Since I talked about my top book covers last month, I thought it would be fun to talk about my top book titles. It was more difficult to pick for these. There are a lot of book titles I love. But as of right now, these are my top six. As usual, we will start with my sixth favorite and end with my absolute favorite.
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen
I love single word titles, and I have quite a few that I would count among my favorites. But Persuasion is by far my favorite of all of them. And really, Jane Austen was just wonderful with titles. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are also excellent (gotta love that alliteration). But I love the simplicity of Persuasion and the way it captures the entire conflict of the novel in a single word.
5. The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Speaking of alliteration, I adore it. The triple alliteration of 17 Swann Street just roles of the tongue in such a pleasing way. I also tend to like longish titles that follow the “X at Y” or “X of Y” formula. I just think they sound really nice.
4. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
This is just such a unique and quirky title. The moment I heard my roommate say it, I knew I wanted to read it. And she hadn’t even told me what it was about yet. It was just such an odd title. But once you start reading the book, it makes perfect sense and really captures the main issue.
3. If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
I also love when authors use quotes from another work of literature as a title. If We Were Villains is a quote from King Lear, which makes it the perfect title for a book about theater students performing Shakespeare. It’s a beautiful quote that fits the story well. Plus King Lear is one of the plays they perform in the book, so a title from King Lear makes sense.
2. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
All of the titles of McGuire’s Wayward Children series are gorgeous, but In an Absent Dream is by far my favorite. The book feels like a kind of dream, so it’s certainly an appropriate title. It also sounds like it could be a quote from a poem or something. It isn’t (as far as I know), but I appreciate that quality.
1. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
This has been my favorite title since I first stumbled across the book in Borders while I was in high school (a fact that seriously dates me). It’s so gorgeous! I fairly sure this comes from William Butler Yeats’s poem “Easter, 1916.” Even if I’m wrong about that, it’s still a beautiful title that fits the book perfectly.
What are some of your favorite book titles?
A Literary Princess 