TTT: Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven’t Talked About Enough

TTT is a meme by The Broke And The Bookish and we’re in for the ride. Join us in the comments! Let us know which of your faves you wish you’d talked about more often!

Nafiza

As a book blogger, I don’t generally have this problem. I don’t think any of do actually. Books we love will generally come up in conversation whether our friends, family, and you, dear readers, want them to or not. But still, in the spirit of the top ten, here’s a list of five.

1. The Bloody Jack series by L. A. Meyer
   I haven’t talked much (or at all) about this simply because it has been quite a while since I’ve read the first one in the series. I need to complete the 13 book series and well, you know how that is. It’ll take some time to do.
2. The Flora Trilogy by Ysabeau S. Wilce
   I haven’t talked at all about this one simply because the ending of this trilogy left me so broken. In that, I felt that there is a lot more story to be told and the ending just seemed abrupt and more open than I like my stories to conclude. However, I did love this bizarre tale and should revisit it so I can talk more about this.
3. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
   A couple of weeks ago, I heard the sad news that Rennison had passed away and this made me think how much I enjoyed this fluffy world she had created with all the strange characters who seemed to have appropriated the English language for their own suspicious business. Whatever you say about Rennison’s books, one truth is undeniable: they’re irreverent and funny. Break out into gales of laughter funny. And sometimes you really do need funny.
4. The Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling
   This one does interesting things with gender and I really enjoyed it but I haven’t really found a particular reason to speak about these books. Maybe I will someday.
5. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
   Murakami is a movement unto himself. I often think that his works are not something you speak about but they are works you read once and again and appreciate silently. Or maybe I just don’t have the language to deconstruct his particular brand of crazy.

Steph

1. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Because if I talk too much about it you will all know how devastatingly impactful this book is and be too terrified to read it for fear that you’ll feel the feels too hard. So I don’t talk about it, I just tell you again and again: read it.
2. Battle Royale by Koushan Takami. I’m still processing. I know that it blew my mind and that in so many ways it was the same and/or better as/than The Hunger Games (which doesn’t bode well for Collins) but also so much better. . .
3. The Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I mean, this was my bread and butter growing up, I loved this stuff and I don’t think I hearken back to it enough.
4. Roald Dahl. This guy’s books are also incredibly funny, intense, child centered and often, in the child’s mind sort of way, cruel and real. I really love Dahl’s works and I don’t think I address them enough.
5. Graphic Novels in general I love and don’t get to talk about enough. I read them, plough through them really, and I don’t have the time to post about them all! Usually someone on the book wars gets to the ones I’ve read though, so don’t worry, you guys aren’t missing out on much :)

Janet

1. Since Steph’s named Redwall, also my bread and butter, how about Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing trilogy/series? I know I wasn’t the only child to fall head over heels for bats because of these books.
2. I mention Diana Wynne Jones (Howl’s Moving Castle, Hexwood, Year of the Griffin, Deep Secret, and everything else), Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen’s Thief books and Because of Three Wishes), Elizabeth Wein (Aksumite cycle and WWII stories), and Garth Nix (the Abhorsen series) fairly frequently, but rarely go into the details of their worlds. Their books are phenomenal, and it is impossible to say too much — read them and find out for yourself.
3. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, Kate Sutton is a delight to read.
4. Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward by Patricia C. Wrede. Middle grade magic and mystery in Regency England. Also, and possibly even funnier (and with more romance), Wrede’s letter-game novels with Caroline Stevermer, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and The Grand Tour. (There is a third but it’s not quite as good.) Matter-of-fact best friends and cousins writing to each other about their misadventures with magic, society, and family. Oh, and also with dubious young men (one of which is extremely bad at sneaking, which is a shame because he seems to need to be stealthy rather a lot of the time) and evil magicians.
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Oh yes.
6. The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup by Rosemary Sutcliff and Emma Chichester Clark. A magnificent picturebook about two boon companions.
7. The Water of Possibility by Hiromi Goto. I don’t dare say much about this because *somebody* hasn’t read it yet, but this is so so so good – Japanese mythology and worldview meets young, impatient Canadians.

Yash

Thing is, between the four of us, at least one of us bound to write about a book I couldn’t squeeze in …

1. Also, define “enough”? Because two posts aren’t enough to adequately convey how much I love The Bane Chronicles and The Lynburn Legacy. 
2. And while I have mentioned The Infernal Devices, I haven’t really blogged about it.
3. Kate Beaton’s comic collections! Have any of us talked about them? *panics*
4. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell! I loved this one so much! How have I not raved about Penny yet?!
5. OMG! I haven’t talked about my love for Adam Silvera’s More Happy Than Not–HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE!

This is not a happy list. I need to fix all these mistakes now.