Top Ten Tuesday #4

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme in which we make lists about a certain topic. This meme is hosted at The Broke and the Brokish

This week's topic is "Top Ten Favorite Books With X Setting". I decided to do my top ten favourite books set in Europe! In no particular order:

 

1) The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling: Even though this magical world doesn't exist (or does it?) it is technically located somewhere in the UK! And besides no list is complete without Harry Potter!

2) The Cherub series - Robert Muchamore: I have to admit that I haven't read them all (even though one my flat mates has the whole collection in our flat...). I think that the idea that the British secret services has a team of children spies quite original.

3) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson: I haven't gotten around to read the rest of the books in the series but I just loved this one! It takes place in Sweden and it's full of action and mystery. Plus, the main female character is such a badass!

4) Twisted Wing - Ruth Newman: This one takes place in England (it says Ariel College in Cambridge...I am assuming it's in England). It's very dark and full of really unexpected plot twists! It is my go-to book when I want to exemplify a book with a somewhat "not completely true" blurb that actually works in favour of the story.

 5) Goodnight, Beautiful - Dorothy Koomson: This one is set in England (and the author mentions Portugal a couple of times! ^_^). It's heartbreakingly beautiful. Dorothy Koomson is really good at making me cry...

6) My Best Friend's Girl - Dorothy Koomson: This one is also set in England and just like the previos one makes me sob and cry like a 3-year-old who was denied candy...

7) The Fault In Our Stars - John Green: Okay, I am cheating a little bit on this one...it is mainly set on the US but they do go to Amsterdam! This is at the same time cute and heartbreaking. I just love it!

8) Death in Venice - Thomas Mann: This one is set mainly in Venice (not surprising). It's weird how I have read this book several of times but I never read it all, I always skip some pages...ususally the first couple of chapters. There's this quote that I just adore but it sounds better on my old Portuguese (I think it's actually Brazilian...) copy of this book.

9) A Lua de Joana - Maria Teresa Maia Gonzalez: There isn't a version of this book in english...the title can be translated to "Joana's moon". It is refering to this swing that the main character, Joana, had on her bedroom that was shaped like a moon and you could change it so that it would represent all its different phases. I read this book when I was about 10 or 11 and it was very shocking. It takes place in Portugal (if I remember correctly) and the story is told through letters that Joana writes to her friend Marta, who had recently died from a drug overdose. Apparently the teenagers are a bit cliché (according to people who read the book when they were a bit older), but I didn't know that at 11. The ending was one of the biggest plot twists ever and it made me cry.

10) The Maias - Eça de Queirós: This one is a Portuguese classic that I had to read for class a couple of years ago. At first I was a bit scared because there's this joke saying how the author spends the first 100 pages describing just the house! (No, but really, he does spend about 3 pages describing the house...). It takes place in Lisbon on the second half of the 19th century. It is interesting, amusing and a great critique of the rich Portuguese society at that time

What do you think of my picks? What is your list about?