Books I Enjoyed that are Out of my Comfort Zone
Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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.
I read too many contemporary books each year, if I’m being honest, but they’re my favorite and easiest to read! Anything that falls into a different category (maybe besides mysteries because I read many of those) tends to be out of my comfort zone. I’m going to include some books that are WAY out for various reasons.
Jackaby by Ritter | I don’t read a lot of paranormal books but one set in the wayyyy past with a female character written by a male? Nah. I read this series randomly with my book club and I really enjoyed it though!
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Bardugo | Yes, I love Bardugo, but I don’t like DC Comics all that much. I like Wonder Woman (the recent movie specifically) but I would usually not think about reading a book about her? I haven’t gotten into the rest of this series and I probably won’t, but this was good.
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare | I don’t read a lot of classics so this was definitely a random one. I needed to read a play or something for one of my reading challenges last year, so I picked this one. And yes, I didn’t understand any of it.
Murder on the Orient Express by Christie | I do like mysteries but I really don’t read a lot of older books. Like I mentioned, classics tend to not be my thing. However, I really enjoyed this one! I enjoyed AND THEN THERE WERE NONE back in high school so thought I should try another famous Christie novel before seeing the movie.
The Goose Girl by Hale | I tried to not fill this list with plain old fantasy books because I DO read a handful of those each year. However, middle grade fantasy (and again, this is an older book) is something I hadn’t read since Harry Potter. I’ve since enjoyed the TYME series, which is also middle grade fantasy.
The Diviners by Bray | I loved Bray’s Gemma Doyle series, of course, but a paranormal mystery series set in the 1920s involves a lot of things that are usually not my cup of tea. It’s the kind of book I’d add to my TBR and not read for years. And yes, that’s exactly what happened here. It took me years and years to finally read it and I LOVED IT.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by McNamara | I love true crime – especially in podcast form or on YouTube – but I don’t read much nonfiction. I also prefer to read fictional mysteries if I’m going to read anything spooky. However, I knew I needed to read this one. Michell McNamara passed away far too soon and her work about the Golden State Killer was unparalleled. Highly recommend the audiobook for this one, as it feels more like a true crime podcast if that’s your jam like me.
Agatha Christie is one I’d love to read! I’m glad you enjoyed her novel!
Jackaby does sound like an intriguing read.
My TTT.
The Diviners is unfortunately taking up space on my TBR for many of the reasons you mentioned, and now I feel bad. xD I’ve seen a couple of people reading it recently, and I need to grab a copy and get on it, because a lot of people seem to really enjoy it!
I don’t tend to read a lot of true crime, but I love the podcasts, like you mentioned, and YouTube channels. I’ll have to check out the audiobook for that, then! I’m not sure I could get through reading a whole true crime book anymore, but I do so love listening to that sort of thing, so I’ll give it a go.
I have yet to read a Libba Bray book and to think I own the Gemma Doyle trilogy and the first book in The Diviners Series and they’ve been on standby in my TBR for years now.