Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Here’s how it works: Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic for each Tuesday. If you check this link, you’ll find she’s assigned topics for several future weeks so you can plan ahead. She adds, “create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list . . . Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you!”
Each week Jana posts a Linky on her blog where you can (if you want) share a link to your post and check out other bloggers’ posts.
This week’s assigned topic is Books I Wish Had An Epilogue. Although I do love a good prologue, I’m not big on epilogues. If, after finishing a book, I feel the need for more, I usually figure one of two possibilities is operant:
- The author is planning a sequel.
- The author wants me to sit with the ambiguity.
Therefore, this week I’m going to piggyback off last week’s topic, which was books with a unit of time in the title. Lydia’s post contained 10 titles that feature hour, and that made me wonder if there are as many that include day.
Yes, there are. A search of my own reading (a spreadsheet started in July 1991) turned up a few, including Days of Grace by Arthur Ashe and One Day in the Life Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, both of which appear in my Top Ten Tuesday post of last week.
I also found a few others I have read. Along with those few, I’ve added some I discovered on other peoples’ posts last week and some I found through a search on Goodreads. (Quoted summaries are from Goodreads.)
- Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet
- The Shortest Day by Jane Langton
- The Shortest Day by Colm Tóibín
- The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
- The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
- The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
- Bonus: Ten More “Day” Novels
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet
“This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning . . . British autistic savant with Asperger’s syndrome.” I read this eye-opening book in 2013.
The Shortest Day by Jane Langton
The 11th entry in the Homer Kelly mystery series set in Concord, Massachusetts.
The Shortest Day by Colm Tóibín
“During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals.” And this tale is written by Colm Tóibín, an author I need to read.
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
Subtitle: “The Classic Epic of D-Day”
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
“The perennially popular tale of Alexander’s worst day is a storybook that belongs on every child’s bookshelf.”
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Suspenseful, even though I KNEW this historical figure was not, in fact, assassinated.
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
From 1951, a science fiction classic.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Another science fiction classic, this one from 1872.
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Published in 1939, the story of Hollywood, “a classic indictment of all that is most extravagant and uncontrolled in American life.”
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
“When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000.”
Bonus: Ten More “Day” Novels
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
The Artist’s Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living by Julia Cameron
Zero Day by David Baldacci
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L Swanson
Day by Elie Wiesel, translated by Anne Borchardt
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George
Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
© 2022 by Mary Daniels Brown
it’s so cool that you found inspiration from my Top Ten Tuesday post last week. Thanks for the shoutout.
Someday I really should read The Day of the Triffids.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-should-have-been-epilogues/
Thanks, Lydia.
I immediately thought of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s a beautifully-written book.
From your list, I’ve read Born on a Blue Day, which was pretty good, and I’m sure I’ve read Alexander. I started Manhunt but had to return it to the library before I finished it and never picked it back up.
Great list!
I also thought of Remains of the Day, Jen. I’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the book. Thanks for visiting.
You did really good!! I had such a hard time with this topic. Alexander is such a great classic!!
Thanks, Leslie. The whole title of the Alexander book is pretty memorable!
Are you the Mary who visited my TTT this week? Your name links me to some older blogs but I believe it might be you.
Well done on finding so many titles with “day” in the title. My TTT last week contained more different units of time because I couldn’t find ten with just one.
Yes, that’s me, Marianne! I like to visit your posts because I appreciate your international entries. I’m sorry about the trouble with linking to my blog. I don’t know why that happened. The link to my landing page should be: https://www.notesinthemargin.org/
Thanks for reading and commenting–and taking the trouble to track me down!