G'day mates!
I've never been to Australia but I'd love to go (the only thing that really puts me off are the spiders because I am severely arachnophobic) and the more I thought about it the more I realised I've read barely any Australian writers; Markus Zusak, Garth Nix, Geraldine Brooks and Hannah Kent are the only ones who immediately spring to mind. You don't have to talk about Australian books and authors for this tag, but doing this has definitely made me realise it's a country that I seem to neglect in my reading. That's something for me to rectify.
If anyone has any recommendations, particularly about/written by Australia's indigenous population, please let me know!
That has to be Maia from Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, not only is it one of my favourite novels of all time, but Maia is one of my favourite fictional characters, too. He's such a good egg and I adore him. You can check out my review of The Goblin Emperor here!
This is a tricky one because I'm usually the grumpy one who hates what everyone else loves, but for this I'm going to go with Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. I don't think everyone hates it by any means, but I do think Anne is forgotten next to her sisters and she shouldn't be. Of her two novels Agnes Grey is probably the lesser known, but I really enjoyed it when I read it and I'd love to see more people reading Anne's work.
I can't possible talk about a fictional squad without talking about Harry Potter. If I wanted to be part of any gang, it'd definitely be Dumbledore's Army because I am all for students standing up to bad teachers.
Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, which I reviewed here. I can't wait to read whatever Adébáyọ̀ brings out next and I highly, highly recommend this debut!
It'd be pretty easy to mention Harry Potter again here but I think Harry Potter gets enough love as it is, so instead I'm going to go with Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman which is one of my favourite books from my early teens. It's the first book I can remember crying over and it's still very special to me and so worth reading if you haven't already.
Isabel Greenberg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero (reviewed here) is a gorgeous graphic novel but it's so huge which means it can be quite difficult to read comfortably - it's worth it, though!
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is super depressing but it's such an iconic work of dystopian fiction and it's definitely worth checking out if it's on your radar. Is it the best piece of dystopian fiction out there? No, not necessarily, but it's a really interesting novel and I think it's worth a bit of your time.
I know I keep saying it, but no novel has surprised me more than Sarah Waters' Fingersmith (reviewed here). It's one of the twistiest, turniest novels I've ever read and it's so much fun - if you haven't read any of Waters' work, Fingersmith is a great place to start!
I adored Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (reviewed here), especially because I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, and Becky Albertalli has quickly become my favourite YA author following her equally excellent sophomore novel, The Upside of Unrequited (reviewed here). Yet again, I recommend reading her if you haven't already!
I'm a big mood reader so the books I reach out for when I'm feeling slumpy usually change depending what I'm in the mood to read - sometimes it's YA, sometimes it's a thriller, but it's usually something I don't tend to read a lot of - but this year I find myself turning more and more towards Fantasy of Manners books when I'm feeling slumpy, particularly Gail Carriger's work. It's so fun!
Thanks so much for tagging me, Cass! I'm going to go ahead and tag some people below, so:
consider yourselves tagged!
This is so fun! Thanks for tagging me, too! I haven't read Simon yet, but I agree about The Upside of Unrequited! I haven't read any of the others (no, not even Harry, sorry!) but I do want to read a few of them!
ReplyDeleteI definitely recommend Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda if you enjoyed The Upside of Unrequited! ^_^ No need to apologise! I love Harry Potter, but I don't like the way some people in the fandom judge other people that haven't read them - they're not everyone's cup of tea and that's fine, life would be so boring if we all loved tje same things. =)
DeleteYay, thanks for tagging me in this, even though I might do this like 7 years from now! I'm so bad at actually completing tags, but I do love doing them. I don't think I've read a lot of Aussie authors either, I need to change that.
ReplyDeleteGreat answers!! :D I loved 1984 and completely agree that it is an iconic piece of dystopian fiction. I need to read Fingersmith, heard so many fabulous things about it! <3
ReplyDeleteCass @ Words on Paper
Thanks for the tag! I still need to read an Anne Bronte, as she is the only Bronte sister left unread, but they can be slow reads; I have to make myself slow down and pick up large classics more often.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Tag! I really want to give Agnes Grey another try, although I skimmed it for uni (I've ruined so many books that way.) Still waiting for BBC to give us more updates on the Noughts and Crosses series too - really hope it doesn't fall through!
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