Non-Contemporary Books I Loved but Never Talk About
Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review.
Everyone knows that contemporary fiction – usually YA but often adult – is my JAM. Over half of my reading each year is within that genre. I love romance and swoons and summertime and fluff. That’s what I think of when I’m imagining my perfect books. Because of my love for contemporary, I am usually screaming about my favorites on the blog quite a bit. So today, I’ll be skewing the topic of “Ten Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven’t Talked About Enough” to just be the…
Yep, today is all about anything that isn’t really contemporary fiction. Some of my other bookish interests are below, along with a couple of books I loved under each category. I’m kind of pushing my definition of “non-contemporary” here (because quite a few are essentially contemporary, but have elements of something else). Please also keep in mind that I did try to restrict it to the books that I don’t personally feel like I talk about enough. Everyone knows how much I love the Lunar Chronicles by now, so I didn’t feel like it was doing the topic justice to include that in the retelling category. ANYWAYS HERE WE GO…
We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson /// To be fair, I read this book a little while ago and the review was just posted yesterday. I haven’t really given myself a chance to flail about it yet, but it is soooo worth the flails. It was one of my favorite books from this year and earned five stars. It has elements of sci-fi, so that’s why the “ish” was added in the header up there. It’s more contemporary than anything, but I’m allowed to cheat on my TTT okay.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner /// I haven’t talked about this one in a long time. It was a Book Buddies read with Cristina and we both enjoyed it! I still haven’t continued the series yet for some reason, but I definitely will acquire the paperbacks now that they’re all about to be in that form. And, the covers are beautiful too.
Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke /// Another “oldie” but goodie. It’s kind of a Cinderella retelling and again, there’s a gorgeous cover. It mostly reads like a contemporary but I loved the nods to the original story. It also offers a super honest look at depression that I honestly haven’t seen in a lot of books. It was hard to be in Imogen’s head sometimes, but it was worth it in the end for sure.
The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (& here) /// Pretty Little Liars is a series that means a lot to me for a lot of reasons. However, I don’t give enough credit to Shepard’s other long series I enjoyed! I binged these books via audio and ebook a while back on Scribd (RIP when Scribd was all unlimited). I could absolutely not stop reading them. They had the same suspense as PLL but there was a really different twist on it, which was refreshing.
Silver trilogy by Kerstin Gier /// I’m reading Ruby Red this month for Book Buddies and am really excited to begin Gier’s other series! I’ve loved both books in the Silver trilogy so far (book two is releasing in April; review to come) and feel like it’s underrated in general. There are so many cool dream elements to these stories. I think a lot of people would enjoy this series if they gave it a shot!
The Art of Wishing duo by Lindsay Ribar (& here) /// Another very underrated book series, in my opinion. I read the two books back-to-back one weekend while Chris was at work and they were SO fun! I haven’t read any other genie stories yet but these set the bar fairly high. The ending of the first book made my mouth drop open and I think everything about this duo was well done.
One Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington /// This is a great, underrated parallel life book that takes place in my favorite city – Boston. I remember finding this book right before I started blogging; it was one of the first books to make it onto my Goodreads TBR as a pre-pub! I finally got around to reading it a handful of months later and just was really impressed. The ending absolutely shocked me but I love how everything turned out. Just crazy.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket /// I am soooo jazzed up for the Netflix show based on this series! I actually didn’t mind the movie either… But anyways, I don’t often talk about childhood favorites on the blog so this was a nice reminder to show this series some love. I have the first four or five in audiobook form, so I plan to reread maybe before the show comes out.
The BFG by Roald Dahl /// One of my all-time favorite books from childhood, and definitely my favorite by Roald Dahl. I think I’ve reread this one back when I was a kid (which is surprising because I NEVER used to reread!) and am absolutely due to pick it up again as an adult. There’s a movie coming out for this one too, so you know I’ll be getting to it by then!
I just got Damsel Distressed last week and can’t wait to get to it. I also added We Are the Ants after your review 🙂 Great list!
Yay! I hope you love them both 🙂
Great list! I’ve got Dream A Little Dream on my shelf and I can’t wait for the upcoming BFG adaptation!
Yay! I hope you get to Dream a Little Dream soon. and I can’t wait either for the BFG!
I read Damsel Distressed and I loved it! It was so different from what I was expecting, but in a great way. Great list.
Yes, same here!
I love that you included childhood favorites, Lemony Snicket was a probably the the only author I read for a solid year in elementary school. Although i don’t think I ever looked at it again since then so I’m pretty excited for the show too!
I feel like childhood favorites never get as much love as they should! I just started rereading A Series of Unfortunate Events yesterday actually 😉
I love the cover of One Past Midnight. I may have to check it out. Great list and thanks for sharing.
Thank you! 🙂
I added Damsel Distressed to my list. I’m intrigued by a Cinderella retelling that deals with depression. I LOVE the BFG. I tried to read it with my son last year, but he was too young. I need to try again especially since they’re making it into a movie.
Yess definitely try again! I loved it when I was younger.
Damsel Distressed was a really great book- I was very impressed!
I still need to read These Broken Stars, I have all three books!! I don’t know what I’m waiting for! The Art of Wishing sounded adorable, I checked it out from the library once but couldn’t read it in time. I’ve actually never read any Lemony Snicket! But I love Roald Dahl; I can’t remember if I’ve read The BFG. Loved Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory though, and the tales of Henry Sugar!
I need to get going on the rest haha I’ve heard such great things and those covers are toooo good.
The BFG is definitely my favorite of his! I need to read more too. And Lemony Snicket was classic when I was younger – I was eight when the first one came out, so it was perfect 🙂
I’ve been hovering over We Are the Ants for days and you’ve convinced me to click ‘ Add to Basket.’
Yay! Hope you enjoy it 🙂
“Damsel Distressed” – you had me at Cinderella retelling 🙂 My TTT
Hope you enjoy!
I need to check out One Past Midnight. It sounds right up my alley!
It was SO GOOD and really underrated!
I haven’t read any of these books yet but I certainly have a lot of them on my to-read shelf!! I need to start reading faster if I’m ever going to read ALL THE BOOKS haha! Great list 🙂
Haha no kidding! We all can relate to that.
I was so pleasantly surprised when I opened up my Facebook account one day and found a trailer for The BFG! I haven’t read it in ages, but I remember loving it as a kid. I can’t wait to see the movie!
I know, I can’t wait too!!