Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Books I’d Buy Right This Second if Someone Handed Me a Fully Loaded Gift Card
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by a bunch of ‘college aged and twenty somethings’ over at Broke and the Bookish, who would ‘spend every last penny on books even if it meant skipping a few meals’. One of their Top Ten Tuesday topics is ‘Ten books you’d buy right this second if someone handed you a fully loaded gift card’. I’m not exactly sure how much ‘fully loaded’ equates to, but I do have several book vouchers to spend and I’ve been adding titles to a sticky note on my desk, so this particular list really appealed to me.
NB: These are books I do not already own and, therefore, I have not included any titles already on my leaning tower of a to-read pile next to my bed.
1. The Woman Next Door by Liz Byrski. I believe Liz Byrski started writing novels such as this one because of the dearth of older, female characters in fiction. I discovered her fiction by ‘accident’ at my local library, realised I’d already read some of her non-fiction, and have recently had the delightful privilege of appearing with her on two literary panels.
2. Chasing Asylum: A Filmmakers’ Story by Eva Orner. Eva Orner returned from the United States to make a documentary about Australia’s ‘woefully inadequate’ treatment of asylum seekers. This is her memoir about her journey to making Chasing Asylum.
3. The Historian’s Daughter by Rashida Murphy. I’m fascinated by the story itself, but also personally excited to see Rashida publish this book, after initially meeting her in a writing group at least fifteen years ago.
4. The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif by Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman. This book has been recommended to me by several people because of my interest in stories about people seeking asylum outside their own country.
5. The Road to Winter by Mark Smith. Although dystopian fiction are dark by definition, I’m curious to read about the future Australia as imagined by Mark Smith.
6. The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria by Janine di Giovanni. About twenty years ago, I read Christobel Mattingley’s book, Escape from Sarajevo, about a family’s escape from Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. I was struck by how this family’s life before the war was not that all that different to my own, and I wonder whether Then They Came for Us will evoke a similar response.
7. The Paper House by Anna Spargo-Ryan. I’ve heard wonderful things about this debut novel, and was prompted to include it after seeing it on Kate’s list over at booksaremyfavouriteandbest.
8. Hijabi Girl by Hazel Edwards and Ozge Alkan. We need more books with characters from diverse backgrounds, so that the students I work with can see themselves in the stories they read.
9. Thelma the Unicorn by Aaron Blabey. I didn’t really think I was into unicorns, but Blabey’s Pig the Pug books are a hit at 12 Buckets, where I spend time each week mentoring primary school students, so I checked out the video of him reading Thelma the Unicorn.
As a result, I’ve decided I need to add Thelma the Unicorn to the 12 Buckets bookshelf (although for some reason I keep wanting to call her Zelma).
10. Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood, with illustrations by Sally Wern Comport. I discovered this by looking at other bloggers’ top ten lists, but thought this would also be great on the shelf at 12 Buckets.
Over to You
What books would you include on your top ten books to buy right this second if someone handed you a fully loaded gift card?
Hope your giftcards stretch far enough to actually get all of these titles!
Aaron Blabey is terrific – my kids loves Pig. Oddly, although I thought the text was fantastic, his illustrations don’t appeal to me at all… It’s not often that text and illustrations feel like a mismatch. Won’t stop us checking out Thelma though 🙂
I think part of the Thelma appeal was watching Aaron Blabey reading it! The kids I work with love Pig, too. Do your kids like the illustrations even if they don’t appeal to you?
Forgot to say thanks for the link!
You’re welcome!
That’s a fascinating list, Melinda. Lots of non-fiction, which I like. Looking forward to checking out some of your suggestions.
It is literally listed as I have ‘collected’ them … I had a sticky note on my desk so I didn’t forget what they were!
That is quite a list Melinda. I will make a note of those and keep the meme going.
It took me a while to compile mine, but I have come up with a list too. I’m obviously a history buff, going by the titles on my list.
1. “D Day The Battle for Normandy” by Anthony Beevor. I’m a great fan of Beevor. He brings history to life setting out his impeccable research alongside the personal details of real people’s lives. I’m currently reading his latest book on the Ardennes campaign during WW2 in Europe : “Ardennes 1944: Hitler’s Last Gamble”.
2. “A Brief History of Seven Killings” Marlon James. I try to read Booker Prize winners.
3. “Flood of Fire” by Amitav Ghosh. This is the final book in the Ibis trilogy – historical novels about the opium trade told from the Indian point of view. I’ve read the others “Sea of Poppies” and “River of Smoke” which are excellent.
4. “The Romanovs : 1613-1918” by Simon Sebag Montefiore who was a speaker at the Perth Writer’s Festival. I’m fascinated by Russian history and the Tsars and finally read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” this year in which one of the Tsars makes an appearance.
5. Vladimir Nabokov’s “A Guide to Berlin” first published in 1925 and the first English translation was published in The New Yorker on March 1, 1976. I’ve just read Gail Jones’s A Guide to Berlin and want to know more about the Nabokov story that inspired Jones.
6. Helen Garner’s “This House of Grief”. I’ll read anything by Helen Garner. She’s a superb writer and not afraid of tackling difficult subjects.
7. Margaret Atwood’s “MaddAddam” which is the final of her dystopic trilogy. I’ve already read the first two “Oryx and Crake” and “The Year of the Flood”. Atwood has the knack of tapping into the zeitgeist in the topics she writes about – plus she’s a great writer, and a Canadian!
8. Patti Miller “Writing Your Life”, because I want to eventually put my pieces of life writing together somehow.
9. Julian Barnes’s “The Noise of Time”. I heard Barnes interviewed recently and thought this book sounded interesting. I have just read Flaubert’s Parrot by Barnes. This latest novel is a fictionalised account of the Russian composer Shostakovich’s life and how he survived under Stalin. His music is thought to be symbolic of his struggle under the Soviet regime.
10. “Beyond the Killing Fields” by US journalist Sydney Schanberg who died recently. Without Sydney Schanberg’s work the Western world would not have heard about the “Killing Fields”, the atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s. We visited Cambodia last year and Schanberg is much revered there but the legacy of those terrible years lives on.
Thanks Mindy, for including THD in your to-read list. I’m honoured to be in such wonderful company as your other picks are books I’ve either read or am planning to read soon. Looking forward to seeing you at the launch!
I can’t wait for your launch, and to buy my signed copy!