Top Ten Tuesday #6

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010.

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

(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!)

This idea really intrigued me,  and I had to go find out how I stacked up right away.  Turns out that picking this list is going to be harder than I thought, because the majority of the books I’ve read have less than 2000 ratings. A lot of really good books too. I guess that just means that my eclectic reading habits and good for finding underrated books.

I also turned it the other way around to see which books on my “read” list had the most ratings. The top 5 are: The Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Divergent, Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl, and 1984.

(Listed in no particular order)

1. The Try: Reclaiming the American Dream – This was an excellent motivational book. I got to listen to the author at an American Agri-Women convention and then he gave us all a copy of this book and the cowboy code of ethics. The Try is not the same  “try” or “trying”, it’s cowboy jargon for someone who has tenacity, who over comes the odds, who just won’t give up. That’s The Try and the book is about 12 people from different walks of life who have it and who will inspire you to have it too.
2. Beyond The Soiled Curtain: Project Rescue’s Fight For The Victims Of The Sex Slave Industry – A book everyone who is interested in human rights should read. I couldn’t put it down, the story is so compelling and the work being done so important and the outcomes full of hope.
3. Out of the Ruins (Golden Gate Chronicles #1), Beyond the Ashes (Golden Gate Chronicles #2) and Mistaken: First Impressions Are Never What They Seem – These are all novels by my friend Karen Barnett. I’m not usually into Christian Romance, but these books by Karen are an exception. Not only because she is a friend, but because they don’t have the same sappyness and unreal expectations of “Christian-ness”… so many of these romances are too concerned with being “Christian” that they don’t reflect real people/life. Karen’s books are solid historic fiction where romance is a part of life, but not the main pursuit.
4. I Saw Three Ships – A Christmas classic. It’s short and sweet, and it a great story to read curled up in front of the fireplace on a cold Christmas Eve. If you haven’t read it yet make a point to read it this next Christmas season, you won’t be disappointed.
5. A Name of Her Own – by Oregon author Jane Kirkpatrick, it tells the story of the Astor party that crossed over land after Lewis and Clark to establish a trading post in the Oregon territory that would one day become the city of Astoria. This historical retelling is very well done, and should be on your reading list if you have interest in Oregon history or adventure/survival stories. In fact, this was my book of the year pick for 2010.
6. United States Bill of Rights – What!? Seriously the bill of Rights only has 1,056 ratings on Goodreads. I can’t believe this. You need to go rate the Bill of Rights right now. This should have tens of thousand of ratings not just slightly over one thousand. There was a reason that my philosophy professor had us read this and the Constitution, the fact that so few people have read the documents which are so important to our lives in America. It’s free on Kindle, so if you haven’t read it now you don’t have an excuse.
7. The Seventh Tower (The Seventh Tower omnibus, #4-6) – I don’t know where the first omnibus ranked, but I was surprised to see this so low. I know that Garth Nix has a large following. I looked up the individual books and they do have higher amounts of ratings. This was a series I could not put down. I read it at a time when we didn’t have a lot of extra cash (finding the first books at a thrift store.) When I finished book 3, I rushed to Amazon to find the rest, and luckily they had a fairly cheap copy of this omnibus when worked out perfectly.
8. Flying Blind (The Cooper Kids Adventures, #8) – The last, and best, of the Cooper Kids Adventures. This is an exciting young adult adventure story. I would recommend reading the rest of the series, but if you are going to read only one of them this should be the one. It grabs your attention and is a thrilling ride until the end.
9. Prophet (Books of the Infinite, #1) – I’ve enjoyed this whole series. A very different fantasy story with Christian elements. I totally fell for the world building and Ela and her quest to follow the Infinite and to be his prophet.
10. Dream Thief – This really should be at the #1 spot if I was ordering them by my personal favorites. I have read Dream Thief a ridiculous numbers of times (10+ at least.) It is my favorite novel by my favorite author (Stephen R Lawhead.) In fact just a few weeks ago I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking about reading it again.