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 worlds from books that we wouldn’t want to live in.  The first part of the list was easy, I’ve haven’t met many dystopian societies that have much to recommend them…  After that it got a little tricky since I don’t read a lot of books that take place in different worlds so I included some that take place in times/places that I wouldn’t want to live in.

1. Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins – There’s nothing good about a world that pits teenagers in a televised contest to the death.
2. Delirium series by Lauren Oliver – Love as a disease?  Not cool…
3. Divergent series by Veronica Roth – Being forced to choose a faction, serums that affect your brain, fighting, death – doesn’t sound like all that much fun to me.
4. The Giver by Lois Lowry – While things do improve some, eventually, in later books, who wants to live in a world without color, beauty, memory, emotion?
5. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – Iceland in the early nineteenth century is brutal enough before you consider the whole beheading thing…
6. Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore – Disgusting aliens shooting up everything and trying to take over the planet so they can ultimately destroy it – need I say more?
7. Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien – Lots of fighting and really repulsive creature hanging around in creepy places.
8. I Am A Man by Joe Starita – Being a Native American in this country in the nineteenth century is not something I would recommend.
9. Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – Taking place throughout the wars in Chechnya, the brutality and poverty and fear are heartbreaking.
10. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park – The story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, this heartbreaking tale brings forward this horrific war and its effect on the innocent and the children in the country.

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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

Top Ten Series I’d Like To Start But Haven’t Yet

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 the challenge is to list the book series that we’d like to start, but haven’t gotten around to yet.  I’m going to cheat a little – well, maybe more than a little – and include series that I have started, at some point in my life, but never got around to finishing, series that I want to start over – and make it through the whole darn thing!

1. Wonderful World of Oz by Frank L. Baum – I read The Wonderful World of Oz when I was a kid, but I’ve never read the rest of the series.  I just bought them all in hardcover and am looking forward to sharing these with my kids!
2. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – What can I say, some of these classic series for younger audiences I started as a kid, but never moved past the first book for some reason.  So add this to the list as another great series that I could read out loud with the kids!
3. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – I read The Hobbit and I attempted at one point in my middle-school years to tackle the rest, but never made it.  Since my hubby is such a fan I should probably give them another try!
4. Matched by Allie Condie –  I have made a vow not to start any more trilogies until the last book has been released – I hate that year-long wait between books – it makes me crazy!  And then there’s always the effort of trying to remember where I left off when the next book comes out!  Now that Reached was released at the end of 2012 this is a trilogy that I have put on my to-read list.
5. Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare – I read her Infernal Devices series and the last book is coming out this month, finally!  The Infernal Devices series is a prequel to the Mortal Instrument series, so once I finish Clockwork Princess I will add this series to my to-read list.
6. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – I have heard a ton of great things about this series, but have never started it.  Travelling back in time, Scotland, intrigue, romance – how can I go wrong?
7. Miss Marple by Agatha Christie – I’m a lover of mysteries and have never spent any real time with the queen of mystery!  I picked up a bunch of her books at a used book sale a couple of years ago and keep meaning to start working my way through them – they’re not too long so it shouldn’t be too hard!
8. Stone Barrington by Stuart Woods – I like a lot of the books in this genre – mystery/thrillers with a recurring character – good quick reads that are entertaining.  I know that this series is popular in my library with folks that like many of the authors that I do, so it’s probably worth a try.
9. Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin – I’m generally not a huge reader of fantasy, but given the popularity of the HBO series (which I have not seen), I would like to give the first book a try and see how it goes.
10. Divergent by Veronica Roth – A dystopian series that looks interesting and I hear positive things, I just need to follow my own rules and wait until the last book is released in October!