Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Recommended Books

Okay before we get into the nitty gritty of today’s Top Ten Tuesday (which is about books that have been recommended to me, not vice versa), I just have to marvel about the fact that it’s already May. MAY! 2011 is going oh so quickly! Also, I need to just share a squee-worthy moment – I tweeted my review of DISMANTLED by Jennifer McMahon, and she tweeted me back to say thank you!! Love her!

Also, I did have a great trip and managed to finish three books (!), reviews of which are coming soon. One fantastic, one not so fantastic, and one right in the middle. A mixed bag, but that’s okay. It actually is a good segway into today’s Top Ten Tuesday. I’ve seen some great lists (you can see the bloggers that have participated on The Broke and the Bookish) and it’s a great insight into the kind of readers people are. I thought I’d put together my own list and challenge myself to remember where I got some of my favorite books.

1. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – This book has been on a lot of people’s lists/TBR shelves because of the HBO series, but I first read this about four and half years ago off a recommendation from my manager at Barnes & Noble. At the time, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with fantasy – high fantasy like this was certainly nowhere on my list of favorites. But my manager, Jacob, said to me, “Rachel, read the first 150 pages, and if you can put it down after that point, you don’t have to read any more. But I think you’ll be hooked by then.” And he was right. I got completely obsessed with the series, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Not only that, but this book way my gateway into other types of fantasy that I normally would’ve been very hesitant or skeptical of. Now I count certain types of fantasy among my favorites and am much more willing to give something a chance. I also think this was the first book that I read purely because of the person making the recommendation. I trusted his opinion and I wasn’t disappointed.
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – What a recommendation this turned out to be. I got this one the summer before my freshman year of college, 2001, from my future roommate, Caroline. I’d poo-poo’d Harry Potter to that point (I think only #4 had been published so far), but when I talked to Caroline on the phone the summer before we became roommates (our college had sent each of us the names and numbers for all the roommates), she insisted that I read it. I did, and the rest is history. However, I didn’t get all the way through Book #4 before school started and I’d gotten so busy that I hadn’t been able to finish the last 50 pages or so. When all my roommates and friends found out I hadn’t finished it yet, they locked me in the bedroom until I finished it.
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett – I get a lot of recommendations from my mom. We have similar but not quite the same tastes, so if she really likes something, she’ll recommend it and vice versa. We tend to trade books a lot. I chose The Help for this list because it’s a good example of the ways that sometimes, even if something doesn’t sound like it would appeal to you but the recommendation is so adamant, sometimes you should just shut up and read it. You’ll probably love it. That’s what happened in this case. I’d been reading lots of different things when my mom read this, and she practically threw it at me to get me to read it. When I finally did, holy moly. One of my favorite books of 2010.
4. Twilight by Stephanie Meyers – I’m including this one because it’s a great example of how wildfire-like books recommendations can get. This came out while I was the manager of the Children’s department at B&N and I thought it was completely dumb and inappropriate and all of that. I also did not read vampire books – phew! But a few years after the first book was released, a coworker read it and completely raved about what a guilty pleasure it was. She agreed that it was completely dumb and not at all a good thing for teenagers to read (in the opinion of those of us that don’t believe in that whole “waiting ’till marriage” thing). But that omg it was addictive. From there, it spread through my office so quickly and soon I think almost every woman in my department had read it. Then the movies came out and we all went back to not caring.
5. Just Kids by Patti Smith – I sort of knew who Patti Smith was when this came out. And I’d seen a ton of reviews on other blogs which encouraged me to read it. But the nail in the coffin? My mom. Once again. So happy I stepped out of my comfort zone.
6. A Widow for One Year by John Irving – I’m almost positive this recommendation also came from my mom (can you sense a pattern?) but I have to include it because it led to me discovering my favorite author in Irving. They always say that you never forget your first, and while this is not my favorite of his books, it holds a special place.
7. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles – This recommendation came from a coworker at Barnes & Noble who loved, loved, loved crime fiction. But we would challenge each other with recommendations and I would push his limits with lit fiction and he gave me some of my favorite guilty pleasure reading. His recommendation for The Quiet Game was simple: “It’s like John Grisham, but Greg Iles can actually write.” That was good enough for me and I’ve read almost everything else he’s written as a result.
8. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes – I got this one from Rebecca @ The Book Lady’s Blog. She RAVED about this book – on her blog, on Twitter, everywhere – and when she said that she didn’t even LIKE “war” books, I knew I had to pick it up. Well worth it, and her recommendations rarely disappoint.
9. The Last Werewolf  by Glen Duncan – A recent recommendation, I’d seen a review from Lori @ TNBBC and decided that I was dying to read this! I saw that she’d gotten a review copy from the publisher and I tweeted her asking her how she pulled that off. Not only did she give me an answer, she mailed me a copy of the book. How’s that for a recommendation? I’m going to post my review shortly, but this is definitely one of my faves for the year.
10. The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips – This is kind of a cheat, because I didn’t really like this book at all. But it was recommended to me by Greg @ The New Dork Review of Books and because we have very similar tastes in books, I read it. I did not like it. Greg loved it. Something was off kilter here. But it led to a really great discussion about how we read books and if gender plays a significant role into how we perceive character intentions. I didn’t like the book, but I loved the result which is why it made my list.

So! There’s my list. What are some of the best books that have been recommended to you?