My Favourite Top Ten Books of 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish.

This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on our post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. If you can't come up with ten, don't worry about it---post as many as you can!

 

 

This has been a rough year for me and I didn't meet my goal of 50 books, lousy number of 30 actually but all these deserve mention.

 

 

Adult Fiction

My Review 4 1/2 - This is one of the most emotional heart wrenching dark family horror stories I have ever read but with an alluring character.......  Very memorable
 

 

 

Legal Thriller

My Review 4 1/2 - You will lose sleep with this page turner, amazing corrupt characters.

 

 

 

 

Psychological Thriller

My Review 5 - This is one of the best unreliable character driven books I have read. 

 

 

 

Novel

My Review 4 1/2 - The book had me engaged and very intrigued with the imaginary friend world but once the crime took place the book took on a suspenseful adventure which of course I love.

 

 

 

Adult Fiction (not erotica)

My Review 5 - I loved reading about adults who find themselves, you are always growing and the unorthodox romance set this apart from the romance books you expect.

 

 

 

Thriller

My Review 4 1/2 - Ackerman is the craziest, cruelest killer I have ever read about so to mix it up with sadistic cult killers also, terrorizing to say the least.

 

 

 

 

Erotica - Club Shadowlands by Cherise Sinclair

I didn't review but read two this year.

The 1st three all receive 4 1/2 stars, love this series.  I don't usually review erotica but I highly recommend.

 

 

 

Thriller

My Review - 4 1/2 - A dark, sexy, edgy, suspense thriller. 

 

 

 

 

 

Motivational Book

My Review - 5 A motivational book, packs a lot in a little book, so happy I read and will go back to.  Great quotes in my review.

 

 

 

 

Novel - Favourite book club read

My Review 4 - One of the best book club reads ever, great debate.  Up there with We Need to talk about Kevin kind of debate.

 

 

 

 

I didn't notice a lot of crossover of favourites this year with bloggers.  Maybe Rainbow Rowell as an author.  What do you think?

 

 

 

I look forward to networking and seeing your top reads for the year and adding to my 2014 Wishlist.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

 

Last Monday of 2013

Sheila over at Book Journey has an incentive for networking so go over and have fun while adding to your 2014 Wishlist.

Friends, my sad news - my Hotmail account of 13+ years has been hacked, unable to access it and the verify questionnaire is crap, I cannot get into it and it won't allow me in.  I have far to much information in a 'free' email account, I am so upset I can't put it into words.  I had to change my Amazon passwords and am still thinking about others.  I will call my bank tomorrow, just to be sure, ugggh.

Any ideas, feedback that may help???

Onto book matters........

I completed a great Novella - will review today or tomorrow

 

 

A Christmas Treat, loved this Agatha Christie - My Review

 

 

 

 

And I am going to participate in this for what my next book is..........

 

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR BLOGGING FRIENDS

 

 

Review - Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Book Summary from Amazon

It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered when the tyrannical Simeon Lee is found dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. When Hercule Poirot offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man.

My Review - 5

In one word - delightful.  I can't stop grinning after reading this mystery, very clever in deed.  When Hercule Poirot is giving the blow by blow details, peeling an onion layer by layer you are glued to his story as a reader and can visualize the family being mesmorized by him, a smooth talker.

If you enjoyed And Then There Were None, you will love this one also, similar in many ways, you will never guess.  I thought I had it but nope.

The father, Simeon Lee requested his estranged family home for the holidays and enjoyed every minute of making them miserable.  He had quite the dark humour, it was funny but I also felt sorry for them.  They described him as "the kind of man you might say had sold his soul to the devil and enjoyed the bargain!" page 220 Many thought he deserved to die and so the finger was pointed to all.  He treated them horribly but he enjoyed every minute of making them miserable.

This was so well done, definitely makes me want to read more Agatha Christie, Queen of Mystery for sure.

Favourite quotes

"I believe the present matters - not the past!  The past must go.  If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it.  We see it in exaggerated terms - a false perspective.  Page 39

"I agree with you.  It is here a family affair.  It is a poison that works in the blood - it is intiate - it is deep-seated  There is here, I think, hate and knowledge....  Page 211

 

Review - The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

Book Summary from Goodreads


He's gone. And telling the truth won't bring him back...

When a baby goes missing on a lonely roadside in Australia, it sets off a police investigation that will become a media sensation and dinner-table talk across the world.

Lies, rumours and guilt snowball, causing the parents, Joanna and Alistair, to slowly turn against each other.

Finally Joanna starts thinking the unthinkable: could the truth be even more terrible than she suspected? And what will it take to make things right?

The Cry is a dark psychological thriller with a gripping moral dilemma at its heart and characters who will keep you guessing on every page.

My Review - 3 1/2

An unexpected read, I have always enjoyed psychological thrillers, a favourite genre.  I would recommend this one to those that enjoy emotional novels that deal with morals and values, think Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah.

You are on the edge of your seat trying to figure out how they connect the pieces together about missing Noah.  And the ending was brilliant, I absolutely loved the ending.  Even though I enjoyed the story overall, the middle kept me wondering what next, it took me past the suspense feel because a main part was revealed early which had you waiting for when the truth would come out.  At times the flow of the story almost lost me and then wham, oh Joanna, I loved her character again.

Alistair has an older daughter who he is trying to get full custody for.  We meet his ex wife and then Joanna and her connect also.  Everyone involved with the search for Noah and the manipulation going on was fascinating and had you considering all the different judgments.  In the end what happened does it match your own morals and values, you need to read it and consider this.

Helen Fitzgerald gives flashbacks throughout the story which helps to flesh out the journey, very well done.  Good suspense psychological thriller, you will be surprised.

Quote from 16% on iPad

She was on her way to hell.  That's why the sky ahead was getting blacker.  Joanna calmed herself with the idea.  She died and went to hell, that's all - just as she knew she would, since the affair.


My Review of her other book, The Donor

It's Monday - what are you reading

Sheila over at Book Journey has an incentive for networking so go over and have fun while adding to your 2014 Wishlist.

I am currently reading a heart wrenching memoir, all about timing, tears tears tears......

 

 

I finally reviewed The Cry, it will be up on Wed

 

 

 

Up next I think is going to be a Christmas story, of course still my genre of choice, mystery

 

 

 

Any Christmas reads you would recommend?  I thought these were great:

 

Snowed Over - 4 1/2

 

Silent Night - 5

 

 





 

Yuletide Treasure - 5

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesday - Memoir by Eleanor Vincent

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following and go here to participate: Teaser Tuesday

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) 'teaser' sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser from Swimming with Maya

Kindle app on Ipad - 12%

Still groggy from the sleeping pill I had taken, I swim up out of sleep and find Meghan curled into a ball next to me.  Her deep, relaxed breathing immediately reminds me of the forced rise and fall of my other daughter's chest, the tubes snaking into her, the swollen, puffy eyelids.


Summary from Amazon

Swimming with Maya demonstrates the remarkable process of healing after the traumatic death of a loved one. Eleanor Vincent raised her two daughters, Maya and Meghan, virtually as a single-parent. Maya, the eldest, was a high-spirited and gifted young woman. As a toddler, Maya was an angelic tow-head, full of life and curiosity. As a teenager, Maya was energetic and independent - and often butted heads with her mother. But Eleanor and Maya were always close and connected, like best friends or sisters, but always also mother and daughter.

Then at age 19, Maya mounts a horse bareback as a dare and, in a crushing cantilever fall, is left in a coma from which she will never recover. Eleanor's life is turned upside down as she struggles to make the painful decision about Maya's fate.

Ultimately Eleanor chooses to donate Maya's organs. Years later, in one of the most poignant moments you will ever read about, Eleanor has the opportunity to hear her daughter's heart beat in the chest of the heart recipient. Along the way, Eleanor re-examines her relationship with her daughter, as well as the experiences that shaped Eleanor as a woman and as a mother to Maya.

An inspirational/motivational true story recommended for anyone who has experienced tragedy, who is grappling with traumatic experiences of the past, or who wants to better understand the strength and healing power of the human spirit.