Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten of a particular type of character.  I chose to list the top ten geeky characters, be they bookish geeks or tech geeks or just plain geeks, because hey – I’m more than a little geeky myself!  😉

1. Clay Jannon from Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – A former web-designer, now working in a strange bookstore, he goes on a quest involving ancient tomes and Google.  What could be geekier than that?
2. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – The quintessential geek girl – smart, talented, bookish, and more than a little bossy, she knows that if you’re in doubt you head to the library!
3. Violet Baudelaire from The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket – Violet can solve almost any problem with her imaginative inventing skills!
4. Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer – He may be a teenage criminal mastermind, but let’s face it – he’s also a geek…
5. Colin Singleton from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – A washed up child prodigy, Colin is on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability based on data collected the nineteen times he was dumped by a girl named Katherine.  Maybe it’ll predict the success of his next relationship before he gets his heart-broken again.
6. Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Anyone who feels compelled to steal books, and finds solace in them, is definitely a book geek.  And that’s a good thing!
7. Robert Langdon from the series by Dan Brown – He may go on adventures that take him all over the world and have him fleeing from assassins, but at the core of his being he really is just a bookish geek.
8. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl – Child prodigy, voracious reader, super geek!
9. Willow Chance from Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan – One of the more recent geeks I discovered and one of my favorites!  Completely obsessed with counting by 7s, botany, and researching medical conditions, she is definitely one of a kind!
10. Eleanor & Park from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – Two for the price of one!  Two completely endearing misfits who are all “wrong”, yet so perfect together in their geekiness!

 

 

Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten books and/or authors that were gateways in my reading journey, ones that introduced me to a new genre, reinvigorated my interest in reading, somehow changed or affected my reading journey.

1. Dystopian Books – The Giver by Lois Lowry – My first foray into dystopian novels, The Giver will always be my first and my favorite!
2. Young Adult – Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson – It wasn’t my first YA book, but the first one that dealt so directly with difficult issues that matter to young adults, the first time I realized what great literature exists for teens.
3. Stories told in a series of books – Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling –  They’re everywhere!  Prior to this series, I don’t ever remember reading books where you needed to wait until the series was complete to be able to finish the story! I do love many of these series, I just have taken a vow not to start one until all of the books are released so I don’t have to wait so long between pieces of the story!
4. Historical Non-Fiction – Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham – Historical non-fiction has never really been my thing – I don’t want to read the equivalent of a high school social studies textbook – but this book proved that there was historical fiction out there that would tell me a story while teaching me about the past.
5. Current Non-Fiction – Born to Run by Christopher McDougall – Too much of current non-fiction is just someone trying to turn their opinions into fact or someone trying to catch the wave of popularity associated with the issue or personality of the day.  But this story grabbed my interest and held it, teaching me about the past and the present.
6. Mysteries – Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene – Giving credit where credit is due, Nancy and the gang were my first introduction to the mystery genre, one that I still love today.
7. Cozy Mysteries – Kinsey Milhone series by Sue Grafton – My first cozy mystery series, there are still a number that I regularly read and enjoy – they are always a fun, quick escape!
8. Detective Stories – Moe Prager series by Reed Farrel Coleman – Another part of the progression, the jump to grittier detective stories, this series continues to be a favorite.  It will be bittersweet when the last book comes out next month.
9. Historical Fiction – A Good American by Alex George – I had not read historical fiction in a long time, didn’t really consider it a genre that I liked that well, until I read this and now I find myself reading all kinds of historical fiction!
10. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – The book the reinvigorated and affirmed my love for the written word.  The funny thing?  I walked by it in the bookstore for months, picked it up and put it back down, before I finally decided to give it a try – and it is my favorite book.

Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten books that make me weep…  I’m getting a little teary just thinking about them…  But I’m not going to tell you WHY they make me cry, if I do that it’s like giving away the ending and I wouldn’t want to do that!

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
3. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
4. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
5. America by E.R. Frank
6. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
7. The Fault in our Stars  by John Green
8. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
9. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten books we would recommend to a particular person.  I picked my 12-year old daughter for a couple of reasons.  I love to share books with her, to read the same things and then take the time out to talk about them.  And I think being a 12-year old girl is exceedingly difficult – as a time of transition it is a time when it can be hard to pick things to read that are interesting, challenging, and appropriate.  To be completely honest, some of these she has already read, or I have already read them to her, but I couldn’t leave them off the list!  And my list for her is actually much, much longer – as is my own list – if only there were more hours in the day!

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – A wonderfully fantastic and engaging series with kids who are in the middle of growing up – just like she is… (although I try to deny it!)
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – My favorite book of all time, and one that I think she is now mature enough to understand and enjoy.
3. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery – One of my favorite series when I was a kid and I think she would connect with the spunky main character.
4. All Creatures series by James Herriot – This series would appeal to my daughter – a real country girl and animal lover whose wondering if her heart is too soft for veterinary work.
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Just because it was my favorite book through my childhood.
6. Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter – Tough girls – teenage spies – with just enough romance thrown in to cause a blush…
7. The Giver series by Lois Lowry – She has read The Giver, and loved it, so I’m hoping she will like to see the rest of the story unfold.
8. Allegiant by Veronica Roth – My motive here is selfish – she’s reading it now and I want her to finish so I can read it!
9. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell – We’ve been promising to read this one together for a while now, but we need to actually do it!
10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – A classic, and a story about a strong girl overcoming the odds.

 

Tuesday Top Ten

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten names that we love from book characters.  I guess I don’t generally give character names a ton of thought, so this one took me a while, and I’m sure I missed a great one somewhere, but hey – I gave it a try!

1. Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Dumbledore, Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – Seriously, what a bunch of fantastic names!
2. Pippi Longstocking from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
3. Pip from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
4. Ebenezer Scrooge from The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
5. Sherlock Holmes from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
7. Atticus Finch, Scout Finch, Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Mary Poppins from Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers – OK, Mary alone isn’t all that exciting – but add the Poppins and you’ve got something!
9. Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
10. Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh from The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne