Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: This Is My First Time...

1.  The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Yup.  It was her first: Can you believe it?  This novel rocked my world as a young adult, both for the beauty of its language and for the surprising interactions of utterly unique characters in a quite ordinary setting.

2. To Kill A Mockingbird.  Harper Lee's first and only novel (as far as we know!).  Why has her book come up on all my lists?  It's that good.

3.  The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow.  I just read this debut novel (review here) and look forward to her future works.

4.  before i fall by Lauren Oliver.  See #3. (Come back for my full review tomorrow!)

5.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.  (Well, it was his first novel for adults, so I'm using it.  He'd written many books for younger folks prior.) 

6.  The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven by Sherman Alexie. (His first fiction.  He'd published volumes of poetry before this.)

7.  The Grass Dancer by Susan Power.  I connected instantly with Power's debut novel and read it more than once.  A strong if troubled female protagonist and what was for me an accurate portrayal of a Sioux worldview with a plot stretching for a number of generations. 

8. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.  The beginning of an illustrious career in popularizing current social science research through fascinating storytelling...

9. Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock.  I'm pretty sure that this was his first book for adults also.  Even if not, it's such a unique creation that I'm going to call it a "first" of its kind!

10.  I can't think of a tenth one:  Help me, people!
Please go ahead and add your own ideas in the comments below.

Thanks again, The Broke and the Bookish (brokeandbookish.blogspot.com) for creating these prompts.  Everybody pop over there, sign on, and blog hop!

MFB,
L

10 comments:

Darlyn (Your Move, Dickens) said...

Great picks. I love that you included classics in your list. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is currently in my TBR pile, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. :)

Tony D said...

Great list...as for adds...I'd go with The Hobbit.:)

Anonymous said...

Before I fall...I've heard a lot about this one. Can't wait to read your review!

Laurie said...

Hey, T - Thanks for The Hobbit!
And Jenny - I decided to speed up the review: It drops tomorrow instead of Friday.
See you then!
L

Anonymous said...

Wow. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, eh? I have NO idea what that's about, but it's a great example of a book's title making you want to know more! To Kill a Mockingbird is a great book -- and the movie is fantastic too. I love Atticus Finch. Thanks for stopping by my blog, and great list!

LBC said...

Good ones. I have read some of the stories from Lone Ranger and Tonto, but not the whole collection. Griffin and Sabine is adorable.

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

Your list and mine are so varied it is proof that there are many, many fabulous books out there. Thanks for your list.

-Anne
My Head is Full of Books

Lark Andrea said...

Great list! I love seeing To Kill a Mockingbird on so many of these lists.

Reading Lark's Top 10

Dana said...

Going to cheat a bit here, because it wasn't her first book, but I think it was the first specifically marketed to/as YA: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. I still return to the Earthsea novels every few years (The Tombs of Atuan has the most shivery and spine-tingling labyrinth in it) and love them more each time.
Also: Northanger Abbey, technically Austen's first, though published later. Nice and satire-y.

Willa said...

Great list - very different from a lot of the other lists this week :-)

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