Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Great Recent Reads

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the wonderful The Broke and the Bookish!

For this Top Ten Tuesday, it is all about recent reads! In no particular order, here are ten great books I've read recently, with links to their reviews:

Jane Steele Review

Careless People Review

A Head Full of Ghosts Review

The Dead House Review

All Things Cease to Appear Review

The Widow Review

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust Review

The Steel Kiss Review

The Passenger

Holding Court Review

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye and Book Haul Time!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself


"Reader, I murdered him."

This book was everything I was hoping for when I read the description. The heroine, Jane Steele, lives a Jane Eyre-esque life, and is also a serial killer. She does not set out to be one, but circumstances beyond her control place her in situations where she must act.

Jane Steele is a very strong character, strongly resembling Jane Eyre (the heroine of her own favorite book) if that Jane carried a knife in her skirts, and was willing and able to physically defend herself against all comers.

Sent to live a hard life at a boarding school as soon as she becomes an orphan, Jane Steele fights to escape what seems to be her destiny. Clawing her way up from circumstances that would defeat many, she applies for and gets the position of governess at her old childhood home, now under a new master.

Expecting to simply kill the new master, Mr. Thornfield, under the belief that she is the rightful heiress, Jane Steele finds that, when deep affection and love come into play, her future, and in fact her past, may not be what she believed.

This book was such a creative, well-written, enjoyable read. Faye does a fantastic job of making readers root for Jane Steele, and the characters all come to life brilliantly. There is even a well-done mystery interspersed through the latter half of the book, and multiple twists and turns surrounding misinformation and lies.

I highly recommend this book, not only for fans of Jane Eyre or crime books, but for readers who like a cleverly done novel with a strong female protagonist.

I'm on vacation visiting my brother and sister-in-law, and haven't been getting a ton of reading done because we've been gallivanting around, doing everything from seeing magic shows to going carpet skating. But today we had lunch across from a used bookstore, so of course I had to stop in, and of course I walked out with five books-I just can't resist!

Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell

I love true crime, and I love The Great Gatsby (I think its concluding sentences are honestly some of the finest ever written), so that I would love this book seemed like a given. And I did love this book, even more than I expected.

Churchwell explores the fascinating, heartbreaking, scandalous. and, yes, careless, lives of the Fitzgeralds. From Scott and Zelda's seemingly never-ending alcohol consumption and partying, to Scott's deep felt disappointment at the lack of commercial success for what he considered his finest writing, and Zelda's descent into a series of heartrending breakdowns, Churchwell makes their world and the time period they lived in come alive in vivid color.

Churchwell also expertly weaves in the still-unsolved Hall-Mills murder case, and how its scandal, adultery, and immediacy as (tabloid) newspaper fodder may have influenced The Great Gatsby.

History, mystery, and literary theory all combine to make for a fascinating non-fiction read.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Love But Haven't Talked About in a While (Or Talked About Enough)

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the amazing The Broke and The Bookish

1) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

This has been a favorite of mine since high school, and I even wrote a paper on it for A.P. English when we got to choose our book.

2) A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

I love Ngaio Marsh, and this is one of my favorites by her. It features the classic isolated country house, the "killer is one of us" trope I love so, and even a take on "The Murder Game" that ends in actual murder.

3) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

I read this for a Russian Lit class in college, and it remains one of the best books I have ever read for school. I love it so much I made my dad read it, and then my friend brought me a copy back from her trip to Russia.

4) Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

I've talked about my love for Night Film quite a bit before, but this book was the one that first got me hooked on Pessl's amazing writing.

5) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

It is impossible for me to talk about this book enough. It has been my favorite book for 20 years now, and I re read it at least once, if not more, every year.

6) The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

One of my all-time favorite true crime books.

7) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This is one of those books I keep coming back to. It's so powerful, and so creative, and so well-written. 

8)  Soulless by Gail Carriger

 I adore this series. Carriger has done some amazing world building, all the characters are great, the protagonist is a strong smart woman, and there is a really wonderful romance.

9) Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell

I don't usually enjoy books centered around wars, but I loved this book, and the series. My dad got me hooked on them, and we read all the books and watched all the movies.

10) Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

This was another series I was completely hooked on. My mom got me the first book because she wanted me to have access to more literature with strong female protagonists. I read every book in the Song of the Lioness series, and much of what else Pierce wrote as well.

The Unforgotten by Laura Powell and A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review.

Betty Broadbent is fifteen years old, living in a little village, helping her mother run a boarding house. Her life feels small and all too frequently frightening, due to her mother's "black monster" mood swings, and the sudden rash of murders of young women.

As the murder count rises, reporters crowd their boarding house, and Betty finds herself drawn to one in particular, the quiet, frequently taciturn, Mr. Gallagher.

Interspersed among this past timeline, readers are introduced in the present to Mary, a woman with secrets and struggles who seems to have some tie to the events of the past.

This is a murder mystery that is strongly character driven. The mystery frequently takes a backseat to what is happening between Betty and her mother, Betty and her friend, Betty and Mr. Gallagher, and the mysterious Mary. But the book does not suffer from this. The detailed development of the time, place, and people add an urgency and an emotional connection to the book readers cannot help but feel.

I did end up predicting a lot of what was revealed about the mystery, including some of the bigger twists. But the end reveal completely shocked me, and had me thinking back over the whole book to see what I had missed.

The minute I saw the description of this book, I knew I had to read it. It combines so many tropes and genres I love-reality shows (and a paranormal one to boot), urban legends, a past that may not be what everyone believes it to be, secrets, unreliable narrators, horror, mystery, and even some creative use of outside media brought into the text (in this case, a blog). In short, this was a book I was desperate to read, and this was a book that was a really good read.

We are introduced to Merry, eight years old when the events filmed on The Possession took place, now grown up and telling her story to a writer. As Merry tells about her sister and the terrifying changes that took place around her, about her father's dependence on religion and his desperate turn to an exorcism (and the promised money from the reality show) to fix everything, about her mother's descent into drinking and depression, we are taken back into the past, shown the beginning, middle, and end of this terrifying tale. This is interspersed with a horror blogger who describes in detail the various episodes of The Possession, and analyzes them at length.

But is what we are being told the truth? Merry is an unreliable narrator, not only because of her young age when the events she describes took place, but because she readily admits that watching The Possession and reading articles on it may have caused her memories to warp and blur. What she thinks she remembers may not have actually happened that way.

And that is what is most amazing about this book, in the end. The terror builds until it is almost unbearable, the shocking revelation comes, and as readers are left in shock, they are also left wondering if Merry has just fed them over a hundred pages of lies, and, if so, if she did this on purpose.

Mean Sisters by Lindsay Emory

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Note: The American edition of this book is titled Sisterhood is Deadly.

This is a gloriously fun book. The protagonist, Margot, is so likable and relatable, one of the most enjoyable protagonists and narrators I've encountered in my reading recently. Sure, many of us (myself included) don't know what it's like to be in charge of a sorority, or attempt to solve multiple murders, but that's the magic of what Emory does here. Even in the midst of all the absolute craziness, you still want to grab a venti latte with Margot and chat for hours.

The plot itself surrounds a murder mystery with some great twists and surprises. Margot is so loyal to her sorority that as an alumna she travels around the country advising various branches. But now she is back at her alma mater, and a sorority sister has just dropped dead during a chapter meeting.

Murder, mystery, and mayhem commence, and even in some particularly emotional moments that really do make you think, Margot keeps her wits and her wittiness about her. There are some great supporting characters as well, especially her best friend Casey, and a hint of a romance with a handsome cop that is hopefully leading somewhere.

I really hope there are more Sorority Sister mysteries to come!

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books On My Spring TBR

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the wonderful The Broke and The Bookish !

1) I've been waiting for this one to come out for a while now! I too am a true crime addict, and the Maura Murray case is fascinating, and one I just started learning about.

2) and 3) These both look like great, creepy, young adult mysteries.

4) I love Sophie Hannah, especially now that she's taken on writing the new Hercule Poirot mysteries. I'm trying to read everything she's written now.

5) I have high hopes for a psychological thriller being billed as the next Gone Girl or Girl on the Train.

6) This is another creepy looking young adult mystery, involving secrets from the past.

7) This is being billed as a modern take on And Then There Were None, one of my all-time favorite books.

8) This book is being compared to The Virgin Suicides, and appears to be about either a Manson-like cult, or the Manson Family themselves.

9) A psychological thriller with a recommendation from Sophie Hannah-I'm sold.

10) Essentially Jane Eyre as a serial killer!