Top Ten Tuesday #10: Top Ten Surprise Hits from Lesser Travelled Genres!!

The weekly meme "Top Ten Tuesday" is brought to you by the awesome blog The Broke and the Bookish. Check out their blog and add your Top Ten to the group!!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday explores surprise hits that aren’t typically in one’s favourite/ go-to genres.

So, in the last year-ish I’ve broadened my horizons with the following amazing books!!

1. The Mask (Vanessa Michael Munroe #5)

Different genre(s): contemporary-spy-mystery-thriller

I read this as a free book to review for Netgalley, and found a new heroine that kicks butt! Check out my review here.

And actually, as of Feb. 18, 2016  The Informationist (Book #1) is on for $1.99 on https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-informationist-by-taylor-stevens

 I bought a hard copy, but would definitely recommend the author/ series! (They are the WORST titles, so you'll just have to go with it...)

2. The Sisters Brothers

Different genre: western!

I loved this book. (The cover grows on you...) And a Canadian author to boot!  Here’s my review from goodreads.com:

"I loved this book, mainly for the narrator, Eli. I'm sure there will be many English courses devoted to the different archetypes in the book, but I just enjoyed the flow of the story. One question at the end of the book asked: "what did I find to be the funniest/ most hilarious part?" I'm not sure I found it overly "hilarious" but maybe more quirky? I guess if you like a dark humour... I was recently at a BnB Ranch (www.reesorranch.com) in Cypress Hills, SK, and learned to saddle and ride a horse (go city kid!). During the breakfast and dinner times, the owner read cowboy poetry to the guests, and consequently I read Eli's voice with the same slow lilt the rancher had. Therefore, this is the perfect book to read after you hang out with a true cowboy/ cow puncher (?) for the weekend." -SJ 3. Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3) Different genre(s): myster-thriller-horror (?)/ Stephen King I’m not normally a Stephen King fan (I’ve only tried and failed at The Shining, but did like the Different Seasons short stories…), but really enjoyed this one! And also enjoyed that he didn’t go into too much detail as to why bad-guy-Brady was such an f’d up character… sometimes King’s penchant for really driving home certain… depravities can be a little unsettling to say the least!! 4. Saga (Vols. 1-5) Different genre(s): graphic novel/ fantasy/ sci-fi My experience with graphic novels had been continuing on with the Buffy series, and that’s about it. A co-worker of my husband recommended this series for me, and I was absolutely floored by the creative writing and artistry (yay local artist Fiona Staples!). It’s definitely on the mature side, but it opened my heart up to a new art form/ genre! 5. A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius Different genre: [younger] YA/ middle-school, contemporary I met Stacey Matson’s brother in a pub (he plays soccer with my friends) and he told me his sister wrote a book, so I picked it up. I thought the format was really unique – like the “found document” type of telling a story, but through homework assignments. Which one would think would be limiting as far as plot and character growth, but Matson does an amazing job and I loved, loved, loved it. Can’t wait to read Scenes from the Epic Life of a Total Genius (it’s on my bookshelf staring at me… waiting…). 6. Gone Girl Different genre(s): contemporary mystery-thriller I thought the movie-trailer looked cool, so thought I’d read the book first and was I ever surprised! I’m sure by now most people might find it a tad overrated, but I really liked the different twists and turns, and how neither husband nor wife were “the good guy” in the story. And, bonus! The movie follows it almost perfectly, which I really appreciated! 7. Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art Different genre(s): art-fantasy/ alternate history (?) I’d had this book on my shelf for years (a by-product of working at a bookstore chain and getting a wicked discount) and it was such a pleasant surprise when I got into the story! I loved that Moore uses 19th century Parisian artist Toulouse-Latrec as a fully formed character trying to solve the mystery of the apparent suicide of his artist friend Vincent van Gogh. It was very cool, and wholly enthralling. Great world-building, definitely. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Otherwise, most of my favourites in the past year or so have been from my usual wheelhouse, but some amazing reads all the same!! If you’re interested in my “favourites” shelf on goodreads.com you can click here or on the thingy on the right side of my blog. Thanks for reading! Please leave your "TTT" in the comments, as I’m always looking for some newfound/ unexpected gems!! ~ Spinning Jenny