TOP TEN TUESDAY: Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book

The topic this week is Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book - those key words that you read on the cover or in a review that make it easy to decide to read. I expect a list of topics that make you avoid books would be just as easy to write.

Check out That Artsy Reader Girl for other blog posts on this topic, or for future topics.

a villa or cottage -  apparently, since the last two books I've picked up on a kindle daily deal are The Irish Cottage and The Island Villa

detective - perfect  Some detectives are perfect like Inspector Gamauche or Brunetti, or Phryne Fisher or Detective Kopp

detective - damaged  Infinitely more interesting, like Jackson Brodie (new book alert - Big Sky coming in June 2019)  Bennie Griessel, and Cormoran Strike

sisters - I love me a good sister book, and there are many. Some recent stellar books with sisters includes The Golden Tresses of the Dead, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and My Sister, the Serial Killer

boarding schools -  Boarding schools make great settings because children get to be relatively unsupervised, without resorting to Lord of the Flies territory, since adults are theoretically around. The last few good boarding school books have all been courtesy of 2018's YA Sync free audiobooks. (Annual plug for this great program: the 2019 titles have been announced!) A Study in Charlotte, Openly Straight, and Extraordinary Means.

1930s -  Books set in or written in the 1930s are ripe for writers, bookended by both wars. Even overlooking Maisie Dobbs and Her Royal Spyness, I have a significant number of books tagged this in my library. Looking forward, The Boys in the Boat, looks like a good 1930s nonfiction read.

Australia -  Liane Moriarty and Jane Harper are two new authors from last year that I can't miss. Moriarty with epic character/mystery stories like Nine Perfect Strangers, and Harper with a new police detective. 

connected stories -  There are not enough of these books, but I love finding them - The Tsar of Love and Techno, Number 11, Olive Kitteridge. 
There There by Tommy Orange, a recent read, fits my definition of these books. Each chapter is a different character getting ready to head to a pow-wow.

epistolary -  I say I like epistolary, and yet I haven't read any recently like some of my favourites - Bridget Jones, Clara Callen, and The Incident Report. A quick search added The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and Meet Me at the Museum to my list.

prize lists - The Women's Prize for Fiction is an annual list to use for reading.

I knew I had written about this topic before! After I finished my list, I went searching on my blog, and found this post from April 2013. Pretty similar - I traded Ireland for Australia, and I forgot about parallel stories. My connected stories this time is actually quite similar - seemingly unconnected stories which gradually connect the threads.