TOP TEN TUESDAY: WATER

August 29: Water (This can be covers with water on them, books with bodies of water in them, titles with bodies of water in them, etc.)

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

Drown me in the water
Drown me in the sea
Lose me in the dark
Drag me to the deep
Let your water wash over me
(Jack Garratt)

The first four are ones that I have read, the final six are on my TBR list.

1

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

• 226 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published April 5, 2022
• Genres: SciFi, Time Travel, Literary, Fantasy

… a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

goodreads

The actual Sea of Tranquility is on the moon, and it is dry.

2

The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard

• 466 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published January 1, 1996
• Genres: Fiction, Chick-Lit, Mystery

… the first title chosen for Oprah’s Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother’s worst nightmare—the disappearance of a child—as it explores a family’s struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, …

goodreads

3

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

• 180 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published January 1, 1989
• Genres: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Classic, Fantasy, Food

This classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother’s womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef, using cooking to express herself and sharing recipes with readers along the way.

goodreads

I love magical realism, which is exactly how life feels sometimes (especially when you are in love ❤️).

4

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

• 128 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published January 1, 1952
• Genres: Fiction, Literary, Classic

It is the story of an epic struggle between an old, seasoned fisherman Santiago and his life’s greatest catch of fish. Santiago is an aged Cuban fisherman. For eighty-four days, he set out to sea, but every time returned empty-handed. So, his fisherman society treats him unlucky.

toppr

The following are on my TBR list:

5

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

• 418 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published February 1, 2011
• Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Literary

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps to save them all, we are drawn into a lush and bravely imagined debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality

goodreads

Love the name, love the book cover. 😁

6

Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

• 439 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published December 1, 1993
• Genres: Fiction, Horror, Thriller, SciFi, Suspense, Dinosaurs

An ancient predator has been reborn in the caves beneath Crater Lake…and it’s hungry.

Ex-cop Henry Shore has been Chief Park Ranger at Crater Lake National Park for eight years and he likes his park and his life the way it’s been. Safe. Tranquil. Predictable. But he’s about to be tested in so many ways. First the earthquakes begin…people begin to go missing…then there’s some mysterious water creature that’s taken up residence in the caves below Crater Lake and it’s not only growing in size, it’s aggressive and cunning…and very hungry.
And it’s decided it likes human beings. To eat.
And it can come up onto land.

goodreads

Recently I re-watched the Jurassic Park movies. Nothing funner than dinosaurs in the contemporary world. 😂

7

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

• 174 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published January 1, 2000
• Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Asia

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.

goodreads

8

Daughter of Earth and Water: A Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley by Noel Gerson

• 224 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published January 1, 1973
• Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, British Literature

This remarkable biography follows the passionate relationship between Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy was a celebrated poet, while Mary Shelley terrified the world with her novel Frankenstein — and their marriage was marked by both tragedy and brilliance.

goodreads

It’s a love story.

9

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

• 302 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published May 8, 2000
• Genres: Nonfiction, History, Adventure, Survival

From the author of Mayflower, Valiant Ambition, and In the Hurricane’s Eye– the riveting bestseller tells the story of the true events that inspired Melville’s Moby-Dick.
 
Winner of the National Book Award, Nathaniel Philbrick’s book is a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of whaling, with deep resonance in American literature and history.

goodreads

10

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

• 356 pages, Kindle Edition
• First published March 20, 2012
• Genres: Historical Fiction, Australia

… after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

goodreads

I have a feeling this one will be heartbreaking.

THOUGHTS