Top Ten Tuesday - Great Books That Need More Buzz

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books We Enjoyed that Have Under 2000 Ratings on Goodreads.  There are so many books I love that I want to talk about more and this is such a perfect topic for that!

1. Recipes for a Beautiful Life: A Memoir in Stories by Rebecca Barry (204 Ratings) - This was the book that busted me out of my summer slump last year.  There are recipes scattered throughout but this isn't just a book about food.  She talks about kids and family and writing and is always interesting.  It's gentle and funny and snarky at times and always intersting.

2.  Jennifer, Gwyneth and Me: The Pursuit of Happiness, One Celebrity at a Time by Rachel Bertsche (485 Ratings) - This book is fascinating but I don't think it got the right type of press.  This isn't a celebrity tell all or anything like that.  Instead it's a smart snarky woman who decides to live the life of different celebrities for a period of time.  She decides to eat like Gwyneth, workout like Jennifer Anniston, and all kinds of others.  She's clear about the experiment and the results and she's funny and endlessly honest.  One of the most fun nonfiction books I've read in awhile.

3.  American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning by Kate Sweeney (126 Ratings) - This book was absolutely fascinating and one that you end up reading outloud to people around you whether they want you too or not.  If you like Mary Roach's Stiff I think you'd enjoy this one.

4.  One Grave Less by Beverly Connor (544 Ratings) - This was one of my favorite mystery series for years and then Connor stopped writing.  I feared this was the last one when I was reading it because a plot point that had been around since the beginning got wrapped up.  But then Connor listed the next one was going to be out in 2011 and I felt better. Since it's now 2016 and there's still no new book I'm thinking it's not going to happen.  If you like the tv show Bones I think you'd enjoy this series.  Fallon isn't as socially awkward as Brennan but it has a similar feel.

5.  Too Many Cooks: 4 Kids, 1 Mom, 102 New Recipes by Emily Franklin (203 Ratings) - This book was such a delight.  After her children complain about trying different foods Franklin decides that now is the time to expand their food experience.  The mission did get a little lost but the food all sounded amazing and I enjoyed Franklin's voice.  Plus I still use some of the recipes she included today and I read this book several years ago.

6.  The Crying Child by Barbara Michaels (1117 Ratings) - Barbara Michaels is my go to author when I'm falling into a slump.  Her novels are incredibly readable with lots of spooky Gothic touches and a bit of romance.  This one is one of my favorites with the wail of a baby in the night and a sea captain whose evil deeds cross over time.

7.  The House on Blackberry Hill by Donna Alward (288 Ratings) - I'm pretty sure this book was written for me.  There's a woman who inherits a dilapidated old house who decides to restore it.  There's a ghost, family secrets, and a mystery that stretches generations.  Plus the romance isn't too bad either!

8.  The Case of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth (345 Ratings) - Agatha Christie is my favorite of the classic mystery authors but Patricia Wentworth is a pretty close second (except for Grey Mask - I didn't like this one).  I adore Miss Silver and all of her other side characters.  This book about a War veteran who doesn't remember who he is is one of my absolute favorites!

9.  Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright (1477 Ratings) - When I was a child I fell absolutely in love with Elizabeth Enright's Four Story Mistake but in the days before Amazon (I don't know how we survived) it was hard to find more of her books.  As an adult I discovered the rest of the Melendy series and love them just as much now as I did then.  This is one of my favorites as it is just Oliver and Randy as their older siblings have gone away to school and they are having to entertain themselves.  It's an absolutely wonderful read!

10. Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas (1423 Ratings) - This is one of my favorite books of the year and I think more people should read it.  It's a dual timeline with one story taking place in modern day Egypt and the other in World War II Egypt and both stories are wonderful and heartbreaking and kept me equally enthralled.  The characters are so real and even though Ruby especially was a little hard to like at the very beginning I quickly began to see through the hard wall that she had put up.  It's a wonderful story about relationships and being yourself and all kinds of other fantastic things.  Read it!

So what books do you love that need a little more buzz on Goodreads?