Top Five Tuesday – All Time Favourites

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. This week we actually get 10 picks which is definitely needed my favourites! I’ve probably mentioned all of these at least once before because I can’t ever forget about them!

1. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Because I grew up reading HP I genuinely think the books have shaped who I am! I could read them forever, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them over the years but the magic is still there whenever I go back to Hogwarts.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I think I will always be obsessed with these books, the characters, the complex plot. I still don’t know everything and I’ve read all the books at least twice. George has created such a real (and incredibly cruel) world that I can’t possibly tear myself away.

3. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The characters in the Forgotten Garden are the main reason it’s one of my favourites. Eliza Makepeace is a writer herself, she lives in the early 1900s and is adopted by her uncle when her mother dies. Her mother had run away from her privileged life to marry for love, Eliza doesn’t ever feel truly at home in the grand house but she adores the gardens. The story crosses generations going between Eliza’s world to Nell and then Nell’s granddaughter Cassandra who both live in Australia. It’s a magical story that I fell in love with when I first read it.

4. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

This book is so incredible it’s kind of my dream book, it’s set in the 1920’s-40’s and it all about the possibilities of life and the decisions we make affecting our lives. We follow the Todd family, specifically Ursuala through their lives. It’s another one of my all time favourites. We follow Ursula down different paths and some of the possible lives she could have led during WWII. I can’t tell you how much I love this book and how beautiful it is.

5. The Book Thief by Markus Zuask

I absolutely love this book from start to finish. Death is the narrator and his passages are so profound and beautiful. The book is set in 1940s Germany. Death tells Liesel’s story, how she found a book by her brother’s grave and found a love of the written word.

6. Atonement by Ian McEwan

It’s set from 1930s-40’s and then jumps to the early 2000s. Briony Tallis is a curious, over-confident child, she likes to write and perform plays and this summer is no different. Except she winesses something and doesn’t understand it’s innocence. An accusation is made and lives are changed forever. This book is so beautiful and the time it’s set is such a scary but fascinating time.

7. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

I will always come back to this series because of the emotional connection I have to it and how brilliant it is. It’s set in a post apocalyptic version of America. Humanity lives in strict districts and under harsh rules imposed by the Capital and it’s repulsive inhabitants. Every year they force children to fight to the death, for their entertainment and to remind the districts what happens when you rebel. But one girl in District Twelve is about to change all of that, unintentionally she gives the people hope and the courage to fight back.

8. Dominion by C.J. Sansom

It’s 1952, Germany won the war. Britain surrendered after Dunkirk. Germany are still at war with Russia but we are under Nazi rule. The press, radio and television are controlled. Resistance is growing though with the leadership of Winston Churchill. This book is truly brilliant and utterly terrifying. I don’t think I’ve read a scarier book. So convincing it made me physically shudder in parts.

9. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

This book is my favourite from the Discworld series so far because of its impact on me. It’s about the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork during a revolution. The Watch make barricades with the people of the city to protect themselves from a serial killer and some of the Watch themselves. The leader in it all is Sam Vines who has somehow travelled back in time so he is now at the revolution twice. Once as a new officer and again as an experienced policeman near to retirement. The book is funny of course but is also filled with so much truth about the nature of humanity.

10. Children In Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This book is so good. Humanity are branching out into the stars, a project has identified different planets to terraform and make suitable for human life. But it’s also an evolutionary experiment, they send down insects and animals and some of our primate ancestors. But there are people back on Earth who believe this is wrong, we are meant to live and die on Earth. They sabotage one of the spaceships. The captain sends the monkeys off towards the planet along with the evolutionary accelerator. Then she is trapped in a tiny escape pod, orbiting her planet, transmitting a distress signal. 100 years later survivors of Earth find the planet and attempt to make it their home, but something has gone wrong. There are no monkeys here, instead the world is covered in webs. I loved this book, it was so interesting!

So there are my ten favourites! What are some of yours?