Saying Goodbye to 2010 with Our Top 10 Reads - Day #3

Saying Goodbye to 2010 with Our Top 10 Reads - Day #3

As we prepare to enter 2011, we will be featuring one book or series a day from each of our three bloggers top 10 lists. Each of the books featured was read in 2010, but may have been published before that date. These are in no particular order.

Today we have a double feature since Christmas Eve was quite hectic for me. Day #4 will be in its own post due to length.

 Paula's List: Day #3 

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

**This was one of Andrea's favorites as well. However, she left it off her list since it would be featured by Paula.**

Summary:

Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still.
When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

Andrea's List: Day #3

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Summary:

Can Cameron find what he's looking for?

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school and life in general with a minimum of effort. It s not a lot to ask. But that s before he s given some bad news: he s sick and he s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure if he's willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

 

Tevya's List: Day #3
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen


Summary:

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.