Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I’ve Read

This week’s Top Ten on The Broke and the Bookish blog is “Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I’ve Read.”

1.  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

With Baz Luhrmann’s recent film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, I’m reminded of the novel’s gorgeous and unforgettable cover art created by Francis Cugat.

2.  A Greater Monster by David David Katzman

While I still don’t know what to make of this book, the bizarre psychedelic cover appropriately matches the protagonist’s trippy, drug-induced journey through a hallucinatory Chicago.

3.  Seasons by Blexbolex

French illustrator Blexbolex masterfully uses screen printing to create endlessly provocative works that fall somewhere between being picture books for children and art portfolios that adults can deeply appreciate. The cover of Seasons is indicative of his captivating style.

4.  Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

This eerie young adult mystery has one of the most intriguing covers I’ve ever seen.

5.  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

Ana Juan’s illustrations and cover art for Valente’s Fairland books perfectly captures the tone of this superbly written fantasy series that can be enjoyed by middle school children, teens, and adults.

6.  The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso

The cover of this disquieting, nightmarish book was created from a very small portion of Hieronymus Bosch’s renowned triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, and appropriately matches the novel’s disturbing content.

7.  The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman

Dave McKean–who created CD covers for Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Tori Amos–also created the cover for all collected editions of Gaiman’s horror graphic novel series, The Sandman.

8.  Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

This strange cover art matches Murakami’s odd and surreal story.

9.  The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

For some reason I’ve always loved The Catcher in the Rye‘s iconic cover.

10.  Looking for Alaska by John Green

The cover for John Green’s Looking for Alaska featuring a snuffed out candle is beautifully simple and evocative.

What are your favorite book covers?

- Zach

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Dealing with Tough Subjects

This week’s Top Ten on The Broke and the Bookish blog is “Top Ten Books Dealing with Tough Subjects,” such as abuse, suicide, grief, etc. or something that is personally difficult.

1.  Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

A heartbreaking novel about an 18-year-old boy in treatment for alcoholism who must confront his violent, traumatic past if he ever hopes to recover.

2.  Stitches by David Small

Beloved picture-book illustrator, David Small, uses the graphic novel format to tell this powerful, emotionally charged story of his troubled childhood. He recounts growing up in a dysfunctional family and how his radiologist father–who subjected young David to regular x-rays–inadvertently gave him throat cancer, leaving him voiceless.

3.  Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Picoult has never been shy of exploring difficult, controversial topics. In Nineteen Minutes, she uses multiple perspectives to explores the aftermath of a school shooting that leaves ten dead and 19 wounded.

4.  A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive by David Pelzer

A disturbing and unflinching account of child abuse.

5.  Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

One of the best young adult novels that explores teen suicide, rape, and the damage that can be caused by rumors and bullying.

6.  Push by Sapphire

The source material for the Oscar-winning film, Precious, the protagonist of this gritty and disturbing novel is an obese, African American 16-year-old girl who is illiterate, living with HIV, and a victim of child abuse, rape, and incest, forced to carry her father’s child.

7.  Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack

The second autobiographical comic book/graphic novel on this week’s list, Our Cancer Year recounts one year in the life of Harvey Pekar–newly diagnosed with lymphoma–and his wife, Joyce Brabner, as they deal with chemotherapy, buying a house, and other life challenges.

8.  The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

A novel examining how the abduction of the protagonist’s three-year-old daughter from a supermarket destroys his marriage and his life.

9.  Inexcusable by Chris Lynch

A harrowing young adult novel about high school date rape told from the rapists perspective.

10.  A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Perhaps the most personally difficult title on this week’s list, A Monster Calls expertly blends reality, fantasy, and horror genres to represent the pains and struggles of a young boy trying to come to terms with his terminally ill mother.

- Zach

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light & Fun

This week’s Top Ten on The Broke and the Bookish blog is “Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light & Fun.”  Everyone has their own idea of what qualifies for light and fun reading, as reading preferences and habits can differ greatly from person to person.  For me, light and fun books are typically lighter in tone and easier to read than what I usually subject myself to, have high entertainment value, and are oftentimes humorous.

1.  Discworld series by Terry Prachett

Pratchett’s long-running comic fantasy series (currently at 39 books) is an excellent blend of magic, wit, and satire that provides nearly endless entertainment and hilarity.

2.  Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich

I’m brand new to this series, but I’m happy to report that Evanovich’s lingerie-buyer-turned-bounty-hunter protagonist and her high-spirited grandmother have stolen my heart.

3.  Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman

This assortment of essays reflecting on some of the highlights of popular culture (such as MTV’s The Real World, the Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 1980s, Pamela Anderson, The Sims computer game, and Saved by the Bell) is as hilarious as it is educational.

4.  Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris

Sedaris’s offbeat and twisted sense of humor is not for everyone, but for those that like that kind of thing, look no farther than Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: a small collection of fable-like short stories featuring anthropomorphic animals doing some truly despicable, non-Aesop-like things to one another.

5.  You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts by Cracked.com

This book is actually a selection of articles that have appeared on Cracked.com, a popular humor website that I find myself visiting far too often in my free time.

6.  Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O’Malley

A fast, fun series chock-full of video game references that can be read in a single sitting.

7.  The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The beauty of this collection is that I can open it anywhere and find something that will make me smile.

8.  Camp Half-Blood series by Rick Riordan

Riordan’s popular fantasy series of middle school and teenage Greco-Roman demigods is equivalent to seeing a really good action movie that’s not afraid to be funny.

9.  Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

I should qualify this entry to just the first three books, as the series gets noticeably darker and more serious with the fourth book.

10.  Marcovaldo, or The Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino

Arguably the least light book of the list in terms of reading difficulty, Calvino’s short story collection about the misadventures of the quixotic Marcovaldo and his family has made me laugh time and time again.

- Zach

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

This week’s Top Ten on The Broke and the Bookish blog is “Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like MORE/LESS Than I Did.”

1.  American Gods by Neil Gaiman

As a fan of Neverwhere and the Sandman series, I expected to fall in love with this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning fantasy novel.  Unfortunately, I could not help but feel somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed.  I will have to revisit it sometime to see if my opinion changes.

2.  Dracula by Bram Stoker

I had high hopes for this one, thinking it would be gripping, spooky, chilling, spine-tingling, etc., you know, everything you expect from a vampire story; but I found this epistolary novel to be more boring than bloodcurdling.

3.  Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, as I had never read a romance novel before this.

4.  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Having heard so much about Díaz and this novel, I thought this book would be nothing short of astounding, but I ultimately found it to be just OK.

5.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Many people have told me this was their favorite book in high school, but I simply just couldn’t get into it.

6.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

This was another title I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought I would.

7.  Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott

I typically don’t read nonfiction, but when I do, I often find myself enjoying it more than expected.  Sin in the Second City is one title I thought was fantastic.

8.  The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

I love Dave Eggers and Maurice Sendak, so I thought Eggers’s interpretation/novelization of Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are would be amazing, but I couldn’t have been more disappointed.

9.  The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

Three words: chilling, disturbing, unforgettable. I expected nothing from this book and was left speechless by this amazing psychological suspense novel.

10.  Wonder by R. J. Palacio

I fell in love with this heartwarming and deeply moving book that is perfect for just about anyone.  I am so glad I read this.

- Zach

May Horror Book Club: Desperation Turns to Horror

Alex and Leslie lead charmed lives-fabulous jobs, a luxurious town house , a passionate marriage. What they don’t have is a child, and as they try one infertility treatment after the next, yearning turns into obsession. As a last-ditch attempt to make their dream of parenthood come true, Alex and Leslie travel deep into Slovenia, where they submit to a painful and terrifying procedure that finally gives them what they so fervently desire . . . but with awful consequences. Oh oh!

Please join us on Wednesday May 8th at 7pm for the meeting of the Horror Book Club when we will be discussing Breed by Chase Novak. We meet in the Board Room on the second floor. Goodies will be provided. Please call 630-685-4173 or stop at our third floor reference desk for more information.

-Christine

April Horror Book Club: A Punishment Gone Horribly Wrong

A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave… a horrible punishment.  But all drugs have side-effects, in this case a real bad one.  Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up.  Hungry.  Infected.  Contagious.

Please join us on Wednesday April 10th at 7pm for the meeting of the Horror Book Club where we will discuss “Dead of Night: A Zombie Novel” by Jonathan Maberry. We meet in the Board Room on the second floor. Goodies will be provided. If you have any questions or need a copy of the book, please call 630-685-4173 or stop in at our third floor reference desk.

-Christine

Doesn’t Every House Have a Sinister Past?

A house with a sinister past – and a grisly power – When Michael Flint is asked by American friends to look over an old Shropshire house they have unexpectedly inherited, he is reluctant to leave the quiet of his Oxford study. But when he sees Charect House, its uncanny echoes from the past fascinate him – even though it has such a sinister reputation that no one has lived there for almost a century. But it’s not until Michael meets the young widow, Nell West, that the menace within the house wakes . . .

Please join us on Wednesday, February 13th at 7pm for the meeting of the Horror Book Club when we will discuss Property of a Lady by Sarah Rayne. We meed in the 2nd floor board room and goodies will be provided. Questions? Please call us at 630-685-4176

-Christine