Top Ten Tuesday - My Favorite Love Stories

If you've been around long, you don't that I'm not a reader of the genre of books known as romance. But that's not to say that I don't enjoy a great love story. Here are ten of my favorites: 

1. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - one of the few books that has ever made me truly sob. Classic tale of two disparate people coming together to fall in love but so, so very different from any other love story I've ever read. 

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - two teenage misfits find each other...in Omaha. Yep, that personal touch makes this one even more appealing but it's the characters and the recollection of young love that makes this one special. And the mystery of those three words. 

3. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - you couldn't find two more different characters but you can't help but hope that Don will allow himself to fall in love. 

4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - Claire and Henry remain true to each other despite Henry's inability to stay in time. He is there and then he's gone as he moves in and out of Claire's life and in time throughout his own life. 

5. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - proving that there is someone out there for everyone and that that someone might just save you. 

6. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - maybe not one you'd usually see on a love story list, but I loved watching Tony try to win over Ellis and then almost losing her to another man who she could equally love. 

7. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - the story of a love that almost was and then was found again. 

8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - yes, I know this one is really problematic but I still love it. 

9 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - so many love stories in this one; I'm always torn by which character I love more. 

10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - my all time favorite romance and book. The ultimate story of two people who grow to love and appreciate each other. 

Top Ten Tuesday...Wednesday - Backlist Books I Want To Read

This week That Artsy Reader Girl (a.k.a. Jana) has asked us to make a list of ten backlist titles we want to read. Let’s be honest, my actual list is about 900 books. But here are ten by authors whose work I’ve enjoyed and want to read more of, in no particular order:

1. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett

2. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

3. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

4. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

5. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

6. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

7. Affinity by Sarah Waters

8. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

9. Orpheus: Fifty New Myths by Kate Bernheimer

10. The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Have you read any of these? Which do you think I should move to the top of my reading list?

Top Ten Tuesday - The Longest Books I've Ever Read

For this week's Top Ten Tuesday, Jana (That Artsy Reader Girl) is asking us to list the longest books we've ever read. I'll be honest, in the past nine years, since I started blogging, I've sort of shied away from long books. Long books mean you might not have any books to review for two or three weeks. Even when I'm in a blogging or reading rut, I generally don't go that long without a review. But I've managed to read quite a few long books in my lifetime. Now if I can just remember which ones...

Oh yeah, I've read:

1. Under The Dome by Stephen King - 1088 pages

2. The Stand by Stephen King - 1472 pages

3. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - 912 pages

4. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell - 983 pages

5. Chesapeake by James Michener - 1024 pages

6. Space by James Michener - 808 pages

7. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow - 904 pages

8. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb - 897 pages

9. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - 882 pages

10. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - 850 pages

Well, that was easier than I thought (thanks, Goodreads, for letting me sort books by page count!). Turns out I've read quite a lot of books over 700 pages long. I've been such a reading fiend of late (and hence will have a lot of reviews up through the end of the year), I think I'm going to pick something big for December. Maybe Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, which has been languishing on my shelves for some years because it's scary big. Or Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and The White which is sort of titled to match the colors of the season? I'm loving this idea and the possibilities!

Top Ten Tuesday - Books By My Favorite Authors I Still Haven't Read

Well, there you go, the list that could go on and on. So many authors I love; so many books they've written that I haven't read yet! Here are just a few of the books I'm hoping to get to sooner rather than later!

1. Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks
2. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
3. Wintering by Peter Geye
4. Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
5. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
6. How To Be Famous by Caitlin Moran
7. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
8. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
9. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
10. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

What books would you put on your list? 

Top Ten Tuesday - Fall TBR

This week Jana, of That Artsy Reader Girl, is asking us to make a list of our books we're hoping to read this fall. My fall TBR is a monster list of books (for me) and I will be stunned if I actually get to them all; but a girl can dream. I have so many books I already wanted to read that I am skipping out on my annual Fall Feasting reading. My category of why I'm reading them, here is my list:

Book Club:

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
The Wangs Versus The World by Jade Chang

R.I.P. *:

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfeld
The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

TLC Book Tours:

When The Men Were Gone by Marjorie Herrera Lewis
Apollo To The Moon (also counts toward Nonfiction November) - National Geographic

Netgalley Reviews:

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher
The Library Book by Susan Orleans
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Spark of Light by Jodi Piccoult
Heirs of the Founders (also counts toward Nonfiction November) by H. W. Brands

Nonfiction November:

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
How To Be A Bawse by Lilly Singh
Charles Dickens In Love by Robert Garnett

Yep, that's more than ten. But there are just too many books I want to read soon to limit myself to ten!

*If I’m really reading like a fiend, I’d also like to squeeze in Dracula.

Top Ten Tuesday: Hidden Gems

This week, Jana of That Artsy Reader Girl, is asking us to share some hidden gems, books that haven't been talked about as much as we think they deserve to be. As soon as I began thinking about this list, I knew I needed to go back to my early days of blogging when I wasn't as aware of the "big" books and I certainly wasn't being given them by publishers. I read some great books in those years.

1. The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish by Elise Blackwell - my review of this book was mostly quotes, there were so many lovely passages. Blackwell's writing was just beautiful but the story was incredible as well.

2. Only Milo by Barry Smith - this one was unique to me in 2009 and it still stands as a solid piece of dark comedy. It was a book I never would have picked up if I hadn't been so early into blogging and more willing to accept books that were out of my comfort zone.

3.  The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter - more dark humor, which was, apparently, a thing I was into in 2009. I even reported that I had giggled while I read this story of a man who fell into such financial straits that he turned to drug dealing.

4. The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa - sweet and charming and utterly original. I adored the relationship between the characters and Ogawa found a way to make math interesting to me, something no teacher has ever managed.

5. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli - Soli puts so much into this book, the beauty of Vietnam, the relationships between all of the players during the Vietnam War, love stories, and she does it beautifully.

6. Safe From The Sea by Peter Geye - when I wrote my review of this book, the one word that kept popping into my head was "brilliant." It's a book about the relationship between a man and his father that I would recommend to men and women alike.

7. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller - Fuller's mother lived a live worth writing a biography about so that's just what Fuller did. Nicola Fuller had a chimpanzee for a best friend growing up, for goodness sake. But Africa is the real star of this book that made me both laugh and cry.

8. The Birth House by Ami McKay - the book I always recommend for book clubs. McKay created marvelous characters in a book that centered around childbirth that pits the old ways against the new and shows women finding their voices.

9. The Absolutist by John Boyne - Boyne's writing is often brilliant and the story unlike anything I've read before as it looks at courage versus cowardice on the battlefield and off. I listened to this one and it's one of those books I can't help but feel was enhanced by the narrator.

10. Last Night At The Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert - a beautifully written story about the relationship between a mother and daughter, chasing dreams, and family.

Every one of these books is a book I'd happily read again. All of them, except those that were checked out from the library, are still on my bookshelves waiting for that day. I'd let you borrow them but, even though the chance of me actually getting around to rereading a book is slim, I'm afraid I couldn't trust you to return them. Just in case.

Top Ten Tuesday - Back To School

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is Back To School. It's a freebie which means we can interpret the prompt any way we want (The Artsy Reader, for example, feature books with school supplies on the cover). I'm choosing to highlight books with schools as a central setting. Some I've read, some I haven't yet but their all brought to mind this time of year.

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl - I never read this one until I had kids. The movie adaptation is wonderful.
2. The Secret History by Donna Tartt - College kids gone wild accidentally kill a stranger. And that's only one of the ways these young people are not the nicest people.
3. Carrie by Stephen King - Maybe this one's so popular because so many of us would have loved to have had the telekinetic powers to get our revenge on the people who made high school tough.
4. Harry Potter - Nearly the entire seven-book series is set on the grounds of a school. I'm certain that real school looks pretty dull to the fans of these books!
5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brody by Muriel Sparks - Six young girls are marked as being special by a teacher who continues to educate them long after they've left her classroom but is she using them as much as she's helping them?
6. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon - An aging teacher with writer's block chances upon a student with real talent. It's Chabon, so you know it's great writing.
7. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - A young girl enrolls as a scholarship student at a prestigious private school. You can already see where this one's going, can't you?
8. Daddy Longlegs by Jean Webster - When a trustee of an orphanage sponsors a young lady's college education, she strikes up a penpal relationship with the man she knows only as "Daddy Longlegs." So sweet!
9. Villette by Charlotte Bronte - A young English woman with no family to care for her, travels to France to find work as an English teacher. Bronte could have used a better editor but it's still a lovely coming-of-age story.
10. Election by Tom Perrota - A popular jock is convinced to run for student body president by a teacher hoping to stop an overachiever from winning that title. But you can't stop Tracy Flick. This movie adaptation is one of my faves - not the least of which because it is set in Omaha. But also, Reese Witherspoon is amazing in it.

Top Ten Tuesdays - Books To Pull You Out Of A Slump

This week’s prompt for Top Ten Tuesdays asks us to recommend ten books that will help you get out of a reading slump. At first I figured this one would be a piece of cake. But then I realized that what grabs me in a book isn’t necessarily what will grab you. For example, I raced through Lincoln In The Bardo and while this one was a big hit, I know that some folks really couldn’t get into it. Are you not reading right now because you’re feeling down? Well then I wouldn’t recommend Me Before You, although that’s another book I recommend to everyone but it will give you the ugly cries even if life is going great. Do you usually read fiction? Maybe it’s time to throw in a little non-fiction to shake things up. Or maybe it’s a good time to let someone else read to you for a while and audiobooks are the way to go. You see my problem with recommending books?

So I can only recommend to you what has worked for me, books that made me want to keep reading regardless of the subject matter or writing style. Many of them aren’t even among my favorite books of the year - they didn’t have to be great books, just the right book at the right time.

1. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller – a memoir of life in post-colonial Africa that is filled with warmth and humor despite an often grim life.

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters – scary in that eerie way that makes your skin crawl. This one’s coming out as a movie shortly but I’m not sure I can handle it on the big screen.

3. Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman – I read this one in one sitting which is rare for me. It was definitely the right book at the right time. It’s got a love story, family drama, and a woman trying to find herself all told in a very comforting way.

4. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron – nobody did funny like Nora and I could relate to so many of the stories. But it is also incredibly sad; I cried as I drove listening to it.

5. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell – young love, the pain of trying to find your place, angst, family dysfunction, and Rowell’s incredible humor and insight.

6. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson – I cried I was laughing so hard. Lawson has an incredible talent for making tough times funny. I'll definitely read it again sometime.

7. The Martian by Andy Weir – science fiction made funny. I loved the idea of someone being able to survive on his own wits.

8. The Breakdown by B. A. Paris – here’s one you won’t find on my top ten list. It’s not great writing but good enough that I couldn’t put it down after about the half way point.

9. Any of the Hamish MacBeth books by M. C. Beaton – M. C. Beaton writes what I like to call dark cozy mysteries. In this series, I’m smitten with Hamish and adore the cast of characters in his tiny village of Lochdubh.

10, The Changeling by Victor LaValle – this one is WAY out of my comfort zone and I would highly recommend you look at the publisher’s summary before you pick it up. BUT…I was completely sucked in by the story; evidently what I really needed at the time I read this was something that was entirely different from my usual fare.

Top Ten Tuesday - Books That Lived Up To The Hype

I have a confession to make: until I started blogging, I'm note sure I was very aware of book "hype." Oh, maybe The DaVinci Code, Stephen King's books, or Bridget Jones' Diary were buzzed about sufficiently that I really took notice. [A second confession: I read The DaVinci Code and even though I knew the writing wasn't great and didn't buy the supposed facts, I still enjoyed the ride]. But it wasn't until I started blogging that the buzz really got loud and really had an impact on my reading. When it did, not all of the books were new; many were older books that people just kept telling me I needed to read. So my list includes book from all of those categories. In no particular order, here are ten books that I really felt lived up to the hype:

1. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - still one of my all-time favorite books.
2. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson - everyone was reading Lawson's blog and everyone was reading her first book. And, by God, they were right; it is every bit as hilarious and bizarre as billed.
3. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - this was one of the first books I read with my book club and it was such a favorite of our leader that she was making the club read it for a second time. To this day, I think of those girls growing up in Africa.
4. Bridget Jones' Diary - I liked this book so much when I read it that I was one of the people furious that the filmmakers chose an American actress to play Bridget in the movie adaptation. But that didn't stop me from watching it again and again. Because I adore Bridget!
5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - I had serious doubts about this one but it felt like one I wanted to be able to talk about with people. So I made my book club read it. I'll admit to getting a little bored when the action moved to Las Vegas; but, otherwise, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. And by how many others in the club did, too.
6. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - so, so beautifully written and such a lovely story. It's short but, if you haven't read it, don't plan to race through it. It deserves to be savored.
7. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - I got an ARC of this book but it really didn't sound like my kind of book so I gave it away. Then everyone started talking about it. So I ended up paying for it. And it was worth every penny.
8. The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - yes, yes, I thought, Didion is a genius. But this is a book about death and grief. I did not want to read a book about someone's husband dying. But the library had it on CD once when I needed a book to listen to so I caved and picked it up. And I cried and cried while I listened to it. And then I bought a print copy. I may never read it again but I needed to know I could if I wanted to. Or needed to.
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - I don't generally do dystopian books. I mean, why do writer's always paint such a bleak picture of the future? But a readalong convinced me to finally pick this one up. It was one of the scariest books I've ever read, partly because so much of what Atwood predicted had already come true. It's even more relevant today.
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - I'd read Semple's first book and I didn't much care for it at all. So the buzz had to get really loud for this one before I finally broke down and read it. I couldn't believe this book was by the same author. I love the story, the unique style of the writing, and found myself relating so much to this book. 

What books would you put on this list?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday - Best Books I've Read In 2018 (so far!)

After eight years, The Broke and The Bookish (the blog that has hosted Top Ten Tuesdays) has shut down. Fortunately for those of us who love our lists, Top Ten Tuesdays will still be carried on by one of TBTB's contributors, Jana of The Artsy Reader Girl. This week Jana's asking us to share our favorite books so far this year. This one's easy for me since I keep a running list on my favorites page. So far in 2018, this is what's grabbed me the most:

1. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 
2. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
3. Circe by Madeline Miller 
4. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 
5. The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash 
6. A Short Guide To A Happy Life by Anna Quindlen 
7. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 
8. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
9. Heading Out To Wonderful by Robert Goolrick 
10. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

While I've really enjoyed all ten of these, at least one of them is coming off the top ten list as soon as I finish Macbeth by Jo Nesbo, baring a complete disaster of an ending. Given that it's a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, I'm not anticipating anything too unexpected!

Top Ten Tuesday - Thanksgiving Edition

This week is a Thanksgiving freebie, thanks to the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish. For me, that means a list of ten things I'm thankful for, a list that is only complicated by the fact that it's tough to narrow the list down to just ten things.

1. Family, of course. You all know how much I love my family - my kids, The Big Guy, my parents, my siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles, the whole growing crew.

2. Seeing my son so happy with his future wife. They really are perfect for each other.

3. How engaged my kids are in the world. They read, they listen, they get involved.

4. That I still have both of my parents. They are the bedrock of our family and while it is getting tougher for them physically, mentally they are both still alert and vital. I never forget that at my age, I'm very lucky.

5. Living in a country where I have a voice I'm allowed to use.

6. Peace and quiet when I can get it. I don't get a lot of it around my house because I live with two people that need constant noise and entertainment so when I get it, I bask in it. It's the best way for me to recharge.

7. Books and music which are so often refuges from the craziness of the world and the stuff going on in my head.

8. Champagne. C'mon. Is there any other drink that's sole purpose is to make people happy?

9. These cats we've inherited. They really are better medicine than anything the doctor could prescribe.

10. Inside jokes. Because they always remind me of fun times with people I enjoy. And because they always make me laugh.

What are you thankful for?

Top Ten Tuesday - My Ten Favorite Movies That Make Me Cry

This week the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish have given us a movie freebie to make a list of whatever movie category we want to make. I've may have mentioned, once or twice, that books rarely make me cry, no matter how attached to the characters I've become. I may become a bit emotional, but tears aren't often a part of that.

Movies are a whole other thing. And, let's be honest, televisions shows and even commercials can have the same effect on me. Births, deaths, goodbyes - all teary moments for me. I blame my mom. Perhaps "blame" is not the right word. Because I'm not embarrassed by it; I own it proudly. Here, in no particular order, are ten movies that have made me cry. I'm only including here movies I've watched more than once that made me cry more than once. And two that made me so profoundly sad that I couldn't even cry.

1. Beaches - Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey. Best friends who care more deeply for each other than any man ever will. It makes me cry every. single. time.

2. Life Is Beautiful - World War II. A father who will go to any lengths to protect his son physically and from reality. A father who gives in own life to that end.

3. Stepmom - Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts. If you're a mom, this one is tough on so many levels. But filled with love and laughter and a great dance scene. Sad without even including death.

4. Steel Magnolias - Julia Roberts again, this time as a daughter and a young mother. It made me cry before I became a mother myself. It makes me cry even harder now that I can truly understand what Sally Field's character is going through.

5. The Notebook - I know, I know, it's Nicholas Sparks and it's manipulative but I can't help myself. Don't we all long for such a deep love?

6. Glory - Denzel, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes. The Civil War and one of the first black regiments. Spoiler alert - they literally all die at the end of this movie. Gah!

7. Sophie's Choice - Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline. If that choice Sophie has to make doesn't break you (and it does me, every time), the ending will.

8. Last of the Mohicans - Daniel Day Lewis. It's not the stars that make me cry in this one. It's poor Uncas and Alice. And that score. Maybe the best score in all of moviedom.

9. Legends of the Fall - Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn, Anthony Hopkins, Julia Ormond. A beautifully shot movie about war, love, and family that is almost unceasingly sad.

10. My Life - Nicole Kidman, Michael Keaton. The. Saddest. Movie. Ever. Especially if you are a parent or have lost someone you love to cancer, it will be hard to watch as Keaton's character battles cancer.

And those two that are so hard to watch that I can't even cry?

*Hotel Rwanda - The true story of a man fighting to save lives during the Rwandan genocide. The whole movie is a tough watch but the point which really breaks me is a drive down in bumpy road in the fog. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

*Schindler's List - When we saw this in the theater, it was several minutes after the credits ended before anyone got out of their seats. When they did, no one made a sound. The immensity of man's inhumanity is gut wrenching. The willingness to risk everything to fight that is incredible.

What movies make you cry every time you watch them?

Top Ten Tuesdays - Ten Books I've Added To My TBR Lately

This week's prompt, from the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish, is a list of ten books I've added to my TBR list lately. Easy peasy, thanks to Litsy. Maybe too easy. It might be helpful when trying to imagine that someday I'll be able to read all of the books I want to read if I stopped adding books to that list faster than I can read them!

1. Provenance by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo - nonfiction about art fraud. Money, art, rich people getting taken.

2. Before the Feast by Sasa Stanisic - old stories, myths, and fairy tales have escaped from a village archive and are wandering among the people. Sounds odd, and quirky and foreign.

3. The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts by Laura Tillman - two parents kill their three small and in the aftermath the city wrestles with tearing down the building it happened in. Is there such a thing as an evil building?

4. Shrill by Lindy West - because it's seriously time to be reading some feminist work.

5. Evicted by Matthew Desmond - nonfiction book about poverty in America, specifically in Milwaukee, a city we've only recently discovered.

6. Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay - in 1900, a class of young women go on an excursion deep in the Australian bush. Four girls and a teacher disappear. Mysteriousness!

7. Adnan's Story by Rabia Chaudry - the story of Adnan Syed whose murder conviction was the basis for the first season of the podcast Serial.

8. Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell - drama about a family who "took the twentieth century by storm."

9. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren - just one of the books about women and science that I've added to the TBR list in the past couple of months.


10. The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore - the battle to light the streets of our cities. The birth of electricity in our lives is seriously interesting stuff anyway you look at it.

Top Ten All-Time Favorite Non-Fiction

The ladies at Top Ten Tuesday have asked us this week to make a list of our top ten all-time favorite books of any particular genre. I've been thinking about a list of non-fiction favorites for a while so this one is easy-peasy (as my sister would say)! In no particular order:

1. Empress Of All Russia: Catherine The Great by Iris Noble - this is the first non-fiction book I ever remember reading for pleasure. I must have been eight or ten? Why did I love it so much? 40+ years later I remember being enthralled by the story of a woman who ruled a country.

2. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller - adventure, family, humor, history, Africa. I loved Fuller's account of her family's time as British colonists.

3. Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn - I loved the story of Flinn's school but most of all I loved the kick in the butt to make things from scratch, to use what you already have, and to be creative. This one lives with my cookbooks.

4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - I have never read  a book about science that so pulled me in. Skloot did such a great job of blending the story of this one woman, the family she left behind, the ethics of medical research, and the actual science. I would read it again.

5. This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett - where I discovered non-fiction essays and loved them. I love Patchett's writing and her honesty and humor in these stories about her life where wonderful.

6. Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kiernan - opened my eyes to life in prison for a woman, which is saying something considering both of my parents-in-law and sister-in-law all spent some time working in the Nebraska women's penitentiary. It's very disheartening..

7. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi - horrifying murders, incredible stories of the people involved, the workings of the criminal and judicial systems. Started me on a whole new sub-genre.

8. Eleni by Nicholas Gage - opened my eyes to the tragedies of wars in other parts of the world and the terrible toll they take, before I'd ever read a book about World War II.

9.  In The Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White - leprosy. In the United States. Recently. I had no idea. White opens eyes as he writes about his life was changed when he was imprisoned in a building that also housed lepers.

10.  I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron - because Nora Ephron is always funny, but it turns out her own stories can also make me ugly cry. In my car. I loved it so much, I plan to pick it up in print one day so I can keep a copy.

Now that I've finished, I feel that I've made this list before. I wonder if I can find it and see what's changed on it. What would you have on your list?

Top Ten Books Set In The U.S. Midwest

This week the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish challenged us to pick a setting and then chose our ten favorite books from that setting. I had a hard time narrowing this one down - the American South? Africa? New York City? I toyed with the idea of an island theme but would have had to leave England off because it would have overwhelmed the list and since I just had to do that recently, I didn't want to do it again. So I started looking at my books read on Goodreads and got to thinking that maybe books set in the U.S. Midwest don't get enough love.

In no particular order, here are actually eleven of my favorite books set in the U.S. Midwest:

1. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather - or any Cather for that matter; they're all great and so beautifully paint this part of the country as the pioneers settled in the Plains.

2. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick - dark, oh so dark. The isolation of rural turn-of-the-last-century Wisconsin and the decadence of big city Chicago all wrapped up in one novel. Plus, great characters and lots of surprises.

3. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - Rowell's books all have a Midwest setting and she brilliantly portrays the people I'm surrounded by everyday and the cities I've lived in. This one is my favorite.

4. Some Luck by Jane Smiley - This one's the first of a trilogy I'm still on the fence about but I definitely appreciated Smiley's grasp of this part of the country and its people - the beauty and the minutiae of everyday life.

5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - in the 1950's, unless you lived in a city, you felt safe enough in your own home to leave the doors unlocked at night. Until one night two men changed all of that. Capote, who was most definitely not a Midwesterner, buried himself in the story and really captured the feelings of the people most closely impacted.

6. The Man Who Ate The 747 by Ben Sherwood - quirky and fun and heartfelt and utterly unique.

7. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett - this was my second book by Patchett (following on the heels of Bel Canto). So unexpected different and such a nice surprise to find an appreciation for small town middle America.

8. The Round House by Louise Erdrich - you could, of course, include all of Erdrich's books here. She shines a light on a place and people that the rest of the country is all to ready to turn their backs on. Erdrich makes readers remember those whose ancestors were here first.

9. Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert - Rotert is a local writer who set this book in Chicago. She catches that balance between big city life and midwest values.

10. The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert - Schaffert understands small town Nebraska, the good, the bad, and the hopeful.

11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - twisty, dark, terrible people. Not everyone in the Midwest is midwest nice. Although, Amy is a New Yorker.

I'd include all of Kent Haruf's books except they're set in the plains of Colorado and I don't really consider any part of Colorado as midwestern. Likewise, I consider Mark Twain's books, although set in Missouri, to be more Southern than midwestern.

If I'd included children's books, of course you'd also see the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder and L. Frank Baum on this list.

Book Riot has put together a list of 100 Must-Read Books of the American Midwest you might like to check out if you'd like to learn more. Not all of the books they have included are set in the Midwest so I wouldn't have included them on my list. But there are a lot there that I need to get to someday.

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Books I've Read Set Outside the US

I missed this theme a couple of weeks ago but thought it was too good a topic to pass up. I love books that take me to places I've never been. Like Katherine of I Wished I Lived In A Library, I'm going to exclude England because I could fill the list just from there (I mean, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dickens).

1. Italy - Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
2. Kenya - Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
3. Russia - City of Thieves by David Benioff
4. Jamaica - The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
5. Bangladesh - A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
6. Germany - City of Women by David Gillham
7. Canada - The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay
8. India - The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
9. Chili - Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 1
10. Ireland - Faithful Place by Tara French 1
11. Iran - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
12. Afghanistan - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
13. Greece - Eleni by Nicholas Gage
14. Vietnam - The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
15. Sierra Leone - A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

 Oops - got a little carried away there! I could easily keep adding new countries - I've read so many great books from all over the world. This is a good reminder to keep looking for books set outside of the U.S. and England! Do you have a favorite country to read about?