Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish. Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week. You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.
Top Ten Hidden Gems I’ve Read In The Last Year
I don’t think I talk about hidden gems/underrated books enough! There are so many great books out there that deserve more attention, and these are my top ten!
- Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older. This is a really cool book, and I liked that people connecting with spirits through paintings, art and music was seen as a normal thing, and not something unusual or special or Other.
- All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. I cannot talk about this book enough! It is so deserving of so much more attention.
- Gabi, A Girl In Pieces by Isabel Quintero. If you like The Princess Diaries, you’ll really like this book. Gabi is such a good character.
- Behold The Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue. I really loved how this book explored immigration and how the Great Recession changed everything for the two families we see in this book.
- Where The Streets Had A Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah. I think her books are under-rated (generally speaking) but this one in particular is a hidden gem because it’s a side of the Israel-Palestinian conflict you don’t see often.
- A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly. For some reason, I thought a lot more people knew about this book…but it’s definitely a hidden gem! It’s Prohibition, but with magic, and that’s one of my favorite things about it.
- George by Alex Gino. I know this book has popped up a lot lately on some of the TTT’s I’ve done, but I cannot recommend this book enough.
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. This was one of my favorite books from last year, and it’s a sweeping book about one family, on two different sides of the slave trade.
- Tumbling by Caela Carter. I really liked My Best Friend, Maybe when I read that ages ago, and I really liked the behind-the-scenes drama in this book.
- All The Ugly And Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood. I think this book is the most known book on my list, but it was unusual and heartbreaking, and I feel like most people either love it or hate it. The title is somehow appropriate and perfect for the book.
Reading Books With Coffee 
George is on my list this week, as well!
Homecoming and All the Beautiful Ugly Things are both on my TBR. I’ve never heard of the rest of these those. Thanks for the info.
Homegoing and All The Beautiful And Ugly Things are worth checking out!
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things was amazing. I really want to get to Homegoing. I didn’t hear about it until I saw it pop on top of the year lists. Great picks!
All The Ugly And Wonderful Things was amazing, and Homegoing definitely lives up to the hype!
“Tumbling” is one I looked at back when it came out, but I have since forgotten about it. Definitely one I’ll have to look for again, and see if it looks like a good read. 🙂
I really liked Tumbling, especially the relationships between the gymnasts.
Nice list of books. I’ve heard of a couple of the books you’ve shared, the rest I’ll have to check out.
Here’s a link to my TTT post for this week: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2017/01/top-ten-tuesday-ten-underratedhidden.html
Thanks! I hope you end up reading some of them!
Where the Streets Had a Name is on my TBR for this year! I just read Does My Head Look Big in This? and loved it, and definitely agree that the Palestinian side of conflict is woefully underrepresented.
I loved Does My Head Look Big In This?, and I really want to read all of her books!
I have a few of these on my TBR, Homegoing included.
https://runwright.net/2017/01/18/underrated-novels/
Homegoing is definitely one of my favorites from the last year!
Gabi and George were two of my favorites last year, and I can’t wait to read All American Boys. All three are pretty popular in my middle school classroom. I JUST got Shadowshaper in the mail today for my classroom library too. Homegoing is one of those books I feel like I SHOULD read. I keep looking at it at the library, then choosing something lighter. Behold the Dreamers and Where the Streets Had a Name both sound excellent as well.
I really recommend all of them! They’re all great books!