August 20, 2019
***Book titles are Amazon affiliate links
I’m linking up today with That Artsy Reader Girl for Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Literary Tropes.
My Favorite Literary Tropes
Do you have favorite tropes?
Part of successfully choosing your next read is knowing what tropes (themes or plot devices) you enjoy and which you don’t! I will almost always be happy with my reading experience when I choose to read a book with one of the following tropes (listed in no particular order).
The Gruff Older Character Whose Life is Changed by a Precocious, Precious, or Extraordinary Child
Examples: The One-In-A-Million Boy, News of the World, A Man Called Ove
The Importance of Family, Complicated Family Drama
Examples: A Place For Us, We Were the Lucky Ones, Little Fires Everywhere, Ask Again Yes, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters
Found Family
Examples: Louisiana’s Way Home, News of the World, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words
Reconciliation
Examples: Ask Again Yes, A Place For Us, Invention of Wings
Faith
Examples: From Sand and Ash, Paper Hearts, A Fall of Marigolds, Unbroken
Adoption
Examples: Far From the Tree, Secret Daughter, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Books About Books, Bookshops, Literary Themes
There are many, but these are four favorites: How to Find Love in a Bookshop, The Lost For Words Bookshop, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
Friendship
Oh Goodness! I have an ENTIRE post on literary friendships here!!!
Against the Odds
This is a difficult category because (1) it’s one of my favorite tropes and (2) most all of my histfic and memoir reads reflect an “Against the Odds” trope. A few fiction and nonfiction examples include The Glass Castle, Educated, In Pieces, Amal Unbound, Hillbilly Elegy, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, On the Come Up, Paper Hearts, The Lost For Words Bookshop, Salt to the Sea. (Unbroken would also easily fit here…picture above)
Quirky Characters Living Their Best Lives
Yes, I have an ENTIRE post on admirable quirky characters here!
QOTD!
Which are your favorite tropes?
Do we share any favorites?
Posts You Might Have Missed:
Happy Reading Book Buddies!
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text
Sharing is Caring
Thank you for visiting and reading today! I’d be honored and thrilled if you choose to enjoy and follow along (see subscribe or follow option), promote, and/or share my blog. Every share helps us grow.
Find me at:
Twitter
Instagram
Goodreads
Pinterest
***Blogs posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price.
Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.
Book Cover and author photo are credited to Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website.
Great list Carol looks like you really enjoyed putting this together.
It was fun to think about….and of course I have enough ideas for another set of 10! 😂
I love books about friendship and found families, too.
My TTT
I’m happy to hear we share some favorites! 🙌
Excellent post, Carol! A number of these books are on my shelf and I recognize a few favorite tropes.
Thank you! I’m happy to hear we share some favorites!
Oh my goodness, there are so many good books here I do not even know where to start!! All of these tropes are right up my alley. 🙂
We’re book twins Tina! 🙌
Indeed!
I love complicated family stories because that’s just life. Even families that get along and enjoy each other’s company are complicated.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Same! 👍😍 Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
I should have put adoption on my list. I like reading stories about adoption. I guess I just never thought of it as a trope.
I love adoption stories! I could make an entire list of more Tropes I love! Thanks for commenting!
Ah what a fantastic list and filled with recommendations, thank you for that as well! I adore family, strong family and complicated family relationships, too, they’re always so interesting to read. I really need to get to Little Fires Everywhere someday! And adoption is such an interesting theme and I adored Far From The Tree <3
I’m happy to hear we enjoy some similar tropes and books! 👍😍
Love so many of these tropes. I always feel like I never read anything about adoption and that needs to change. Incidentally, I have Far From the Tree on my TBR and I think this is a sign that I need to get to it immediately. That being said, ugh, I love stories that have friendship as a central arc. Honestly, if it has friendship at its core I’m 100% going to love it.
Friendship themes are one of the best👍😍 I hope you enjoy Far from the Tree! Thanks for commenting Jessica!
This was such a fun list to read as a fellow bookworm! I love the found family trope, and I have to admit, I do like a good romance trope, especially the ones when they’re torn apart by war or can’t be together. I’m a sucker for that (but I don’t admit it that often!)
Emily | https://www.thatweirdgirllife.com
Thanks for commenting Emily! Found Family gets me every time! If you like romance torn apart by war tropes, have you read The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman?
Great post and all are amazing tropes. Your first one about an older character whose life is changed by a child is such a moving trope. I think there should be more of this theme in books and I also love to see grandmothers and grandfathers in books having a close, special relationships with their grandchildren or adopted children.
So very true!!! I also love when it involves “found family”!