Book Titles Featuring Ordinal Numbers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was originally the brainchild of The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Book Titles with Ordinal Numbers.

Read and Enjoyed

First Test, by Tamora Pierce. Book #1 in the Protector of the Small quartet, my favorite of Pierce’s series (click series title for my review.) In the series opener, Keladry of Mindelan survives bullying and discrimination, makes friends and enemies, and displays leadership potential in her first year as a page, as the first girl in several centuries to openly train for her knighthood. Terrific writing and storytelling and a compelling main character make this MG/YA fantasy worth reading at any age.

First Rider’s Call, by Kristen Britain. The second book in the Green Rider series, this one finds Karigan G’Ladheon seeking help from the First [Green] Rider, a thousand years in the past. The books in the Green Rider series are long and immersive, with interesting, complex characters and impressively deep worldbuilding.

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, by Anne McCaffrey. A collection of short stories set in the early years of Pern’s colonization. I read the Pern books over and over in my teens and twenties; this book was a later publication, but I enjoyed it for the glimpses into the early colonists’ lives.

First Snow, by Kim Lewis. In this beautifully illustrated picture book by Kim Lewis, a sheepfarmer’s wife and young daughter climb the hill to feed the sheep. As the season’s first snow begins to fall, Sara drops her teddy in their hurry to get home. What makes this book so wonderful are the illustrations, which lovingly depict a farm and family in England’s Northumberland.

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field. I loved this book as a child, both for its first-person narration of a wooden doll’s “life” and for the lovely illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop. It’s an engaging story and served as an introduction to aspects of American history I had not yet encountered, such as the whaling trade. Alas, even as a child I was aware of the racism inherent in the writing, and it’s all the more evident now. (I understand there is a recent adaptation by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Susan Jeffers, which omits racist language but introduces several incidents that are not in the original at all.)

First Comes Marriage, by Mary Balogh. A young widow offers to marry an eligible gentleman to save her sister from a loveless marriage…and discovers a growing love for her new husband. I enjoyed this, the first book in the Huxtables series, but for some reason I have never reread it—unlike a number of her other books and series. One of these days, I’ll go back and read the series again.

Second Sight, by Amanda Quick. Book #1 in Jayne Ann Krentz’s Arcane Society series, which spans all three of the author’s main pen names/timelines. Set in Victorian England, Second Sight features Venitia Milton, a photographer with psychic intuition who masquerades as a widow in order to pursue her career, and Gabriel Jones, also a psychic and a prominent member of the Arcane Society. The book serves to introduce the Arcane Society, its history, and its raison d’etre. As a historical paranormal romantic suspense novel, it’s fast-paced, suspenseful, funny, and highly entertaining—as long as you’re willing to suspend a good deal of disbelief. (I love this series, and have read all the books multiple times.)

Second Chance Pass, by Robyn Carr. The fifth book in the Virgin River small-town romance series, Second Chance Pass is the story of Vanessa, a Marine widow, and her husband’s best friend Paul, who has silently loved her for years. The path to their eventual union is complicated (boy howdy, is it complicated!), but the story is filled with all the warmth and goodwill I’ve come to expect from this series.

Third Girl, by Agatha Christie. When the “third girl” in a rented flat tells Poirot she is a murderer and then disappears, Poirot investigates to determine whether she is innocent or guilty, living or dead. While not the best of the Poirot mysteries, the novel still reflects much of Christie’s style, her skilled plotting, and her ability to surprise.

The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff. A YA historical novel about the disappearance of Rome’s Ninth Legion (Legio IX Hispana), last seen marching north of Hadrian’s Wall. Sutcliff was a brilliant historical novelist, and this is one of her best.

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare. One of my favorite Shakespeare comedies. Viola, disguised as a man after surviving a shipwreck, goes into service with Duke Orsino. Despite her growing love for her lord, she is sent to court the lady Olivia on Orsino’s behalf—only to have Olivia fall in love with her instead of her master. Meanwhile, Olivia’s dissolute uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and her maid Maria conspire to bring low her haughty, disapproving steward, Malvolio. Shenanigans ensue. Being Shakespeare, the dialogue veers from sublime poetry to bawdy humor at the drop of a hat, and both are perfection.

On My TBR List

• Love at First Fright, by Nadia El-Fassi
• He Falls First, by Jill Shalvis
• The Second Death of Locke, by V. L. Bovalino
• The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett (at some point, but I need to read the first Sam Vines books first)
• Twelfth Knight, by Alexene Farol Follmuth
• Twelfth Night Sorcery, by Anne Rollins

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