Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Underrated Books

It's time for the Broke and the Bookish's weekly top ten Tuesday meme! I was inspired for this one right out of the gate and have been considering my choices all week to make sure I included my absolute favourite books that need more attention.

1. Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin - This is an older book that’s been in and out of print since the 1960s. It’s currently IN print thankfully and is available for cheap for the Kindle. My dad gave me his copy when I was 10 or so, and I fell in love. The story’s about a young girl growing up on a vast spaceship after the end of Earth. Each person on the spaceship must participate in a 30 day Trial on the surface of one of the planetary colonies before they’re considered grown up. The Trial isn’t just a ‘rite of passage:’ it’s also population control. About one third of those who go down to a planet never come back. This book’s about the events leading up to Mia Havero’s Trial. It’s fantastic.

2. Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce - A much more recent book that I haven’t seen much talk about is this one. And oh, how I love it. It’s a gorgeously well-thought out fantasy world with a fantastic heroine in Digger. She’s smart, resourceful, mostly unprincipled, and gets her fingers into everything from a lord’s papers to a possible revolution.

3. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean - One of my favourite books of all time. Maggie recommended it to me a few years ago, and even though I’ve read it at least 20 times, I still find new bits to love each time. It’s a retelling of the ballad Tam Lin set at a Minnesota college during the 70s. Poetry, Shakespeare, fairies, and college roommate difficulties. It’s wonderful.

4. Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden - I don’t know why these books have never gotten as big in the US or Canada as they are in Australia, but the series - and especially this first one - are a fabulous portrayal of a group of teenagers fighting back against the invasion of their country. Ellie’s one of my favourite heroines ever.

5. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer - This book? Scared the crap out of me. It’s about what happens when an asteroid hits the moon and whacks it into an orbit closer to the earth. The science is terrible, but the book itself is compelling enough that I was able to simply accept it and move on to the scariness of life afterwards. A really good post-apocalyptic novel.

6. Eon/Eona by Allison Goodman - Another fantastically well-thought out fantasy world. This one is set in an Asian - particularly Chinese - inspired world with dragons that only men are allowed to communicate with. When Eona can see the dragons, there’s only one choice. Eona must disguise herself as a boy. Court intrigue, politics, warfare, and magic. I’m so happy I got to read the sequel just a few months after reading Eon.

7. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire - My favourite urban fantasy series. The fae and changelings, the Summerlands, and a detective named October Daye. Seanan McGuire also writes as Mira Grant of the excellent zombie novels Feed and Deadline.

8. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund - Killer. Unicorns. That’s all I have to say. Killer unicorns and the girls who fight them.

9. Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner - A fictionalized account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that was recently published for the 100th anniversary of that tragedy. Some of the book is a little overly sentimental, but overall, it’s a very good read and a good way to introduce people to the fire that really did change how workers are treated in the United States.

10. Ash by Malinda Lo - A retelling of Cinderella with elves and huntresses. I just recently read this one, and while I think it's received a lot of blogosphere attention, I couldn't help including it in my list since I haven't gotten around to writing a full review yet.