Hello again! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), where we talk about books! Today’s topic is “Books I Enjoyed that are Outside My Comfort Zone” but I’ll read just about anything (the exceptions would be the ones that I find distasteful or immoral, and I won’t read those on principal). A look at a recent “Currently Reading” list shows that I read quite a variety of books:
There’s a YA book, an adult book, a Spanish book, a German book, and a 3980 page monstrosity whose first volume was published in 1776. So today I’ll focus on non-YA books, since at the moment, YA is what I tend to read the most of.
I don’t read a great deal of romance; many of them seem quite generic and a lot of the covers are a bit of a turn-off. If you’re picky about the guys you find attractive like I am, the generic romance covers often leave a lot to be desired. Anyway, I loved Beverly Jenkins’s Rebel and I’d definitely read more from her.
The Fourth Turning was my favorite new-to-me book I read in 2016 (the second post I ever wrote for this blog). Even though I checked this book out of the library, I recently bought a copy of this book because I kept thinking about it and wanted a copy of it for reference.
Ghost Fire was one of the recent books I received from Bookish First; it’s an adult book set in India and in colonial America that I liked a lot.
I should have bought stock in tissues before reading The Last Year of the War. This was such a beautiful story of two friends who met in the US concentration camps during World War II and were separated at the end of the war. I highly recommend it.
Pennies is a darker book with disturbing themes and is definitely not YA. I still haven’t read the last two books in this series, although I did pick the next book from the random number generator for my fall TBR, so I’ll be reading that one soon
Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then is another adult book (although teens could enjoy it as well). It was the first of three time travel books I’ve read in the last 12 months, and probably is my favorite of the three.
The Kiss Quotient is another adult book, although I wouldn’t recommend it to teens like I would Here and Now and Then. I hope to read the sequel, The Bride Test, at some point.
Never Stop Walking is another adult book, although its contents are mostly appropriate for YA audiences. It is a memoir (which I don’t read too many of) about this lady who grew up in Brazil to a poor family. What she survived is amazing.
Unbroken is the amazing story of Louis Zamporini, who could have been an Olympic athlete if not for World War II. It’s a beautiful story about forgiveness. It’s even more awesome because this is the story of another Trojan like me.
I was first introduced to Susan Wise Bauer’s works through her Story of the World books, which are great homeschooling books for middle schoolers. I read all of her History of the — World books; The History of the Renaissance World is one of them. All three of her adult books are equally good though.
So there are ten non-YA books that I enjoyed reading. What books did you enjoy that were either outside of your normal genre or are outside of your comfort zone entirely? I can’t wait to see what you have to say.
Next week we’re going to talk about “Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why.” I don’t normally avoid reading books, so I’ll probably do something like “Books On My TBR that I Really Want to Read But Haven’t Yet.” I’ll see you then!
I have to check out Here and Now and Then. It looks great!
You should. I hope you like it!
One of the books I’ve enjoyed outside of my comfort zone has been The Valiant by Lesley Livingston. It’s YA, which is the majority of what I read, but historical fiction isn’t normally my favorite. This one was so fast-paced and exciting though!
Mari @ Musings of a (Book) Girl recently posted…Five Things I Enjoy Outside of My Comfort Zone
That book is new to me!
I really liked Here and Now and Then. I was surprised how much I did- it’s a great time travel story!
Greg recently posted…Tuesday Tagline #156
Are you planning on reading his next book?
I actually didn’t know about it? Ooh now I’m off to Goodreads to check! But yes I think I will, since I liked this one a lot! 🙂
Yay! I love it when I can help people find new books!
Great list! I liked The Kiss Quotient more than I expected to, too. The Last Year of the War sounds really interesting!
Jess @ Jessticulates recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Giving Romance a chance
I guess The Kiss Quotient would fall under the “protagonist hires someone to teach them romance and then accidentally falls in love with them” trope!
Your take on this week’s TTT is very cool, and you’ve got such a diverse lot of books! The Kiss Quotient is so on my tbr!
I hope you’re able to get to it soon!
Unbroken sounds like such an interesting read. I’d imagine that many people found themselves in similar boats then.
My TTT.
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A lot of Americans ended up in Japanese concentration camps, but I don’t know if many displayed the amount of forgiveness that he did. I think he broke a record for days at sea on a lifeboat too.
Nice list! History of the Renaissance World looks interesting. Here is my Top Ten Tuesday.
There’s probably some stories in there that weren’t in your high school history! There are a couple stories in there that are a little too gruesome for putting in non-college public school education.
I used to read so much YA it’s not even funny. But lately I’ve been loving NA and Adult romance so much more! Sometimes I read Mystery/Thrillers and Historical Romance.
Genesis @ Whispering Chapters recently posted…Books Out of My Comfort Zone | Top Ten Tuesday
There’s so many great books in so many genres! Not just YA.
I read mostly YA as well so I loved seeing your list. I have not read any of these but really loved reading it.
Thank you Steph!
Helen Hoang writes fantastic romances. I am a solid fan.
I hope it doesn’t take me too long to read her next book!
So glad you read Unbroken, what a story! I found the movie super disappointing though, as it basically skips the Redemption part, which I think gives meaning to the whole book. I’m surprised the author accepted that.
I really want to try Marie Lu!
I found the book to be way better too. So much more detailed. And I hope you get the chance to read Marie Lu. I adore her characters!
I’ve actually said in my review of Warcross that j’adore Legend because words in English couldn’t express it!
Unbroken made my list this week too. What an amazing book!
Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra recently posted…Review: BRINGING DOWN THE DUKE by Evie Dunmore
Yay! Such a good book.
How funny that our lists are opposite – yours is non-YA books because you read a lot of that genre, and mine is mostly YA because I hardly ever read it!
Funny.
I’ve heard SO many people (mostly on Booktube) raving about Helen’s contemporaries. They don’t sound like they’d be favorites of mine so I haven’t picked either one up, but I’m glad to know you enjoyed the first one!! 🙂 Appreciate your visit to Finding Wonderland, Brooke.
Rissi JC recently posted…‘Almost a Bride’ is the Madcap and Fun Old Time Romance We Love