One of my main regrets about my time in university was choosing not to take more classes about the histories of other countries, especially those in Asia. I majored in Psychology, but I had briefly considered doing a double-major in history. Ultimately, I decided against it because I was worried it would be too complicated to fit in all my required courses for both programs and still have room for a few electives. Plus, history and psychology would have been quite the workload! Although I still had the option of taking history classes, my focus was mostly on ancient civilizations and Europe. There were several classes in Asian history that really interested me, but most of them either conflicted with my schedule or were set for 8:30 in the morning which would mean waking up at 6 am to catch my bus to school. I was interested in the class, but definitely not interested enough to wake up so early! I am really not a morning person.
I have always been interested in reading and learning about other cultures, especially countries like Japan and China. Although I’ve never really studied them properly, I find historical fiction (when it’s done well) can be fascinating and through some of those books, I have learned so much about other cultures. I was pretty excited to see this week’s topic to get a chance to discuss some of my favourite books set outside the Western world. Like many readers, I have not read nearly as many non-Western books as I have read books set in Europe or especially the US, but I have many waiting on my TBR!
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
I’d heard about this book a long time before I ever decided to read it, and it has ended up becoming one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. This book is about a young girl named Chiyo who is taken from home and sold to work as a geisha around the time of WWII. I was very interested by the look into Japanese culture and especially the lives of the geisha. If I’m honest, I’m still a little confused about how much of this book is fact vs. fiction. Years after reading it, I learned there was a lawsuit initiated by one of the geisha that Arthur Golden interviewed for information as well as claims that the book was inaccurate. Either way, I thought this was a fascinating book and a compelling story. Like all historical fiction, I think it needs to be seen as a starting point to learn more, and not solid fact.
2) Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Although I’ve always been interested in China, I know very little about the country’s history. I picked up this book because my mom read it and highly recommended it. It is about two sisters living in Shanghai who are sold as wives to American men after their father loses everything by gambling. The book follows Pearl and May as the travel from China to America, and is a powerful story both on a historical and a family dynamics level. I went into this book not expecting very much, and it ended up being one of my favourites of the year when I read it. The main characters both seemed so real that I often forgot that the book was fictional.
3) With the Light series by Keiko Tobe
I’ve mentioned this series a few times before, but since it seems to be quite obscure, I thought it was worth mentioning again! This is a manga series about a Japanese family who are raising a young son diagnosed with autism. The series consists of 8 volumes that cover from the time the child is born, through his diagnosis, and into his teenage years. The series covers all kinds of issues including how children with disabilities and their families are treated by the school system, society in general, and even their own family members! Unfortunately, the author passed away and the final volume was published posthumously. I am ashamed to admit I have not completed this series yet, despite two attempts! My first try, the library was missing several of the volumes so I was forced to stop mid-way. On the second try, I read the first two and then got caught up in my reading challenge and didn’t have time to read anything additional. I’m hoping to be able to get back to it soon!
4) Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a book I read very recently, about a teenage girl named Kambili who has grown up in Nigeria. Kambili and her brother are sent to live with their aunt, who is much more liberal than their strict and religious father, where they begin to discover a different way of life. I went into this book knowing practically nothing about life in Africa in any country, and I thought it was a very interesting look at how religious and political influences affected people’s lives. I was especially interested in the contrast between those who had converted to Christianity, and how negatively they viewed the African traditions still practiced by many. I thought it was a very interesting look at the impact of the West on another country.
5) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
This was one of the only books that I was required to read in high school that I actually enjoyed. It follows the life of Amir, the son of a wealthy family in Afghanistan whose best friend is the Hassan, the son of his family’s servant. This book was a very compelling story of the two boys and how their class differences affected the course of their lives. Like the other books on this list, I enjoyed it because it introduced the culture in a very human context that really brought it to life. This has always stood out as one of the most powerful books that I read in school, and I’m glad the teacher chose it other commonly used classics. It’s probably been about 10 years since I read it, although I recently read the graphic novel version to refresh myself on the story (and I would recommend that version as well. It did an excellent job of capturing the story in a limited-text format).
This was one of my all-time favourite books when I was in elementary school. Robert Munsch is a brilliant children’s author, and this book is one of the best. It is about a young girl named Brigid who begs her parents to buy her progressively fancier sets of markers, on the condition that she only draws on paper. Of course, Brigid gets into trouble and colours all over everything, including herself. I’ve always loved this book for the colourful illustrations and the simple but hilarious storyline. Of all the books on this list, this is probably the one that has the least “message” to deliver, but it is a thoroughly entertaining book.
I would also highly recommend the brilliant Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, but since I have already written about that (
This is a children’s book that only ever read as an adult, and it was actually one that my mom discovered and recommended while working at the library. This book is about a duck named Theodora who is very happy with her normal life, which is mostly just like all the other ducks but she has a few unusual quirks. Like with Chester’s Way, Theodora meets an unusual new neighbour named Chad who is very different from her. Theodora and Chad become friends, with each seeing the other as the odd one. This book carries one of my favourite messages — that normal is relative, and it is important for everyone to be themselves. Even reading this as an adult, it was a great and very meaningful book.
When Elephant Met Giraffe is another book that I’m sure I’ve discussed before, and another that I read only as an adult. I discovered this book at the library while looking for something to read to some of my participants at work, including one who is obsessed with elephants. This book consists of three stories that all focused on what it means to be a good friend. It seems to be a running theme with the books I’m recommending that they focus on friends learning to manage being very different. In this book, talkative Elephant is offended because Giraffe is silent until he learns that giraffes actually can’t speak. Instead of letting that get in the way, Elephant figures out how to make friends with Giraffe anyway. My favourite of the three stories is the third one, where they decided to play with costumes but can’t agree on what to play. It is a simple, straightforward, and adorable book!
I debated for a long time whether to include any Little Critter or Berenstain Bears books on this list, because there were so many to choose from. I decided to choose one that stood out to me most, but I would highly recommend any of the books from these two series! I’ve always loved the Little Critter series because of how cute the illustrations and the stories are. This one specifically is about how annoying it is to constantly need to share everything with a younger sibling. Being the younger sister myself, I can’t say I necessarily relate to the story but I thought it was a great and realistic view of sibling dynamics at an appropriate level even for young children. It tells them that it’s okay to be annoyed with your sibling sometimes, and that it will pass. It is so important for children to understand that more negative feelings are normal and okay, instead of books trying to cover them up.
I decided to lump these two together because I decided not to buy them for the same reason. As I mentioned in my recent post about the cost of books (found 
It’s been a very long time since I bought any classics at all, and this was never one that I really strongly was interested in. I read The Once and Future King last year and loved it, but my understanding is that this is quite a similar book. When I was at Chapters a couple of nights ago, I saw an absolutely gorgeous version of this book and was extremely tempted to buy it. I can’t even find an image of the right version to show, but it was a leather-bound hardcover and it had gold edges on all of the pages (like the old Royal Diaries YA series, if anyone knows those books). The picture I included here is the closest I could find. I wanted to buy this book partly because I love King Arthur legends, but also because of how amazing it looked! I’m never one to go for books just because of how they look, but I almost made an exception for this one. It looked kind of old-fashioned, and it was awesome!
This is another book that I’ve been meaning to read for quite a while, ever since I discovered it on Goodreads late last year. The more I hear about it, the more I want to read it! I’ve seen this book several times in bookstores over the past year or so, and each time I see it I’ve considered buying it. I’m not usually a huge sci-fi fan, but this book fits in perfectly with my recent interest in reading about anything to do with social media and how it affects our lives. This book is about a couple who undergo a procedure designed to increase empathy and communication, but sometime goes wrong and the woman is connected to someone other than her soon-to-be fiance. It seems like such a great concept, so I will have to find a place in my reading challenges for this book! I decided not to buy it because it was way too overpriced ($37 for the hardcover!).
I have never been a big fan of coffee table books, but my mom and I both strongly considered buying this one! We have both always been interested in the great apes, especially Jane Goodall and other researchers who lived with and studied apes. This book includes stunning pictures taken of the chimpanzees at Gombe and lots of information about their lives and even personalities. I’m always hesitant to buy this kind of book because it seems like the kind of thing I would only read once and then never touch again, but it is very hard to resist those photos! Compared to the other books above, this was also very reasonably priced, and I’m still considering getting myself a copy.
Gregory Maguire is one of my favourite authors and one that I check to see when new books are coming, so I was shocked to notice this book on the shelves! I had no idea at all that he had released something new… and even more shocked to discover that this book has already been out for three years! I only found that out as I started putting together this post. I have no idea how I could have missed this one. Actually, I think the main reason I’d missed it in the first place is because it was in the YA section and most of his other books were with the general fiction (I feel a bit weird calling it “adult books”). I guess I’ll have to be a bit more careful checking for updates from my favourite authors!
On the other hand, this was a book and an author that I had never heard of before. The cover art of this one caught my attention as I was walking past, and I thought the synopsis sounded very intriguing. This book is already 10 years old and the title sounded vaguely familiar so it is possible I came across it on Goodreads at some point. After adding it to my list, I found that several of the reviewers I follow have read and loved this book so it was even more incentive to want to pick it up at some point. I’m a bit reluctant to buy books now without trying them first because of a combo of cost and lack of space, but I would definitely be interested in reading this one.
This book was a truly random find. I love just walking up and down the shelves and looking at all the books. This one was displayed pretty prominently on one of the shelves, which I later discovered was because it was a brand new release. The bright blue cover caught my attention as did the unusual formatting of the title. As soon as I checked the synopsis, I knew this was a book I had to add to my list. This book is about a young woman named Elvira who has been sheltered by her mother due to difficulties interacting with others. After her mother dies, Elvira is on her own to try to figure out how to live her life, and starts by creating herself a list of seven social rules to follow. It seemed to me that Elvira might be on the autism spectrum, which is something I’m very interested in reading about.
This book is one of the new releases of the year that I’ve been most excited for. It is another story focusing on the dangers of social media. In it, a popular high school student named Kyla discovers that a video of someone who looks like her sleeping with a teacher has gone viral. Kyla faces the near-impossible task of trying to get the video off of the Internet. I’ve been very excited to read this because it seems like such a unique plot, even among stories that focus on the Internet and social media. I don’t think I have ever read a book about viral videos or the permanence of posts online. I was hesitant to buy it because I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the self-imposed hype, but it is one of the books that I strongly considered getting.
To be fair, this was not a book that I saw at a bookstore but it was one that I discovered while on vacation through one of the blogs I follow. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I saw it! This book is a new release about a group of teenagers who take part in a reality show where they live in a replica spaceship and believe they have been genuinely sent into space. I’m not a huge fan of reality TV, although I do enjoy Hell’s Kitchen and I used to love Survivor and American Idol. I thought this book was another unique concept for a YA story and it seemed like it could be a very interesting story that combines teen drama and the risks of reality TV.
Technically there is a bit of romance in this since two of the characters are already an established couple, but I tend not to really consider that a romance because we don’t see it developing. This book is about a teenage boy named Solomon who has agoraphobia and isolates himself at home after a very public meltdown. His classmate Lisa decides to take him on as a project and brings in her boyfriend Clark to help Solomon make friends and become more comfortable. There is a character who develops a crush on another character, but it never really develops past that so I also would not consider it a romance story. It is a great book and one I would highly recommend.
This is one of the only books I can remember reading that included a friendship between teenagers that never went past the platonic stage. The book is about a boy named Salvador who was adopted by a single Mexican-American father who is also gay. To be honest, this wasn’t my favourite book since I found it a little slow and directionless, but I really appreciated how well the friendship between Salvador and his best friends was handled. It was really nice to see an author create a friendship that was so real and natural, and did not feel compelled to make it romantic.
Is it cheating to include a book where the characters are a bit too young to be interested in romance? This book is about a young orphan named Mary Lennox who is forced to move in with her distant uncle, and soon discovers that there are many secrets hidden in his huge house, including a mysterious locked garden. This has always been one of my favourite books, and I love the interactions between Mary, Colin and Dickon. I’ve actually always just assumed that Mary and Dickon fell in love when they grew up. This is easily one of my favourite classics.
It might be a bit of a strange choice for this topic, but there is definitely no romance here. This book is about a girl named Masha who wants applies for a job as the Baba Yaga’s Assistant to get away from her new stepmother and annoying stepsister. If I remember correctly, Masha is also a little on the younger side so it makes sense that there was no romance. It focuses primarily on Masha’s trials to become the assistant, but also on the stepsister-relationship. It was definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far, and it is rare that I love graphic novels!
I actually read this quite a while ago, so although I don’t remember any romance, it’s possible there was some. In any case, it was not the main focus of the book. This book is about a young girl named Jenna who is searching for her mother, Alice, who disappeared 10 years ago while researching elephants. Jenna partners with a psychic named Serenity and a private detective named Virgil to help her figure out the mystery of what happens to her mother. This was an incredible book that combined an excellent family story with some very interesting research about elephants. I would highly recommend it!
To be fair, I am almost finished this series and it is one of the few that I prioritized to finish this year. I read Cinder toward the end of 2016 and I absolutely loved it, so I made sure to fit Scarlet in this year. I actually didn’t intend to read the rest so quickly, but I wanted Winter for a particularly irritating prompt (a book over 800 pages), so I needed to find a place for Cress too. I just finished Cress last week, and I loved it. Aside from the four main books, there are also the “between the numbers” books and apparently a new, related graphic novel series focusing on Iko. I’m not generally a fan of “between the numbers” books, but I think in this case I will make an exception.
This was another series I started toward the end of last year, and I was blown away by the first book. I thought Juliette was such an interesting protagonist and I really connected with the writing style. I know a lot of people take issue with the excessive metaphors and strikethroughs, but for me they fit well with Juliette’s mental state. I read the second book not too long ago, and although I didn’t find it quite as strong, I’m still very interested in finding out what happens next. This is another series that has a few “between the numbers” books, and I’ve only recently learned that there will be a fourth book coming out sometime next year.
I have a bit of a strange relationship with Lauren Oliver’s books. I generally enjoy the concept and I like reading them, but something always seems to hold them back from being 5-star reads for me. I picked up this series because I was intrigued by the concept of a world where love is viewed as a disease. I really enjoyed how the first book explored what it would mean to outlaw all kinds of love, not just romantic love. While I enjoy these books as I’m reading them, I find them a little less memorable, although I’ve just seen that the third book is told from a dual-perspective of Lena who has joined the resistance, and her friend Hana who is still at home where love is banned. It seems like it will be an interesting way to bring it all together.
I picked up Beautiful Creatures last year because I’d seen and loved the movie. It is actually not so often that I find a non-Harry Potter series that involves witches or magic. I also liked how this book was a little different since it was told from the male perspective. I’m sure it is not the only one to do that, but it was definitely one of the only ones I had read. I enjoyed the first book although I found it a little slow-paced. I don’t have any of the rest of them in mind for this year, but I would like to continue the series eventually. I’ve been a bit scared off since I saw so many negative reviews about how much the series goes downhill!
This is another series that I started last year but didn’t manage to fit in anywhere this year, although I would like to continue it. This series is about a world in which suicide is an epidemic so people are constantly screened for signs of depression, and sent to The Program if they show any. This was another series that I heard a lot of mixed reviews about, especially because of concerns with the way mental illness is discussed. However, I thought it was a very interesting start. The only reason I didn’t fit it into this year was because there were several new series that I wanted to try more, but I will have to try to squeeze it in!
I’m actually not 100% sure whether I’ve ever finished the series. I’ve definitely read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and The Magician’s Nephew more than once. I also vaguely remember reading one or two more of them when I was much younger and had the flu, but I don’t remember anything about them. I’ve also never been able to figure out what the best order is to read these books. This series is definitely one of my longer-term goals, because I would love to finally finish them all! If anyone has any recommendations for what order to read them in, please let me know!
This one of a few series that I committed to trying this year, but I was on the fence about it because of the mixed reviews. Most reviews compared this series to The Bachelor, which I have never watched and have no interest in, so I went into it with fairly low expectations. While I think this book would have been better if it was told from multiple perspectives, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I’m hoping in the next few books there will be more character development of some of the other competitors. The book was fun to read, and it caught my attention enough to want to try the rest of the series.
This was another of the series I decided to try this year, and again it had me worried because of the reviews. It may have helped that I read this book before others that it has been compared to, but I also really connected with the writing style. I was surprised to find that Victoria Aveyard actually caught me off-guard with the ending. I can see where some people might complain about the heavy use of common tropes, but it was well-written enough that it didn’t bother me at all. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the series and I hope it holds up to this one.
I started this series last year for a prompt that required a series written by an author of colour, which was surprisingly difficult to find. This book is about a world where people are divided into Noughts, who are colourless members of the lower-class, and Crosses, dark-skinned members of the upper-class. I’ll admit that I found the beginning of the book a little frustrating since many of the events were ripped straight from the history textbooks of the Civil Rights movement in the USA. It made it seem a little less creative to me, but I loved the rest of the story. I am still waiting for my library to get a copy of the next book so I can read it!
This was another of my favourite series that I started last year! This series consists of three books, each of which is loosely based on a classic horror story. Juliet Moreau, the protagonist was one of the most interesting main characters that I’d read all year. It was a little ironic since I kept putting off reading this until close to the end of the year and even considered switching it out for something different. It ended up being one of my favourites! I read the second book earlier this year, and immediately went and found a place to squeeze the third one in for later on.