Top Ten Tuesday: Word

July 18: Books With One-Word Titles (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy Book Blog)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

That Artsy Reader Girl

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title. ~ Thomas Paine

1, 2, 3, 4

The Invasion Chronicles Series by Morgan Rice

Transmission

When SETI finally receives a signal from an alien civilization, what will happen next?
A 13 year old boy, dying of a rare brain disease, is the only one able to hear and decode signals from outer space. SETI confirms it is a real signal.

goodreads

Arrival

SETI has received a signal from an alien civilization. Is there time to save the world?
In the aftermath of SETI’s receiving the signal, 13 year old Kevin realizes: he is the only one who can save the world. But is there time? What must he do?
And what do the aliens plan next?

goodreads

Ascent

With planet Earth destroyed, what will become of 13 year old Kevin and Chloe in the mother ship?
Will the aliens enslave them? What do they want? Is there any hope of escape?
And will Kevin and Chloe ever return to Earth again?

goodreads

Return

Can Kevin and Chloe survive alone in outer space? Can Luna, alone on planet Earth, avoid capture?
All hope seems lost for Kevin and Chloe as their escape pod hurtles into nothingness, as they run out of rations and supplies.
All hope seems lost for Luna as the aliens outnumber and encircle her.

goodreads

Well, isn’t this something? An entire series with one-word titles.

5

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel’s mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. 

goodreads

I had to read this for an English class, at some point. It was love at first read.

6

Dune by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” mélange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

goodreads

I don’t know how popular Dune is now, but back in the early 80s it was everywhere.

7

Headhunters by Jo Nesbø

Roger Brown is a corporate headhunter, and he’s a master of his profession. But one career simply can’t support his luxurious lifestyle and his wife’s fledgling art gallery. At an art opening one night he meets Clas Greve, who is not only the perfect candidate for a major CEO job, but also the answer to his financial issues. Greve just so happens to mention that he owns a priceless Peter Paul Rubens painting that’s been lost since World War II—and Roger Brown just so happens to dabble in art theft. But when he breaks into Greve’s apartment, he finds more than just the painting. And Clas Greve may turn out to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to Roger Brown.

goodreads

My review, back in 2019: Had kind of a Gone Girl feel to it at the end, yes?

8

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

goodreads

The reviews for this one are all over the map. I really enjoyed it once I got about 20% in (Kindle edition) and the horror part of the story showed up.

9

Joe by Larry Brown

Joe Ransom is a hard-drinking ex-con pushing fifty who just won’t slow down–not in his pickup, not with a gun, and certainly not with women. Gary Jones estimates his own age to be about fifteen. Born luckless, he is the son of a hopeless, homeless wandering family, and he’s desperate for a way out. When their paths cross, Joe offers him a chance just as his own chances have dwindled to almost nothing. Together they follow a twisting map to redemption–or ruin.

goodreads

I read Joe in a Contemporary Fiction class many years ago: No matter how bad your life is, there is always someone worse off that you can try to help.

10

Journal by Craig Buckhout

The year is 2054. Global Warming, disease, famine, and war have decimated the human population. Alan Trent, a particularly ambitionless man, who avoids trouble “just like I avoid poison oak and all other things uncomfortable,” finds a set of journals while scavenging through a house for food in what used to be Washington State. The journal’s author was a woman named Claire Huston. Her words inspire Alan to continue writing in her journals in the hope that by doing so “her humanity will somehow stay alive ….” She also causes him to do something uncharacteristic — rescue a boy from a group of men. He rescues the boy all right, but it’s much more complicated than that. What follows is a deadly game of hide-and-seek, hardship, and survival, where, at every turn, Alan is forced to confront his own humanity.

goodreads

There was so much action in the story that I was unaware of how emotionally attached I had become to some of the characters, then someone would die, and I’d bawl like I’d known them my whole life.

Thoughts