Top Five Wednesday: Books to Be Read Before the Year Ends

It's almost laughable to try to come up with only five books I want to read before the end of the year - I have more than that sitting in a pile next to me as I type, after all. That being said, there are a handful of books that I'm determined to move off my TBR sooner rather than later, primarily because they are (or will soon be) sitting on my actual book shelf.



This is one that's taunting me from my shelves as we speak (and has been for a couple of months now). Hannah is the queen of British suspense and this book sounds like a doozy. A mother finds that her daughter has written a disturbing story for a school assignment that tells of murders in their home. Once she starts poking around she discovers that her daughter's best school friend seems to be unknown by all of her teachers. Then the anonymous phone calls start. This sounds so deliciously creepy!





This is another book sitting on my shelf...waiting to be read. The story revolves around the two survivors of a private plane crash - a young boy who is heir to an extensive family fortune and a down on his luck painter. Moving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers, certain coincidences begin to appear that point to the crash not being an accident. I love a good mystery and this sounds like it will be exactly that. Plus...look at this gorgeous cover!




I know - another Sophie Hannah book - but it's also a Hercule Poirot mystery and there's no way I'm not reading this the minute I hold this book in my hot little hands. A wealthy woman hosts a party with the sole intention of letting everyone in attendance know she is cutting off her heirs and instead giving all of her money to an invalid who is expected to die within the month. When a murder is commited, Poirot finds that the victim chosen makes no sense at all. This sounds like vintage Poirot - a "locked room," a house full of suspects, and what will no doubt be a twisty plot that I'll devour, looking for clues, hoping to solve the mystery before the world's best detective.



This book is a chunker at 740+ pages so fitting this one in might require some dedication and a few quiet nights on the deck before the weather turns. A plague that causes spontaneous human combustion is sweeping the land and only an enigmatic man known as The Fireman can stop it. Normally this kind of "post-apocalyptic" sci-fi/fantasy tale isn't something I'm chomping at the bit to get to but I read the first chapter standing in Target and was tempted to go grab some Starbucks, sit down right there on the floor, and keep reading. I'm hoping this will be a nice meaty book I can savor a few chapters at a time through the fall.



My final choice shouldn't come as a surprise. I'm in love with Flavia de Luce and her clever mysteries. In this new installment, Flavia is returning home for Christmas and, upon finding her father ill, decides to make a visit to the village. There she finds a door ajar, a body hanging upside down from the rafters, and a cat who seems undisturbed by the whole scene. Flavia - of course - investigates. The fact that Flavia is a child and a science-obsessed genius makes this whole series both intellectually satisfying and a whole lot of fun. I'm counting down the days for this one.


What books are you determined to finish before the year ends? Tell us below!

*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Favorite First Lines

We all know that opening lines can set the mood for a book and give us a taste of what to expect. Just like first impressions, good first lines can make you decide to stick around. This week's top five is all about our favorite opening lines in books. 



"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

I'm sure this line is on most "best first lines" lists but it really does set the tone for this novel. As everyone in Regency England knew, a good marriage was the main concern of every mother across the country. It's slightly sarcastic tone gives us a hint of the personality we're going to find in Lizzie Bennett, a Regency mother's worst nightmare. Everything considered, you can almost forgive Mrs. Bennett for being off her rocker over her daughter's marriages. Almost.




"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Again, not the most unusual line to find on this kind of list but for a good reason. Tolstoy's philosophical examination of happiness and the idea that what makes us human also makes us unhappy gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from this sweeping novel - a host of families that are unhappy precisely because they have gone against societal expectations and behaved in painfully human ways.

"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear."

In Roth's alternative history novel, a young Jewish boy is remembering back to his childhood in which Charles Lindburgh is elected president, an "understanding" is reached with Adolph Hitler, and a program of anti-Semitism is adopted by the American government. This opening line highlights the reality of what this kind of environment would be like for a child - perpetual fear.

"There are places I'll remember all my life - Red Square with a hot wind howling across it, my mother's bedroom on the wrong side of Eight Mile, the endless gardens of a fancy foster home, a man waiting to kill me in a group of ruins knows as the Theater of Death."

I guess when your main character is a super-secret international mega-spy it's not reasonable to expect a quiet opening line. This one, though, sets the stage for Pilgrim's intense adventure through multiple countries and countless adversaries. It packs a punch that you feel all the way to the end of this book.

"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan."

Buckley's hilarious satire of DC lobbyists, corporations, and media coverage is off to a snort-inducing start with this line. You start to feel bad for Nick, despite the questionable morality of his job. This line perfectly prepares you for a front-row seat to poor Nick's moral quandaries.




What are your favorite opening lines? Comment below and tell us!

*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Favorite First Lines

We all know that opening lines can set the mood for a book and give us a taste of what to expect. Just like first impressions, good first lines can make you decide to stick around. This week's top five is all about our favorite opening lines in books. 



"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

I'm sure this line is on most "best first lines" lists but it really does set the tone for this novel. As everyone in Regency England knew, a good marriage was the main concern of every mother across the country. It's slightly sarcastic tone gives us a hint of the personality we're going to find in Lizzie Bennett, a Regency mother's worst nightmare. Everything considered, you can almost forgive Mrs. Bennett for being off her rocker over her daughter's marriages. Almost.




"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Again, not the most unusual line to find on this kind of list but for a good reason. Tolstoy's philosophical examination of happiness and the idea that what makes us human also makes us unhappy gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from this sweeping novel - a host of families that are unhappy precisely because they have gone against societal expectations and behaved in painfully human ways.

"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear."

In Roth's alternative history novel, a young Jewish boy is remembering back to his childhood in which Charles Lindburgh is elected president, an "understanding" is reached with Adolph Hitler, and a program of anti-Semitism is adopted by the American government. This opening line highlights the reality of what this kind of environment would be like for a child - perpetual fear.

"There are places I'll remember all my life - Red Square with a hot wind howling across it, my mother's bedroom on the wrong side of Eight Mile, the endless gardens of a fancy foster home, a man waiting to kill me in a group of ruins knows as the Theater of Death."

I guess when your main character is a super-secret international mega-spy it's not reasonable to expect a quiet opening line. This one, though, sets the stage for Pilgrim's intense adventure through multiple countries and countless adversaries. It packs a punch that you feel all the way to the end of this book.

"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan."

Buckley's hilarious satire of DC lobbyists, corporations, and media coverage is off to a snort-inducing start with this line. You start to feel bad for Nick, despite the questionable morality of his job. This line perfectly prepares you for a front-row seat to poor Nick's moral quandaries.




What are your favorite opening lines? Comment below and tell us!

*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Newest Additions to Our Wishlists

Pulling a list of books from my wishlist is pretty easy - it's usually narrowing it down to figure out what to buy that's the problem! Let's face it - our wishlists and to-read lists are always going to be out of control and we're okay with that.

My daughter has recently discovered Roald Dahl so we're knee deep in Matilda, The Witches, and the BFG. Looking over our bookshelves I realized that we didn't have any of his adult work - the creepy short stories he's known for. This is my attempt to remedy that.

I'm a bit hesitant to dive into this one, to be honest, since it's been so long since I've read the first two books in this series. I'm fairly positive it's going to require a re-read and these are not small books. I'm still going to buy a copy, though, because there's nothing I hate more than mismached book sets.

I'm a sucker for a good suspense novel and I currently have 

In a Dark, Dark Wood sitting on my bookshelf. After hearing how brilliant that book was I figured it's only a matter of time before I needed this one as well. Besides...look at that cover!

Rebecca is one of my favorite Gothic novels so when went in search of another good Gothic read and this popped up, it seemed logical that I'd be giving Du Maurier another go.

I absolutely loved Hendrix's first novel, Horrorstor, a hilarious and terrifying look at what would happen if you worked at an Ikea haunted by evil spirits. This second book is a coming of age story that could possibly involve demon possession. So...yeah. This went straight on my wishlist and will likely be on my bookshelf before the summer's end. 

What's on your wishlist?

*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Books We Wish Had Sequels

I read a lot of series so I'm at no loss for books continuing on in a particular world or with certain characters. There are, though, a handful of stand-alone books that I would love to have more time in!

Amy and Nick were two really screwed up characters but even I didn't see the end of this book coming. While the story line was wrapped up nicely I am really really curious to see what life is like "after." I have no doubt that the mind-twisting shenanigans will continue.

It's not often that I would wish a horror novel had a sequel, but in the case of A Head Full of Ghosts I really want to know what happens to the sisters after the events in the book. Do the weird events in the book continue into their teen and adulthoods? Was it connected to the girls or to the house? These are questions I need answered!

The world created in The Night Circus was so beautiful that I didn't want to leave it. This book was as close to perfect as I could hope fantasy story like this to be and the story wrapped up nicely so it isn't that I felt there were loose ends that needed to be wrapped up. Honestly, I just don't want to leave!

I had so much fun reading Andy Cohen's memoir that I didn't want to stop. I really enjoyed hearing about the parties and award shows he attended and all of the crazy people he knows. He has a great sense of humor and he had me laughing out loud at the stories he told. I could handle a lot more of Cohen's writing. 

Here's another nonfiction book I wished never ended. Ronson tracks down and spends time with some of the craziest people in the world - conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, alien abductees - and shares their stories and reasoning behind their fanaticism. It was a fascinating look into what makes these people believe what they do and the lengths they'll to go to in order to "prove" that they're right. As scary as it is to know these people exist I couldn't get enough of this book.




Are there any books *you* wish had a sequel or a series you wished hadn't ended when it did?

*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Top Five Books Outside Our Comfort Zone

There aren't a whole lot of books I consider outside my comfort zone, but for this week Karli and I are choosing the five books that we haven't gotten around to because they're not our usual cup of tea.

Karli - I don't read westerns, but I love Mary Doria Russell.

Tanya - Normally I'm not a big YA reader, especially YA contemporaries. This, though, did such a brilliant job portraying depression, PTSD, and the difficulty in finding a way to navigate high school when struggling with untreated mental illness. 

Karli - A romance and historical fiction, which I usually hate.

Tanya - If someone handed me a book and said "This is a great book about magic and dragons in a make-believe world" I'd have passed. These books, however, are perfect for fans of historical fiction because they're loosely based on the War of the Roses. There's enough political intrigue to satisfy history buffs while slowly introducing the supernatural elements. I was surprised at how fast I whipped through this whole series.







Karli - This is on my "to read" pile but I usually find these kinds of books to be a slog.









*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*

Top Five Wednesday: Favorite Literary Fathers and Father Figures

Karli and I are going to be participating in a book reviewer tag called Top Five Wednesday. Each week we'll be naming our five favorite things in a variety of bookish categories. This week we're talking about our favorite literary fathers.



Karli - Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus has always been one of the most revered fathers in literature, but with the release of Go Set a Watchman there was much discussion on whether Atticus really was the idealized man that Scout hero worshiped. I believe that, regardless of whether he was the perfect man, he was clearly an amazing father to Scout and Jem and did his best to raise them to be good people at a time when it was difficult to really understand what was right and what was true.





Tanya - Mr. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Bennett surely seemed as though he was failing as a father according to the norms of the day, but he has always been one of my favorites.  He knew his daughter Elizabeth to be whip-smart and headstrong and, rather than try to change her, he encouraged her in her reading and independence. Rather than pressure her into a marraige in which she would undoubtendly be miserable he encouraged her to follow her heart. He defended her choices to others time and time again and his sarcastic wit makes me chuckle. When he gives Elizabeth his approval for her marriage at the end of the book? Tears. Every time.


Karli - A.J. Fickry from The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry

A.J. find himself raising a little girl who was abandoned in his bookshop. He raises her with love, compassion, and lots of books. Being a father makes A.J. a better man and bookseller, and he leaves a legacy of literary love for his daughter.

Tanya - Jean Valjean from Les Miserables

Speaking of men finding orphaned girls...

Jean credits finding his adopted daughter Collette as saving his life and teaching him how to live again. He devotes himself to Collette's care, ensuring he grows up safe, happy, and well-educated. He is so singly devoted to her that he is willing to sacrifice his own life in order to ensure that she can be with her true love, Marius.



Karli - Harold from A Little Life

Harold adopts Jude as an adult and rarely do we read such a moving, beautiful, fatherly love as what Harold holds for the damaged Jude. The love and acceptance Harold has for Jude is truly a work of art.

Honorable Mentions:

Lucas Davenport from Hanging Prey and the rest of the Prey series.
Arthur Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and others from the Harry Potter series.


*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from gingerreadslainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsonTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*