This week's Top Ten from
The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Most Unique Books I've
Read.
1) The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly – A
nonfiction memoir painstakingly written by a man who is paralyzed in a car
wreck. He blinked out every letter he wanted written.
2) Room – The horrific
nature of this novel is tempered by the way it is told. A kidnap victim has a
child while captive and the reader sees the story unfold through the innocent
eyes of a 5-year-old.
3) Ella Minnow Pea –
This clever epistolary novel uses fewer and fewer letters throughout the book
as certain pieces of the alphabet are banned.
4) The
Arrival – A
graphic novel that manages to convey a gripping emotional story of immigration
without using a single word.
5) Anything by Jasper
Fforde – From his literary detective in the Thursday Next series to the world
of hierarchical colors in Shades of Grey, Fforde creates the most fantastic
societies.
6) We Need
to Talk about Kevin – A book about a killing
at a school that makes the reader question nature vs. nurture. This one is
unique because at the end you’re still not sure whose side you’re on.
7) The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Our narrator has some form of
autism, probably Asperger’s, which gives him a very distinct view of the world.
8) The Sparrow – Is it a
novel about space travel, religion, xenophobia, culture divides? It’s all of
the above and I’ve never read anything else like it.
9) A Clockwork Orange –
The characters speak in a slang language of their own devising.
