Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Top Ten Unique Book Titles




Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. This week is all about unique book titles, which is super fun! A lot of book titles are rather samey, using words that aren't very memorable, not to mention trends like all the books with "girl" in the title, which just leads to confusing them all wiht each other. But some really knock it out of the park with creativity. I'm sure there are some great titles out there I'm not remembering now and I'll kick myself later when I think of them, but here are a few that came to mind right away.

1. The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage
I can't seem to make a book list of any sort without this ending up on it.

2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A classic. But I love it. It's a whole sentence and it's kind of creepy even when you don't know much about the story.

3. We Are All Shipwrecks by Kelly Carlisle
This is a new memoir and I'm planning to read it, based almost entirely on the title.

4. Nefarious Twit by Tony McMillen
I haven't read this yet, but I think I'd like it. I keep coming across it at the library where I work, because it's in both our regular collection and our local author collection. It's a very satisfying title to say.

5. Normal People Don't Live Like This by Dylan Landis
A great book of short stories that I read based on the title alone. It's also a refrain that goes through my head a lot when I look around at the condition of my house.

6. I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
A book of essays that didn't really live up to the title, but was still ok enough. I really like cake.

7. The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
A book of essays by Saunders back before he got really well-known with Tenth of December. It's very good!

8. When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Slightly magical British coming-of-age novel that I kept hearing about on The Readers podcast, and remembered because the title really stands out.

9. Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye
Pretty ominous, and it was totally appropriate to the story. A bizarre little book. Great title and a creepy cover.

10. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Those aren't two words you'd generally think to put together if you're not Andrew Smith, and most of us aren't.

I didn't even get into all the punny romance titles, which I totally love, but I guess they aren't unique since so many of them do employ puns. I can think of some more that are unusual, but in ways that I find annoying because they're just too long or too precious-sounding. Are there any great ones that I forgot?

8 comments:

Nina said...

I added I Was Told There'd Be Cake also on my list. I haven't read the book though. Now, I'm not sure if I will. I do still like the title. :) Great list.

Meaghan said...

I loved the Stefan Kiesbye book. So creepy! http://mwgerard.com/top-ten-tuesday-unique-book-names/

Captivated Reader said...

All the titles you've chosen are very unique indeed!

Here's a link to my TTT post for this week:

https://myknittingjouneyonestitchatatime.blogspot.com/2017/10/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-unique-book.html

iloveheartlandX said...

I Was Told There'd Be Cake honestly sounds like my life!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/24/top-ten-tuesday-130/

Poinsettia said...

These are some interesting titles! I'll have to look some of them up. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

Aj @ Read All The Things! said...

Ha! I need that “Normal People” book. It sounds like the story of my life.

Aj @ Read All The Things!

Sue @ Crushingcinders said...

When God was a rabbit was very nearly on my list, only bumped off because I chose to follow the rules and only choose 10. But really what I am thinking of is your blog name. I love it and so inspired to do a post on unique blog names! My TTT

3goodrats said...

Sue, I look forward to seeing that post! I'm also kind of fascinated by blog names :)