Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Jamie's Top Ten Books That Came Recommended

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists! Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists.
Jamie here (you might also know me as Jamie from The Perpetual Page-Turner). This week I'm talking about all those books I probably wouldn't have read had it not been for the prodding of some other bookish people. So, here's my top ten books I'm glad people recommended to me because I would have for sure skipped over them/not have known they existed/judged based on the cover alone.

1. Anna and the French Kiss -- I refused to read this one based on the cover. I snubbed my nose despite all the rave reviews I saw. And then Steph Su and I were perusing my local indie and she told me how much I had to read it and that I would totally love it. And then the amazing Jen from Makeshift Bookmark and I traded books and she sent it to me!! So I finally read it...and OMG. I cannot believe I almost passed this one up. Turned out being one of my fave YA books of all time. So cute and awesome!

2. Raw Blue by Kirsty Eager -- This is YA book that was so unique and unfortunately hasn't been published in the US yet. I loved it because it was more mature than most YA and the MCs were older than your typical YA characters -- the female was 18 and the male was 26. It was just such a great book..I'm thankful that Linds started an informal blog tour for it!

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- This is one of my alllll time favorite books. Some random person recommended it to me in a bookstore and I wish I could find that person and bake them a cake and hug them. I love people (like me) who aren't afraid to recommend books to people. Haha.

4. Franny and Zooey -- I loved Catcher in the Rye in high school but that was the extent of my Salinger reading. I met a guy in college who ended up being a good friend of mine and he told me that I must read this when he found out we had similar reading tastes. I ended up loving it. It was one of those books I just needed to read at the moment. I think of this friend every time I see this on my shelf and miss our friendship!

5. Crank -- I had heard of this book but never had any desire to read it. My hairdresser was RAVING about it so I decided to pick it up...LOVE LOVE LOVED it. It was my first novel in verse as well. I recommend this to a lot of teens and readers of YA now.

6. The Hunger Games -- Somebody in the Goodreads College Students recommended this to me. They were all raving about it and picked it as a group read...so as the good moderator that I am...I read it. One of my favorites and I would have never picked it up.

7. Twilight --- Ok, ok, ok. Hear me out. I was recommended this by EVERYONE in the College Students group on Goodreads. Seriously. They were all yelling at me for not reading it. So I caved. And I liked it. I did. And it was my gateway into YA...I would have NEVER EVER even given YA a chance before that.

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society -- The gals over at the Chicks On Lit group on Goodreads recommended this one to me. It was FABULOUS. I would have never picked this up. I hadn't even heard of it and when I read the back of it I still wasn't convinced I would like it. I was so glad they pushed me to read it.

9. Just Listen -- I had never read Sarah Dessen until my sister recommended her books to me. I loooved this book and look forward to reading more of her books!

10. If I Stay -- I'm so glad that the whole blogosphere (or so it seems) raved about this one. I had seen it and saw the blurb on it that said "for fans of Twilight" and looked past it. This book is nothing like Twilight. There are no vampires or creatures lurking about. This book was AMAZING and I'm glad I gave it a chance once I realized what it was ACTUALLY about.



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38 comments:

  1. Really glad to hear Anna and the French Kiss was good, I'm a bit iffy on it but will dive right into it now! What's funny was Twilight was kind of my ticket into YA too. But what really got me into it was the Hunger Games. :)

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  2. Just Listen is one of my favorite Dessens -- and I loooooove Dessen. I highly recommend This Lullaby and The Truth About Forever as well!

    Also, the "For fans of Twilight" on If I Stay pisses me off. Honestly, you can't slap that label on every YA book in a thinly veiled attempt to TRICK readers. GRRRR.

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  3. I will check some of the books on your list. Who knows I might find a new favorite. Twilight was also my introduction to YA. :)
    Great list,
    Erika @ Let's talk about books

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  4. Franny and Zooey is a great college read. Nice list!

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  5. I also have Anna and Twilight on my list.

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  6. Fun list! I've read quite a few of these (several on others recommendations) and quite a few others are on my list!

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  7. Glad to hear you liked Anna and the French kiss too. I was given a copy of it but I haven't gotten to read it yet, i'll def move it up in the pile!

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  8. Ohhhh Franny and Zooey, such a good read!

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  9. Okay, I've gotta give Hunger Games a try once and for all.

    Great list! Here's mine:

    http://desktopretreat.blogspot.com/2011/05/books-im-glad-were-recommended-to-me.html

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  10. Honestly, it's all the amazing book recommendations that makes me love the book blogging world! Thank you to all of you who share your great reads with us.

    Here's my gratitude list: Top Ten Books I'm Happy Were Recommended to Me. I hope you will stop by!

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  11. Interesting- other than Twilight and Hunger Games, I haven't read any of the books on your list. Anna and the French Kiss has definitely been recommended to me before, and I'm working on getting a copy of it. The other books on your list sound excellent as well- I need to give If I Stay a shot!

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  12. I haven't written my list but Twilight, the Guernsey book, and Just Listen would all be on my list too. Anna and the French Kiss is one of my favorites. Great list!

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  13. The Hunger Games was recommended to me too and I read it a little reluctantly at firs. Reminded me of too many other things. Glad I did as it became one of my favourite YA series.

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  14. The Guernsey book is on my list too! I would have never picked it up if it weren't for my friend's recommendations. Great list, Jamie!

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  15. I think Twilight might be on everyone's list. It's on mine for sure! Nice recommendations though. I'll have to check some out. Thanks!

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  16. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is on my list as well. Love that a random person recommended it to you! I'd trust a recommendation from a bookstore-er (employee or customer) over some other just random book suggestion

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  17. I agree with you about Twilight. I wouldn't have read it without the recommendation and I really liked it. I also probably wouldn't have looked at other YA novels if not for Twilight.

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  18. I'm realizing that I don't think many of my favorites were recommended to me, per se. I knew they were popular and/or I knew that someone I knew had liked it, but no one ever said "YOU NEED TO READ THIS NOWWWW." Huh.

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  19. I hadn't thought of The Hunger Games & Guernsey, but both fall into this category for me too! Thanks for reminding me of those two great reads, and thanks for this topic: I truly enjoyed writing about it!

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  20. I liked your recommendations. I read Twilight and liked it too. I read it with my daughters, sisters and sister-in-laws. For the release of the first movie we had a big Twilight party that was just a ton of fun! I like YA too.

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  21. Love The Hunger Games too.I didn't read it for the longest time because I thought it was about eating disorders. Seriously!

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  22. Giiiiirl do not even defend Twilight. OWN IT.

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  23. I love The Guernsey book...didn't make my list because I found it for myself (which is rare for a more recent book).

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  24. I have GLPPPS on my list too as the ladies on ReadItSwapIt raved about it.

    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a recent book gorup read and I probably wouldn't have read it without them.

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  25. I really enjoyed 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society' as well, and ditto - I don't think I would have picked it up had it not been recommended to me. You're doing much better with your recommendations that I am though. Of the 10 I've listed today, I haven't read any of them!!!

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  26. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is on my list as well. I read the GUERNSEY book and LOVED it to pieces. Can't remember how I heard about it...

    I posted my list today on my blog as well. I continue to love this weekly meme.

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  27. Great list! Harry Potter got bumped from my list, but if it was a Top 15, HP and Twilight would proudly be on it.

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  28. The blogosphere turned me on to The Hunger Games. I would not have even known who to credit with that one.

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  29. All of these books are absolutely excellent choices! And I feel the same about Twilight, lol.

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  30. I just added myself to your link widget!

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  31. Great thought-provoking topic this week! I left links for two lists - one for books for kids & teens and one for grown-up books!

    Sue

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  32. I have seen "Anna and the French Kiss" on SO many different people's lists.. I'm going to have to check it out now! LOL!

    I've posted mine, as well as a few that I recommend most often! :)
    http://wp.me/pAblM-dB

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  33. Great topic! I've always seen other people doing this meme, but haven't participated myself until now, just because I couldn't resist the topic. Glad I jumped in- that was fun!

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  34. I've read Twilight, mean to read the Hunger Games trilogy, but that's the extent of my knowledge of your list. I'll have to check out the rest.

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  35. PS I am a new follower! Your blog comes highly recommended among your peers! Good job.

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  36. This was a fun one! Just posted my 10 :)

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  37. I agree with The Hunger Games and If I Stay! So many people raved about them, I had to see for myself!

    I'm new here...
    http://blondein2ways.blogspot.com/

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  38. Just did this as a Rewind :) (though I didn't know how the links work so I think I posted my blog somewhere else by accident... thought this was a universal top 10 tuesday list.. sorry!)

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