Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved with Fewer Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

It took a lot of digging for me to come up with enough books for this week’s list. I read several these titles when I was in high school or middle school. Many of the other titles are pretty far back in my already-read queue, too. So I sadly don’t remember specific details about what I loved about these books anymore or if I’d feel the same way about them today. All I know is that at some point I thought they were the bee’s knees. Now I’m wondering if I should give some of these titles a reread!

Since I can’t rightfully gush about any of them like I normally would for a Top Ten Tuesday post, I’ll tell you how many ratings they have on Goodreads instead. The list-maker in me insists on sharing them in order from the biggest to the smallest number of ratings.

1. The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. LeGuin 

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 1688

2. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings by Charlotte Perkins Gillman 

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 1520

3. The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper. 

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 1512

4. Shame of Man (Geodyssey #2) by Piers Anthony

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 1057

5. The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-First Century by Anne Kingston

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 1018

6. Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 858

7. Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism by David Nickel

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 728

8. Hope of Earth (Geodyssey #3) by Piers Anthony

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 698

9. The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson 

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 61

10. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community by Andrea Weiss

# of ratings on Goodreads as of February 7: 10

It will be interesting to see how many of you, if anyone, will share your lists beginning with the title that had the biggest number of Goodreads ratings and ending with the smallest one.

144 Comments

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144 Responses to Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved with Fewer Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads

  1. I have heard many a great things about The Yellow Wallpaper and I thought it’d have more ratings on Goodreads! Well, it’s on my TBR now, so there’ll be at least one more rating 🙂

    Here’s my TTT: https://dinaratengri.com/2019/02/ten-criminally-underrated-books/

  2. Great list! The Yellow Wallpaper is such a powerful classic, and I need to read some Ursula K. Le Guin this year.

  3. You’re speaking my language fellow list-maker. Can’t believe I missed The Yellow Wallpaper-such an interesting psychological mind trip. I’ve even used it for a speech and debate piece for Program Oral Interp a few years ago (I’m a coach). Also missed Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work-I think poetry in general is extremely underrated on GR.
    My list:
    https://thecandleenthusiast.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/top-ten-tuesday-underrated-books-mash-up/

  4. I’ve not read any of these but I enjoyed reading your list. Sounds like you’ve read some great books!

  5. I did mine from lowest to highest, lol. I haven’t read any of these but I hope you enjoy if you re-read them! 💖💖

    My TTT

  6. Ash

    I actually haven’t read any of these… Or heard of them, lol. But I see a few I’ll be checking out.

    Ash @ JennRenee Read
    Our Top Ten Tuesday

  7. Elise

    I’m def adding this Ursula Le Guin to my TBR!!

  8. I am so surprised anything by Ursula K. LeGuin, Sheri S. Tepper, or Piers Anthony made this list.

  9. Interesting titles here! I’m surprised to see LeGuin on the list but I’m wondering if it’s because they are older titles (like most people read them before GoodReads was a thing)? Although I know she was fairly prolific so maybe it’s just one of her more obscure titles.

  10. L.M. Durand

    Oh!! They all sound like great books!! 😍 thanks for sharing these little gems.

  11. I haven’t heard of any of these, but a couple sound like my type book. Thanks!

  12. I’m determined to read some Ursula K LeGuin, but I’ve not really heard of the others on your list so good to find some hidden treasures!

  13. I really liked The Yellow Wallpaper. It’s so creepy and haunting!

  14. I can’t believe there’s anything by Ursula K. LeGuin with that few ratings.

    Thanks for stopping by my TTT earlier: http://books.thetechchef.net/top-ten-tuesday-50/

    PS: Links to Goodreads would be nice. That way we can check out the books for ourselves.

  15. The only one of these I’ve actually read is The Yellow Wallpaper, and I now have so many excellent sounding books to add to my TBR list. In particular, The Margarets sounds extremely interesting, and I’m definitely going to have to check it out.

  16. I haven’t read any of these, but I’m glad you enjoyed them. My list was from lowest to highest. 💕

  17. I was especially curious about the low number of ratings for The Yellow Wallpaper and discovered that on GR, there are quite a few different versions from different publishers. The most popular one seems to be by Dover Thrift editions which has 72000+ ratings. And another published by The Feminist Press has 70000+ ratings. Maybe it’s because it’s a classic. But how confusing! And if there weren’t so many separate versions, there would be more ratings?

  18. The only one of these I’ve heard of is the Ursula K. LeGuin! Great list! I’ll have to check out the rest!

  19. It took me a while to come up with my TTT for this week as well!

    I liked reading The Yellow Wallpaper years ago for a couple of college courses.

  20. Oops! I haven’t heard of any of these books! But yay! More books to check out! 🙂

  21. These are all new to me, although I’ve heard of some of the authors before.

  22. I haven’t read any of these but I hope you get a chance to re-read a few and revive your love for them 🙂

  23. I went largest to smallest on my TTT as well! I think I’ve read The Yellow Wallpaper before, but I don’t remember it so I think it’s time for a re-read!

  24. I remember reading The Yellow Wallpaper in high school. I’m surprised this collection doesn’t have more ratings.

  25. Haven’t heard of any of these but definitely might check some out in the future!

  26. Book Admirer

    I have only read Le Guin’s Left Hamd of Darkness which apparently is her more popular one cause it had quite a few ratings. Definitely want to check more of her out.

  27. I have not read any of these, though I am at least familiar with Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work.

  28. Nice list! Have not heard of any of these before 🙂

  29. I loved The Yellow Wallpaper but haven’t read any other Gilman short stories that I know of.

  30. These are all new to me, but I’ll definitely have to check a couple of them out! Thanks for sharing!

  31. Looks like a nice diverse list of books! I’d like to read more Ursula K. LeGuin.

  32. I’d really like to pick up something by Usrsula K. LeGuin! I’ve heard really really good things and I just… haven’t gotten to it yet? The Left Hand of Darkness is actually sitting on my bookshelf right now.

  33. I haven’t heard of any of these books, thanks for visiting my blog! To answer your question, what I liked about Water so Deep is the interesting take on Mermaids. Mermaids are, in my opinion, hard to make interesting while also doing something different.
    Marie @ Pages to Explore

  34. I’ve never heard of any of these, but they sound interesting!

  35. Oooh, “The Yellow Wallpaper”! I remember reading that short story for one of my lit classes; what an amazing short story! I haven’t read anything else by Charlotte Perkins Gilman though. Perhaps I should change that…

  36. The only one of these I’ve read is The Yellow Wallpaper, which I really enjoyed when I read it in college. I’m surprised it has so few ratings.

  37. I read The Yellow Wallpaper years ago in college, and have been urging it on my book group recently!

  38. Really cool list. I’ve never read any of these. Usrsula is one I’ve wanted to read for awhile now though!

  39. I’m ashamed to say that even though I read The Yellow Wallpaper multiple times, I never rated it on Goodreads! I’m contributing to the problem!

  40. I’m surprised a Le Guin book doesn’t have more ratings.

  41. The Dark Beyond the Stars sounds good! Will definitely check these books out! Thanks for sharing =)

    My #TTT: https://mybkishescapades.blogspot.com/2019/02/underrated-books-i-love-so-much-ttt.html

  42. I had to read The Yellow Wallpaper back in high school too! I just remember it being rather strange and my English teacher trying to find all these secret meanings in the text…

  43. I will definitely be reading The Yellow Wallpaper one of these days. It’s on my list of classics I want to read one day.

    Too bad that none of these were books you were mad for!

  44. That book about being a wife sounds fascinating, I’m adding it to my TBR!

  45. It definitely wasn’t easy coming up with books for this week’s topic. I had to go pretty far back as well. Great list!! I’m so happy you enjoyed all of these <3

  46. Looks like you’ve got some very unique reads here. Thanks for sharing.

  47. I’ve only read one by LeGuin, I guess I should try this one

  48. Oooh, I haven’t heard of any of these, but they sound great. I’ll especially have to check out Eye of the Heron.

  49. Ahh, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” A friend and I were just talking about that story last week!

    I like how you ordered your list, but nope, didn’t do that with mine 🙂

  50. It’s interesting to see the varied reviews of The Meaning of Wife, looks like people either hated it or loved it. Seems like it could be interesting, but the reviews have me questioning.

  51. I’m surprised one of Ursula K. LeGuin’s books doesn’t have over 2k! The Yellow Wallpaper is a great one.

  52. Great picks for this week, and these are definitely underrated books for me. 🙂 I haven’t read any of them that I can remember (it’s very likely I read The Yellow Wallpaper in high school but I really can’t remember).

  53. Wow! My least favorited had 15 and I thought that was impossibly low! But your lowest has only 10. Its crazy to me that books can have so few ratings.

  54. I might have to add that Before Stonewall to my tbr. 🙂

    Thanks for visiting my blog earlier.

  55. I haven’t read any of these! Some to look into.

  56. It is such a complete bummer when books that we love are so underrated! Especially the one with 10, those break my heart. But I hope that posts like this will get some of these a few more fans! I am not familiar with any of these, but I am going to check them out now, thanks for sharing them!!

  57. The Dark beyond the Stars sounds interesting.

  58. I went in the opposite order, from lowest number to highest, but yes, I felt the need to include the number of ratings, too. 🙂

    I’m not familiar with any of the titles on your list, but I do recognize most of the SF and fantasy authors. I see that The Eye of the Heron also includes The Word for World is Forest, which I’ve been meaning to read.

  59. I haven’t read any of those!

  60. Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog

    These are all new to me! I love finding all these new books this week!

  61. I read The Yellow Wallpaper in college! Wow, I had forgotten about that one. So interesting and such a great piece to discuss!

  62. There are quite a few great titles on here! I’m surprised that some of them have so few ratings? Like, I looked at the list and I was like ???? how.

  63. I’m shocked to see The Yellow Wallpaper on there! What an incredible story (and collection). More people really need to read it!

  64. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of these. I love finding new books for my TBR list 😀

  65. I recently read The Yellow Wallpaper but the edition I read had more ratings 🙂 That classic is really good and deserves all the love.

  66. These books sound completely out of my comfort zone but, some titles have intrigued quite a bit and I can’t wait to actually look into them a bit more! Hope you have a wonderful week!

  67. It’s always interesting to see how ratings happen on Goodreads/Amazon isn’t it?

  68. I haven’t heard of any of these. It’s weird how ratings on GR etc works sometimes… I have one on my list that was a bestseller (Early One Morning) and has been out for at least 15 years but only has 300 ratings!

  69. I really want to read an Ursula K. Le Guin book! I hear amazing things about all of her works, which has me shocked that she’s on this list! I expected her to have way over 2K ratings! I read The Yellow Wallpaper in one of my college classics and remember loving it but it’s been so long. I need to re-read it. Awesome list! <3

    • Thank you very much. Yes, Ursula K. Le Guin is a wonderful writer. I highly recommend checking her out.

      If you reread The Yellow Wallpaper, I will, too. 🙂

  70. I’ve heard great things about Ursula LeGuin and I promise one day I’ll get around to reading some of her work! Great list!

  71. Haven’t heard of or seen any of your picks around the blogosphere. Great that this week allowed us to spotlight underrated books. 🙂

    Thanks so much for visiting last week, Lydia.

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