Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Plan To Have In My Beach Bag

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers share their own bookish top ten lists based on the topic of the week.  You can check out Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Books I Plan To Have In My Beach Bag

I can’t believe it’s summer!  I know it’s not officially summer, but it’s close enough for me!  I’m super-excited about summer reading this year, much more than normal.  These are the books I want to have in my beach bag this summer.

The Dystopic & Paranormal Reads

Ten Beach Reads Collage

  1. Control by Lydia Kang
  2. ACID by Emma Pass
  3. Working Stiff by Rachel Caine

The “This Book Screams Beach Read” Books

Ten Beach Reads Fun Collage

  1. When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
  2. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer Smith
  3. Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

The Weird, Creepy Thrillers

Ten Beach Reads Creepy Collage

  1. Perfect Lies by Kiersten White
  2. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
  3. City Of Saints And Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer
  4. House Of Leaves by Mark Danielewski

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Random Bookish Thoughts

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Ten Random Bookish Thoughts I’ve Had Recently

Today we get to pick our own topic, and I decided to go with 10 random bookish thoughts I’ve had recently.

  1. Why do I have 3 library cards?  I’m not kidding, I have cards for 3 different library systems.  One has 2 branches close to work plus one near a coffee shop I frequent, and two have branches near where I live, so it all makes sense in my weird mind.
  2. What is it with my and my weird need to have multiple copies of signed books?  There’s the signed copy, and I usually have the e-book.  Signed copy=the book that goes unread and looks pretty on my shelf while the digital copy is the one I actually read.  I just don’t trust myself reading the signed copy.
  3. Why on earth did it only occur to me recently to have a pinterest board devoted to books I’ve actually read?  Pinterest seems to be a good way to show that.
  4. I really need to organize the print books I have, they are in a not helpful order that makes it hard to find what I’m looking for.
  5. I’m confused as to why most of my Nook books were randomly moved to Nook cloud recently, which resulted me having to re-download most of the 500+ books on them.  Weird, but things have been fine since, so no big deal…I hope.
  6. I really should review some of the cookbooks and crochet books I’ve been cooking and crocheting from.  There are at least a couple I feel like I’ve used enough to review properly.
  7. Why do I not listen to more audio books?  Why?  They’re totally awesome.
  8. Reading print books are sort of weird…that’s how you know you read mostly digital.
  9. I talk about books a lot, but does coffee get a lot of mentions on my blog?  No…this is weird for a blog called reading books with coffee, you’d think I’d talk about it more.  This needs to be rectified!
  10. Books are my happy place.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I Really Want To Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Authors I Really Want To Meet

I have no idea how I managed to pick ten (a few were really easy) since I want to meet so many authors.  Books are magical, and meeting the people behind the books would be awesome but also scary, because I totally have this image of who they are, and what if I meet them and am all disappointed?  But still, it would be pretty awesome to meet the following people.

  1. J.K. Rowling.  Of course I want to meet her!  Harry Potter changed my life, and my life would be awesome if I could meet her.
  2. Rachel Caine.  I love her books and it would be awesome to meet her.
  3. John Green.  Meeting him would be fun!
  4. Alison Weir.  I’d love to talk to her about history.  Seriously, I would.
  5. Neal Shusterman.  Going off of his Unwind series, he seems like he’d be interesting to talk to.
  6. Jane Austen.  If I could go back in time and meet her, I totally would.
  7. Lauren DeStefano.  I follow her on Twitter, and she seems like she’d be cool to talk to.
  8. Maya Angelou.  I know I can’t meet her now, but having read her autobiographies…she had quite the life, and I just wish I had the chance to meet her.
  9. Toni Morrison.  It’s Toni Morrison, who wouldn’t want to meet her?
  10. Jessi Kirby.  I love her books, and I don’t know why I want to meet her but I really, really do.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

Books that I will probably never read…I never really thought about it, but with as much as I read, and as huge as my TBR list is, there are books I will probably never get to.  Which makes me sad, but that’s how it goes.

  1. Pretty much anything by Sarah Dessen.  I’ve tried a few of her books, but only got a few pages in before I had to DNF it.
  2. Dear Mr. Potter.  I want to read it, but it would appear that copies are no longer being sold.  Which is sad, because I’d love to read it.
  3. Days Of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor.  This is another one I want to read, but every single time I try, I can’t get into it.  Maybe one of these days I’ll actually be able to finish it.
  4. 50 Shades, which I want to form my own opinion on…but every time I think about it, I start feeling guilty about wanting to read it.
  5. Feathermore by Lucy Swing.  I’ve had this book (and the second one) for a while, but I really can’t see myself getting to it anytime soon.
  6. Whisper Of Light/Circle Of Light by Jennifer DeLucy.  I liked the first one, but it was a little too philosophical for me, and I can’t see myself finishing it.
  7. Suppressed by Kira Saito.  Overall, I like the series, but at this point, I’m not sure if I care enough to keep reading.
  8. Princess Diaries.  For the same reasons as the Arelia LaRue series…I like it, I just don’t know if I care enough to keep reading…even though I only have the last couple of books to go.
  9. Fruits Basket.  I want to finish it up, but when I tried to find the last 9, it looked like they were out of print.  But that was a few years ago, so maybe they’re back in print now.
  10. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.  I have all of them, but I’m finding it hard to read anything by Cassandra Clare right now…I feel overwhelmed and slightly irritated by all of the Shadowhunter books, and it’s enough to make me not want to read this series, even though it looks awesome.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Who Feature Characters Who…

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Books Who Feature Characters Who…Deal With Some Tough Stuff

This week, I’m talking all about characters who deal with some tough stuff!  Well, I am, because when I was trying to come up with a list of books based on a certain type of character, I realized I don’t really read in any one genre or sub-genre to feel comfortable doing 10 (even though I probably could have).  So vague and broad it is!

  1. The Truth About Air & Water by Katherine Owen.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like getting hit by a baseball and forgetting the last several years of your life…which includes finding out about your daughter and the love of your life.  And I really can’t imagine being the girl who has to see this happen and having to give him the time and space for him to remember.
  2. Some Boys by Patty Blount.  I felt so bad for Grace, and so angry that people would rather turn against her than believe the town golden boy is capable of raping someone.
  3. My Best Friend, Maybe.  It’s such a good look at why and how a friendship fell apart, and both girls have to deal with things- Sadie and how she’s into girls, and Collette and discovering the role her mom played in things.
  4. Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca.  I liked seeing Lil deal with so many things in the midst of a flu outbreak, and how worrying about things like pandemics helped her deal with a horrible incident with one of her teachers months earlier…and how her fears came to life.
  5. Pretty much anything by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Whether it’s Melinda learning to find her voice after being raped, Hayley, who has to deal with her father’s PTSD after serving in Irag, or Lia dealing with anorexia, Anderson writes these issues so, so well.
  6. Me Since You by Laura Weiss.  It’s such a heartbreaking book about a girl who loses her to dad to suicide, but it’s also book that I recommend so much!
  7. Between Shades Of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  I can’t imagine what it’s like to be sent to a labor camp in Siberia.  I really can’t, but it’s such a good reminder of how horrible people can be, and how people can make it through.
  8. Reason To Breathe by Rebecca Donovan.  Emma has to deal with a lot- the death of her father, her mother abandoning her, her abusive aunt who would try to kill her- and I wanted her to be okay and happy.
  9. The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.  Lenny’s story about dealing with the sudden death of her sister was really moving.  I’m an only child so I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to lose a sibling, but Nelson shows it really well.
  10. Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  This novel about a school shooting and its aftermath was so hard to read, but also worth it.

Honorable Mentions: Crank by Ellen Hopkins, This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, and Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten All Time Favorite Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten All Time Favorite Authors

I don’t know why, but I was expecting this topic to be really hard!  I have a lot of favorite books, but authors?  I felt like I’d have a hard time coming up with 10 but it was a lot easier than I thought!

  1. J.K. Rowling.  Harry Potter changed my life.  I’m just going to leave it at that.
  2. Jane Austen.  Sometimes, I feel like liking Jane Austen is a cliche but she’s the first classic author I picked up on my own, and actually liked.  Pride And Prejudice, Sense And Sensibility and Emma are my favorites.
  3. Alison Weir.  I will read anything she writes.  I have a bunch of her books on the Tudors, and I like how detail oriented she is with her research.
  4. Gail Carriger.  If I need some fun, funny paranormal steampunk, I read her.  Whether it’s the Parasol Protectorate or Finishing School, sometimes you need steampunk in your life.  And she’s just as funny in person!  I’m super-glad I went to a book signing she had for Prudence.
  5. Jessi Kirby.  I feel so much when I read her books, and they’re so real.  In Honor, Golden and Moonglass are amazing.
  6. Julie Kagawa.  I LOVE her Iron Fey series and her Blood Of Eden series is pretty awesome.  I’m not sure about her Talon series, but I love her enough to give it a chance.
  7. Laurie Halse Anderson.  She can do no wrong, and her characters are so easy to relate to and sympathize with.  I can’t help but love Speak, Wintergirls and The Impossible Knife Of Memory.
  8. Rachel Caine.  I love everything that’s she written…that I’ve read, and Morganville Vampires and Weather Wardens are totally awesome, and it makes me excited to read Prince Of Shadows and her Revivalist series.
  9. Maria Snyder.  I will read anything she writes, and while I don’t read a lot of fantasy, I will read her books!  I do have a soft spot for her Study series and her Glass series.
  10. Rachel Hawkins.  Her books are fun and funny and sometimes you need something like that in your life.  Hex Hall was so much fun!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Inspiring Quotes From Books

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Inspiring Quotes From Books

I’m not someone who pays a lot of attention to quotes, and even when I come across something inspiring or challenges me, I don’t always think to save the quote anywhere, but here ten quotes that inspire me ad make me think.

“I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s okay to be a blank canvas. maybe it’s okay that my future is unknown.”

-From Isla And The Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

“You can’t be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes.”

-From Delirium by Lauren Oliver

“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

-From Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by J.K. Rowling

“It is astounding to me, and achingly sad, that with eighty thousand people on the waiting list for donated hearts and livers and kidneys, with sixteen a day dying on that list, that more than half of the people in the position H’s family was in will say no, will choose to burn those organs or let them rot.  We abide the surgeon’s scalpel to save our own lives, our loved one’s lives, but not to save a stranger’s life.  H has no heart, but heartless is the last thing you’d call her.”

-From Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

“And no matter what you do or how hard you try, you can’t stop yourself from dreaming.”

-From It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

“Sometimes you have to give up something you are to get to who you want to be.”

-From This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

“Our dreams are fluid, just as we are.  They change as we change.”

-From Breaker by Emma Raveling

“Sometimes we expect more than people are capable of giving at the moment.”

-From On The Fence by Kasie West

“Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them.”

-From Cress by Marissa Meyer

“I am the author of my story and I can tell it any way I want.”

-From The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I’d Like To Check In With

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Characters I’d Like To Check In With

Sometimes when I finish a book, I wonder how the characters are doing, and this list is all about that!  Some characters stay with you long after closing the book, and some I really need to know are doing okay.

  1. Tally and Lincoln from The Truth In Lies series by Katherine Owen.  It seems like there’s a good possibility of another book about these two, but that’s not stopping me from wanting to know how things are working out for them after how the second book ended.
  2. Kendra from the Ondine series by Emma Raveling.  I want to know how the elemental community is doing after the war with the Shadow is over.
  3. Anna and St. Clair.  I need to know all about their wedding, and I need to know that they had their happily ever after, even though I know they’ve had it.
  4. The entire gang from K.A. Tucker’s Ten Ten Breaths series.  I need to know how they’re all doing, especially Kacey and Livie.
  5. Cath from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I really want to know what life is like for Cath now that Simon Snow is over.
  6. Emma from the Breathing Series by Rebecca Donovan.  I just need to know she’s okay and happy and at peace with everything that happened to her.
  7. Rowan from Me Since You by Laura Weiss.  She’s another character that I need to know is doing okay.
  8. Lennie from The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.  I pretty much want to know what’s up with Lennie.
  9. Valerie from Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  I want to see how she’s doing, because I’ve wondered how she’d be doing after graduating from high school and everything that happened.
  10. The characters from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I really want to know how the Circus is going.  I really do.
  11. And of course, I need to know how everyone from the Harry Potter series is doing.  I know JKR has revealed bits and pieces about what happened to the characters after the series has ended, but that’s not going to stop me from wanting to know how they’re doing!

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Recently Added To My To-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Ten Books I Recently Added To My To-Read List

So, this one was super easy, especially with goodreads!  I really love adding new books to my TBR, so it’s fun to actually share some of them!  I literally went with the 10 most recent books I added. For the most part, it definitely reflects me wanting to read more diversely, and I didn’t realize how many books I added because of it until I started working on this list.

  1. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison.  I was inspired by last weeks to list re-read it, and added it to my TBR to remind myself to re-read it.
  2. the Soulfinder’s series by Maria Snyder.  I thought about doing each one as its own, but decided against it!  I’m super-excited that she has a new series set in Ixia/Citia.
  3. Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet by Jamie Ford.  I’m really intrigued by this book!  It’s about this hotel that has the belongings of people who were sent to Japanese internment camps during World War 2, and it’s been boarded up for decades before opening again.
  4. Out Of Nowhere by Maria Padian.  I added this book about a town in Maine that has a lot of Somali refugees and how this one guy is changed by 9/11 and getting to know his classmates.
  5. A Time Of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated by Y Maudet.  I stumbled across this one while searching for some books that were more diverse, and really liked the premise of this one.  It’s all about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and how this girl is fleeing Georgia, and ends up all over Europe.
  6. Alive In The Killing Fields by Nawuth Keat and Martha Kendall.  I’m looking forward to reading this memoir about a man who lived in Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot.
  7. Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman.  This book about a family moving from Argentina to the U.S. sounds like a book that I’d really like.
  8. Tell Us We’re Home by Marina Budhos.  3 girls, living a small town, where things get really touchy after one of their moms is accused of theft, sounds right up my alley.
  9. Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart.  I’m really interested in this one!  It’s about 3 girls, on three different continents, who are all affected by an increased need for blue gold.
  10. The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.  It’s a ghost story!  And a mysterious, ancient curse!  What’s not to like?

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books From My Childhood I’d Love To Revisit

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Books From My Childhood/Teen Years I’d Love To Re-Visit

There are so many books that I read growing up that I loved and would love to re-read.  But I’m also sort of scared to re-visit them because I feel like some of them won’t hold up.  But at the same time, it would be so fun to re-read them as adult.  This was such an easy list, and honestly, I had a hard time stopping at ten, but then we’d end up with a super-long list, so I pretty much went with the first ten I thought of!

  1. Baby Sitters Club
  2. Goosebumps
  3. Boxcar Children
  4. Flowers In The Attic
  5. The Sweet Valley High Books…and all of it’s variations
  6. the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary
  7. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
  8. The American Girl books
  9. Pretty much anything by Lurlene McDaniel
  10. Sideways Stories From Wayside School