Top Ten Tuesday: Best Underrated Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.  Every week bloggers are invited to create their own bookish lists with a certain theme... this week we're featuring those incredible books that you love and can't believe more people haven't read or enjoyed.  I found myself wishing it was 'Top Fifty or Top One Hundred Tuesday' this week-- there were loads more great books I wanted to highlight.  Most of these are YA, since the adult books I read tend to be bestsellers or well-known books.

1.

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Right, let's get this over with, shall we?  This book is about migrating rabbits.  I cannot tell you how skeptical I was upon starting it, but as it turns out, Watership Down is completely deserving of its classic status and besides that, it is awesome.  Not sure it's 'underrated', per se, more like 'misunderstood' or shied away from.

2. 

The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

Fifteen year old Thirrin suddenly finds herself Queen of the Icemark, a tiny snowbound country which is marked to be invaded by the all-powerful Empire and their calculating General Scipio.  This one's an old favorite, and there are two sequels, both equally good.  

3. 

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey 

I recently read that the Monstrumologist series is being discontinued by Simon & Schuster due to poor sells.  This officially sucks.  These books are like YA Victorian Gothics-- so gory and great.  Plus, the first book won a Printz Honor Award!  How can they discontinue this series?-- come on! 

4.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I know what you're thinking: 'What, you mean one of the most famous books of all time?'  Yes.  I included The Jungle Book because of all how many people have seen the Disney movie and think they know the story.  But... Kaa is not evil; only a few of the stories are about Mowgli, who does not in fact sing and dance with Baloo.  This book is too awesome to be missed-- I confess I just read it for the first time recently, and wish I'd read it sooner.

5. 

Godchild series by Kaori Yuki

An underrated manga series.  Seriously, they've yet to even make an anime out of it.  (Now, that's underrated, considering all the horrible mangas which are made into anime.)  Teenage Victorian nobleman Cain studies poisons and solves eerie mysteries, many of which regard his own shadowy past, in a crime-ridden London.

6. 

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

British author Jenny Nimmo's books are most popular with younger children, but I think teens and adults would also love this series.  It's somewhat like Harry Potter, yet somehow manages to elude comparison.  

7. 

Gone by Michael Grant

Pinky and I (that's my elusive little sister, for those who don't know) have featured the Gone series on the blog before.  It's an awesome dystopian series, Lord of the Flies-esque with a modern twist and a fast-paced, action-packed writing style.  Seriously, the most addictive series ever.

8. 

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff 

A great historical fiction book, first of a series.  These books are from the fifties, but gained a bit of attention after the release of The Eagle as a movie.  Still fairly little-known.

9. 

 Epic by Conor Kostick

The world is a fantasy MMORPG in this fantastic sci-fi book.  I think it was popular in Ireland, but never very much in the US.  

10. 

The Tree Shepard's Daughter by Gillian Summers

I loved this, the first in a series about a girl who goes to live with her father, who travels with a Renaissance Faire, after her mother's death.  Surprisingly great, though I don't really like the cover.  The Ren Faire setting is really fun.

AFK: The Beach House Edition

I've squinted and squinted at this photo, trying to decipher the print and figure out what book it's from.  Well, I've officially decided it's a task for the birds.  This week I'm heading out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stay in a friend's beach house with my family.  Said beach house is a glorious place, save for the small matter that it lacks WiFi.  Yes, I know, *gasp*.  Sadly, I won't be able to linger around the blogosphere, commenting and updating, this week, though (Never fear!) I do have a slew of scheduled posts coming your way.  In the meantime, I'll be reading, relaxing in the sand and surf, and trying to contain my Internet withdrawal symptoms.  I might be able to snag a few quick computer sessions in an Internet cafe sometime...

A few of the books I'll be enjoying on the beach: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (which has been sitting on my shelf in anticipation of this trip for months), The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and a novel called Battle Royale which is often said to be the inspiration for the Hunger Games.  Until I return, Au revoir!

Winner of the Summer Blog Hop Giveaway...

And the winner of my Summer Blog Hop Giveaway and Beauty Queens is... entry # 62, Annette @ Annette's Book Spot !  Congratulations!  I will be emailing you very soon.  :)
  Anyway, thanks so much to everyone who entered!  This was a very successful giveaway, not to mention a fun blog hop.

In My Mailbox #24

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie.  The idea behind IMM is not only to put new books on our radars but to encourage blogger interaction.  IMM explores the weekly contents of our mailboxes: books bought, received, won, and borrowed, along with other goodies and swag.

I wasn't going to buy any books this week!  I swear, I wasn't.  Only... books sort of find their way to me, no matter how ridiculously high my TBR pile is.  From what I read and watch on you guys' IMMs, it's definitely not a unique problem among book bloggers.  And, oh well, there are far worse addictions, right?  Anyway, I'm really excited to read Game of Thrones and The Iron Knight!

Here's what I got: 

E-Galleys: 

Bought: 

-- Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

--The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

--Wanderlove by Kirstin Hubbard

-- Misfit by Jon Skovron

--Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

-- Waterfall by Lisa T Bergen

UPDATE: The best new addition to my Mailbox (or rather my bedroom)-- a brand-new shelf, cast-off courtesy of my mom's classroom!  YAY!

Thanks to: 

-- Harlequin Teen

- Knopf Books

-- Delacorte Books

-- NetGalley
-- my mom

Recent Reviews:

Dracula, My Love by Syrie James

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

So, what's in your mailbox this weekend?

Manga Review: Afterschool Charisma Volume 3

Genre: shounen science fiction
Artist/Manga-ka: Kumiko Suekane
Rating: T+ for older teen according to Viz
Pages: 200


My Take:

Shiro Kamiya, the sole human student at St Kleio's Academy, a private and heavily guarded boarding school attended by the clones of historical figures such as Napoleon and Florence Nightingale, has just undergone the shock of his life after encountering an older research assistant who looks uncannily like him.  As the clones' talent Expo begins and millionaires from around the world pour onto the grounds to poke sticks and observe the clones in their 'natural habitat', Shiro finds himself questioning the one thing he thought he was absolutely sure of: his own humanity.  To make matters worse, he soon also finds himself locked in a room with Mozart.  (Not a happy fate.)

Meanwhile, the clones are frantically making last minute preparations for their big presentations.  The revelation of Rasputin's 'project' concerning the Almighty Dolly, the deity-like mascot the student clones have adopted, shocks every clone in the auditorium into silence, just before the building catches fire and assassins burst onto the scene to annihilate the St Kleio clones once and for all.  Students and visitors alike rush to flee the school, but it doesn't escape Napoleon's notice that some of the assassins look eerily familiar...

This volume definitely kick-started things up again.  The psychological aspect of clones is delved into somewhat and there are more than a few shocking twists.  Lots of action; a lot less pointless fan service.  The events towards the end are definitely going to leave me obsessing until the fourth volume comes out-- which won't be until October!  So, next week I'll be reviewing a different manga for the Mega Manga Challenge.  I'm open to suggestions, but was considering finishing Fullmetal Alchemist (I'm on volume 16) or else starting the first volume of Black Butler.  Any opinions?

Art: 5/5
Premise: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Overall Rating:

Friday Following & Hopping #30

Happy Friday and welcome to A Myriad of Books!  Hello to everyone stopping by my blog for Follow Friday (which is hosted by paranormal blogging queen Parajunkee and the fantastic Alison @ Alison Can Read).  I'd like to welcome any old followers dropping in to say hi.  :)   Leave your blog's link when you comment and I'll be certain to visit and follow you back! 
For those who don't know: I'm Kat, I blog and review fiction-- my typical reads being fantasy, sci-fi-esque, or historical.

This week's featured bloggers are: Bonnie @ Hands and Home and Amber @ Me, My Shelf, and I.

And this week's question is:

Talk about the book that most changed or influenced your life (was it a book that turned you from an average to avid reader, did it help you deal with a particularly difficult situation, does it bring you comfort every time you read it?).

My answer:  There have been a lot of books over the years which I've become very much obsessed with, rather for a few short weeks or years and years.  In middle school, I was all about Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and reread it about ten times in one year.  In high school, I fell in love with the Lord of the Rings series and re-discovered Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.  (They were so much better the second time around!)

But the book which really transformed me into a bibliophile was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling.  I know a lot of book-lovers who regard the Harry Potter series as the books they grew up with, and I'm definitely proud to be one of the masses who did.  These books have been such a huge part of my childhood, and even now I doubt I will ever discover a book or series which will be as much of a lasting and incredible experience as Harry Potter.  I remember being eight and feeling terrified of Sirius Black in the third book (not knowing he was in fact a good guy, of course).  I remember going to the midnight book release parties at Books-A-Million and reading the fifth book all through the early morning.  I actually get somewhat emotional and nostalgic talking about the Harry Potter books like this... they are so much a part of me, and it's truly amazing how over the decades, they have become beloved by so many people, young and old, around the world.  I'd love to hear from some of you who might feel the same way about Harry Potter or other books.


I wish you all happy blog hopping and an awesome weekend,

Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker by Syrie James

Genre: historical romance
Pages: 457 (paperback)
Published: 2010 by Avon A
Recommended for: fans of Dracula and historical or paranormal romance

My Take:

Mina Harker was a chaste and noble young Victorian woman who was brutally victimized by the evil Count Dracula.  Or so Stoker's classic vampire novel Dracula has always led us to believe.  Dracula, My Love reveals in flowing and expert prose the story of a very different Mina, one whom found herself romantically torn between her well-meaning husband, Johnathan, and of all people, the very ancient monstrosity who terrorized and maybe even murdered so many of the people she loved.

Yep, more Dracula fanfiction!  I started this book very curious as to how Ms. James was going to convince us readers that Mina Harker's relationship with Dracula was not in fact one of victimization and helpless fear, but of love.  I figured the author would have to somehow deviate a long way from the original Dracula in order to present her case... happily, I could not have been more wrong.  In this first-person narrative, Mina is thrilled to spend time at the charming coastal town of Whitby with her best friend, Lucy Westenra.  While exploring the seaside town after a storm, Mina and Lucy are as disturbed as the locals to learn that a ship without a crew has wrecked on the rocky coast.  The only survivor: an enormous black dog which was sighted leaving the wreck.  Mina becomes distraught when she learns that her beloved fiance Johnathan has been detained at Castle Dracula in faraway Transylvania and the return of Lucy's bizarre sleepwalking habits do nothing to ease her growing sense of anxiety and foreboding, especially after Mina follows her friend one night only to glimpse a tall, cloaked figure leaning over Lucy as if to bite her neck.

Mina is able to forget her fears only when she is in the companion of a charming foreigner from Eastern Europe who is looking to make England his new home.  Mr. Wagner is handsome, cultured, and wealthy, and he seems to enjoy Mina's company as much-- if not more-- than she does his. To Mina, he seems the perfect gentleman, the perfect catch, even.  Though she consistently strives to remember herself that she is engaged to Johnathan, she cannot help but feel intensely attracted and fascinated by this enigmatic stranger who speaks of history as though he experienced it first-hand.  Once Mina discovers the truth and horrible fates begin to befall her friends, she quickly back-pedals, swearing to see an end to this horrid and unholy Count Dracula along with Van Helsing and his companions.  Yet Mina finds herself unable to resist the allure of the Count, especially when it seems he may in fact not be the terrible monster he has been painted as by so many others.

This is a fantastic novel from start to finish, though the last half had me flipping pages almost too quickly, desperate to find out that fates of these characters whose fates I'd thought I already knew.  That must be the mark of a great re-telling, and so Dracula, My Love most certainly is that.  The way Dracula's apparently malevolent actions are explained is really well-done and convincing.  I love how the book doesn't tie every loose end up, but instead leaves just enough unexplained after its shocking and stirring ending to make readers wonder. 

Cover: 5/5
Premise: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Overall Rating:

Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 400 (hardcover)
Published: July 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Recommended for: don't really recommend it
Disclaimer: This is a review of an ARC, which I received from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:
Every flame begins with a spark. 

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

My Take: 

*Sigh*.  The synopsis sounds so amazing and that cover is incredibly alluring.  Seriously, it's a gorgeous cover!  I had very high expectations for this one, so its failure to meet said expectations was semi-devastating.  I'm going to be an optimist here, and highlight what did work in Wildefire.  First off, I liked Eve.  Ash's sister was by far the roundest character (by that I mean complex and realistic, not portly ;) in the book.  She is a bad-ass, there's no denying it.  Even though she never really succeeded in coming across as the villain of the piece, I would've liked to learned more about her and what happened to her after she ran away from she and Ash's adoptive parents.  I also think that Karsten Knight is a great descriptive writer... maybe a little too much of a great descriptive writer at certain times.  The writing can get kind of flowery and paragraphs are spent describing the architecture of the boarding school and the surrounding redwoods, etc, etc.  I also liked how our teenage god and goddess incarnates aren't based on Grecian mythology, but rather on loads of different mythologies from around the world.


Now for the bad news.  While reading the story of Ash-- a somewhat belligerent, apparently amnesiac teenage girl who flees to a Californian boarding school and discovers she's a Polynesian volcano goddess-- I found myself kind of wishing we could skip all the compulsory teenage shenanigans and skip to the part where Ash comes into her own as a goddess incarnate and she and her friends kick ass.  There's a kind of prolonged prologue (by 'prolonged', I mean forty or fifty pages) which for the most part feels strangely unnecessary.  Almost like the editor should have advised against it.  I think the author might have been better off leaving Ash and Eve's scary-and-shocking-past to be revealed over the course of the book rather than implementing that gigantic and unwieldy prologue.  Ash's romance with Colt, park ranger and stalker extraordinaire, fell completely flat for me.  The climatic ending: ditto.  It's also pretty rare to read a book that is 400 pages long and yet finish it thinking that almost nothing happened.  Or maybe just nothing that a reader would care about, since none of the characters are very sympathetic or likable.    

I know a lot of people really enjoyed this book, but I can't say I did.  My advice is that if you want to read a funny, fast-paced and inventive YA series about mythological adventures, skip this book and read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.  If you want to read an awesome and epic novel about gods and goddesses living in the modern United States, skip Wildefire and read American Gods by Neil Gaiman instead.

Cover: 5/5
Premise: 4/5
Characters: 2/5 (for Eve)
Story: 2/5
Overall Rating: