It’s the second day of the week! It is a new day to do another bookish post, particularly the Top 5 Tuesdays post. Top 5 Tuesdays and their topics are brought to you by Shanah @ the Bionic Bookworm. Do check out her blog, she’s got an awesome one. For the list of topics in February, click on this page.

This week’s topic: Top 5 Books That Weren’t What I Expected

Hmmm. This week’s topic is quite challenging. There’s quite a score of books that weren’t what I expected them to be. I’m the type of reader who rarely researches on the books he is about to read. As a result, I am dumbfounded by  many books, due to a wide range of reasons. It’s quite challenging trying to remember all, if not, any of them, but I’ll give this one a shot.

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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

One of the books that I was immediately reminded of by this week’s topic is David Mitchell’s epic masterpiece, Cloud Atlas. Although it was adapted into a movie, I barely have an inkling about the book. I even thought that it was a short story collection, hence, my initial ambivalence towards the book. But boy did it surprise me a lot. It was just so genre-bending that I was stoked. It falls into the definition of a “book that I did not expect it to be.”

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Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

I’ve always been looking forward to Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks. Newburyport for a variety of reasons which I’ve mentioned already in previous book blog posts. Before I started reading the book, I expected it to fall into the same category as the 2019 Man Booker co-winners, that it would be a feminist work. To some extent, it was but there was more to it than just that. It was a far cry from what I thought it was going to be. And I am glad it was.

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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides’ masterful stroke, Middlesex, is yet another classic case of “I thought this book was about something else”. Before reading it, Middlesex has filled my imagination with different images of what it was going to be. Take note, I didn’t research on what it was about. Upon reading it, I was literally caught off guard – it was about something that I didn’t expect. Nevertheless, Middlesex is one of my favorite all-time reads.

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The Vegetarian by Han Kang

To some extent, the title of Han Kang’s Man Booker International Prize winning work can be quite deceptive. I thought that The Vegetarian is an exploration of the lives of vegetarians or at least offer some insights into it. But this book is more than just that. Shaped in the same mold of Kang’s fellow East Asian authors, The Vegetarian is a subtle fusion of the surreal and the realistic. It explores the subterranean world of physical and mental freedom.

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The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Okay, I am guilty. I really thought that Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love is literally about the history of love. It is one of the chief reasons why I was so enamored with the book. Again, I was proven wrong by the story. It does dwell on some facets of love and destiny but not in the way I expected it to be. It was nostalgic. It was heartwarming. But it was different, a pleasant kind of different.

And thus ends my Top Five Tuesday list of books that weren’t what I expected. How about you fellow readers? What books weren’t you expecting them to be? Do share in the comment box or perhaps you could create your own blog post. I am more than interested to know.

Happy reading!

 

 

 

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