My Top Ten Under-Appreciated Books

HOLA PEOPLE OF THE INTERNET!

It has sort of been a while, hasn't it? Firstly it was because there was always Something to Do.

By this I mean, what with two cousins plus my sister back, the weather quite fine, we just kept going out, out, out. Nothing particularly grand - I did A Thousand Steps for the first time, we went to the city to eat, we went on many walks, we played badminton, we just... do stuff.

But the last few days have seen me stuck in a lackadaisical limbo. Not even - more like a lethargic limbo. It has been HAWT. The week has averaged 40 degrees celsius so far. Although we all get together and have awesome conversations, I try to stay clear of the good ol' computer, because the aircon happens to not reach it. 

Today though, the uni offers came out, so I was forced to come on, and I thought I'd do a pit stop and write something. Here it is.

At some point during last year, my friend at The Loony Teen Writer wrote this blog listing a number of her 'under appreciated' books, which I thought was a brilliant idea and I said that I would do the same at some point. I figured this is as good a point as any.

But first, allow me to define what I mean by 'under-appreciated'. Basically, these are the books that you think (or I think) do not get the credit they deserve. Maybe the kind of books that you mention amongst a group of readers and you get the 'say whaaa?' reaction, because no one ever seems to have heard of it. Maybe something you think is amazing and you just cannotbelievethatTwilightbecamethathugeandthisdidn't (sorry Twilight). Maybe it's just something that has the potential to be huge, but for some inexplicable reason, is not getting the attention it deserves yet. Maybe its something that has less than 1000 reviews on Goodreads, when you think it deserves like 63,745 more.

So really, it's not a restricted thing. Just the books you think deserve a little more love than they get. So here goes, and they're not in a particular order or anything:

#1: First, I'm going to refer you back to my first ever 'These Are My Favourite Things', where I named a book called Dirty Magic, by Carol Hughes.  I luhhhhhh-v this book. Okay, that was stupid, clearly this is about books I love. Huh, whatever. All I can say is that it has nothing to do with witches and wizards and that kind of hocus pocus (the title still baffles me), but it's really innocent but powerful...

#2: The Clockwork Forest, by Doug MacLeod - or anything by him, really. The guy is funny, hilarious, in a really simple kind of way.  This one I'm referring to is just weird with a fantastical edge to it, but not something completely outrageous. Okay, in general, his books are a little bit very-young-adult, but I think you can appreciate it if you're older too - they're just fun and lighthearted. Two more I recommend are The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher and Siggy and Amber.



#3: The Year the Gypsies Came , by Linzi Glass. I guess this is a pretty dark kind of story, and pretty darn tragic. I got teary - well, as teary as I get when it comes to fiction. That's one reason I'm recommending it, that it ripped out my heart and broke it for a while, and the other reason is because it's set in South Africa. And it's also a bit close to home for me, but I'll keep that out of this.







 
#4: Siege, by Sarah Mussi. Oh. My. God. This book is scary good. Scary and good. What really intrigued me was how the issues loaded into it are so relevant to what happens in the world today. Poverty, lack of education, government conspiracy stuff... what freaked me out were those shootings that happened this year, in Kenya I think? At the mall? I felt like in a way, it panned out like this story. In a way, because the perspective of this novel is from the inside. It's fast-paced, intense, emotionally draining stuff, but it's also very quick, and leaves you with a lot of questions about today. A lot of the Goodreads reviews said it was really violent, which it is... but not dramatically so, in the sense that I don't think it's any more than plenty of other novels. Plus, most of them seem to come from concerned mothers. So don't worry - just read it already o_o

#5: Alif the Unseen, by G.W. Wilson. Okay, it's got quite a few reviews on Goodreads, I think... I donno what makes a book famous on Goodreads, actually, but 5000+ seems pretty good. But I don't think that's good ENOUGH, OKAY? This book is by a Muslim author, it is freaking epicus. Like nothing I've read from Muslim authors. It's adventurous and exciting and fantasical and amazing, and of course, there's that teeny element of truth to it all. It doesn't feel preachy, it's not about Muslim teenagers with their angsty identity crises - okay, I guess that's unfair, maybe a lot of Muslim youth need that stuff. But I've always wished for something where one's religious identity is not the foundation of the problem in the plot. It's one of my favourite books everrrr.

#6: Act of Faith, by Kelly Gardiner. It's historical fiction, set in the 1600s, where the Spanish Inquisition rules and censoring rife. It's just about books, really, and words, and how powerful they are no matter how you try to burn them. I don't know why, but the book is really resonant and intriguing, and I do have a thing for historical fiction, and this is a setting I haven't encountered before... there's just something about it. It's part of a series/trilogy, but honestly, you can just read it standalone and it's great :)




#7: Friday Brown, by Vikki Wakefield. Side note: I met her, I conversed with her like a Normal Person, and I love her. That is all. This book, it's Australian contemporary, it's dark, it is heart rending, it has these absolutely beautiful descriptions - almost poetry, really. It's about a kind of underbelly, it's adventurous, it gets downright ugly. It's a heart breaker. It's something that you might find difficult to love at first - in fact, you may be annoyed or disgusted - but once you finish it's unforgettable.




#8: Where the Streets had a Name, by Randa Abdel-Fattah. Remember I mentioned those books about angsty Muslims with identity crises? Yeah, Randa Abdel-Fattah does a lot of that, but I still love her for it. We need that every now and again, right? But this story isn't about that. It's set between Palestine and Israel, but it's not really political... it just has this innocent perspective that I like, I guess.



 #9: My Life As An Alphabet, by Barry Jonsberg. Another incredibly funny story, and sweet, and innocent, and unique, and quick, and cute, and I can't believe it only has 95 reviews. What is that?! 







#10: .... I can't find 10. My bad.

But the point of this is to get you to try read stuff that I don't think is read enough, and if I overwhelm you (if you're anything like me), you may not end up trying to read any of it. So yeah. This is me spreading the love. Do you guys have any under-appreciated books you want me to show a little love to?

Peace in,
Laila