Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Surprisingly Enjoyed

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they will post a new Top Ten list that one of the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

This is a freebie week, so we get to choose what our Top Ten Tuesday list will be. I decided to blog about the Top Ten Books I Surprisingly Enjoyed. Sometimes you pick up a book not thinking it will wow you, but it does. Here's my list of books that left me pleasantly surprised.

1

I never considered myself much for a time travel lover. I'm also not a fan of fractured family stories for young people. But I had to admit that the appeal of Charlie for me was because he was so unnoticeable that his own mother can't remember his name. This ended up being a gripping story with tons of action. 

2

I never intended to read The Hunger Games. Having been forced to read some dystopian fiction in high school, I swore I would never do it again. When my daughter received a copy of this book from her teacher as a Christmas gift, I said she could only read it if we read it together. We both loved it and quickly moved on to the next two books in the trilogy. 

3

Futuristic stories are another no-no in my world. I simply can't get into all those different worlds with their odd characters and crazy technology. So I was totally floored when I loved Cinder. This one proves a well-told story will pull you in even if you don't care for the setting.

4

Zombies are so not my thing. I find all that talk about undead stuff kind of gruesome. I did, however, really like The Caldecott Chronicles No. 1. The humor in it made it a great read. I just found out there is a second book in this series, so I'll be reading that one as soon as I can.

5

Fantasy is another genre I don't dabble in often. This epic battle of good versus evil in a world of shape-shifting spirits, deception, and powerful forces was my favorite YA read of 2011. I wasn't fond of the third person omniscient point of view, but otherwise, it was perfect.

6

I truly wasn't sure what to think about this one when I decided to review it. We've got a dragon detective, his mage partner, and a bunch of magical beings at a Mensa convention. Bare minimum, you have to appreciate the creative mind that can come up with such a thing. I ended up being hooked from the very first word. 

7

Not really one for vampire stories lately, I was thrilled with how much I enjoyed The Kensei. Fast-paced and exciting, it is set in Japan and the States. The best part: tall, dark and handsome Lawson who is a wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance between vampires and humans.

8

Speculative fiction remains a mystery to me. I never quite know what qualifies and what doesn't. I'm also not much into mysticism. The main character, Grace Johnson, takes a bullet to save the life of a Ku Klux Klansman who might have killed her father. The Ancestor spirits insist Grace bear witness to her town's violent racial history, so that all involved might transcend it. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It's a book you won't quickly forget.

9

This book was not what I expected at all. Not much of a fan of sci-fi or new worlds (I like mine just fine), I approached this one with trepidation. It's got a lot of action--which I like. I totally got wrapped up in this one. War Correspondent Dax Rigby accepts an assignment on the savage planet of Arcadia. His job--to investigate and report on the Western Alliance mission there. He is quickly thrust into a battle to save two alien species from extinction and rescue a human outpost plagued by a mysterious disease.

10

Now, I like historical fiction; but I haven't read much about Vikings since high school. I wasn't quite sure I would like this one. The author's detailed research added a great deal to this novel. He also included an historical perspective at the beginning and a glossary at the end, which were very helpful. 

Have you picked up any books that ended up pleasantly surprising you?

Book Review: Act of Grace by Karen Simpson

Grace Johnson is an exceptional African American student from Vigilant, Michigan. A racially charged town, few people understand why Grace would take a bullet to save the life of a Ku Klux Klansman named Jonathan Gilmore; especially since rumor has it years ago a member of Gilmore’s family murdered several African Americans--including Grace’s father.

The Ancestor spirits won't be ignored, however. They insist Grace bear witness to her town's violent racial history, so that all involved might transcend it. Looking back over her actions, Grace wonders if she can do as the spirits asked:  lead Gilmore, her hometown, and her own soul on a journey toward reconciliation, redemption and true grace.

Act of Grace by Karen Simpson is an eloquently written, intriguing mystical novel. Raised by an abusive, unloving mother, Grace is looking forward to graduation. Little does she know that her old life will soon be just a memory, as she is called by the Ancestors to bear witness to Vigilant's violent, racially charged past.

I can honestly say, I've never read a book like Act of Grace before. It captivated me quickly, and Simpson's eloquent prose unfolded the story slowly, like the blooming of a flower. Each layer revealed more as Grace shared her story. While I'm not typically a fan of books hosting a plethora of metaphors and similes, Simpson wove them into the plot in such a way that I couldn't imagine trying to read Grace's story without them. This did, however, lead to a slower development of the story. A great deal takes place within the book's 320 pages, and there were times I felt I had been reading forever, but was still less than halfway through it.

Act of Grace is as much a character driven novel as it is a plot driven one. The reader meets many strong personalities within the story. From Grace's mother to her aunts, from her cousin to her best friend and many more, these people will touch you or rub you the wrong way, but you won't be able to shake them. This is a story that will remain with you a long time.

I highly recommend Act of Grace by Karen Simpson.

Title:  Act of Grace
Author:  Karen Simpson
Publisher: Plenary Publishing (March 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0982777949
ISBN-13: 978-0982777947
SRP:  $15.00 (paperback)
Also available in a Kindle edition.

I received a free electronic copy of this book through Pump Up Your Book in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation of any kind for this review.

This book is the sixth book I've read for the following challenge:

This book is the fourth book I've read for the following challenge:

This book is the first book I've read for the following challenge:

The Wildcat's Burden by Christopher Hoare -- Book Review

In The Wildcat's Burden by Christopher Hoare, Gisel Matah, is now the military governor of the city of Skrona in liberated Tarnland. Married, and pregnant with her first child, she knows her enemies are waiting for her to go into labor so they can pounce. A leader in a dangerous game that pits Gisel against spies, thieves and murderers, her enemies seek to steal Plan Zero and perhaps rid themselves of the Wildcat for good.

In this well-written fourth installment of the Iskander series, Hoare has given Gisel a new side--that of mother-to-be. Unlike many women in her position, Gisel is not able to sit back and enjoy this time. There are too many issues that need her attention: enemies to thwart, plots to uncover, and peace to keep in a world filled with cheats, liars, spies, and worse. Her husband, Yohan, worries over her, all the while being annoyed, knowing Gisel doesn't share everything with him.

We also meet two other strong women in The Wildcat's Burden: Lizzie and Bluebell. Lizzie's unfolding story is perhaps my favorite, and she is vital in uncovering a plot that could change the world as they know it.

This is the first book of the Iskander series that I've read, but Hoare includes a Foreword that discusses the series up to the point where this book begins, so I didn't feel a bit lost picking up the series with Book 4. Even without the Foreword, The Wildcat's Burden is an excellent stand alone, but it is nice that the author included this for the the reader; especially since there are so many characters to keep track of. Also included is an extensive Afterword that brings the reader into Gisel's future and discusses the unresolved storylines of characters that did not appear in The Wildcat's Burden.

Hoare definitely created an interesting and diverse set of characters in this book. Having not meet Gisel before now, I'm curious to know more about her past and others I met along the way.

While I can't say I would go out of my way to fill my shelves with books of this nature, I enjoyed tackling a genre I rarely read. With The Wildcat's Burden, Hoare has written a science fiction/alternative world story that will draw in lovers of this genre.


Title: The Wildcat's Burden
Author: Christopher Hoare
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
ISBN-9: 1-55404-729-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-55404-729-1
SRP: $5.99 Available in multiple electronic formats

Speculative Fiction Author Christopher Hoare and The Wildcat's Victory

While you probably already know that I love doing all the talking, I am going to step aside to let speculative fiction author, Christopher Hoare tell you all about not writing about yourself.



When I went into oil exploration as a young man it wasn’t just for the money, it was also for the image. I’d always wanted to write and how better to prepare for fame and fortune than by being an explorer? Didn’t quite work that way.

I surveyed in both the Libyan Desert and in the Canadian Arctic Islands – plenty of meat to make a banquet of a novel based on personal experience, one would think. While I worked in the desert that movie about the survivors of an airplane crash building an aircraft out of the wreckage to fly to safety hit the screen. I think it was called Flight of the Phoenix, based on a novel by Elleston Trevor. Quite apart from the complete disregard for engineering reality, the crash supposedly happened quite close to where we happened to be and the area was portrayed as being filled with hostile tribesmen and a Foreign Legion fort. What rubbish – nothing could have been further from credibility.

Do you suppose the author was embarrassed about knowing nothing about the area – or having never set foot in the desert? Or knowing nothing about engineering? Not on your life. The suckers bought it and the movie and book made lots of money. Case closed.

I thought I might one day write a novel about the real desert, and about real oil exploration, but this nagging feeling – summed up by another writer as, “there’s a big difference between writing fiction and writing history” – always stalled my efforts before chapter three. How much exaggeration can I take before I begin to feel ridiculous? How little exaggeration will a reader accept before tossing the story aside as too boring?

Take the Arctic. I surveyed there on seismic crews through two winters in temperatures that went on occasion below -60 Fahrenheit. I led moves across country and from island to island across sea ice. That’s getting close to being an explorer, although in the 70s I had some aviation backup and good radio communications. But two facts interfere with my working on a fiction plot. The primary characters who make decisions and move affairs never set foot in the Arctic, except perhaps a few hours of flying visit. If I’ve carried out a few journeys on the ground in conditions that sometimes degenerated to ground blizzards with zero visibility and a good chance of my becoming an ice cube – that’s just my stupidity. The big boys that one needs to cast a plot around are home and warm.

The second fact actually depicts a fantasy – that the lead characters in oil exploration are the oil drillers. In the Arctic, the drilling rigs followed years behind the seismic crews providing the geophysical data that mapped the potential oil bearing structures. Not only that but the rigs up there were boarded in to keep out the wind and blowing snow; the rig camps were located a short distance away with ropes strung between the two to keep roughnecks from wandering astray. No tougher than drilling on the winter Prairie – they didn’t even have to drive a highway in a Saskatchewan blizzard. Between flying in and out all the way from Edmonton, and making the trip from camp to airstrip in warm trucks and tracked vehicles, they never actually set foot in an arctic wilderness.




I did write a collection of stories gathered over my years spent in the business – the kind of tales guys tell around a campfire or a mess-hall table littered with empty beer bottles. They consisted of stories I heard, stories I saw unfold, as well as stories that happened to me. They were all about the seismic crews, the unsung explorers who forged into the wilderness cutting swathes of knowledge and roads for the drillers to follow. The book almost found a publisher. But according to the senior editor my stories were not appealing enough to the reading public because there were no roughnecks in them. He was firmly of the opinion that the real explorers were oil drillers and no public would accept a book that left them out.

Once, despite all my reservations, I decided to start an arctic novel. It would only feature one perilous journey through a whiteout, perhaps some tension between the bosses down south and the guys on the front lines – and even some dangerous interpersonal conflicts that I might make up. Chapter one started with a difficult approach to an arctic airstrip in an Electra. Aircraft we often used, having sat in the cabin myself while planes descended through storms and zero visibility to primitive airstrips on several occasions. Always a dramatic moment when the undercarriage goes down, the engines throttle back, the plane lurches and yaws, the cabin lights flicker, and everyone sits waiting for the bump – or perhaps an awful crash.

Then PanArctic Petroleum’s Electra, CF-PAB, that I’d flown in and out with many times, undershot the runway at Rae Point in a snowstorm. Crashing onto the sea ice, it broke through and sank in seconds. Of thirty-three aboard only three got out, and one of those succumbed to hypothermia before help arrived. I was stunned into a writing block – what could I add to that reality? Besides the aircrew, the men aboard were a drilling crew – so my opinion that the drillers never experience the real arctic was also shot to hell. They had one short, horrible experience of the arctic waters under the ice.

So that novel ceased to develop and I put aside the idea of writing the ‘great oilpatch novel’ – at least until I’m established enough that know-it-alls can’t presume to correct my knowledge. There’s a good Buddhist aphorism I know, “He who walks with fools suffers a long way.” So I write speculative fiction, and keep clear of writing novels about the life I really experienced.

My latest speculative fiction is the alternate world SF novel “The Wildcat’s Victory”. It can be found on at Double Dragon Publishing and on Amazon.


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