Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Enjoyed Recently That Weren't My Typical Type of Book

* Top Ten Tuesdays (TTT) is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. * * This week's TTT is: Ten Books I Enjoyed Recently (last yearish) That Weren't My Typical Genre/Type of Book (or that was out of your comfort zone).

        

Why were these not "typical reads" for me?

Though both of these books are science fiction, a favorite genre of mine, they were both written by male authors. I usually read books written by women. I cannot remember the last time I read a book written by a man. Also, Burning Midnight is told from a male POV. Again, I think the last time I read a book written from a male POV was when I read Harry Potter, and I read those books when they were first released! Finally, both Burning Midnight and Dark Energy are stand alone novels. My typical reads are books in a series.

Why was this not a "typical reads" for me?

I am not the biggest fan of contemporary reads. When I read, I want to be completely transported. Far, far, far away from reality. Contemporary reads are just way too rooted in reality for my reading pleasure. However, I was intrigued by the content. Teen suicide. I was also highly intrigued by the writing style and after reading the first page, I was completely enthralled. The ending was not one that I liked, but other than that, the book was great.

Why was this not a "typical reads" for me?

So even though I am all about the science fiction, what makes this a not so typical read for me is the way in which it was written. Illuminae is told through a series of emails, text messages, classified documents, medical files, video transcriptions, etc. This book was perfect in every way.

Why were these not "typical reads" for me?
I cannot tell you the last time I read a book of poetry from cover to cover. I'm pretty sure that I never have. These works were simply astounding. Absolutely phenomenal. They turned me on to a genre that I now utterly love.