5 Books I Read From Recommendations

(Top Ten Tuesdays is a fantastic meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Check it out here. Mine are shortened to 5 because I can only 4/10 times find the time to do 10 books, but the sentiment is the same.)

Top Five:
Books I Read By Recommendation

I can't believe I missed last week's Top Ten Tuesday on villains! Villains are one of my favourite aspects of literature. Anyway, here's 10 books I read by recommendation. I don't get recommended books often - I have an unusual taste in books - so I've done my best.

1. The Lie Tree
by Frances Hardinge

I was recommended The Lie Tree by a friend on Twitter a year ago (so don't ask me who; my memory only extends to five minutes ago) and bought it a few weeks after and have stared at it every day since, excited af to read it. That's right, the first book on this "Books I Read" list, I haven't even read. Go me! But seriously though, it's not often that I'm recommended a book that I'm genuinely interested in and excited to read. A year on and I still look at it on my shelf anticipating the time when I will finally read it.

2. Red Queen
by Victoria Aveyard

Now for one that I have actually read. I had Red Queen forced upon me by my best friend late last year after I bought it her for her Christmas present, then I had Glass Sword forced upon me when that came out earlier this year, and currently Cruel Crown is sitting on my bookshelf saying "Hey! You! Read me! Hi! Can you hear me? Over here! Stop god damn ignoring me!". I did enjoy these books however I was much more into the banter we had over Cal, Maven and Kilorn afterwards than the books themselves.

3. The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

I need to clarify something first: I wasn't recommended this, I stole it off someone's bookshelf. I swear it was an accident though! I stayed at my uncle's in Edinburgh last weekend and happened to notice this, a marvelous book that has been said to change lives, sitting unassumingly on his bookshelf, and decided to read it over the weekend. Then didn't finish it and forgot to take it out of my bag. I will get it back to him, I swear. As a review though, I didn't see as much in this book as people proclaim. A lot of the "lessons" it teaches resonated a lot with what I believe, which was really refreshing for me, but I don't think I actually learned anything new from it. I reckon it's just one of those books that you have to read and see what it does for you though. Astoundingly magical for its simplicity.

4. Half Bad
by Sally Green

By far the best book I have ever been recommended. Also my favourite modern novel. Like shit I love this. I've never resonated so much with a book in my life. I know I liked Half Bad for different reasons to most fans, and, like All The Bright Places, I thus feel unqualified to review it. But. Just please. It's so good.

5. The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey

I have to say, I expected better from my friend's girlfriend. I really didn't like this book. I mean, you're in a world where most people are dead and the rest are going to kill you, and all you can do is dream about that boy you had a petty high school crush on? That's the definition of an unrelatable and hatable character. Nu thanks. I know lots of people loved it. But no. Thank you. Goodnight.


Abi Ainley

10 Books I'm Reading This Autumn

(Top Ten Tuesday is a fantastic meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Check it out here.)

This is dedicated to all Esperanza Spalding fans out there. If you're not one become one. This girl's damn amazing.

Autumn is now upon us and that means - let me just go turn off that Spalding song, it's distracting me - that means that it's time to pick out some badass books to read over the next couple of months. (It also means it's Halloween in a month's time, but that's irrelevant) I've picked this list based on books I have out of the library that I want to read, books to read for the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) I'm doing at college, and books that I reckon'll have an autumnal feel. I'd fill it full of Halloween-ish books but I'm doing a list of those in October.
Must. Restrain. Oneself.

1. Lost Stars
by Lisa Selin Davis

Lost Stars comes out on 6th October in the UK, an all-day event on my Google Calendar complete with notification. The main character's a female astrophysics nerd suffering from grief after the death of her sister. The cliché of astrophysics being romantisized gets to me, but I can't complain about a female physics nerd of any description. I also love the idea of her getting caught up in teenage revelry and having to recover her love for physics. Yes, I am aware that this book is about a girl bringing herself back up after a traumatic ordeal, but, yanno, physics. All in all I'm really looking forward to this and plan on rushing down to Waterstones in my first free period to buy it.

2. Resistance is Futile
by Jenny T. Colgan

Hey look: another female nerd! This time it's maths, which pleases me greatly. Is maths not the most beautiful and romantic subject ever to be conceived of? I promise this is my last nerd romance of the season. I'm so excited though. I have it next to me on my windowsill as I write. This is gonna be great.

3. The Anchoress
by Robyn Cadwallader

I got The Anchoress out of the library to satisfy an interest in historic religion. "Sarah is only seventeen when she chooses to become and anchoress, a holy woman shut away in a small cell at the side of the village church, renouncing the world with all its risks, desires and temptations, to pursue a life of the mind and soul." Straight from the book's booty! I don't think I'd have picked this up had I not read The Lords of The North by Bernard Cornwell just before, which sparked a bit of an interest in historic religious philosophies and ideals for me. I love getting inside of a mind that I don't understand though, and not being a Christian myself, I'm super excited to find out why someone would do this. I'm also excited to find out actually what this "danger" is that the blurb mysteriously speaks of. Honestly, I have no clue what to expect from Cadwallader here.

4. Sonic Wonderland
by Trevor Cox

I read about half of a library copy of Sonic Wonderland earlier this year but I had to take it back because I was spending too long fan-girling over acoustics and not enough time actually reading the book, but THIS IS THE DAY/MONTH/SEASON! This Autumn guys, I will finish Sonic Wonderland. And will stop feeling so guilty for putting on my Uni application that I read it when, in fact, I only read half of it.

5. Skin
by Ilka Tampke

There's seems to be a bit of confusion on Goodreads about Skin, with the cover I own being under a misspelling of Tampke's name, and the actual listing having a second title, "Daughter of Avalon", under the editions section. Anyway, a spiritual, historic romance about a girl named Ailia in Iron-Age Britain and some guy named Taliesin (one of my favourite names), described as "enigmatic" (my ultimate buzz-word when it comes to books). Sounds good!

6. The White Queen
by Philippa Gregory

Leant to me by a friend of mine because I'm doing an enrichment course on Tudor Women, which includes Elizabeth Woodville. I'm not a huge fan of political history personally, just fricken love Elizabeth Tudor, which is why I chose the course, but I'm hoping this'll get me excited about the political aspect. The said friend is pretty obsessed with the woman and the Wars of the Roses, so I'm trying my best!

7. Trigger Warning
by Neil Gaiman

I. Am. The biggest lover of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. I can't believe it's taken me this long to put Trigger Warning on my seasonal TBR; I bought it when it came out! I'm also completely overdue reading "A View From the Cheap Seats", his recent non-fiction book, a collection of essays. I'm ashamed of myself haha.

Books 8-10 I'd like to leave bare. I don't get through the 15 or whatever books that a lot of people do per month, so this is my leeway ;).


Abi Ainley