Monday, December 11, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday!


So this week The Broke and the Bookish made Top Ten Tuesday suuuuuper easy. The topic is Top Ten Favorite Books of 2017. I have read some really fantastic books this year and am happy to share them now. Here they are, in no particular order (except the first one because, duh.)

34747904

This was a given, right?

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34474557     25762242


30971759      25733908

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30041445

The first book I read in 2017. Actually, I started it at the end of 2016 at about 11 PM on December 31st. I was falling short on my Goodreads Challenge last year, so I found a bunch of free chick lit and cozy mysteries for free via BookBub. With ten books to go and an hour left, I threw in the towel and decided to end the year with a book I was sure to love. And I did.

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34236353

I know, I know. It's a shocker any time something other than non-fiction appears on one of my lists.

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35595202

WHAT?! A book NOT non-fiction or even historical fiction?? I know. As mentioned above, last year I was behind on my Goodreads Challenge. I found the first book in the Mercy Watts series as a result and HATED it. Parts of it took place in Lincoln, Nebraska, ON CAMPUS even at UNL, and so much was wrong, I was furious. But then I found a box set that was also free and I kept plugging away and I am glad I did for two reasons. 1) The books got better as the series and novellas went on and 2) Mercy's hot cop "cousin". Cousin is in quotes because they are not actually cousins, Chuck was adopted by her uncle when he and Chuck's mom got married (and divorced a few years later). Mercy and Chuck are now dating, and I promise it is not as weird as it sounds.

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28964412     30841110

32620358     29139358

29430787     29139385

I have to stop here or the list will go on for a while. Let me know what you think of my list and leave a link to your own.

Happy Reading!
Sarah

24 comments:

  1. Love Catherine of Aragon! :-) I will look out for that book.

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    1. It is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Tudors in general, but Catherine especially. It is so well-written. Amy Licence has so many great books about the era but I think this one is my most favorite.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you Anne, happy 2018 to you as well! It was tough to even narrow it down to 15, but I can truly say about each of these that I would read them again - and I am not typically one who rereads books.

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  3. "The Black Hand" definitely has my interest!

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    1. Definitely worth your time to check out. The lengths Detective Petrosino went to in order to stop the attacks and kidnappings, ransoms, etc is so worthy of attention. It is unfortunate that the divide between the Irish and Italian officers was so great. Imagine what crimes could have been prevented had they been able to work better together. When you get a chance to read it, let me know what you think.

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    2. From what I've been reading in "First Family", about the origin of the Sicilian mob in the US, the Italian neighborhoods of NYC were so densely populated with recent immigrations that Italian dialects were the only thing spoken, and no one trusted policemen. According to First Family, crimes in that area of town went largely unreported to the police, given the communication difficulties and mutual suspicion.

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    3. All of that is addressed in the book as well. Petrosino himself was Italian and constantly came up against other Italians who would not speak about crimes even to him, because they were so afraid. He had his own crime unit at one point, dedicated solely to going after the criminals in the Italian neighborhoods. Who wrote "First Family"? I have "Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires" by Salwyn Raab waiting patiently for me on my bookshelf, have you read it?

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  4. I love the Daily Show, yes even with Trevor Noah! But, Jon Stewart is the best! He's so funny and smart. Looks like a fun and interesting book.

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    1. I miss Jon Stewart so much! Seeing him on Colbert in 2016 was so refreshing, because I have deeply missed his political commentary and he kept me sane for much of the 2000 and 2004 tomfoolery. I was wary of Trevor Noah at first, only because I did not know much about him. Turns out I love Trevor too - check out his book "Born a Crime" if you have not yet done so.

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  5. I wanted to pick up "Our Revolution" for such a long time. Hopefully, next year I`ll get to it.

    Carmen`s Reading Corner

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    1. I received it as a Christmas gift in 2016 from my daughter's grandparents, who are very conservative. But they also knew how much I was invested in Bernie's campaign, and politics and the election in general. My daughter (3 at the time) adores Bernie and still asks to watch his various campaign videos. We got to meet him at a rally the Friday before the election and it was amazing. As I was reading, a lot of it is material from his speeches, and instead of hearing the words in my own voice, I was hearing them in his. Maybe that makes me a little crazy, but I am okay with that!

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  6. It looks like you read SO MANY fantastic historical fiction books! Your list sounds amazing. I want to read more books about history!

    Here's my List: https://bookslikewolves.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2017/12/12/Blogmas-Day-12-Top-17-Books-of-2017

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    1. I really love history, so non-fiction is my jam. I will definitely read historical fiction either by certain authors or about certain subjects. I can recommend great history books all day, so let me know if you ever want some recs!

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  7. Nice list. I really enjoy history and historical fiction, so I'll definitely be checking some of these out. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

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    1. I hope you found at least a few of interest to you, and I am always happy to make more recommendations!

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  8. Nice to know That The Templars was good, even if not a big surprise, because I do have that (and Dan Jones in general) on my to-read list, largely thanks to your recommendations! The Unreformed MArtin Luther and Catherine of Aragon look great too.

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    1. I knew YOU would not be surprised by The Templars! I am always glad to make more recommendations, but Jones is a great place to start for medieval history. I found quite a few interesting books at our local Christian bookstore about Martin Luther in recent months, with it being the 500th anniversary and all. The one I included here was not terribly long or time-consuming, but did a lot to dispel some of the heartier rumors of Luther's life. As for Catherine of Aragon, you really can't go wrong with an Amy Licence book. She has so many fantastic texts about the Tudor era.

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    2. Awesome. I'll probably track down that Martin Luther book then, and Amy Licence- good to know, as I'd like to read more about the Tudors. Thanks for sharing!

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    3. No problem, always happy to point new readers toward Licence! I have picked up quite a few of her books in recent months via her publisher, Amberley at www.amberley-books.com. They have had some fantastic sales (I think it might have been you I told this to before? Apologies if I have, I've told so many people, I can't remember who!) and shipping from the UK is a flat $15. They've done two 25% off and one 30% off sale just since August. This even counts for pre-orders, which has been amazing. Check it out when you have a chance.

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  9. I haven't read any of the books on your list this week.... But I have the feeling I will be adding a few more titles to my ever growing reading wishlist!!

    Here's a link to my TTT post for this week:
    https://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2017/12/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-favorite-books.html

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    1. it always makes my heart so happy when people find books from my lists that they might too enjoy. Please let me know which ones you get around to reading, and your thoughts on them!

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  10. The Raven's Widow is lurking on my Tudor bookshelves waiting to be read! Maybe next year...I might need to look into Amy Licence as I haven't read any of her books yet.

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    1. It was really good, I ended up reading it in like, two days. Adrienne is so thorough and really made Jane so much more human than we have seen both in fiction and non-fiction alike. If only we could really know more about her.

      I have read so many great books by Licence. And Amberley has really great sales site-wide so that is always when I stock up. Can't beat a flat rate of $15 in shipping to the US!

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