?
6 | The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – He wished all of his aging on a portrait.
7 | Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba – Writing down criminals’ names in a magical death book is not so heroic.
8 | The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien – You get a ring of invisibility but just makes Sauron see you more clearly.
9 | Faust by Goethe – This guy though success on earth is worth selling his soul away.
10 | The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller – Experimenting with fairy contracts? Oops!
What do you think? Do you have any books to add to this dangerous booklist on worst bookish wishes ever?
This week’s Top 10 Tuesday has us looking at top 10 books that we recommend often to fellow bloggers and friends. Since May is also the month for Wyrd & Wonder, I’m going to stick to some underrated books from fantasy fiction that I do like to clobber people with.
