Tuesday 5 July 2016

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Ten Books We Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads


"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here

July 5: 
Top Ten Books We Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads *

Such a wonderful idea. I thought surely I can get ten that have fewer than 2,000 ratings. So, I started at the end and finally stopped at 500, I still have a few more than 10, I have 18, to be precise. But I'm not going to take any of them out. A lot of those books belong to my favourites but are not so well known world-wide. I still hope that some of my friends will find a few of them and manage to read them. They are all worth it.

Aboulela, Leila "The Kindness of Enemies" - 2015
Barnes, Valerie "A Foreign Affair. A Passionate Life in Four Languages" - 2004
Borchert, Wolfgang "Das Gesamtwerk" (complete works) - 1945/47
Bush, Catherine "Claire’s Head" - 2004
Carter, Jimmy "We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land. A Plan That Will Work" - 2008
Dai, Sijie "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" (French: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise) - 2002
Fleischhauer, Wolfram "Schule der Lügen" (aka "Die Inderin") (In a Tender Hold) - 2014
Forest, Jim "The Road to Emmaus. Pilgrimage as a Way of Life" - 2007 - and any other books by Jim Forest
LeBor, Adam "City of Oranges. An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa" - 2006
Levy, Andrew "A Brain Wider Than The Sky: A Migraine Diary" - 2009
Powers, Charles T. "In the Memory of the Forest" - 1997
Rasputin, Valentin "To Live and Remember" (or: Live and Remember) (Russian: Живи и помни = Zhiwi e pomni) - 1974
Rosendorfer, Herbert "Letters Back to Ancient China" (German: Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit) - 1983
Simmonds, Jeremy "Number One in Heaven - The heroes who died for Rock ‘n’ Roll" - 2006
Scott, Mary "Breakfast at Six" - 1953
- and all other books by Mary Scott
Stewart, Sheila "Ramlin Rose" - 1993
Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime" - 2001/2004
Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1995

* (we've done underrated books a bunch of times in the past 6 years but thanks to Lenore at Celebrity Readers for suggesting this topic as a new way to talk about underrated books especially when underrated is subjective. An easy way to find this -- go to Goodreads, your read list, at the top of your read list where it says settings you can add a column for # of ratings, then you can sort by that. If you aren't a Goodreads user you can look up books you think are underrated and see what their # of reviews is on Goodreads? Or if that's too hard you can spin it some other way!)

8 comments:

  1. So many books on your list, and I don't think I've even ever heard of any of them! I guess it's time I changed that :)

    My TTT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Allyson,

      I just wrote a long answer to your post and for some reason it's gone. :(

      Anyway, as I already mentioned on your blog, I don't know any of your books, either. Must be partly because we like different genres but I've heard this before. I am European and have been a member of an international book club for more than a decade, so I find a lot of different kind of books unknown to others. Hope you found something you would like to read. My favourites would be the two last authors, J.N. Stroyar and Stefanie Zweig, but all the others are great, too.

      Let me know if you decide to read any of the books from the list.

      Happy Reading,
      Marianne

      Delete
  2. The only ones I've read are Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Nowhere in Africa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sure you have heard of a few more since I described them all on here but I'm happy you read "Nowhere in Africa". Stefanie Zweig is not that well known outside of Germany but most people to whom I recommended her books really liked her.

      Hope you find some other books from the list that you might like.

      Happy reading,
      Marianne

      Delete
  3. All new books to me except The Little Chinese Seamstress. I made my own list culled from my top 25 favorites last year. It is a good exercise that made me feel I have my own tastes and they are different from the masses, at least on Goodreads.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that was part of the idea behind this prompt. If we list the books that have only very few ratings on Goodreads, others might find something interesting there.

      I have known for a while that I have my own tastes but have always related it partly to my international background and international friends. I've heard this here before that my choice of books is very different and inspiring.

      I tried to find your list but I still have problems with your page, I haven't seen any of your updates in my Reading List where they show me the latest posts of everyone I follow. Maybe it's because you're not with Blogspot although I have a few others that aren't. Will have to take you off and add you again, maybe that helps. ;)

      Anyway, would love to see your list, I'm sure there are some interesting reads on them, as well.

      As I said to the two people before you, my favourite books are those listed last, by J.N. Stroyar and Stephanie Zweig but I can recommend al of them on the list.

      Have a good day,
      Marianne

      Delete
    2. I am sorry you are having trouble with my page. I am on blogspot. Did it work when you took me off and added me again? My URL is http://keepthewisdom.blogspot.com
      But I didn't post my list there. Here it is:
      Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes 644 ratings
      The Goddess of Small Victories by Yannick Grannec 371 ratings
      The Lower Quarter by Elise Blackwell 85 ratings
      Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen 124 ratings
      The Peerless Four by Victoria Patterson 80 ratings
      West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan
      Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr 1302 ratings
      The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan 187 ratings
      Miss Emily by Nuala O'Connor 675 ratings
      Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks 1198 ratings

      Delete
    3. Ah, that's why I didn't find it. Nope, didn't work. Weird. Somehow I mixed it up, I have another page with problems and that is not on blogspot. Will try again with my computer expert (i.e. son) present.

      But no, I haven't even heard of any of the books you mentioned. Interesting.

      Have a good week,
      Marianne

      Delete