Tuesday, October 24, 2017

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Unique Book Titles

Top Ten Tuesday topic this week is Unique Book Titles. Unique could mean interesting, unusual, or memorable. There are a lot of clever titles in the cozy mystery genre, with plays on words and puns, but I went with the titles that stand out to me as memorable and, well, unique.

Check out The Broke and the Bookish for a link of all the lists, and for future topics.

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod
The book is better than the title, and I can't even remember why this book of short stories is called this. But this is a Canadian classic of life in the Maritimes and the title doesn't diminish this.

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken
Perfect title by Senator Al Franken, and in the tradition of subtitles in nonfiction books that explain everything, Franken skewers the right in this 2005 book. 

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
Such a fun title, and good book, on the astronomical discoveries that led to Pluto's downfall. 

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Really great novel with a title that stands out, especially once you have read the book. I like this title as it makes me think about the story and I sing the alphabet song everytime I see it. Another book with a title based on a mishearing is A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt, from a line in the Hail Mary prayer.

We Need to Talk About Kelvin: What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe by Marcus
Chown
Great pun on the Lionel Shiver book, but also about science. I love a book title with an obscure temperature measurement as the pun.

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Grammar nerds unite!


Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley
The whole Flavia deLuce series is made of unique titles. Some series seem to do this - make very unusual titles.

+ I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, A Red Herring Without Mustard, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, etc

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency is another series with some unique titles, and maybe I should have gone with the first one. The titles are usually pretty descriptive of the plot.

I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northwest High by Tony Danza
I really enjoyed this memoir by the likeable Danza. The fact that I am a present high school teacher made it all the more applicable. Danza was thoughtful and respectful of teaching.


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Everyone is adding this book to their list, right?








13 comments:

  1. I'm still mad about Pluto. Haha! This is a great list! These are definitely unique titles. Smith's titles are pretty unique, I agree. They have a nice flow to them too.

    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Wendy, I love how the scientific process led to Pluto's reclassification. New facts, adjust the model.

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  2. Great to see MacLeod at the top of your list. Funny, now that I think about it, how dull the title for his collected volume is, in comparison (Island). This seems like a fun topic!

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    1. Every time I reread MacLeod's short stories, I am amazed again. Island is a very boring name!

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  3. I didn't quite get Ella Minnow Pea until I read it out loud. Hah. Great list!

    Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thanks!

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    1. Ella Minnow Pea is really good, and a neat play on words.
      I'm not familiar with any of your titles - except the Zindel, and I only recognize him from the 80s.

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  4. All the titles you've chosen are very unique indeed!

    Here's a link to my TTT post for this week:

    https://myknittingjouneyonestitchatatime.blogspot.com/2017/10/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-unique-book.html

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    1. Hi, thanks for stopping by. Those knitting titles are crazy - neat take on the list.

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  5. That Pluto title is hilarious. I think I need that book.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. Oh, that first title doesn't make any sense to me at all so I'm going to have to read the book to figure it out. Honestly, I haven't read enough Alistair MacLeod so I'm very glad for this recommendation.

    And I LOVED Ella Minnow Pea!! Here's my review: http://www.exurbanis.com/archives/9313

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    1. Oh, you have to read the MacLeod book. He hasn't written a lot so it is easy to get up to date on him.
      Loved your Ella Minnow Pea review - there is so much to the story when you look between the (disappearing) lines. I felt like you did when I read the book. I read it eons ago, and it really stuck with me. Top marks for originality.

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  7. Great choices! I love the title for How I Killed Pluto and all of Alan Bradley's titles are great but I love the one you chose especially.

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