To Read, or Not Read? That is the Question {A Top Ten Tuesday Post}

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they provide a Top Ten topic for you to create your list, then you share it on their post so others can find you. :)

  ♥ Top Ten Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read... For Whatever Reason ♥

Obviously my TBR list is lengthy, just as yours. I add a book and forget about it - why it's there, why it appealed to me in the first place. Unless, of course, it's by an author I really like(d) or has had LOTS of buzz. I came up with a few for this list on my own, but then I ventured over to Goodreads to see my list of books to-read. I tried to choose books that I remember putting on there, rather than the miscellaneous ones I thought "I don't even remember your cover, your title."  :) That being said... 

Anything New by Lauren Oliver

I want to read this one, but I'm scared I'll not like it. :(

Hate that statement. I *loved* the Delirium series... even the last one. But I've also read Before I Fall & Panic, and I didn't love either of those. In fact, I barely liked Panic at all. I only finished it because it was Lauren Oliver and I was expecting it to be/get better.

Anything New-ish by Jodi Picoult

This is one of my favorites of hers.

Guilt. That's what I feel over this one. I fell in love with Jodi's books many moons ago, and devoured them. I couldn't WAIT to get my hands on them. And I still want to own them all. Maybe one day I will read them again. I think the problem may be that they started getting so incredibly heavy and full of such controversial subjects that I just bogged down in them. I still think she's an awesome author, I just stopped wanting to be in her stories. I've read them all up to House Rules, I think. I think that's where I stopped, anyway. ;)

Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

I, like hordes of others, LOVED Harry Potter. There's a few authors I would read anything they write - even it were a take on the alphabet or a phone book - but this one? It's on my shelf. I might read it. I don't know. I've heard so many things about it. I don't expect it to be anything like HP... I don't know what to even expect. 

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

I think 13 Reasons Why is one of the best books ever. But I've heard some negative reviews about this one, so, while it sits on my shelf collecting dust, I have yet to make a decision about whether or not to read it.

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

I read The Mortal Instrument Series before it became more than three books. And that felt like a solid ending, really. So do I want to go on? I own this one, so it's definitely a possibility. And I really like Cassandra Clare's writing/storytelling. But I think I would have to re-read or refresh my memory on what happened in the first three.

Flutter by Gina Linko

I won this book in a giveaway a while back. I just haven't "felt" it any time I've picked it up as an option. 

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

This has been on my Kindle for ages. I love the concept, I just can't get into it (and I've tried a few times). Do I need to get past a certain point? That could be the issue. I don't know.

Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

This sounds promising and has great reviews, so why am I wary? I have no clue.

 

 The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Malissa loved this one so I should be all over it. It sits on my shelf, waiting to be read, but I just don't know.

The Selection by Kiera Cass

I have an ARC of this one that I got off the YA Book Exchange. While I think I like the premise, I don't know if I want to read it, despite good reviews.

So... convince me. Do I read these? Or do I let them go? 

Smiles,
B

 

The 5th Wave: A Review by Malissa

 

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

I loved this book! Not surprising, really, because I've loved Rick Yancey's writing in the past. And if anyone else had come out with a alien apocalypse book with dystopian elements right now, I would have probably said no thanks. But this author is just good and doesn't disappoint. I should have reviewed this book right after I finished it (I've sucked at that lately ...) because I always forget what I wanted to say. Let's see if I can remember any of it ...

Things I especially liked:

The characters are quite believable and sympathetic. You really find yourself pulling for them despite perspectives changing at many times throughout the book. Sometimes I find that I don't connect completely with a specific character when we're constant changing perspectives, but that wasn't the case here at all. And the narration is spot on and quite entertaining.

The plot development. I liked that we find out how the world got to the point it's at slowly as opposed to being thrown all the details in the beginning. It helps develop the characters in a believable way while advancing the plot. 

The romance. Yes, there is one. But it's not a huge part of the story and actually adds to the character development. And no love triangle (thank goodness) at least so far. 

The twists. OK they're not really that shocking, but I don't think they're supposed to be. Because before something is truly revealed we get plenty of foreshadowing about it. Yet it's done in a way that, like the actual characters, you keep refusing to believe it until you have no choice. It's like nooooo X, Y or Z can't be true .... but you kinda know it is.

There's honestly not really anything I didn't like about the book short of it's a series, and I have to wait for the next one. Ugh. I definitely recommend this book, and it would be a good discussion book if it weren't so darn long. Maybe over a couple of book club meetings? 

 

Have you read it? What'd you think? Or haven't read it and want to? 

 

~Malissa~