Top Ten Tuesday # 14

Here we go again...  This weeks TTT is all about Beginnings and Endings.  Mostly I have featured endings, as those are the things that stay with me, good or bad.  A book may have a great beginning but if the middle and end don't live up to it you can forget that it had a good start, but you rarely forget how a book made you feel at it's conclusion.

So here's my list of Top Ten Beginnings and Endings...

Beginnings

The hundred year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.  Excellent start, little bit of a damp squib for an ending but really fun story to read.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  As a single woman without a fortune I can wholeheartedly agree.  Nice ending too, if you're a romantic like me.

Endings

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Probably also would sit the Beginnings section as well.  I love this story, and it's a must in our house when we feel the need to get into the Christmas spirit...

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  This builds up and up and up the whole way through, the clues were there, but it was such a huge surprise.  Brilliant!

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult.  I read a lot of her books around the same time as this, and I thought I had the ending all figured out.  I was only part right.  I imagine this will make a few people's lists.

Catching Fire Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  I'm expecting this to be a popular appearance on lists.  This was the third in the Hunger Games triolgy and as such was the culmination of a brilliant series, and such a let down.  EDIT: Goshdarnit I got my books mixed up.

Animal Farm by George Orwell.  And in the end the pigs are indistinguishable from the humans they'd deposed.

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.  Technically a play, not a novel, but worthy of inclusion.  Great opener, brilliant story but it's his inevitable demise which makes this incredible.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.  It was good all the way through, but the ending is truly wonderful.  Have a full box of tissues at the ready.  The great and wonderful Helen at Fennell Books got to meet Rachel Joyce at an Author event (I'm emerald with envy) and was able to tell us that Ms Joyce wrote this book while her father was dying of cancer.  The significance of Harold's journey across Britain is particularly poignant when you know that the author was afraid her father would pass away on her journey's to and from his bedside.  If you haven't read this book yet DO IT NOW!! Probably the best book of 2012, and right there at the top of my all time favourites!

The small print:  The Top Ten Tuesday meme originates at The Broke and The Bookish, check out their site for more information.