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 a Top Ten REWIND – we could pick any past list that we had not done, or one that we wanted to revisit, and make it our list for this week.  Being in a nostalgic mood I decided to go back and list my top ten childhood favorites.  There were plenty of other books that I loved and devoured, but I remember these in particular.

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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 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 the challenge is to create a list of the books that you read when you need to read something light and fun.  My list consists mostly of series and genres that I enjoy in between reading more serious fare, they are always a quick read, enjoyable, leaving me ready to tackle something else.

1. Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich – My husband always knows when I am reading one of these novels, since this is the one series, without a doubt, that always makes me laugh out loud.
2. Cozy Mysteries – I am a huge fan of mysteries of all types, series, standalones, fluffy mysteries, and more serious fare.  In the cozy genre some of the authors I go to for a quick and fun read include Alexander McCall Smith, G.A. McKevett, Laura Childs, Kate Carlise, Sue Grafton, Carolyn Hart, Joan Hess, etc.
3. Not-So-Cozy Mysteries – There are some mystery series that I read that I definitely do not consider light & fun, but that provoke greater thought (Louise Penny, Reed Farrel Coleman, Donna Leon) and require greater commitment from me as a reader.  There are however, a number of darker mystery series that I still consider light & fun reads from the pens of such authors as Lee Child, John Sandford, Jonathan Kellerman, etc.
4. Picture Books – OK, so if I really need something light and fun, I spend some time with my kids and some picture books.  While there are picture books out there that address very serious and difficult issues, there are many more that are just plain fun (especially Dr. Seuss!).  Let’s face it, even ecological disaster seems lighter when told in rhyme with great illustrations…
5. SOME YA series – I want to be careful here, because while there is plenty of light and fun reading in the young adult genre, there are also stark, dark, and difficult novels as well.  But I have had fun breezing through a number of YA series including The Hunger Games, Immortal Devices, The Iron Fey, Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, Pendragon, etc.
6. Beach Books –  You know the books I’m talking about, those great covers showing beautiful beaches and picnic baskets – a chance to get lost in some seaside town where you know the ending is always going to be happy and true love will always prevail.
7. SOME Juvenile fiction – Like the YA category, this is another category where there is plenty to be found that is serious, but there is also a ton of fun stuff out there with great humor about growing up, families, relationships in school, and friendship.  My Fun Stories to Share post has some of the recent favorites that I read with my kids.
8. Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz – While this series can be dark and disturbing at times, I always love the quirkiness of Odd which lends levity to otherwise dire situations.
9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – A childhood favorite, one that I try to re-read every now and then, it is always comfortable and brings me back to my teenage days when I wished to be Jo.
10. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum – OK, the flying monkeys aren’t really all that bad in the book, and the witch doesn’t even appear until towards the end, but there’s actually greater violence in the book than there is in the movie!  I just finished reading it out loud to my kids for the first time and the world of Oz is always good for escape.  Oh, and by the way, the slippers were silver…

Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger

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 create a list of the books that were my favorite before I was a blogger.  Since I’ve actually only been blogging for a couple of months most of my favorites are from before I was a blogger, and I’ve already talked about most of them in other top 10 posts.  So I decided to change it up a little bit and make it a list of some of my favorites from before I was a blogger that I haven’t already mentioned in some other top 10 list.

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye by Rachel Joyce – Harold is recently retired and living in a small English village with his cranky wife when he gets a letter from an old friend who is dying of cancer.  Instead of stopping at the post office to send his response he keeps walking, deciding to walk across the country to deliver it personally.  I found the book to be humorous, poignant, and charming.
2. Good American by Alex George – Frederick and Jette travel to America in 1904 and what follows is the story of their lives, and the lives of their descendants, as told by their grandson.  I loved the story of this immigrant family against the backdrop of the history of our country.
3. Abundance of Katherines by John Green – I have admitted to a love for John Green and this is one of my favorites.  Colin, a former child prodigy, has only dated girls named Katherine (and always with a “K”, never a “C”), and has been dumped by all of them, nineteen times.  He takes off on a road trip with his best friend in search of a provable Katherine Theorem.  What follows is funny and insightful, a story of friendship, love, and figuring out who you are.
4. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall – I’m not a runner – I wish that I was – but that is not something my orthopedic surgeon would recommend.  But you don’t need to be a runner to love this book.  McDougall provides an engrossing story about ultra-runners, from scientific research to the Tarahumara Indians in an isolated part of Mexico that run hundreds of miles, to a race between those very natives and the world’s best ultra-distance runners.  Makes me sometimes think that even I could be a runner…
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – I had to add this one – my favorite from the time when I was a little kid – one that I tried to re-read at least once a year while I was growing up.  I always wanted to be Jo!
6. The Messenger by Markus Zusak – I have to give a shout out to my favorite author, even if I have stopped myself from carrying on again about my absolute favorite book (The Book Thief – in case you forgot).  When Ed mistakenly stops a bank robber he receives his first playing card in the mail with an anonymous message – more will follow – a great adventure into the why and how and who… and does he change the lives of others or of himself?
7. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – Artermis Fowl is a brilliant and evil criminal mastermind, and he is twelve.  The first in this series is certainly the best as Artemis embarks on a plan to rob the fairies of their gold, combining fantasty, myth, adventure, and technology along with a good dose of humor this was a great read from beginning to end.
8. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz – Odd Thomas is a 20-year old fry cook who can see the dead.  Throughout the series, Odd Thomas will try to stop a number of disasters and resolve a number of mysteries, but what is greatest about these books is Odd himself, a humble and courageous character, and the humor that is combined with the grotesque.
9. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss – Probably my favorite Dr. Seuss book, and certainly one of my favorites to read-aloud (although they are all great for reading aloud!).  “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – How can this not be on everyone’s list??  Of all the series, the first is still probably my favorite since it was what introduced me to the world of Harry Potter, a world I so desperately wanted to be real and wanted to live in.  My eleven year old daughter has been reading the series for the first time and she wept when the first book was over and she realized that the world J.K. Rowling had created would never be real for her…