Titles That Make Me Ask Questions

We can’t judge a book by its cover, but who said we couldn’t judge a book by its title?!

The best book titles are ones that grab your attention and make you take notice. There are so many ways this can be done. It doesn’t even require long titles, either. Sometimes one-word titles are just snappy enough to pique your curiosity. Today, specifically, though, I want to talk about titles that grab my attention by immediately making me wonder about what exactly it means.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is technically book titles that ask questions. However, I tend not to read too many books like that. In my mind, it’s even more interesting when book titles make me ask questions instead.

So today’s post is dedicated to ten titles that made me sit up and take notice, mostly because I had all the questions. Sometimes that’s all it takes to land a spot on my TBR. I mean, I suppose you could technically say that maybe the criteria for adding books to my TBR has sunk so low at this point that it takes almost no effort to land on it. But I prefer to think that these titles are just that awesome that they earned a coveted spot on my TBR. Let’s go with that one, okay?

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

Sure, you think you know the story of the fearsome red dragon, Dragonia. How it terrorized the village of Skendrick until a brave band of heroes answered the noble villagers’ call for aid. How nothing could stop those courageous souls from facing down the dragon. How they emerged victorious and laden with treasure.

But, even in a world filled with epic adventures and tales of derring-do, where dragons, goblins, and unlicensed prestidigitators run amok, legendary heroes don’t always know what they’re doing. Sometimes they’re clueless. Sometimes beleaguered townsfolk are more hapless than helpless. And orcs? They’re not always assholes, and sometimes they don’t actually want to eat your children.

Heloise the Bard, Erithea’s most renowned storyteller (at least, to hear her tell it), is here to set the record straight. See, it turns out adventuring isn’t easy, and true heroism is as rare as an articulate villager.

Having spent decades propagating this particular myth (which, incidentally, she wrote), she’s finally able to tell the real story—for which she just so happened to have a front-row seat.

Welcome to Erithea. I hope you brought a change of undergarments—things are going to get messy.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Which part about the dragon was true? I mean, the dragon’s not a lie, is it?! Are there other lies? Why are all these characters (partially) lying to me?!

The Color of Dragons

A sweeping, action-packed, romantic pre-Arthurian tale of the origins of magic (and Merlin) by powerhouse adult fantasy author R. A. Salvatore and Erika Lewis, perfect for fans of The Falling Kingdoms and Seraphina

Magic needs a spark.

And Maggie’s powers are especially fickle. With no one to help her learn to control her magic, the life debt that she owes stretches eternally over her head, with no way to repay it.

Until she meets Griffin, the king’s champion infamous for hunting down the draignochs that plague their kingdom.

Neither has any idea of the destiny that they both carry, or that their meeting will set off a chain of events that will alter every aspect of the life they know—and all of history thereafter.

This title makes me wonder . . .

… soooo … green? Dragons are green, right? WAIT. Why is the dragon on the cover black-purple-blue?! Is that the color we’re talking about? Is there a name for that color?! (There should be a name for that color, because it’s rather pretty. I need to know what to tell the hairdresser next time I decide to dye my hair.) Also, what about the color of dragons. Is there something special about it compared to other colors? I have so many questions!

Dumb White Husbands vs. Zombies: The Zomnibus

John, Chris and Erik are neighbors in the quaint subdivision of The Creeks of Sage Valley Phase II. These three family men happily live the typical suburban family life-their only real problems have been with each other and the draconian rules of the HOA. That all changes when the dead rise from their graves and walk the Earth. Now they must reluctantly join together to survive the spreading apocalypse and find their families. Personal fears, long buried secrets and their own personalities threaten to tear the group apart as they make their way across the zombie ridden landscape in Dumb White Husbands vs. Zombies. This Zomnibus collects Dumb White Husbands vs. Zombies Monday – The Weekend.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Hmm. Who would win this battle? I mean, I can assume who wins it in the book. But zombie movies have repeatedly told me that of course the zombies win. And that seems fair. They’ve got the uncanny ability to never feel pain or fatigue and they just keep on killing people until they fall apart. Obviously, they’ve got a lot going for them. What do the dumb white husbands have on their side? No, really, I want to know!

Five Total Strangers

A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster.

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she’s stuck in the car with don’t actually know one another.

Soon, they’re not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.

This title makes me wonder . . .

This is definitely a horror book . . . right? I mean, before COVID, five strangers sounded like an inconvenience. Now it just sounds like a total nightmare. And it’s obvious from this title that this isn’t a phrase that’s going to end well. It’s not like it’s “Five Total Strangers … that do the right thing and save the world.” Nah. It seems like it’d be more like “Five Total Strangers … take a wrong turn, knock on the wrong house, are sacrificed to Cthulu, and unknowingly bring about the end of humanity.” So, okay, what totally ill-advised and probably shady thing do these five strangers do?

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

An irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame.

Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.

Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone . Revealing a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan, his tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.

This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

This title makes me wonder . . .

First . . . who hates stories?! Whyyyy? Who hurt you?! Well, okay, I’ve read the actual series (sans the final book), so I sort of know the answer to that. But stories?! Listen, Cardan’s done a lot of questionable things, most of which I can give him a pass for because, eh, why not. But hating stories is obviously where I draw the line. That being said, I definitely need to know why and also how. So yes, this title makes me ask the question that I assume the book will answer. Well played, Holly Black. Well played.

The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids

Amra Thetys lives by two simple rules—take care of business, and never let it get personal. Thieves don’t last long in Lucernis otherwise. But when a fellow rogue and good friend is butchered on the street in a deal gone wrong, she turns her back on burglary and goes after something more precious than treasure: Revenge.

Revenge, however, might be hard to come by. A nightmare assortment of enemies, including an immortal assassin and a mad sorcerer, believe Amra is in possession of The Blade That Whispers Hate—the legendary, powerful artifact her friend was murdered for—and they’ll do anything to take it from her. Trouble is, Amra hasn’t got the least clue where the Blade might be.

She needs to find the Blade, and soon, or she’ll be joining her colleague in a cold grave instead of avenging his death. Time is running out for the small, scarred thief.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Why Trouble’s braids? I’ve heard a lot of idioms containing wisdom regarding trouble in my time. Don’t go looking for Trouble. Keep out of Trouble (and for you erotica lovers, this could even be a euphemism, so that’s a win). Don’t mess around with Jim (which if you’ve ever heard the song, it’s not the great advice it seems). But don’t pull on Trouble’s braids strikes me as an interesting idiom.

Wait … is it an idiom?! Or is Trouble really a character? Why is our protagonist thief going around pulling on poor unsuspecting women’s hair?! Okay, now I have a lot of other questions . . .

Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?

Horace ‘Jim’ Greasley was twenty years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war. After seven weeks training with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicester, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just thirty rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch. Horace’s war didn’t last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a ten week march across France and Belgium en-route to Holland.

Horace survived…barely…food was scarce; he took nourishment from dandelion leaves, small insects and occasionally a secret food package from a sympathetic villager, and drank rain water from ditches. Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot. After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors.

He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. Horace broke out of the camp then crept back in again under the cover of darkness after his natural urges were fulfilled. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meagre rations. He broke out of the camp over two hundred times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3,000 prisoners. This is an incredible tale of one man’s adversity and defiance of the German nation.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Well . . . do they? This is the one freebie on the list I’m going to give you where the title actually is a question . . . but it makes me ask that question. It’s a good one. I’m going to admit, this isn’t a question I’ve ever asked myself, and I’m a teensy bit disappointed that it hadn’t occurred to me sooner. Based on the blurb, I can assume this isn’t literal hell, but it’s still such a poignant question that it really makes me take notice.

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home.

In “Who Will Greet You at Home,” a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, A woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In “Wild,” a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In “The Future Looks Good,” three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war, while in “Light,” a father struggles to protect and empower the daughter he loves. And in the title story, in a world ravaged by flood and riven by class, experts have discovered how to “fix the equation of a person” – with rippling, unforeseen repercussions.

Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky heralds the arrival of a prodigious talent with a remarkable career ahead of her.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Okay, I’ll bite. What does it mean? I can think of a lot of ways to answer that, of course. Like obviously someone’s a crazy adrenaline junky with a death wish. (Yeah, I said it. Jumping from airplanes is bonkers, guys.) Could mean the guy’s newly invented wing device was maybe not as well-thought-out as originally assumed (in the case of Daedalus and Icarus). Maybe they got the cantankerous dragon that ditched them mid-flight, as dragons are wont to do. And if you were to ask the Weather Girls, they’d say it just means it’s raining. See my dilemma? There are so many ways to answer this question.

How to Make Friends with the Dark

Here is what happens when your mother dies.

It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.

That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.

Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.

This title makes me wonder . . .

Are we talking about the darkness like that thing outside my window that obscures all the ax murderers and horror beasts that are inevitably coming for me every night? Or are we talking about a more figurative thing, like the darkness in our souls? Listen, I’m not opposed to either. I would like to come to the dark side. Please teach me how.

What the Night Sings

A teen Holocaust survivor, must come to terms with who she is and how to rebuild her life.

After losing her family and everything she knew in the Nazi concentration camps, Gerta is finally liberated, only to find herself completely alone. Without her Papa, her music, or even her true identity, she must move past the task of surviving and onto living her life. In the displaced persons camp where she is staying, Gerta meets Lev, a fellow teen survivor who she just might be falling for, despite her feelings for someone else. With a newfound Jewish identity she never knew she had, and a return to the life of music she thought she lost forever, Gerta must choose how to build a new future.

This title makes me wonder . . .

What does the night sing? I don’t know about where you live, but I wouldn’t really describe the night sounds here as a song. Or singing. Singing seems a little pleasant. We’ve got cicadas, and if you’ve ever had the pleasure, it sounds a bit like someone very loudly shaking off-tune maracas filled with god knows what a foot away from your head. Multiplied by a hundred. Then throw in some really loud frogs, yipping coyotes, and this one freaking giant owl that has taken up residence in my backyard that I swear is an omen of death coming for my soul because the sounds it makes are not for the faint of heart. At night. Right outside my window.

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