Top 10 Outbursts!!

It is Top 10 Tuesday, and though this post is likely to be shorter than usual because I'm still sick, I do want to weigh in on today's topic, Top 10 Books that engendered strong emotions in me, whether positive or not.

10.  "Oops!", by Bill Myers.  Considering I gave it a one-star review and made it the first recipient of my infamous Dorothy Parker Award, I think you can probably guess that my emotional response to this book was quite negative.

9.  Persuasion, by Jane Austen.  If you need a book to carry you through the pain of an unrequited love, this is it.  This book contains perhaps the best summation of the difference between how men and women love that was ever penned.

8.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling.  The ending of this book made me SO MAD!!!!!!!!!!!  If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't, you REALLY don't want me to spoil it, in case you ever decide to.  Just let me say that I had a hard time believing Rowling did what she did, and an even harder time forgiving her for it.  I did, though--eventually.

7.  The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes.  An extremely powerful little book.  I recommend it to any one of any age.

Image by Jeff Dahl

6.  The Falcon at the Portal, by Elizabeth Peters.  AAaaggghhh!!!  This book absolutely made me want to throw things!  Sorry if this is a spoiler, but the "boy loses girl" phase of the classic romance progression--you know, "boy meets girl, BOY LOSES GIRL, boy gets girl"--is often one of the stupidest, most infuriating, and most pointless plot devices in the history of books, as far as I'm concerned.  Just once, try writing something that ends up as it OUGHT to.  See if plenty of people won't still enjoy and buy the damn book.

5.  Go the F**k to Sleep, by Adam Mansbach.  Laughed my a** off.  This is a bedtime story for you, not for the little ones.  If you have a child who is 2 or over, you need this b**k.

4.  Letters, by St. Ignatius of Antioch.  Talk about an emotional response!  I actually changed my religion!  Not ENTIRELY due to these letters, but they were a MAJOR contributing factor.

3.  Little Princesses: The Intimate Story of HRH Princess Elizabeth and HRH Princess Margaret as Told by Their Governess, by Marion Crawford.  People who work in the British royal household DON'T sell their stories, and are forever branded as traitors--though not legally, thank God--if they do.  And yet, as a teenager reading this book, I couldn't help but "ooh!" and "aah!" and *sigh* at the tales of the sweet little princesses, and be grateful that the author betrayed their confidences to me, anyway.  I loved this book, and most royal watchers would, too.

2.  The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.  I HATED this book.  Passionately.  Ruined the franchise for me, and now I just stick to the movie and the first book exclusively.  This was book #2 in the series, and it is horribly sexist, horribly annoying, and horrible generally.

1.  The Catholic Church: A Short History, by Hans Kung.  After reading this book, I am baffled as to why Hans Kung ever became a Catholic priest, and why he insisted upon remaining one.  His criticisms of the Pope and the Catholic Church, though sometimes fueled more by vendetta than fact, were often accurate, and did not bother me nearly as much as his insistence that all of Christianity's problems began with Pope St. Gregory the Great, and his claims that Christianity could really make something of itself if Christians didn't insist on doing absurd things like revering the saints and believing in miracles.  I can't imagine why a pope banned Hans Kung from teaching theology in a classroom, can you?  *rolling eyes*