Top 10 Tuesday: Cover and title lovin'

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It was created because of their love of lists and books, and since I love those things too, I thought it'd be a fun meme to participate in!

Top Ten Books Whose Titles Or Covers Made Me Grab it From the Library

I have a strange method of picking books: I go into the library, wander around, pick books at random if I like the cover or title, and don’t read the synopsis. I almost never know what a book is about before I read it, because I don’t read the synopsis 95% of the time. I don't necessarily judge books by their covers - I've read some great books with terrible covers and some terrible books with great covers - it's just how I operate. This strange and screwy method has only steered me wrong once or twice in the last few years (with one example below), so this question is actually perfect for me, and fairly easy to answer. The clickable ones lead to my reviews; the rest are ones I read before I started blogging.

1. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. For this one, it was the cover and title that hooked me. A couple years ago, I went into the library, and had planned to only get the books on my list since I’m totally OCD at the library and always get more books than I can possibly read. I made the mistake of pausing at the new releases, and my eye was automatically drawn to The Sugar Queen. I put it back, got the books on my list, but couldn’t stop thinking about The Sugar Queen, so I grabbed it on my way out…and it ended up being one of my favorite books ever. It’s actually on my re-read list for this winter.

2. The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell. This was another book I happened upon at the library, and another favorite.

3. Nocturne by Syrie James. I love the cover of this one, and since I like vampire books, I gave it a try. This was one of my very few misses. It was alright, but not great.

4. The Irish Princess by Karen Harper. I’m obsessed with all things Irish, so the title caught my attention, as did the pretty girl's flaming red hair and the castle on the cover lol

5. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson. Plain and simple: love the title, love the cover, one of my favorite books of 2011.

6. Moonglass by Jessi Kirbi. I was intrigued by the title, and the cover is so pretty. Another favorite of 2011. 

7. Falling in Love With English Boys by Melissa Jensen. Just as I love all things Irish, I also love all things English, so between the cute title and even cuter cover, I had to read this one.
 

8. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen. As a rule, I read everything that Sarah Addison Allen writes because she’s brilliant. That rule wasn’t in effect at the time I picked this book up (loved the title and cover), but it was afterwards!

9. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern. Cecelia’s books are the same as Sarah’s – she writes them, I read them. This was one of the first books of hers I read, and it was because the title intrigued me.

10. Ghost Walk by Heather Graham. The title of this one, along with the eerie cover, caught my attention; it was the first Heather Graham book I read, and after reading it, I quickly read almost all the other books she’d written.

So, what are your top 10 books that you bought (or, if you're like me, got from the library) based on their covers or titles?

Top 10 Tuesday: Books I loved but never reviewed

A bit of shameless self-promotion first. This week, I'm participating in Novel Publicity's Social Media Whirlwind Tour to advertise Terri Giuliano Long's book In Leah's Wake.  Yesterday's post was a Twitterview with the author, and tomorrow I'll be posting an excerpt from In Leah's Wake. The self-promo part: if you go to Terri's blog, you can vote for the bloggers participating in the tour, and I'd be ever-so-grateful if you'd go and vote for Ramblings of a Daydreamer. It would only take a second, and it would mean a lot to me. As incentive, I've been thinking of holding a 200 follower giveaway (I'm getting so close!) and if I win the Amazon gift certificate, that would help fund the giveaway. So please, please go vote for me!

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It was created because of their love of lists and books, and since I love those things too, I thought I'd join in every once in awhile, when I have time. 

 Top 10 Books You Loved But Never Wrote A Review For  

(either books you loved and couldn't bring yourself to write a review for or books that you read long before blogging...time to give them a shoutout!)

Usually I struggle to come up 10 things for a list, but this is the first time I’ve actually had to pare down a top 10 list. These are all books I read before I became a book blogger (in some cases, years before). They are basically personal favorites. A lot of them are on my re-read list, so I might write reviews for them eventually, but I doubt it’ll be any time soon – there are just too many great books out there that I haven’t read!

1. All the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling. I don’t know if I could write reviews for these even if I wanted to because they’re so near and dear to me. I’ve read them a gazillion times though, so if any books on this list were to make it to reviews, these would be the most likely.  {Amazon || GoodReads}

2. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. One of my favorite books ever. Ever. I cannot express how much I love this book. Sarah Addison Allen is a genius, and I read all of her books before I started blogging, except for The Peach Keeper, which I have a review written for and just never posted it…must do that!
{Amazon || GoodReads}

3. Zel by Donna Jo Napoli. A dark, slightly disturbing, beautifully-written retelling of the classic Rapunzel. I’ve read this one a couple of times. {Amazon || GoodReads}

4. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. I’ve talked about this book a dozen times or more on my blog. It was my story when I was 17; I was convinced Sarah had written it for – and about - me and my best friend. {Amazon || GoodReads}

5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. One of the most amazing books ever. Like, life-changing amazing. 
Everyone should read this book.  {Amazon || GoodReads}

6.  If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern. Well, basically all of Cecelia Ahern’s books (have read them all, but of course they were all pre-blogger days), but for this list it was a toss-up between IYCSMN and The Gift…ok, and PS I Love You. lol An amazing, magical, fun, slightly bittersweet book that has stuck with me for years, just like all of Cecelia’s other books.  {Amazon || GoodReads}

7. The Passport to Peril series by Maddy Hunter. (Alpine For You, Top O’ the Mournin’, Pasta Imperfect, Hula Done It, G’day to Die, Norway to Hide) These books have something for everyone – romance, mystery, comedy, you name it. Even though I didn’t get a chance to review the first 6 books, I’ll be reviewing an ARC of Maddy’s new book, Dutch Me Deadly, which comes out early next year. I’m so excited! {Amazon || GoodReads}


8. The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell. This was a cute, funny book that I still think about years after reading it. It’s romance/chick-lit, and the main guy is a hot Irishman - what could be better?  {Amazon || GoodReads}

9. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This was one of the books on the BBC’s list of 100 must-read books, and a couple of years ago, I was trying to make a dent in the list, so I chose this book. I’m so glad I did. Unique, heartbreaking, romantic, and bittersweet, this book made the list for a reason.  {Amazon || GoodReads}

10. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Books like this usually aren’t my cup of tea, but a friend lent it to me and I loved it. I even convinced my Grama to read it (probably 5 years ago, so she’d have been 94), and she loved it. I also really enjoyed the others in the Robert Landon series, Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol. {Amazon || GoodReads}

What are some of the books you read and didn't review? Did you not review them because you weren't blogging yet, or because they were so personal that you just couldn't write a review? I'd love to hear from you!

Top 10 Tuesday: Underrated/obscure books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It was created because of their love of lists and books, and since I love those things too, I thought I'd join in every once in awhile, when I have time. 

 

 

Top 10 (well, umm, 8) books that are underrated or obscure

I'm probably not the best person to ask this question.  Until I started book blogging, I had no idea what was popular and what wasn't, I just read what I wanted to read, old or new, popular or not.  I would pick books that I'd never heard anyone talk about and love them and think 'I have to tell everyone about this book!' only to find out that everyone already knew about it.  I'm very slowly joining the 21st century of books and trying my best to keep up, but I'm sure most of you will agree there are so many books and so little time!  I started out my list with specific books; ones that I love that I've never heard anyone else talk about, or blog about, then I got stumped so I ended up going the more general route with authors I can't believe aren't more popular.

 

1.  Zel by Donna Jo Napoli - This re-telling of Rapunzel has been a favorite of mine for many years.  I can't remember when I originally read it or where I got it, but I loved it and have read it a few times over the years.  It's dark and kind of depressing and disturbing - not my usual choice - but it's also beautiful and sweet, and I love the writing style.

2.  The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell - cute, strong, funny main character - check.  Hot Irishman - check.  A visit to Dublin and a few mentions of U2 - check.  It doesn't take much to make me happy.  I read this book in 2009 and loved it.  It's actually on my re-read list (which I never seem to get around to because there are so many other books I want to read!).

3.  Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen - I know that Sarah Dessen is popular, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about Someone Like You.  It could be because it was released in 1998 and a ton of book bloggers are teens, so were too young when it came out, I have no idea.  This book was my story - I thought Sarah had written it just for me and my best friend.  It's still a favorite of mine all these years later.

4.  Cecelia Ahern - PS I Love You is fairly popular, but I only know one other person who's read her other books.  I've read all of her books and think she's an incredibly talented writer and I can't believe that she's not a household name.  All of her books are incredible, but my personal favorites, besides PS I Love You, are If You Could See Me Now (the US title is A Silver Lining), A Place Called Here (US title is There's No Place Like Here), and The Gift.

 

5.  Maddy Hunter's Passport to Peril series - I absolutely loved this series and hated to see it end.  These books are hilarious, cleverly written, and the elements of mystery and romance were always intriguing.  If you're a fan of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books - or more specifically, Grandma Mazur - you'll love these books.  Emily has a crazy granny of her own, along with a whole group of seniors whose antics had me laughing out loud over and over.  Plus, I have to say, if you're familiar with my odd style of picking books (walk into the library and pick books at random based on title and cover), it was the clever titles of these books that originally caught my eye.  In order: Alpine for You, Top O' the Mournin', Pasta Imperfect, Hula Done It?, G'day to Die, Norway to Hide. **Edit: As I looked up the order because I couldn't remember them, I noticed another addition to the series, Dutch Me Deadly is expected out next year - woohoo!  I was so sure the series was done because she was releasing them every year and there hasn't been a new one since 2007.

6.  Victoria Laurie's Psychic Eye and Ghost Hunter series - As a psychic medium, Victoria draws on her own experiences for these books and creates novels and characters that are funny, myterious, intriguing and interesting.  It's been awhile since I've read anything of hers, but I always thoroughly enjoyed her books and need to catch up.

7.  Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer series - These books are perfect for lovers of all things supernatural, because you name it, these books have it - vampires, witches, ghosts, incubi, faeries, gods - just about anything you can think of.  They're jam-packed with action and you never know what mess Cassie's going to get into next.

8.  Joyce and Jim Lavene's Renaissance Faire series - I've always had a thing about renessaince faires, but have never been lucky enough to attend one, so I love living vicariously though Jessie, who gets to live and work in one for part of the year.  With a cast of quirky characters, most of whom take their jobs very seriously, these books are really funny, and they're interesting too because in each one, Jessie's doing a different internship, so the reader gets to learn about the trade as she's learning it.

 

 

What are some of your favorite underrated or obscure books (or authors)?  What do you think of my list?  I've visited a few blog already and there are entire lists where I haven't heard of a single book!  I think it's great that we get the opportunity to bring attention to books that might otherwise remain obscure!  Happy Tuesday and happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top ten books that should be in your beach bag

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week, they post a topic and you give your top ten.  Fun right?  It's a great way to meet new bloggers and discover some new books to add to your TBR list.  Be sure to drop by their site to check it out!

Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag

I started off writing the reasons why I like each of these books, but then realized the reasons were the same for most of them - I like lighter books for summer, something that will make me laugh, but that has a good enough story to hold my interest and makes me feel satisfied at the end.  All of these books did that.  The ones that are linked lead to book reviews I've written.

1.  Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen 

2.  Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares - all 4 of them

3.  Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

4.  A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

5.  Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

6.  The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell

7.  The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich

8.  Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

9.  The Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy (Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, Heart of the Sea) by Nora Roberts

10. The Girl Who Cased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen

What are some of your favorite summer reads?