Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. Each Tuesday is assigned a topic. This weeks topic: Books with Handwriting on the cover (or fonts that are designed to look like handwriting)
My list includes mostly books I’ve read previously, but there are a few on my TBR.
Title: The Goldfinch
Author: Donna Tartt
Published: September 23, 2013
Genre: Literary Fiction
Synopsis:
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love – and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph – a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.
This one has been on my TBR for several years now. I had intended to read it a couple years ago, but then I ended up putting other books in front of it to read. Hopefully within the next year I can say that I’ve read it.
Title: The Notebook
Author: Nicolas Sparks
Published: October 1, 1996
Genre: Romance
Synopsis:
Rediscover the unforgettable, heart-wrenching romance set in post-World War II North Carolina, about a young socialite who can’t forget the boy who once stole her heart–now one of PBS’s Top 100 “Great American Reads.”
Every so often a love story so captures our hearts that it becomes more than a story-it becomes an experience to remember forever. The Notebook is such a book. It is a celebration of how passion can be ageless and timeless, a tale that moves us to laughter and tears and makes us believe in true love all over again…
At thirty-one, Noah Calhoun, back in coastal North Carolina after World War II, is haunted by images of the girl he lost more than a decade earlier. At twenty-nine, socialite Allie Nelson is about to marry a wealthy lawyer, but she cannot stop thinking about the boy who long ago stole her heart. Thus begins the story of a love so enduring and deep it can turn tragedy into triumph, and may even have the power to create a miracle…
Nicolas Sparks is one of my favourite romance authors. Every book I’ve read by him I have enjoyed. This book didn’t hit my radar until the movie came out. I was a teenager then. I ended up buying the book after watching the movie, much like I had done years prior with A Walk to Remember.
Title: The Outsider
Author: Stephen King
Published: May 22, 2018
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Synopsis:
An unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories.
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.
This one was a disturbing read, but like the blurb suggests is also one of those books that you can’t stop reading because you need to find out how the story progresses and who is responsible for this heinous crime if it’s not who they suspect and all the evidence points to. I’m probably going to add this one into my re-read list, it was that well written.
Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Published: September 16, 1987
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis:
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.
Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.
This one has been on my TBR for a long time as well. I will get to it eventually. I think books like this one are important to read, to understand what life was like, and wether things have really changed since then.
Title: White Oleander
Author: Janet Fitch
Published: July 1, 1999
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Synopsis:
Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes–each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned–becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.
This book made a top ten list a few weeks ago, and it made this list too. This one of my favourite coming of age stories.
Title: I Love You So Mochi
Author: Sarah Kuhn
Published: May 28, 2019
Genre: Contemporary Romance, YA
Synopsis:
Kimi Nakamura loves a good fashion statement.
She’s obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi bold outfits that make her and her friends feel like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother disapproves, and when they get into an explosive fight, Kimi’s entire future seems on the verge of falling apart. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life.
When she arrives in Japan, she’s met with a culture both familiar and completely foreign to her. She loses herself in the city’s outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival — and meets Akira, a cute aspiring med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. And what begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.
In I Love You So Mochi, author Sarah Kuhn has penned a delightfully sweet and irrepressibly funny novel that will make you squee at the cute, cringe at the awkward, and show that sometimes you have to lose yourself in something you love to find your Ultimate self.
I read this one a few years ago, it was a such a cute and wholesome coming of age story. If you enjoyed reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before you’ll like this one.
Title: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Author: Jenny Han
Published: April 15, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance, YA.
Synopsis:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed.
But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh.
As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.
Another great coming of age, romance series. I really enjoyed this one. I devoured the series during covid, when I was temporary laid off from work. It definitely helped during that time. If you’re looking for something easy and wholesome to read I’d consider this one.
Title: Picnic at Hanging Rock
Author: Joan Lindsay
Published: January 1, 1967
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis:
While Joan Lindsay’s haunting Australian classic Picnic at Hanging Rock is a work of fiction, the story is often considered one of Australia’s greatest mysteries.
In 1900, a class of young women from an exclusive private school go on an excursion to the isolated Hanging Rock, deep in the Australian bush. The excursion ends in tragedy when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish after climbing the rock. Only one girl returns, with no memory of what has become of the others…
This one was such an interesting read, that at some points left me confused. I remember having to re-read some parts just to make sure I understood what happened. I still really enjoyed this one.
Title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Published: July 2, 2002
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Horror
Synopsis:
“Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house….”
When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous.
But there’s another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.
Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is a can’t-miss classic that enthralls readers age 8 to 12 but also adults who enjoy a perfect smart spooky read.
This one has been a favourite for a long time, even as an adult I still enjoy the story.
Title: The Fate of Mercy Alban
Author: Wendy Webb
Published: February 5, 2013
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Synopsis:
Grace Alban has spent twenty years away from her childhood home, the stately Alban House, for reasons she would rather forget. But when her mother’s unexpected death brings Grace and her teen-age daughter home, she finds more haunting the halls and passageways of Alban House than her own personal demons.
Long-buried family secrets, a packet of old love letters and a lost manuscript plunge Grace into a decades-old mystery about a scandalous party at Alban House, when a world-famous author took his own life and Grace’s aunt disappeared without a trace. The night has been shrouded in secrecy by the powerful Alban family for all of these years, and Grace realizes her family secrets tangle and twist as darkly as the secret passages of Alban House. Her mother was intending to tell the truth about that night to a reporter on the very day she died – could it have been murder? Or was she a victim of the supposed Alban curse? With the help of the disarmingly kind–and attractive—Reverend Matthew Parker, Grace must uncover the truth about her home and its curse before she and her daughter become the next victims.
I’ve read quite a few of Wendy Webb’s books, but this one is my favourite of the ones I’ve read so far.
Thanks for reading!
What books would you have added to your list?
Were any of these on your lists too?
Leave a comment below and let me know!
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