This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic – Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads.
Oh man, this was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Which means I need to read more indie titles so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else listed! Here we go..
1. Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum – 1,447 Ratings – I’m really surprised that this doesn’t have more ratings. I wrote about this book in an earlier post so I won’t say much more than it’s worth a read!
2. A Girl Could Stand Up by Leslie Marshall – 244 Ratings – I can’t recall how I stumbled upon this book but I remember being drawn to its title. Here is a section of the blurb:
Elray Mayhew loses her parents on her sixth birthday at an amusement park going through the Tunnel of Love. The boat the three of them are in is leaking and Barkely and Jack’s feet are on the wet floor so that when the electrical moon falls from the ceiling and into their laps, they are electrocuted. Elray survives intact except for a crescent shaped scar on her right underarm. In following years she can touch the scar and communicate with them, receiving instructions, or offbeat and amusing comments, in their distinctive voices.
Elray, orphaned, is now in the custody of two uncles, brothers each of Barkley and Jack. Harwood is a macho, heavily-drinking photographer who travels about the world on assignments. Aunt Ajax, as he prefers to be called, is a cross-dressing gay man who gives up his fringe existence in New York to come to Washington, move into Barkley and Jack’s old house in the Cleveland Park, and throw himself full throttle into motherhood, albeit, at times, a misguided version of it.
If you enjoy coming of age stories and lots of quirkiness, give this a go!
3. Charity Girl by Michael Lowenthal – 804 Ratings – Charity Girl is a fiction novel set during WWI when thousands of women suspected of having STDs were detained in treatment facilities. I wasn’t aware of this actual event in history so I found this book quite interesting.
4. Outside by Nicole Sewell – 19 Ratings – Shout out to my pal Nicole Sewell! Check out her book! Here is the blurb:
15-year-old Alaina Roberts can count on one hand the number of times she’s left Shiloh, a cult compound in the North Georgia mountains. After being found beaten in a shed during an FBI raid, she’s forced to leave the only home she’s ever known and live among the sinners she’s been raised to fear. At first, she does her best to resist the influences of her Aunt Beth and Cousin Holly, worried that their kindness is a deception meant to lead her astray. But when she learns the truth about Shiloh and its leaders during court supervised visits with her mother, things get far more complicated.
5. The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day – 1,138 Ratings – I enjoy reading books about circus life for some reason. This is a book of short stories – each story involves someone with a connection to an Indiana circus. I really enjoyed it!
6. Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork – 1,762 Ratings – I absolutely loved this book as a kid! I had the opportunity to visit Monet’s garden and this kept popping into my head as I explored. Really lovely book.
7. The Ugly Princess by Henderson Smith – 259 Ratings – I read this not too long ago and thought it was a nice twist on the fairy tale princess story. Here’s a section of the blurb:
What would you give up to be beautiful? I don’t mean attractive, or pretty or any other term you could conjure up to describe that thing most women seek to be or most men seek to be with. I mean staggeringly beautiful, men falling at your feet with hopeless adoration as they gaze upon you dumbfounded. That beautiful. I could become that beautiful if I chose, but only with a steep price. Would you pay the price?
8. Outsiders by Tammy Ferebee – 72 Ratings – Another indie read! I wrote about this in a previous Goodreads Recap post, if interested. A fun YA read that is part sci-fi part romance.
9. Unclaimed by Laurie Wetzel – 112 Ratings – This wasn’t really my cup of tea BUT if you’re looking for a paranormal angels/demons YA book give this a shot, it has a 4.21 rating on Goodreads!
10. Shizzle, Inc. by Ana Spoke – 74 Ratings – I read this in June and thought it was really funny! Here’s the blurb:
Debt is always negative, no matter how positively you try to look at it. Fifteen minutes of fame is all Isa Maxwell needs to solve her financial woes and win back Brad, the love of her life. Trouble is she doesn’t have a talent needed to get discovered, become a celebrity, or “show Brad” what he’s missing. She doesn’t even have enough self-awareness to understand what is happening around her. What she does have, however, is determination and sheer luck. When Isa literally lands on her butt in a billionaire’s office, she also accidentally lands the job of her dreams. She soars up the corporate ladder and is offered opportunities to change the corporate marketing strategy and renegotiate a major merger. Not a small feat for someone who doesn’t know what “marketing strategy” or “merger” mean to begin with. Meanwhile, she seems to attract attention of new love interests – a hot cop, a mysterious neighbor, the billionaire himself, and even her best girl Tara. Life’s a dream. Until it turns into a nightmare. Can Isa survive the tough world of corporate intrigue and constant looming bodily harm? Or will her persistence cause the end of Shizzle, Inc and possibly her life?
This book is categorized as Satire and I think the word I’d use to describe this is…zany. Spoke also has a really great blog! If you are an indie author, she goes into great detail about what promotional tools have (and haven’t) worked for her so give that a look!
If you’re participating in Top Ten Tuesday, feel free to put a link to your list in the comments section, I’m really curious about what everyone listed!
Heather Hobbs 