Hey bookworms, how is it already mid-2024?! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme, “Books I Had Very Strong Emotions About, ” inspired me in a weird way. I might be dating myself here a bit but, for some reason, when thinking about these books the first thought that popped into my mind was the line “Nobody makes me bleed my own blood” from the movie Dodgeball. So I’m committing to the bitđ. Here’s a list of books that made me feel my own feelings (how dare they!?)
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Donât forget to check out her post and link up!
Before we start, just a small disclaimer that if I hate a book other readers love itâs not a personal judgement of them. We all look for different things in books when we read and I have no patience for shaming people for their reading preferences.
7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Author: Stuart Turton
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
How I Feel About The Book: This book grabbed me in a chokehold and inspired me to take loads of notes to try to solve the mystery, which I never do! I tend to just float along for the ride during mysteries, but this one perfectly scratched my brain. Immediately after I finished the book at midnight, my husband and I had a lively debate about the ethical implications of the ending! Good times.
Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived
Author: Ralph Helfer
Genre: “Nonfiction”, “Memoir”
How I Feel About The Book: This book rocked my world. Twice. In very different ways. I read this as a child and I was utterly enchanted by it. I fell in love with the elephant and the boy, Bram. The book markets itself as being a true story so when I started looking into the “true story” years later, I found out that there’s no evidence for most of it, except that there was once an elephant called Modoc. đ Heartbroken, I learned that just because a book says “True Story” doesn’t necessarily make it so.
The Final Empire
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
How I Feel About The Book: I’ve always loved fantasy but this book and whole series opened the door to adult fantasy. It was the first time my brain was blown by what fantasy can truly do. I wish I could forget it to re-read it again afresh!
The Iliad
Author: Homer
Genre: Classic, Poetry, Mythology
How I Feel About The Book: This 1960s translation of the Iliad is the exact one I have and it’s deeply frustrating. I love Greek Mythology and I desperately want to love this OG retelling but I’m not an academic and this translation was so dry and monotone; practically just a list of names. I am dying to try Emily Wilson‘s translation because I’m hoping it’ll breathe some life into it for me đ¤
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Horror
How I Feel About The Book: If you had asked Teenage Me who my favourite author was I would have said: “Neil Gaiman”. Ocean was the first time I was disappointed by Gaiman and I realized his books, for me, are either love them or hate them. This one confused me and repulsed me. That scene with the foot and the worm? NO THANK YOU!
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Author: Neil MacGregor
Genre: Nonfiction, History, Art
How I Feel About The Book: I was recommended this book by a professor during my Masters and I read it in small bursts over a summer. Since I don’t typically gravitate towards nonfic books for fun, I was stunned by how much I ended up loving it. I want to find more nonfic with this format: short snappy chapters that focus on a different thing but together tell a story.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author: Garth Stein
Genre: Fiction
How I Feel About The Book: There’s something about books that give animals a human conscience that makes me feel sick to my stomach and they typically don’t do well with me. I had the same issue with Fifteen Dogs. Let the animals be innocent, they don’t need to experience humanity’s cruelty and self-destructive tendencies more vividly than they already do. I don’t get all the reviews that say this book is heartwarming.
Camp Damascus
Author: Chuck Tingle
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Fantasy
How I Feel About The Book: Me? Loving a Horror? Who is she? And a horror written by a meme-tastic erotica author to boot! I fully was not expecting the amount of joy and satisfaction I got from this book. The writing, the messaging, the themes: everything hit just right for me and this book makes me want to try other horror books, especially queer ones
Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism
How I Feel About The Book: This is the only book I’m ever going to read by this author because the way his writing treats women leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. There is simply no better way to describe my experience other than it gave me the ick. If it wasn’t for a book club I would have dnf’d it.
Anxious People
Author: Frederik Backman
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
How I Feel About The Book: This book was way outside my comfort zone but I am so delighted that I tried something new and it paid off! I laughed, I cried, and I had such a positive reading experience that I think about it a lot!
I hope you enjoyed perusing through the “books that made me bleed my own blood”, aka made me feel my own feelings (and thanks for indulging my silliness).đ
Let’s chat in the comments!
Did you participate in this week’s TTT? If so, feel free to share your link below. Have you read any of these and do you agree or disagree with my takes?
Great list, I loved reading your thoughts on all of these books. Even if I somehow haven’t read any of them đ The Evelyn Hardcastle book has been on my tbr forever so hearing how much it drew you in is fantastic.
It must have been so frustrating to hear that a story which you’d been enchanted by turned out to be much less true than you were led to believe. It’s quite frustrating that they throw a mixture of true and false into some ‘true stories’. I really don’t understand some of the shows that do it to ‘add drama’ either as I don’t think a lot of them need it.
I somehow haven’t read anything by Brandon Sanderson đ I have so many of his books on my TBR though. I’ll have to try and pick one to try and get out of the library at some point this year. I’ve only read Coraline by Neil Gaiman and wasn’t a fan of it. But I did see the movie first so I don’t know if that’s partially to blame. The fact that I also couldn’t get into the adaptation of American Gods has made me a bit wary about picking up his books. But I do eventually want to try some of them as he’s so popular. Although I feel like I’ve seen the love/hate sentiment that you’ve expressed mentioned before too.
I’d love to read some of the original Greek myths too but I think I’ll avoid Homers based on what you’ve said. Also your experience with Sputnik Sweetheart sounds awful.
Ooh I’ve heard lots of good things about Anxious People although like you it’s way outside my comfort zone. I’ve seen mostly positive things about a lot of the authors books and loved A Man Called Otto as a movie so I really want to try one of their books out sometime. Im leaning towards starting with Beartown I think but Anxious People is one of the others on my TBR.
I’m so glad you enjoyed my post and I hope that if you ever read Evelyn Hardcastle you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!
It was so disheartening because I vividly remember just believing it 100% and it’s the first time my little naĂŻve view of the world got questioned as silly as it sounds lol & I agree that sometimes adding extra ‘drama’ either because oftentimes the story as is, is great in the first place.
Yes I feel like I’ve seen many people say that his books fall on either end of the spectrum for them too so maybe it’s a common opinion and that makes sense given how utterly prolific he is! The Coraline movie disturbs me so much that I don’t even want to try the book.đ As for Brando Sando, the best thing I can suggest is to try a standalone by him if you’re not looking to fall into a long series. Warbreaker, Elantris, and the novella The Emperor’s Soul are nice places to start to get a feel of his writing in smaller doses.
I find that it can be very hard to read a lot of ancient works just due to the language if we’re not used to but I am not quite ready to give up yet, thank goodness for lots of people translating so that we can perhaps try ones that might be a better fit but I don’t blame you at all for just not wanting to bother honestly LOL!!
I don’t gravitate towards contemporary so that’s what I mean by outside of my comfort zone but I’m so happy it paid off this time. Beartown is loved by so many people too so that might be good to try if it’s calling your name đ hahha
Thank you. I think I’ll try and get to it sometime before the end of the year as it’s ridiculous that I haven’t done so yet.
Aww I understand that. The first time something shakes up your view of the world it is disheartening and hard to wrap your head around.
Yes I guess that does make sense. It’s rather frustrating when you start with the wrong books though đ which of his are your favourites? Yeah the movie was pretty disturbing. The book felt like a completely different story tbh. Or I’m really misremembering it. Thanks for the tip, I’ll look into those ones and see what intrigues me most. Although I don’t particularly mind starting with a series either. I liked the sound of a few of the ‘secret project’ ones that came out last year too but avoided them as they seemed set in established worlds đđ
I don’t think I’ve tried anything truly ancient but I’ve had that experience with some classics in the past. Mostly back when I was at school đ I really need to look into what options are out there tbh. But I have loads on my tbr plus I’m quite enjoying experiencing some of the retellings without knowing too much as well. I saw a collection of Greek myths that looked really pretty once but I have no idea what it was like inside. I’ve heard good things about Stephen Frys Greek books too but I don’t know exactly what stories they cover.
I don’t generally either. Although I used to a lot. I keep finding too many fascinating sounding fantasy books though đ
If you do get to it sometime soon I’d be so curious to know your thoughts.
haha yeah I understand lol, my favourite Gaiman books are Neverwhere and Stardust and I actually really liked American Gods and Anansi Boys.
As for The Secret Projects I’ve only read Tress of the Emerald sea and you don’t really need any extra knowledge of the wider world, I really enjoyed it but it’s a very different style than his other books I found, so it might not give you the same vibe but it’s worth reading.
Someone else in the comments suggested Stephen Fry’s Mythos too! It seems it retells the myths and history of various gods like an overview from what I see but I’m also unsure.
haha I can relate, fantasy is my primary genre so It’s tough for me to want to read outside of that, though I have been trying more lately. đ
I’ll let you know how I find it whenever I pick it up.
Ooh I forgot about Neverwhere but I think that was the one that intrigued me most. And although I couldn’t get into American Gods as a show I wouldn’t necessarily avoid the book as you cant always tell with an adaptation. If I enjoy some others I may still check it out.
That’s the one that first caught my eye. It sounds so good. I looked up your recommendations and they both sound so good. I was leaning towards Warbreaker based on the blurbs then I read the first few lines of Elantris with Amazons First Look option and it instantly hooked me. I’ll add them to my list to try and get out of the library sometime.
I know they seem fairly popular so I’m not entirely surprised. I should really add them to my own the one day đ
I do want to try and branch out more but I have so much on my physical TBR that I never seem to get to it though.
Yeah it’s hard to know with adaptations for sure and I thought they did a lot of things differently in the TV show that I didn’t necessarily appreciate, I only watched s1 đ¤ˇââď¸
Elantris was fun so if it hooked you already that’s a good sign haha đ & I totally understand about keeping up with your own TBR is already hard enough only to add “venturing into something new” to the list?! It’s an argument I have with myself every day lol
I think I only saw an episode or so đ but it could have just been the approach they took to it. Lots of adaptations change a lot.
It’s just impossible trying to fit everything in. I’m sure I’ll get my tbr under control eventually though đđ and sometimes mixing things up can help to be fair.
Yes that’s a very good point, sometimes changing the status quo is a nice change of pace đ
I felt the same as you about Mistborn and Ocean at the End of the Lane. I love Gaiman’s books and so I was keen to pick this one up but welp, it was a nope for me. đ I can’t wait to give Anxious People a try. I still haven’t read anything by Backman but have heard great things about his title. For some reason, this is the one I look forward to the most, lol. Great list!
Yesss, just polar opposite reactions. It was like “I can’t read this fast enough” and then “get it away from my eyeballs!” lol
I’d be curious to see what you think about Anxious People, it’s definitely one I recommend a lot. Thanks đ !!
Definitely agree on Backman. I’ve yet to read something by him that wasn’t touching. Have you considered Stephen Fry’s version of The Illiad? Not a translation, obviously, more ofa retelling. I have the audiobook of Mythos and enjoy listening to him from time to time though I’ve yet to finish it. I keep relistening to certain stories and never sticking with it to the end! The objects history sounds like it’d be something I’d enjoy.
I’ll read other Backman works at some point for sure! And no I had never considered that mostly because I didn’t realize it…is that Troy? Or I have Mythos on my tbr but anyways yeah I didn’t quite put 2 and 2 together but that’s a great option too! Thanks đ & Yes I feel like you would appreciate the objects one based on other stuff I’ve seen on your blog!
Wow, thatâs disappointing about Modoc. Thereâs no need to make up stuff and pass it off as nonfiction. Our world is full of incredible stories that have really happened!
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday.
I know right!! Supposedly the author rescued Modoc from being mistreated by a circus or animal shows and that’s how he learned the story about the Elephant but it all sounds so farfetched now that it just bothers me because if he really rescued the elephant he could have written something different not a ‘Memoir’ about someone else’s life, I don’t know! Anyways… let me go check out your post đ !
The final empire, Yes, the plot twist at the end still leaves me thinking, I love that saga bc of the number of characters it has, the unique magic and that many unexpected things happen. If they suffer, you suffer with them
I agree 100%, you suffer with them but you’re happy about it because at least you get to be with the characters haha. The end of the series really left me reeling!
I still need to read Anxious People! I also need to read Brandon Sanderson for the first time as well.
Oh yes I definitely would recommend both of those & I hope you enjoy them if you do!
I had the same reaction to that one scene in The Ocean at the End of the Lane!
yesss! & the fact that it’s the ONE THING I remember from it all these years later says a lot đ!
Great list! I appreciate the heads up, because all I need to hear is “foot and worm” to know that I do not want to read that Gaiman book. But the one about history of the world in 100 objects sounds absolutely fascinating! I’ve found that I really like nonfiction books that read like fiction.
Truly, save your eyeballs!đ haha but I do recommend A History of the World in 100 objects, it doesn’t exactly read like fiction, which is also my fav type of nonfic, but it has short and very engaging chapters, it’s set up perfectly to read a bit here to learn something new everyday rather than in huge chunks! & Thank you đ
I loved Anxious People! But I’m so sorry to hear the inspiring True Story wasn’t true!
Yes Anxious People⼠& haha yeah i’m still so salty about it after all these years! lol
Thank you for sharing your honest thoughts about the books that moved you the most.
I’ve always been a reader (starting at age two) but I focused mostly on fiction. Then I discovered authors, like, I presume, the author of 100 Objects, who write nonfiction like fiction, like they are telling a story, not simply listing facts. Now I probably read more nonfiction than fiction.
Thank you for coming to visit my site đ That’s fabulous that you’ve been reading from a young age, I also started young though maybe not as early as 2, wow! Seems like you’ve found the best of both worlds, nonfiction with a nice narrative style! If you have any suggestions of those types of books especially in the realm of History I’d be open to checking those out! đ
I agree on the Gaiman book đđ
Mistborn had me rolling my eyes so hard though
If you want an amazing true story about zoo animals – Father of Lions had me in tears, you can even go to the peoples Facebook pages and just see where they disappeared during the occupation! Really amazing stuff about the animals too and what they did to keep them alive and then get them out
haha thank you I am getting a lot of people agreeing with me about the Gaiman book and it makes me feel a lot better lmao
& I do want an amazing true story about animals!! Thank you for the rec, it sounds heart-wrenching but beautiful đ
I am shocked someone might be bored by the catalogue of ships and other such things. Fingers crossed a newer translation works for you
Anyway, very much enjoyed reading that.
Haha and also the list of every single person who is fighting on each side and their ancestors đ BUT I am not ready to give up quite yet! Thank you đ & I’m glad you enjoyed it!
So many of my blogger friends rave about Fredrik Backman but I have yet to try anything by him. Like you, I feel like his books are outside of my comfort zone so I’ve been hesitant to go there. Maybe I need to change that.
Yeah, I would say that his writing is so great it’s worth a shot. I picked Anxious People because I heard it was funny and I did really enjoy the humour in it. But for example his Beartown trilogy doesn’t appeal to me because of the themes even though it’s so popular. If you do try him I hope you enjoy the book you select đ !
I love this! It’s been so long since I’ve seen Dodgeball. haha. It’s such a great quote. Mistborn is amazing. I loved the first book and own the series… but yet to finish. lol Backman is one of my favorite authors!! He’s got such a talent for making you go through so many emotions in one read!
I literally haven’t even seen it in years but for some reason it popped into my head and I decided to go with the theme lmao. Glad you at least were entertained by it đ Oh, the second and third books of Mistborn get even better I hope you love them too! I’ve only read one book by him but I was so impressed with it and I agree that he’s incredibly talented đ