Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature organised by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week the topic is Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read X so as a Brit I decided to do Books By British Authors.
1. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Mr Fforde is my favourite author and this is my joint-favourite book of all time.
Blurb from Goodreads:
Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey
tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the
ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better
social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and
can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything
in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by
artificial means.
Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.
Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.
Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.
Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.
2. Poison by Chris Wooding
One of my all-time favourite books.
Blurb from Goodreads:
Poison has always been a
willful, contrary girl, prone to being argumentative and stubborn. So
when her sister is snatched by the mean-spirited faeries, she seeks out
the Phaerie Lord to get her back.
But finding him isn't easy, and the quest leads Poison into a murderous world of intrigue, danger, and deadly storytelling. With only her wits and her friends to aid her, Poison must survive the attentions of the Phaerie Lord, rescue her sister, and thwart a plot that's beyond anything she (or the reader) can imagine. . . .
But finding him isn't easy, and the quest leads Poison into a murderous world of intrigue, danger, and deadly storytelling. With only her wits and her friends to aid her, Poison must survive the attentions of the Phaerie Lord, rescue her sister, and thwart a plot that's beyond anything she (or the reader) can imagine. . . .
3. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Blurb from Goodreads:
It is the year 2059.
Several major world cities are under the control of a security force
called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion
London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she
does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’
minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this
world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.
But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.
Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.
Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Another one of my all-time faves.
Blurb from Goodreads:
Smaug certainly
looked fast asleep, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. He
was just about to step out on to the floor when he caught a sudden thin
ray of red from under the drooping lid of Smaug's left eye. He was only
pretending to be asleep! He was watching the tunnel entrance...
Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole in Bag End by Gandalf the wizard and a company of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon...
Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole in Bag End by Gandalf the wizard and a company of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon...
5. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Blurb from Goodreads:
Seven stories about Harry Potter at Hogwarts Academy where he learns many things, makes friends, and has many adventures.
6. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
This is also know as The Golden Compass.
I would recommend all the books in the series but the first book is my favourite.
Blurb from Goodreads:
When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him.
The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies - and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.
Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her - something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...
The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies - and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.
Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her - something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...
7. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
This was one of my favourite childhood books.
Blurb from Goodreads:
London is poised on the
brink of World War 11. Timid, scrawny Willie Beech -- the abused child
of a single mother -- is evacuated to the English countryside. At first,
he is terrified of everything, of the country sounds and sights, even
of Mr. Tom, the gruff, kindly old man who has taken him in. But
gradually Willie forgets the hate and despair of his past. He learns to
love a world he never knew existed, a world of friendship and affection
in which harsh words and daily beatings have no place. Then a telegram
comes. Willie must return to his mother in London. When weeks pass by
with no word from Willie, Mr. Tom sets out for London to look for the
young boy he has come to love as a son.
8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mr Darcy. The original book boyfriend.
Blurb from Goodreads:
When Elizabeth Bennet
first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant
and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good
looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved
himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her
beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In
the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the
folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the
friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
9. Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson
Blurb from Goodreads:
17-year-old Lila has two
secrets she’s prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can
move things just by looking at them. The second is that she’s been in
love with her brother’s best friend, Alex, since forever.
After a mugging exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust—her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organization called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they’ve found them.
In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realizes that she is not alone—there are others out there just like her—people with special powers—and her mother’s killer is one of them…
After a mugging exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust—her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organization called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they’ve found them.
In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realizes that she is not alone—there are others out there just like her—people with special powers—and her mother’s killer is one of them…
10. The Name on Your Wrist by Helen Hiorns
Blurb from Goodreads:
It's the first thing
they teach you when you start school. But they don't need to; your
parents tell you when you're first learning how to say your name. It's
drummed into you whilst you're taking your first stumbling steps. It's
your lullaby. From the moment it first appears, you don't tell anyone
the name on your wrist.
In Corin's world, your carpinomen - the name of your soul mate, marked indelibly on your wrist from the age of two or three - is everything. It's your most preciously guarded secret; a piece of knowledge that can give another person ultimate power over you. People spend years, even decades, searching for the one they're supposed to be with.
But what if you never find that person? Or you do, but you just don't love them? What if you fall for someone else - someone other than the name on your wrist?
And what if - like Corin - the last thing in the world you want is to be found?
In Corin's world, your carpinomen - the name of your soul mate, marked indelibly on your wrist from the age of two or three - is everything. It's your most preciously guarded secret; a piece of knowledge that can give another person ultimate power over you. People spend years, even decades, searching for the one they're supposed to be with.
But what if you never find that person? Or you do, but you just don't love them? What if you fall for someone else - someone other than the name on your wrist?
And what if - like Corin - the last thing in the world you want is to be found?
Do you have a favourite British author/book?
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