Top Ten Tuesday: Books I HAD to Buy... But are Still Sitting on My Shelf Unread

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is fantastic: the top ten books I HAD to buy... but are still sitting on my shelf unread. I'm ashamed to say this week's TTT was much easier than it should be. Sometimes I think I'm a shameful book lover for casting aside books, but sometimes it's just an accident. Here are some that have been sitting, collecting dust for a while:

1. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I read and absolutely loved The Time Traveler's Wife, it's probably my favorite novel of all time. So of course, as soon as I knew Niffenegger had authored another book, I just had to have it. I read the first chapter or so, got bored and put it down. Since then I've only heard mediocre things about it so I haven't been incentivized to pick it back up again.

2. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

I still really want to read this one. Unfortunately because the copy I have is a beautiful hardbound version, it's huge! Since the book is so long, it makes it difficult to lug back and forth to and from school with me, so it's been collecting dust on my shelf at home.

3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Unfortunately 1Q84 met the same fate as 11/22/63 - it's just too big and long to be convenient to carry around so I haven't actually gotten to reading it yet. I think it may be a summer or winter vacation read.

4. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

I couldn't even tell you what The Tiger's Wife is even about anymore, it's been that long since I bought it. I think it was at the top of a bunch of awards lists and when I saw it I knew I had to read it to see what it was about. Whoops.

5. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

I read all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels in one big binge read over winter break a few years ago. Since then I've found it difficult to keep up with and get into the new books in the series that come out every year. I'm always forgetting what happened in the last book.

6. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

This was all over the internet last spring and summer. As soon as I bought it though, I pushed it to the side in favor of by the pool chick lit. Since then, it's kind of faded and I never hear anyone suggest it so it's been bumped way down on my to be read list.

7. Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple

Confession time! I adore this cover. I bought the book because of the cover. It helps that it was a bestseller too - but I'm not even really sure if it would be a book that I otherwise would have picked up. I still love picking it up and looking at it, even if it's making a nice decoration.

8. The Racketeer by John Grisham

This was another victim of my binge reading habits. When I finally got into John Grisham I binge-read a whole slew of his novels, ending with buying this one. Unfortunately, like all my binges, my interest in Grisham came to an abrupt end and I couldn't even think of reading it. I'll get to it someday I suppose.

9. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I'm the only one in the whole world that hasn't read this one right? I really have no excuse. I was so happy to buy my own copy because it was always checked out at the library. Then I realized how long it was... but unlike 11/22/63 and 1Q84, I even have it in an e-version. See? No excuse.

10.  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I think I felt like I had to buy this one because it's one of those books you're either supposed to read, or had to read for class. I still haven't made it to actually reading it, but it's another one I like to have sitting on my bookshelf so people think I read classier books than I really do. (I'm joking of course... mostly.)

Top Ten Tuesday: The Very Top of my TBR Pile

This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted as always, by The Broke and the Bookish), we're talking our top ten books on the top of our TBR list for Spring 2013. 

I know for many bloggers this will be a lot of books that are coming out this spring. I'm a little OCD with my TBR list though; I almost always have to read things in the order that I added them to my list. The only exception of course, is that series must be read in order and don't have to be read back-to-back. You'll see a number of repeats on here from last week's series to read list. I didn't really get the series phenomenon until I started blogging, but I can't seem to stop now. 

      

1. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon - Shadow of the Wind is really holding me up at the moment. While it's a sweet, interesting story, I'm just not getting into it the way some people have. Although I have heard that it has a fantastic ending, so that might change yet!

2. Dark Lover by J.R. Ward -  I know, I knowwww. This is going to take me forever, the series is crazy long! I'm hoping I love it so it can last forever.

3. Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

4. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

5. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

    

 

6. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

7. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

8. Requiem by Lauren Oliver - I know so many of you have already read this even though it was just released, but my OCD tendencies say it's gonna have to wait it's turn.

9. In the Woods Tana French - gotta mix it up with some adult contemporary fiction.

10. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare - reading for the series challenge, since I started reading The Mortal Instruments last year as part of my read the books being turned into movies crusade.

What are your top reads this spring?

Anything you think I should break my rules for and bump up?

Share your TTT or a link in the comments so I can scope out new recs!

Book Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Publisher's Description:

Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment. 

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. 

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

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Alright folks, you've heard this story before...

Scene: high school science classroom

Cast: awkward teenage high school girl, interested mostly in her academics and not in guys; confident, handsome, quiet but snarky guy (who looks like a teenager but is really hundreds of years old)

Plot: Hot, smart, bad boy is strangely attracted to awkward young shy girl. Shy girl resists, then can't deny the attraction between them and isn't sure if she can trust him at first...

No, we're not talking about Twilight... this is Hush, Hush folks. Instead of vampires we have angels and "fallen angels" and instead of Bella we have... Nora. Really we just have Bella again with another name. The really unfortunate part of the novel is that the supporting characters aren't even as good as the ones in Twilight (and that's saying something because I didn't even like Twilight).

Let's see, we have Vee - the extremely dense, hair twirling, lollypop sucking idiot of a best friend. Vee is shallow and self-centered. She's entirely expendable until the second she's used as collateral, and suddenly Nora can't live with the thought of anyone hurting them... what? Her mother is clueless and convienantly out of town all the time and the police never fill her in on what's going on. Twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum who are supposed to be the "villians" just seem like roid-rage meatheads, again, until the last second when -poof- one of them becomes pure evil. Hmm, okay, what?

The mythology is just so... off. It attempts (I think) to draw from the Bible, but is so inaccurate that I'm not entirely sure that the author isn't just making up her own crap. I know this series is popular online, but holy crap YA readers, get some standards. Expect your authors to make their own stories instead of stealing other's. (Not even good ones at that.)

Can we get over this whole guy-saving-the-girl-at-the-end-makes-up-for-him-sexually-harassing-her thing already? Sheesh.

Book Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Publisher's Summary:

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

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I had to give Beautiful Disaster 3 stars because (like so many other readers, it seems) I was torn between giving it 5 and giving it none. I had a real love-hate relationship with this book.

5 stars for: the chemistry, and the heartbreak, and the muscles, and the cursing, and the sex appeal, and a lead female who has to be tutor-ed instead of being the one doing the tutoring, and for it not being fantasy, and for it not being set in high school.

0 stars for: the entire second half of the book, for dramatic plot point after dramatic plot point that seem completely unnecessary and unrealistic, for dragging the book on way too long, for unnecessary fights, for the worst epilogue in the history of epilogues (straight cheese guys) for allowing men and women to think it's okay to be absolutely off their rocker cray when having sex and mostly to

PAIRING A GUY WHO SLEEPS WITH EVERY GIRL IN TOWN WITH A GIRL WHO IS A VIRGIN.

Because you know, OHEMGEE, women can't have sex or they're whores. Or "sorority bitches" as they're referred to in the book. (As a sorority bitch myself who would rather read than jump into bed with some muscle-y guy, why all the hate?)

The book kind of sucks from a literary perspective but major props to Jamie McGuire for writing a book where I hated most of the characters and yet I could not put it down. Not for a second. Not to walk from the elliptical to my car. Not to walk from my car to the house. I did nothing until I finished that book. So 5 stars for that.

Summary: Not a bad trashy read, grab it on the beach, don't get too invested or offended by the characters and enjoy the sexual tension.