Top Ten Tuesday – Character Driven Novels

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is a recommendation list.

Ten Books For Readers Who Like Character Driven Novels

I like a good character driven novel just like anybody else. I actually just finished reading a couple of character driven novels for Banned Books week (reviews coming soon). The first five are books that I’ve already read and the second were recommendations I haven’t yet read.

Have Read

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
4. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

To Read

1. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
5. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvrez

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You can also catch me at I Read Banned & Challenged Books Club. If you live in the Washington, DC metro area come out for our first meetup on Saturday, October 18 at 2:00 pm and  join the discussion — Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. If you’re not in the DC metro area feel free to join the online discussion at I Read Banned & Challenged Books Club or on Goodreads. 

Top Ten Tuesday – Literary Character at My Lunch Table

The Top 10 Literary Characters at My Lunch Table
from the Broke and the Bookish

1. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
   Brilliant. Narcissistic. I must have him at my table for a bit of brute honesty because as you’ll see some of my favorite characters need a little or a lot of telling it like it is.
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   Jane Eyre is one of the strongest female characters in literature I know. Jane would probably be Sherlock’s Dr. Watson at my table. She’s more caring, but not overly emotional and she, too, is honest, which she phrases in a kinder, gentler manner. And she’s feisty to boot.
3. Bigger Thomas of Native Son by Richard Wright
   With a name like Bigger, it’s pretty obvious you’re going to be larger than life. Even if it is tragic. Bigger is the embodiment of racism. The black man’s fear and envy of the white man and the white man’s fear of the black man. 

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I want to Read

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet
from the Broke and the Bookish

 

I try my best to keep my arsenal of books pretty diverse. Perhaps that’s because when I was in college as an English Lit major the primary focus was on British and American Literature. In other words mostly European white males. Not very diversified at all. There was an African-American Literature course but that was it. As a result of not having a lot of literary variety, I feel like I’ve missed out on some pretty spectacular authors and it’s true, I have.

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Why not read the book that holds the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most translated novel? I also want to read it because folks I’ve to about it say it’s awful. Kind of morbid curiosity.

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
I have the movie and refuse to watch it until I’ve read the book.

3. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
I’ve always wanted to read this to find out why this novel sparked so much controversy and why Ayatollah Khomeini put a bounty out for Rushdie.

Top Ten Tuesday – Recommended Reading

Top Ten Tuesday a weekly meme and link up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week we were asked to list the Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read.

1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
2. Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin
3. Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
6. Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
9. Any book by Janet Evanovich
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Have any of these been a recommendation? Have you recommend any of them?