Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated books - must reads!

The topic of this week's Top Ten Tuesday is Underrated Books as in books you can't believe aren't more popular, books that are more obscure and so on. I love this topic. There are so many books that I can't believe aren't getting more hype or that I love but that have not received the acclaim that I think they deserve. So here we go - don't forget to pop by The Broke and The Bookish to join in!

10) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Many of you know the musical and have probably seen either that one or the film - but have you read the book? Otherwise, I can highly recommend it. It is a short but great story about Christine Daaé with the amazing voice, her childhood sweetheart and the opera phantom who is in love with her. It is not your typical love story but it is a really sweet and sometimes scary story.



9) Ronja, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
One of the best children's book ever about the strong, independent girl Ronja who lives in the forest. If you haven't read it yet, you have to get it now. It is a classic.



8) Havana Real by Yoani Sanchez
This is a non-fiction book, a collection of blog posts from the Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, giving us a glimpse into the life of a family in Cuba who are struggling to make ends meet even though they are among the well-off. Yoani is a really cool woman with a strong voice and lots of opinions. Amazing book, was completely unable to put it down once I had started it.



7) The Exception by Christian Jungersen
A deeply disturbing book about adult bullying the work place. The point-of-view keeps changing between the characters which makes it really difficult to be black and white about who are the evil ones and who are the good ones. It is a bit of a thriller, a suspenseful read that deserves many readers!



6) Namedropper by Emma Forrest
This was one of my favourite YA books when I was a teenager. It is a coming-of-age story about a Viva whose world seems to be populated with characters - from the gorgeous best friend Treena to her gay uncle Manny with the Liz Taylor obsession this book takes us from North London to California and back as we follow Viva learning a thing or two about life. It is full of pop culture references and my 15 year-old self loved it.



5) Dewitt, Helen: The Last Samurai
Ludo is a gifted child, a child prodigy, a kid for whom learning is the best way of entertaining himself. So while his mother struggles to keep up with the five-year-olds wish to learn Japanese and make enough money to get them through the day, Ludo wonders who his father is. A really beautiful book with great characters that you cannot help but love.



4) Stolen Spring by Hans Scherfig
This on is a Danish classic, a must-read on the Danish high school curriculum and for a very good reason: it is a real treasure! A literary feast of amazingness! It is the story of a group of school boys in a very disciplined school where the teachers use their powers to degrade the students - especially the latin teacher Blomme is a real nasty piece of work and the book centers on the mystery of his death. If you are a fan of classic school novels from early 1900s, then this one is for you.



3) The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
Forget about Twilight and House of Night and all those paranormal romance vampire books that are flooding the market at the moment. This is as much of a vampire classic as Bram Stoker's Dracula, if you ask me, except they aren't vampires - they are vampyres, darkangels that feed on souls. When Ariel's mistress, the beautiful Eoduin is taken by a darkangel, she follows her to try to free her from the vampyre's clutches.



2) Nordkraft by Jacob Ejersbo
If you liked the film "Trainspotting", you will love this book. Ejersbo's novel is a masterpiece about living a hard life full of drugs, alcohol and abuse on the bottom of society. This is a book about the people we see on the street and that makes us thankful for our lives. It is so gripping and thought-provoking that it moved me to tears.



1) The Sopranos by Alan Warner
One of my favourite books (it has been for years) is this fantastic tour de force about a group of Catholic school girls on an outing from their small village to a larger town for a choir competition. The amount of mischief (doesn't cover it at all!) they get into is disturbing - getting drunk, getting their uniforms stolen... it is all just the beginning of the adventure.

Top Ten Tuesday: From book to film

How many great books out there have been ruined by being made into a film? It's like the stars, you can keep counting but you will never get to the final tally because there are so incredibly many. However, there are a few successes as well and I have to admit that I often get really excited when it is announced that a book I like will be made into a film. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topics is just that: books that I would like to see made into films!

10) The Eleniad series by David Eddings. An absolute favourite series of mine that features knights, stubborn horses, cool ladies and lots and lots of action.

9) The Book, The Film, The T-shirt by Matt Beaumont. Advertising agency filming a commercial with two divas, lots of crazy assistants, a boss with a major ego and PA who is doing more than her share of the work. And that is only the beginning. Would be a great comedy!

8) The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff The history of the mormon church and the mystery of a murder.

7) The Exception by Christian Jungersen Adult women in an office environment bullying each other... Could be made into a really thrilling, dark movie.

6) Anything steampunk. I am only just getting to know this genre but already I can see that there is huge potential for great films here!

5) The Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Who's fooling who? And why? Set in a dark England full of crooks, this could be a great costume drama.

4) The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. When Ariel is abducted by a huge winged creatures and taken to his castle to serve as maid to his ghost wives, Ariel has to overcome to her own shyness and fear to help the ghosts become free of their captor. One of the best paranormal/fantasy romance/action books I have ever read.

3) The Sopranos by Alan Warner. A Catholic girl school choir on a crazy road trip - should make for a great movie!

2) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Harry Potter for adults - what more can you want?

1) We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver The nature or nurture dilemma is at the heart of the scary novel about a child who becomes a high school killer and his mother who seeks to understand why.

Which books would you like to see made into films?

Bye bye bullying!

How I wish that I could wave a magic wand and say those words! Bullying affect so many children and also many adults all around the world every day. Luckily there are people out there who are working to fight this - and there are a lot of great books out there about bullying.

Asamum Booktopia is hosting an Anti-bullying Week starting today so head straight to http://www.asamum.blogspot.com/ to read more.
On the schedule for today Asamum has

Introduction to Advice on Bullying by Bullying UK - at Asamum Booktopia Monday 15th November

Review: The Silence Seeker by Ben Morley - at Susan K Mann Monday 15th November

Review and Giveaway: Dancing in the Dark by Peter Prendergast - at Chicklish Monday 15th November

Review: Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers - at Fluttering Butterflies Monday 15th November

Guest Review: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - at Asamum Booktopia Monday 15th November

If you want to read more about bullying, here are some of my reading recommendations on great books that deal with this topic:

- "The Exception" by Christian Jungersen
- "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
- "Let the Right One In" by John Ajvide Lindqvist
- "The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things" by Carolyn Mackler

"The Exception" - an exceptional novel

It was my mum and dad who recommended "The Exception" by Danish author Christian Jungersen. So if you are part if the Scandinavian Reading Challenge, you have to read this review because this book is amazing. It is really really good.
The story line is quite complex and the story is told from the view points of four women, Anne-Lise, Iben, Malene and Camilla. The four women work at Danish Centre for Information about Genocide and one day two of them receive death threats.

As the story unfolds it becomes clear, the much more is happening beneath the surface and that these women are not who they appear to be. Iben is the dedicated academic who has devoted her life to work and her best friend, the man-eater Malene who from a very young age has suffered from crippling arthritis. Camilla is the quiet mother from the suburbs and Anne-Lise is the new woman in the office. As we get further into the story, it becomes very clear that the office atmosphere is rotting from a severe case of adult bullying. Events become more and more disturbing and what starts out as "mere" verbal bullying turns into criminal actions and life-threathening circumstances.

The book also focuses a lot on the nature of evil and the story is spiced with scientific facts and tales from the world of psychology. So not only is this a really disturbing and disturbingly good story about bullying and the evil inside all humans but also a great way to learn more about the way we perceive evil.

It is hard to tell more about the actual story without giving too much away. However, I really recommend this book. It is very very good and very exciting and it also made me think a lot about the way in which we can bully without actually really doing anything. Sometimes doing absolutely nothing - i.e. ignoring someone - is the worst form of bullying. Just like "We Need to Talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver, this is a book that is scary on so many levels that it is hard to sum it up - so therefore: just read it!