Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Popular Authors I've Never Read

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, is top ten popular authors I've never read! I based 'popularity' from this Goodreads list as well as other sources of what I consider popular. Let's just get started.

1. Nicholas Sparks - author of The Notebook
2. Neil Gaiman - author of American Gods
3. Meg Cabot - author of The Princess Diaries
4. Jane Austen - author of Pride and Prejudice
5. JRR Tolkien - author of The Hobbit
6. Markus Zusak - author of The Book Thief
7. Melissa de la Cruz - author of Blue Bloods
8. Laurie Halse Anderson - author of Speak
9. Ellen Hopkins - author of Crank
10. Maureen Johnson - author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes

What popular authors have you never read? After making this list, I see I really need to expand the authors I read from!

The Classics Book Club: March Pick

March's pick for the Classics book club is...

Villette by Charlotte Bronte!

Summary: 

"Villette! Villette! Have you read it?" exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Brontë's final novel appeared in 1853. "It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power."

Arguably Brontë's most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of Villette,flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy's struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë's strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free.

Make sure to join us on the Goodreads Group for the discussion!

Recommend A...Underrated Book

Today's Recommend A, hosted by Vy's Blog, is for an underrated book which was suggested by YA Booklover and Let's Evaluate. For this, I chose:

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza

Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past—that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

This book is a newer release and so it is still underreviewed, but it really deserves some attention! 

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

Published Little Brown Books 2012

Genre: Young Adult Sci Fi/Horror

Format: Hardback from the library

Buy this book - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever. Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune. Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan. Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.

OMG THIS BOOK!!! 

I think that is the first time in a while I have thoroughly had that reaction. This book gave me so much anxiety while reading...I was crying and shaking and on the edge of my seat the entire time. Thankfully, I read this book in the daytime because I don't think I will ever be able to look at the moon the same way again. 

This book is creepy and terrifying, but it's also so good! There is always a constant fear of something happening. Harstad's writing style is a little vague and allusive, all building up to bring some major point back together in the end. It just intensified the book and their experience on the moon. I loved all the characters but I was not emotionally attached to them. Sure, I wanted them to survive, but I would never have feels over them or anything. However, this really worked in the book's favor. It kept the tone focused more on the situation they were in than on the characters themselves. I was naturally scared for their safety anyway, so it did not take a lot more for me to love them. I really liked how they all came from different parts of the world and for different reasons, although why did no one apply just to go to the moon? Well, I get that now...

The action scenes were so good and so creepy. There was always a constant feeling of warning, that something was just on the edge of happening. I really liked all the different perspectives we got of this trip, from the old man who had past experience with this mission to each of the respective astronauts going on board. The entire book was just so intense. I want this to be a movie so badly...like seriously, I would probably have a panic attack or something in the theater, but it would all be worth it. 

Okay - all of you need to read this book. It was scary and intense and one of the best things I have ever read. Like ever. Go read it.

March To Be Read

For March, I am planning to read ten books! Here they are:



The books (in order from left to right):

• Villette by Charlotte Bronte for the Classics Book Club
• Uninvited by Sophie Jordan 
• 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner 
• Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
• Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
• The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
• Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard 
• Panic by Lauren Oliver
• Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

February Wrap Up

This February, I read twelve books which I think is amazing! Here they are with links to the reviews down below.



Books I read:

• Sketchy by Olivia Samms
• Night by Elie Wiesel 
• Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Hate List by Jennifer Brown
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Aesop's Fables by Aesop Review
• Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
• Bunheads by Sophie Flack Review
• Virals by Kathy Reichs Review
• Just Listen by Sarah Dessen Review
• Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix Review
• The Giver by Lois Lowry Review

What books did you read this month?

The Giver by Lois Lowry: Review

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Published Houghton Mifflin Books 1993

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Format: Hardback from the library

Other books in this series: Gathering Blue, Messenger, Son

Buy This Book: Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Jonas' world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

To be totally honest, I really don't know what to think of this book. For many people, it is the ultimate classic and example of what a dystopian novel should really be. And I truly understand that. I just don't think it lived up to the hype for me. 

My main problem was that the book was short at only 225 or so pages. There are very little books nowadays that are published saying too little. However, it felt like the story was shoved into such a small space. This didn't really allow for the character development of Jonas or The Giver. The secondary characters were also just thrown aside for the most part. It really could have been improved if I related to Jonas, but I really did not care. The writing style was also very detached from the characters. The book was written in third person, but it felt so different because the way it was written. 

The story idea was also good, but it was not expanded upon enough. I had no idea a year had passed until the end of the book when they mentioned Jonas' ceremony of the thirteen, which really threw me. I thought, until that point, the book was within a month. There are not many descriptions of time passing. I also wanted to know more about the memories that were being given to Jonas. The ending felt strange too, like it didn't totally belong in the book. It just appeared at the end randomly and I could not figure out why they were doing this. That scene came in a rush as did most of the book.

Overall, I understand that this book is influential and defintely very good, but I just wasn't sure about the execution and description given to the topic.