Top Ten Tuesday

I’m posting something new to me today, well, for a change and I think it’s fun to do it since I always see the same on my feed every week from several blogs that I follow. The topics are interesting and I thought it would be nice to give it a try today on the last day of the year. So…

Homo sapiens, welcome to my first Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. and is currently being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s given topic is Favorite Books I Read in 2019.

I was able to finish 35 books this year and enjoyed most of them so it’s not very easy to choose the top 10. But here they are in no particular order.

1. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. This is a wonderful short novel with a great deal of depth. This is also my first Yoko Ogawa read.

2. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. This again proved what a great narrator Murakami is and as usual, very typical of him to leave the readers wondering with lots of unanswered questions.

3. Cain by Jose Saramago. This is Saramago’s last written work where he gets to argue with God one last time where he hires Cain to call out on God’s sins and mistakes. Cain is a laugh out loud funny little read but at the same time makes us chew on several profound moral questions about the nature of God and events in the Old Testament.

4. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. This is a complex read that tackles different themes: war, identity, history, friendship, communism, loyalty, etc. Definitely deserving of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

5. Animal Farm by George Orwell. I first read this when I was in high school and decided to give it a second read, I guess to get me back on my reading. This political satire has a simple but effective plot. George Orwell clearly understands power and its temptation and how people give in to it.

6. The Call of the Wild by Jack London. This is a story told in the point of view of a dog named Buck, a dog you can’t help but love. It’s a quick and interesting read from start to finish.

7. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. The book follows the story of Sunja and her family through four generations across Korea and Japan. It describes the experiences of Koreans during the Japanese occupation in Korea and the harsh discrimination they had to endure in Japan during that moment in history. This could be a great TV drama.

8. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. This is one great example of a book about life and love. Amazing read.

9. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Oh, my heart! This is a real tearjerker! What a book!

10. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This is a very sad story that left me thinking and reflect on a lot of things. And the ending broke my heart.

Have you read any of these books? Are any of these on your top ten favorite books in 2019?

Thanks a lot for reading and I’m looking forward to reading all your TTTs! Just drop a link on the comment section so I can check your posts.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!! 🙂

 

 

 

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My Top 5 Reads of 2015

I had a wonderful reading adventure in 2015 and I managed to read 55 books! And so today, in no particular order, I would like to share the top 5 most memorable, most entertaining, most touching and most awesome books I have read:

1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand 

This is the story of Louis Zamperini, a young and promising Olympic runner from Torrance, California and served as a bomber crew in the Pacific during the second World War.

As a bombardier, Louie was in-charge of locating the targets while in flight. He and his crewmates had terrifying experiences during their missions until one day, they had to fly in the crippled plane Green Hornet in order to save their friends. The plane went down in the Pacific and only three of them survived thus where the real story started.

What Louis went through as the plane went down in the Pacific and as a POW would have broken other people but not him. He remained “unbroken” to the very end.

This is an amazing story and very well-written. I highly, highly recommend it to everyone!

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I read this while I was vacationing in Vietnam and it was really the perfect time and place to read this book. It was recommended to me by one of my friends in Goodreads and bought it right away when I saw it in the bookstore. I’m not a big fan of fantasy novels but I definitely enjoyed this.

The Night Circus is about magic, love, desire & imagination. The main story is about two magicians, Marco & Celia, who were committed by their guardians to a mysterious competition designed to end in death.

The circus known as Le Cirque de Reves felt so real and alive, it makes you feel you are there in that magical world.

This is a real page-turner and yes, I definitely recommend it to everyone, old and young! 🙂

3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 

I think everyone knows the plot of this book already so I don’t have to bother describing and yes, it’s one of my top reads this year! I love Amy! Funny and smart bitch! Haha!

This is the kind of book that’s nearly impossible to put down. I enjoyed every page of it and surprisingly, I liked the movie, too! I’m no fan of movies based on books because I’m often disappointed in them (except for LOTR) but in the case of Gone Girl, it was okay.

So if you haven’t read this yet, read it. It’s twisted & disturbing but irresistible.

4. Stoner by John Williams

Stoner is a plain and realistic human drama. Nothing much happensin the story and it lacks that “excitement” most people look for in a book nowadays BUT it is so deep, significant, captivating, saddening & depressing as hell.

This is not a big, life-changing kind of book but it might be a good reminder to everyone that people are important and that your contribution to the world doesn’t have to be something huge, it just have to be relevant and meaningful.

5. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin 

I have only read two epic fantasy books, The Lord of the Rings (of course!) and this! I regret that I didn’t read this right away. This is just so awesome! The many different plots will keep you want to read more, not to mention the multiple POVs. George R.R. Martin was so adept in giving life to all the characters and for me, the direwolves are the coolest! 🙂

I’m quite surprised at how much I love this book, really! That feeling while you read this book is just different, I don’t know, like you’re transported to another world, excellently made world! I just love this book to pieces! A Clash of Kings? Yes, please.

Honorable mentions go to:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

How about you? What are your favorites this year? Any recommendations? I’d be glad to hear from you!

Happy new year homo sapiens!!!