Top Ten Tuesday 20 October 2020

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Books I Read Because Someone Recommended Them to Me

Following the death of his father, the owner of East Yarmouth Animal Sanctuary, Kit Lavery returns to Britain from Australia to sort out his father’s affairs. His visit is intended to be brief, but on arrival at the down-at-heel animal sanctuary, Kit finds it staffed by two very determined women. Elizabeth Punch and Jess Wetherby.

Elizabeth is a woman with a mission – to save animals from inconsiderate man. And Jess Supple has one burning desire – to keep alive the work of the old man who took her under his wing when she was a placard-waving hunt saboteur.

As the two women cajole, berate and demand that Kit stay and carry on his father’s good work, he finds life becoming increasingly complicated. And when GM crop trials are proposed in the fields surrounding his farm, his scruples are tested to the limit, and not everyone is happy with his decision. It seems that blood may be spilt before the Animal Sanctuary, with its assorted inhabitants, is out of the woods…

It’s 1983 and 20-year-old university student Helen Fleet should be enjoying the best days of her life, but while all her friends go on to graduate and have careers in London, she is forced to return to her parents’ home, bedridden with vile symptoms that doctors can’t explain and often don’t believe. She is eventually diagnosed with M.E., a cruel illness that she must learn to live with over the next decade. All of her relationships are tested – and changed – by her condition, but Helen’s story is so much more than an account of her suffering. At times sad and at times funny, the author skillfully leads the reader through the trials and tribulations of Helen’s life, perfectly capturing her unusual experiences as a twenty-something woman living in 80s Scotland with a mystery illness.

Based on the author’s own experience of ME The State of Me explores the loneliness and chaos of one of the most misunderstood illnesses of our time, but also celebrates the importance of family, friendships, and sexual love.

A stunning, eloquent and linguistically perfect debut novel.

Filled with mischievously wry wit, this semiautobiographical narrative is an inspiring and hugely enjoyable day-by-day account of a year in the life of a myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome, sufferer. Privy to the notable events, everyday routine, and innermost thoughts of Verity Red, the skepticism and lack of understanding surrounding this recently recognized condition is addressed, as well as the common symptoms–boredom, the feeling of low self-worth, exhaustion, and the craving for comfort foods.

The true story of an unlikely encounter in the extraordinary life of a young man diagnosed with ME.

When Rob receives an email from an unknown woman, complimenting him on an internet book review, it leads to an unlikely exchange between two distant strangers. Rob is chronically unwell with a mysterious illness, while Rose lives on the other side of the country. But who is she? What does she want? And where is their friendship heading?

Through a series of annotated emails, poems, paradoxes, quizzes and quotations, Rob narrates the true story of how their lives came together in a way that is funny, touching and completely unforgettable.

When this book was first published the author did not want to reveal his diagnosis. He has now written an afterword for the ebook edition in which he writes candidly about his diagnosis of ME for the first time.

It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

This is the true story told of the author’s own childhood. All the horrors of a nightmare childhood almost too terrible to tell, memories almost too dreadful to recall. Written here in all the gritty detail by the author. Memories so horrible, in fact, that it took an immensely courageous and painful 9 years to write.

Why did her mother hate her so much? Why did her uncle love her so much?

She was left certain of one thing: only a mother can destroy every ounce of hope in you.

This harrowing story will grip you from the first page to the last – you won’t be able to put it down.

Geordie’s grannie is a crabbit auld grumph. As far as she’s concerned, Geordie can do nothing right. But, when the time comes for him tae bring her medicine, Geordie decides tae give her a mingin brew of his own recipe.

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright’s eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his ‘charming’ friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism. 

After inheriting a cottage from her aunt, Victoria West leaves her stressful London life behind and moves to the tranquil backwaters of rural Devon.

Feeling fragile, but positive after a recent brush with cancer, she is looking forward to an independent, laid-back lifestyle doing all the things townies like her always do in the countryside – keeping chickens, growing veg and, well, chilling out!

But Victoria hadn’t reckoned with the locals of Swaddlecombe. After only a few days in her new home she’s investigating a suspicious death, is a victim of road rage and has a nasty incident with a sheep.

And then of course, there’s tall handsome farmer, Albert Moreton…

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Until next Tuesday