TTT: Book I read because of the hype and what I thought of them

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read Because of the Hype... And What I Thought of Them

I am always scrutinizing book lists for my next reads. Sometimes the most popular books on the lists are fabulous and I am glad I paid attention. Other times I am surprised by how much I loved the books. Here are some recent examples of both:

1. Gather by Kenneth Cadow. A 2024 Printz Honor book. It seemed like I couldn't go anywhere on the Internet last year without someone raving about this book. I loved it, too. Thanks for the recommendation everyone!

2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I read Circe several years ago for book club and loved it, so I added this book to my reading list. In the meantime I couldn't help noticing how many people were recommending it to each other. I just finished the audiobook with my husband and we both thought it was so well done.

3. North Woods by Daniel Mason. This book ended up on a lot of end of year lists in 2023 as one of if not the best book of the year. It was also thought to be a possible Pulitzer Prize contestant. So much hype and guess what, it was that good or better!

4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Back in 2009/10 everyone in the bookish world was raving about this book. Everyone read it, except me. When I finally got around to it this year I was so disappointed. It wasn't terrible but it did not live up to the hype, in my mind anyway.

5. Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips. This book won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It came out of nowhere to win which I guess isn't a lot of hype but the award itself is big. Well anyway, I didn't particularly like the book and wish that North Woods (see above) had won instead.

6. The Fraud by Zadie Smith. Another book that got a lot of attention at the end of 2023 and placed on best-of lists. I disagreed with all of the people who were hyping this book. Ugh. I didn't like it.

7. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. When readers learned the author of Cutting for Stone was publishing a new book many, including myself, went into a sort of hyperdrive of expectation. And the book lived up to the hype big time.

8. The Wager by David Grann. This book got a lot of attention in 2023 for its excellent writing about a shipwreck in the 1700s. It seemed like everyone liked/loved this book except me and my family. We listened to the audiobook together. I liked it the best but gave it a rating of three.

9. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The hype about this book has been pretty constant for more than a year. I  liked it a lot but have had to defend my decision with many other readers.

10. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. So many blogging friends read and loved this book. That is the only reason I read it, without doing any other research. It was not for me. In fact, I honestly didn't like it at all.

I hope I didn't diss your favorite book. I realize that how I feel about books may very well be able how I feel.

-Anne