It’s time for Top 10 Tuesday again! I love picking up book recs from fellow bloggers — the lesser known, the better! There’s some extra happiness in locating those hidden gems, you know. So, here are 10 that I’ve picked up in recent months.
1 / Cry Baby Hollow – 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.
2 / Coyote Road: Trickster Tales – Ellen Datlow
Anthologies are not my preferred style – but a blogger mentioned this was actually quite feel-good, because like the coyote, we can eventually find our way out of anything.
3 / The Inquisitor’s Tale – Adam Gidwitz
A Middle Grade take-off on The Canterbury Tales. Hilarious and with illustrations. Received the 2017 Newbery Honor. Well, sign me up!
4 / The Problem of the Green Capsule (The Black Spectacles) – John Dickson Carr
I’d tried Carr before and not liked his work. But then 3 different bloggers recommended this work by Carr within the same week! That cannot be a random coincidence.
5 / The Idylls of the Queen – Phyllis Ann Kerr
Arthurian adventure mixed with an attempted murder mystery plot and loads of angst. Of course, I had to pick up this old book.
6 / From all False Doctrine – Alice Degan
Another book that I chanced upon more than once. It has a very unappetizing cover (nor is that title). But the reviews look promising!
7 / Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
I tried reading this earlier, but it was so dense and intense in those first few chapters that I put it on hold. And then, so many people recently recced the sequel. I just have to restart this series.
8 / Red Moon and Black Mountain – Joy Chant
Another hidden gem! I have a great liking for that cover, and that title is most mystifying. Need to, need to, read this some time.
9 / Super-Infinite – Katherine Rundell
Not so “hidden”, this one. A life story of the great poet John Donne. I’ve read a (very) few of Donne’s lines, and I was awestruck. This book looks like an excellent way to find out more on what inspired him and how.
10 / The Innocents Abroad – Mark Twain
I can’t even remember how I stumbled on to this. But a fellow blogger spoke of this and I thought it’s been too long since Huckleberry Finn… Then the very next day, a chance store visit brought me face to face with this book.
There you go! What’s your list of hidden gems or other recommended reads looking like?
20 replies on “Ten Hidden Gems: Because you said so”
I loved The Inquisitor’s Tale!
That’s good to know, can’t wait to just get some feel-good!
Cry Baby Hollow sounds interesting.
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
These all sound really neat! (Well, though Cry Baby Hollow feels like it might be too scary for me.) I don’t think I’ve seen a Middle Grade spin on the Canterbury Tales before. I’m intrigued!
My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2023/08/08/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-tbr-because-of-ttt/
Cry Baby Hollow is pretty spooky. But if you like Urban Fantasy in general, I think you’ll like it!
I love your list! It’s so different than mine and that’s what I love about TTT. It brings so many different books into the spotlight.
Haha, the bane of our TBR pile = TTT posts!
I’m probably one of those people who recced Ninth House and Hell Bent haha 🙂 I do hope you’ll enjoy the series if you decide to give it another try!
Haha, probably. I do want to finish both books within this year, but let’s see…
I didn’t love Ninth House but I think I’m in the minority on that. And I love those British crime Classics!!
Yes, I hear you on British crime classics – I remember you spotlighting a few on your blog, so good!
Ooh, interesting list! The only one here I’ve read is Ninth House, which is good but very, very dark. At some point, I need to go read the sequel. I recently read Mark Twain for the first time since middle school, and really enjoyed it!
I’ve only ever heard of two of these and I haven’t read any of them. These gems are definitely hidden 🙂 LOL.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Ninth House is pretty popular. It is as I recall pretty thick, so I can understand why you might need to revisit it.
Ninth House definitely is dense to start with, there’s a lot of information to get through to set up the whole secret societies and their different kinds of magic and the function of Lethe and everything, but things do get easier, it just takes a bit!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2023/08/08/top-ten-tuesday-432/
Thank you for sharing such a diverse collection of books!
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/books-discovered-through-top-ten-tuesday-posts/
The Innocent’s Abroad is a fun one. Twain’s wit and humor always make me laugh.
I always love checking out your lists because you have such cool and unique books listed, ones I never really see anywhere else. The only one from here that I’ve even heard of was Ninth House, which *is* really dense and intense, but totally worth the read.
I need to get my hands on The Inquisitor’s Tale given how much I loved his A Tale Dark & Grimm series. 🙂
My sister and I received Red Moon and Black Mountain for Christmas when we were young, and I still have it somewhere. I remember liking it but cannot recall anything else about it.
From All False Doctrine looks good! My library has it on Hoopla so I will check it out when I have fewer library books already checked out.