Top 10 Thankful Books

We asked our group members to tell us about books that were sincerely life changing.

This is our list of special reads that led us to experience true thankfulness!

  1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  3. Matilda
  4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird
  6. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
  7. The Boxcar Children
  8. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
  9. Life of Pi
  10. The Hobbit

You are welcome to also read the personal stories behind these choices here.

Each week, The Broke and Bookish inspires a Top 10 Tuesday list. 
Our responses are group member generated.

Our December Group Reads

Each month, Casual Readers group members choose our primary group read via a poll. This month, it was a tie! We couldn't choose one over the other so decided to give everyone the chance to read them BOTH.

The December primary group reads are...

 


We will also still be reading a secondary series selection in December. 



We are currently reading the first book for November and will be reading the third book of the series in January.

April's Approbation

 
One of our group members and beloved moderators, April, recommends Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk for this week's Throwback Thursday.

She gave it FOUR STARS but labels it as a book worthy of a re-read, especially if you enjoy the weird.


She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.

Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.

The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future.

Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Books of 2013

Choose the best books of the year in the Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by the readers. Support your favorites by voting in all three rounds!

Categories:

Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Horror, Memoir & Autobiography, History & Biography, Non-fiction, Food & Cookbooks, Humor, Graphic Novels & Comics, Poetry, Debut Goodreads Author, Young Adult Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, Middle Grade & Children's, Picture Books

Opening Round:



The Other Amber's Throwback

 
This Throwback Thursday was nominated by Amber.


She recommends Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh as a FIVE STAR read for creatively telling the story of three family generations in one coal mining town.

Bakerton is a community of company houses and church festivals, of union squabbles and firemen's parades. Its neighborhoods include Little Italy, Swedetown, and Polish Hill. For its tight-knit citizens -- and the five children of the Novak family -- the 1940s will be a decade of excitement, tragedy, and stunning change. Baker Towers is a family saga and a love story, a hymn to a time and place long gone, to America's industrial past, and to the men and women we now call the Greatest Generation. It is a feat of imagination from an extraordinary voice in American fiction, a writer of enormous power and skill.


Sima's Selection

 Sima gave American Gods by Neil Gaiman FIVE STARS.


She says, "Just thinking about it makes me want to re-read it ASAP."

Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

We seem to have a lot of Gaiman fans in the group!

Top 10 Unusual Character Names

  1. Ford Perfect, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  2. Wellington Books, Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences
  3. Millon de Floss, Thursday Next
  4. Veruca Salt, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  5. Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games
  6. Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry Potter
  7. Daenerys Targaryen, A Song of Ice and Fire
  8. Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit


Comment to finish our list? We came up short this week!

Each week, The Broke and Bookish inspires a Top 10 Tuesday list. 
Our responses are group member generated.


Project J

 
Today's throwback was suggested by yet another (former) group member, J.


She gave it FIVE STARS. If you haven't picked up this trilogy yet, it is a must read!

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride.

Intrigued by this member's selection? Find out more about her here.