Top Ten Tuesday: Quick Reads

February 6: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short (Books under 150 pages, or if you’re not a novella reader maybe spin this to be books you could read in a day or a single sitting.) (Submitted by Jennifer @ FunkNFiction.com and Angela @ Reading Frenzy)

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

Coming up with ten books I haven’t already recommended over and over is not going to be easy; so, first are five that I have already read and then five that I intend to read.

READ

Leviathan: A Brief Story At the End of the World by Saul W. Tanpepper – 35 pages, Kindle Edition – Published February 3, 2016 –

The planet is dying. In this bleak world, only two people remain– a father and child. They eke out a meager existence on the shore of a dead, oil-slicked sea, haunted by memories of what once was. Not wondering what might be. Just waiting for the final ending to arrive.
One windless night, the child hears the ghostly call of a creature long-presumed to be extinct. Is it a sign of hope for the world, or evidence of their shared guilt, a ghost tormenting their final days? Determined to find out, the child sets out alone in a rickety boat on a journey of self-discovery.

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2

Lord of the Flies by William Golding – 189 pages, Kindle Edition – First published September 17, 1954 – Dystopia, Classics

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. 

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3

The Plagiarist by Hugh Howey – 57 pages, Kindle Edition – First published February 24, 2011 – SciFi, Fantasy, Dystopia

Adam Griffey is living two lives. By day, he teaches literature. At night, he steals it. Adam is a plagiarist, an expert reader with an eye for great works. He prowls simulated worlds perusing virtual texts, looking for the next big thing. And when he finds it, he memorizes it page by page, line by line, word for word. And then he brings it back to his world.
But what happens when these virtual worlds begin to seem more real than his own? 

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This one is my favorite, on this list, due to the infinite layers of stories that exist in this world.

4

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – 167 pages, Kindle Edition – First published January 1, 2020 – Fantasy, SciFi, Dystopian

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor’s son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven’t happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

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5

The Vegetarian by Han Kang – 185 pages, Kindle Edition – First published October 30, 2007 – Literary, Horror, Contemporary, Mental Health

Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, …

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The Vegetarian is the one that affected me the most: I could feel Yeong-hye’s despiration for control of some part of her own life.

Intend on reading:

The Last of Rosa by Denise Weierhaus – 24 pages, Kindle Edition – Published May 3, 2022 – SciFi, CliFi

Set in the near future the world as we know it has turned toxic. Global warming has left the majority of the planet uninhabitable. Skyscraper cities form the last strongholds against the fast-growing deserts that have taken over the globe. The survival of humankind is challenged by diseases, water shortages and food scarcity. In one of the massive battery farms that grow food for the living, Rosa has spent more than a decade in forced labor. Confronted with the reality of her body’s purpose in this manmade pen, she holds on to the only thing that she has left: her hope of being reunited with her family one day.

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2

Of Nightmare Realities by Toneye Eyenot – 127 pages, Kindle Edition – First published April 8, 2018 – Horror

Your vision blurred, body buzzing with exhaustion, flashes of malevolent darkness in the corners of your eyes…they sense you slipping. They are impatiently tugging at your consciousness. You can’t stay awake forever, and when you finally do fall asleep…they will be there, waiting to greet you with open arms.
Delirium and psychosis are beginning to set in.

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3

Questions for a Soldier (Old Man’s War #1.5) by John Scalzi – 22 pages, Kindle Edition – First published December 1, 2005 – SciFi, Space Opera

Captain John Perry, in Old Man’s War, did a goodwill tour of the colonies after the Battle of Coral.
This is the Q&A session from one of those stops, on the colony world of New Goa. There’s no story here, really; just the back-and-forth between a combat veteran and some of the civilians the Colonial Defense Forces are defending—who have a variety of views of the CDF, the fact that it’s composed entirely of old folks from Earth (colonists cannot enlist), and the perpetual state of war between humans and most other intelligent species they’re in contact with.

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4

The Shift by Evelyne Crowe – 40 pages, Kindle Edition – Published August 1, 2022 – CliFi, Paranormal Romance

The end of the world began on a Tuesday morning.
The day started out like every other day with Diana getting ready to go to work, but Earth had different plans.
First, it let out the magic.

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5

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – 70 pages, Kindle Edition – First published November 5, 2021 – Irish Literature, Historical Fiction, Christmas

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

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GO CHIEFS!

Thoughts