Top Ten Tuesday: Books I picked up on a whim

Hello there! Today I’ll be participating in the meme created by The Broke and the Bookish called Top Ten Tuesdays. This time the topic is Books I Picked Up On A Whim, which means books that I’ve decided to read without knowing much about. I’ve done this quite a bit and I think it’s really fun to do! In my experience, you get really pleasant surprises. Check out my picks:

1. Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel

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In 2014 I decided to do a reading challenge in which you had to pick a book by its cover, so I spent days looking through Goodreads until I saw this one. To my surprise, the book was mainly historical fiction about the tea plantations in Assam. It was fascinating.

Fun fact I learned: fields were set to create zigzag paths so the planters could run away from elephants in case they attacked, as the elephants lose speed when they don’t run on a straight path.

2. Reasons She Goes to the Woods by Deborah Kay Davies

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I participated in the same reading challenge in 2015 and I chose this book for its cover. I found the art out of paper really creative and beautiful and loved that the title sounded mysterious. This book is something totally different to anything I’ve ever read. Each chapter is approximately two pages long and it’s a little window into Pearl’s childhood, our main character. It’s a dark book, so don’t be fooled by its cover!

3. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

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The Raven King, the fourth installment in the series, just came out a few weeks ago. Everyone was freaking out about it on Twitter and Instagram and I had no idea what they were talking about. Although I had seen the covers of the series before, I didn’t know anything about the plot. Estefani (@Fiction Jungle) recommend it, so I decided to go for it without even reading the blurb. I’m in love with the series so far, so I’m so glad I listened to her!

Update: You can now read my spoiler free review for the series here.

4. The Pearl by John Steinbeck

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One beautiful day during high school they placed some boxes on a corridor filled with old books for us to take if we wanted them. I, of course, spent my free period checking every book in each box and found The Pearl, among others. I hadn’t heard about it at the time and it was so small I decided to take it. It became my favorite read back then and I’m hoping to re-read it one of these days to see if I still think so high of it.

5. The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares

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I was at a Barnes and Nobles and the name on this cover caught my eye. It’s from the author of the Sisterhood series, which I loved as a teen (although I never got to finish it). It was summer and I knew the author, so I decided it was the perfect book to buy at the time. It’s not the best book out there, but I enjoyed it back then.

Have you read any of these? Which books have you picked up on a whim or for its cover? Let me know in the comments!