Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books From My Childhood I Would Love to Revisit

 

This week, The Broke and the Bookish is asking for the Top Ten books from our teen or childhood years we would love to revisit.

 

1. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin – BECAUSE ALWAYS THE WESTING GAME

2. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls – this is the first book I can remember breaking my heart.

3. Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey – this is a books I own that is 1) amazing and 2) packed away in a box in a closet somewhere. I keep meaning to dig it out so I can share it with the kids in my life.

4. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling – this one is kind of a cheat because I’ve re-read the series several times and I’m about to start an audio re-read of the series. What I really wish is that I could revisit the first time I tried to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone because I DIDN’T LIKE IT. I wonder how different my experience would have been if I started the series at 11 instead of 15 or 16.

5. The Babysitter’s Club books (and possibly the spin-offs) by Ann M. Martin – THESE BOOKS. These books were how I made friends and how I spent all of my time and any spending money that came my way. We played BSC at recess and lunch and were basically huge weirdos but OMG THESE BOOKS

6. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – the only required reading in high school I actually liked (and possibly even the only required reading I actually did).

7. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty – I probably read this book three times in a row before ultimately stealing it from the person I borrowed it from.

8. Girl by Blake Nelson – The only other book I can remember reading as a youngling.

9. Oh wait, David Sedaris – But I don’t know that I really want to revisit those. Nothing wrong with them, I just read Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked several time and short stories stay in my head.

10. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins – Made the rounds my senior year of high school (we even watched the movie).

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Owned Authors

This week, The Broke and the Bookish is talking about the authors we own the most books from. I’m going strictly by physical books, because I’m too lazy to go through my kindle books, but I don’t think it would change things too much. Since really all it takes is for an author to write a trilogy plus one other book to be included on this list, there is a distinct lack of YA because I either don’t own the full trilogy, or I own too many trilogies to include them all. These are all the authors that I own more than a trilogies worth of books.

1. Neil Gaiman – 18 – I’m counting the Sandman graphic novels
2. JK Rowling – 8 – Harry Potter + The Beetle and the Bard
3. Margaret Atwood – 7
4. Megan McCafferty – 5
5. Kurt Vonnegut – 5
6. Libba Bray – 5
7. John Steinbeck – 5: When I moved to Salinas/Monterey I went a little Steinbeck crazy trying to immerse myself in the town. It was the first place I’d ever lived that wasn’t the place I grew up, so I went a bit overboard. Plus, I love Steinbeck. I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school and briefly thought about becoming a long haul trucker.
8. George RR Martin – 5
9. Tom Robbins – 5
10. Laurie Notaro – 4
11. Catherynne M Valente – 4

 

Mini Reviews

I’ve gone a little overboard at the library recently – for instance, I currently have 11 items checked out! This is a normal thing, right? My reading schedule sometimes has breaks, plus I’ve been listening to audiobooks instead of the spotify I pay for every month (oops), but my posting schedule does not always have room to squeeze in another review. Here are some mini-reviews of books I’ve read this year.

 

Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs: I liked the feeling of this book more than the actual story I think. Needs more Holyfield, less hats.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: Lara Jean is the dumbest person in the multiverse for putting actual addresses on those letters, give me those cookies, it creeps me out when anyone in high school still says mommy/daddy, Peter is yuck. That’s my official review: Peter is yuck and give me those cookies.

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead: I’m officially done with the Bloodlines series. This book was boring and I don’t really like Sydney and the whole thing is just about her secret relationship with Adrian at this point. And Adrian isn’t even worth it anymore (sorry bb, ilu).

Noggin by John Corey Whaley: NOT OPTIONAL. Amazing story, amazing cover. I laughed and cried in equal measure and got so much more than what I expected from a story about a cryogenically frozen head attached to a new cryogenically frozen body.

Jessica Darling’s It List #1 by Megan McCafferty: Not the Jessica Darling I’m used to. Obviously she’s much younger, but I still went in expecting the same kind of humor and embarrassment. I am LOVING seeing how everything came to be in Sloppy Firsts and I look forward to the next installment.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: I listened to this one and I did not like it very much. I didn’t really like either of the characters (though Mandy in her extreme naivete was still preferable to Jill being horrible to everyone all the time) or the story, but the voice actors did a good job.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert: 4.5 stars and NOT OPTIONAL. This book hit me on some personal levels and brought up some things from my past I would rather have stay there. I think it is so important to have Theo out in the world: a black 17 year old ballerina suffering from an eating disorder and the after effects of rape. I only wish so much didn’t have to happen to her in this book, that there were more books to show young black girls that these things are happening to other girls like them – that it’s not just white girls in ballet if they want to dance, that it’s not just white girls starving themselves or making themselves sick if they are suffering, too.

OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu: I really enjoyed OCD Love Story but it was so painfully embarrassing to read.

Just One Night by Gayle Forman: I fall firmly in the “disappointed with Just One Year because COME ON” camp. I won an arc and didn’t realize that it was Just One Day from Willem’s POV. I definitely didn’t realize it was going to end in the same infuriating place. Just One Night is finally the continuation of Allison and Willem’s story, and I could not be happier with it (okay, if it was 200 pages longer I would be happier).

Review: Bumped

Book Title/Author: Bumped by Megan McCafferty
Publisher/Year:  April 26, 2011/Balzer + Bray

Series: Yes
Source and Format: Bought
Rating: 3.6 stars (4 stars on Goodreads)

From Goodreads:

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

Bumped was a little hard to get into. You’re thrown into the world in the future (2036), where only teenagers are able to reproduce. And they have basically changed the entire English language, like lolcats, but with  pregnancy related terms.

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com

There are two passages in the book that really stood out to me as important to who Melody and Harmony are, and where they’re going.

Melody:

They predicted 16 years ago, almost before anyone else, that girls like me – prettier, smarter, healthier – would be the world’s most valuable resource.

Harmony:

I was told to put my faith in the Council, who knew more about the Scriptures than I did. They would tell me what to read. And they would tell me what to think.

And now, 4 years later, I didn’t know what to think about anything.

Which, I’m finally realizing, is exactly the way the Church wants it.

Towards the end of the book (this isn’t even spoilery, I swear) it’s brought up that Melody is allergic to ink and paper books. Like, deathly allergic. Which is just so tragic and hilarious and I love it. Also, the phrase ‘cock jockey’ gets thrown around and I really regretted not reading this sooner.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books at the TOP of my TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week, The Broke and the Bookish want to know the “Top Ten Books at the TOP of my TBR”. These are actually just the next ten books I’m reading, so I guess that puts them at the top of my TBR.

1. Sever by Lauren DeStefano
2. Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
3. Dust of 1000 Dogs by A.S. King
4. None of the Regular Rules by Erin Downing
5. The Look by Sophia Bennett
6. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
7. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
8. Requiem by Lauren Olivier
9. Bumped by Megan McCafferty
10. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I’d Auto-Buy

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week, The Broke and the Bookish want to know the “Top Ten Authors That I’d Put On My Auto-Buy List (basically an auto-buy list is no questions asked..you love this author so much that no matter what they wrote next you’d buy regardless of genre or subject matter)”.

1. Neil Gaiman: my favorite author and one of my favorite humans.
2. Laurie Notaro: I must clarify: I will auto-buy any of Notaro’s memoirs. I did auto-buy her fiction book, but I didn’t enjoy it. It’s for the same reason I’m not going to read Jen Lancaster’s fiction: I know which details they’re pulling from their own lives and I prefer it from their personal voice or perspective or whatever.
3. Megan McCafferty: While I could read about Marcus and Jessica and their lives until they die of extreeeeeeemely old age, I’m probably in the minority. I can’t wait for Jessica Darling’s It-List #1. And Bumped, which was an auto-buy, but for some reason never an auto-read.
4. Gayle Forman: I didn’t love If I Stay and Where She Went, but Just One Day and today’s release of an excerpt from Just One Year…I’m sold.
5. Elizabeth Wein: I thought Code Name Verity was so strong, I will auto-buy everything else she writes. Historic fiction always throws me off, because it’s not really my thing – in my head everything before 1950 looks like the wild west.
6. Libba Bray: I love Libba’s voice. I mention historic fiction above, but historic fiction with a supernatural element? Watch out world, Libba’s done it. The Diviners? More like The DIVINE-ers. Beauty Queens is a national treasure, ya’ll. She is equally as fabulous on her twitter.
7. Stephanie Perkins: Perfection. All of her characters are so different and fully formed, I’m just amazed. Definitely auto-buying Isla and the Happily Ever After. And everything that comes after that.
8. Erin Morgenstern: Like Code Name: Verity, I thought The Night Circus was so fantastic I could scream, but I didn’t because I’m a quiet person. Instead, I will buy everything else she puts out, quiet squealing and rolling around and being extremely embarrassing.
9. Veronica Rossi: This was a battle of the Veronicas for me because I love Roth’s Divergent (erm…Four) SO MUCH, and while they are both auto-buys for me, I just want to gush about Rossi. The Under the Never Sky series (is that what we’re calling it?) blows me away. The entire world that’s been built, the amazing characters, the smoochies…
10. John Green: Green is not a consistent 5-star author for me. Actually, only The Fault in Our Stars has that distinction. The boy-wants-girl books are great, have some terrific writing (who doesn’t love the bit about the drizzle and the hurricane??), but the manic pixie dream girl thing is what holds him back for me. He gets it close enough to be an auto-buy, but I’m hoping TFiOS is the mark of an upswing.