Top Ten Dogs from Literature

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie week, so I decided to pick my top ten dogs I love from different books. 

 

1) Charley from Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley; a road-tripping dog.

2) The brilliant “watchdog” Tock from The Phantom Tollbooth

3) Odysseus’ dog Argos from The Odyssey; never stops hoping to see his master again.

4) Hagrid’s dog Fang from the Harry Potter series

5) Mr. Rochester’s dog Pilot from Jane Eyre

6) Crab from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona

7) Kojak from The Stand; the most loyal pup ever.

8) Nana from Peter Pan, who wouldn’t want a nanny that’s a dog?

9) The Starks’ direwolves from Game of Thrones (I know they aren’t technically dogs)

10) Harold from the Bunnicula series.

Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014. They can be bookish or not, mine are a mix.

1) Pay off my student loans by the end of the year.
2) Visit New Zealand and Australia, the trip is set for September and I can't wait!
3) Host a fancy dinner party.
4) Have a Meatless Monday every week (doesn't have to actually fall on a Monday).
5) Get in better shape to hike in New Zealand.
6) Embrace my new job; learn as much as I can and challenge myself to be creative and fearless in this new role.*
7) Celebrate my 30th birthday party in a fun way.
8) Read at least 100 books and see and review at least 30 plays.
9) Get rid of at least 30 items of clothing.
10) Do one Pay It Forward act each month (buy someone's coffee in the drive thru, pay extra on someone's meter, etc.)


*P.S. I got a new job! I accepted a new job offer to become the editor of a monthly publication. I'm excited and looking forward to starting on January 15th! It was a quick turn around and I'm so grateful for all the encouragement that was sent my way when I wasn't sure what was next. 

Do you guys have any goals/resolutions this year?

Top Ten Favorite Beginnings/Endings In Books

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Favorite Beginnings/Endings In Books. Obviously there will be spoilers because we’re talking about endings!

Favorite Beginnings

1) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” That perfect opening line set the eerie mood for the whole book.

2) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens: “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”  My favorite Dickens novel opens with lines that hold

3) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Arthur Dent is an ordinary man is every way, but his whole life (and planet) is blown to hell in the first few pages of Adam’s famous book.

4) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” That famous line sets the tone for one of the most tragic stories in literature.

5) Room by Emma Donoghue: "Today I'm five." The horrific events that unfold throughout the book are only bearable because of the innocence of our young narrator.

Favorite Endings

6) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: “I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow." Clocking in at more than 1,000 pages, this epic novel ends on a note that reminds us Scarlett is a survivor. She’ll manage somehow, even when life seems impossible.

7) The Harry Potter Series: After seven books of turmoil the final line, “All was well” was such a beautiful picture of closure. I loved it.

8) The Woman in Black by Susan Hill: This book scared me silly. And just when you think the terrifying twists are over, Hill throws one more major one your way.

9) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: I read Hunger Games and this one back-to-back before having to wait a year for the third and final book in the series to be released. It was agony not knowing what happened to everyone after the cliff hanger.  

10) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: It’s a big book and a lot of chapters to get though.  But if you still with it for 1,400 pages the payoff is better than any other book I’ve read. This tale of revenge is so perfectly planned out that it will leave you breathless.

Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make You NOT Pick Up a Book.

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Words/Topics that will make you NOT pick up a book. This is the exact opposite of the April question. I’m pretty open minded about trying new genres, but there are a few words that tend to make me avoid a book. That’s not saying I’ll never read something that falls into these categories, they just aren’t my normal thing.

  

1) Political commentary – Really, politics haven’t changed much over the past few centuries.

2) Parenting – Just not there yet.

3) Romance Novels – Not my jam.

4) Teen angst – I’m okay with some (think Harry Potter book 5), but too much and it wears me out.

5) Self-help – I really liked The Happiness Project, but other self-help books usually just seem like common sense tips to me.

6) Chick Lit - I know there are some great ones, but there’s also a lot of junk.

7) Cold war spy thriller - Tend to bore me

8) Celebrity Memoir - I don’t think any 20-something celebrity has lived enough to write a book about their life.

9) Fan Fiction – I’d rather read the fiction that inspired it.

10) Classic rewritten as romance novels - Think Jane Eyre rewritten as erotica, just wrong.  

Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations. There are some awful ones out there, but these are all examples of adaptations that were well done. 

1) Lord of the Rings

2) V for Vendetta

3) Pride and Prejudice (1995)

4) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

5) High Fidelity

6) To Kill a Mockingbird

7) The Hunger Games

8) The Help

9) The Princess Bride

10) Little Women (1994)

BONUS: Life of Pi, I saw this after making my list, but it was so excellent I just had to add it in.

Image from here. 

Top Ten Books At The Top Of My Summer TBR List

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Books on our summer TBR list.

1) Under the Dome – I caved, reading peer pressure from my King-along readers.

2) Gone With the Wind – A re-read before a trip to Atlanta.

3) The March – Another good one to read before Atlanta.

4) Don Quixote – It’s been on my list for so long!

5) Amazing Grace – After hearing the author speak, this one has been high on my list.

6) The Ocean at the End of the Lane – It’s Gaiman, I must get my hands on it!!!

7) About a Boy – One of the only Nick Hornby novels I haven’t read and I heard there is a TV show version being release this fall.

8) The Harry Potter series – I’m planning to re-read it before our trip to HP World in September!

9) The Comedy of Errors – Another Shakespeare play for the Let’s Read Plays challenge

10) The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet – A graphic novel for fun.

Image from here. 

Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way (road trips, airplanes, travelogues, anything where there is traveling in the book).

1) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

2) Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

3) Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor

4) Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co by Jeremy Mercer

5) On the Road by Jack Kerouac

6) Paper Towns by John Green (great road trip book)

7) Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks

8) Imagined London by Anna Quindlen

9) In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (almost all Bryson books!)

10) Novel Destination by Shannon Mckenna Schmidt (best bibliophile travel book ever)

Image from here. 

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I've Read This Year

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I've Read. I decided to keep it to books I’ve read this year.

1) Stardust: The Gift Edition by Neil Gaiman

2) Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (and all the PEL collection!)

3) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

4) Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

5) The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

6) State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

7) Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

8) Persuasion by Jane Austen (all of the Penguin clothbounds!)

9) The October Country  by Ray Bradbury

10) The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Top Ten Books When You Need Something Light & Fun

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten books you read when you need something light & fun. Here’s a few that always get me laughing.

1) Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

2) The Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse

3) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books by Douglas Adams

4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

5) Me Talk Pretty One by David Sedaris

6) The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison

7) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

8) Shel Silverstein’s books

9) Almost anything by Bill Bryson

10) The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book.

1) Gothic Mystery

2) Libraries

3) Jazz Age

4) London

5) Dragons (they’re awesome)

6) Biographies of authors

7) Road Trip

8) Dystopia (I’m a bit burnt out on this one right now, but usually I love them)

9) World War II Historical Fiction

10) Indiana (It’s my state, if it’s set here I’ve got to read it)

Image from here.

Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE Than I Did

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE Than I Did.

1) The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver: People rave about this author and while I did love The Poisonwood Bible, I haven’t felt that way about any of her other work.

2) The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides: Loved Middlesex, but this one kept me so distance from the characters. I was left wanting a lot more and though I know that was the author’s intention, I still wanted to like it more than I did.

3) Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella: I liked some of her other books, but I think I was just burnt out on her by the time I read this.

4) Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger: I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife, so I couldn’t wait for this one! Then I read it and was not impressed at all. It’s hard to follow up such a stellar debut.

5) One Day by David Nicholls: Dexter just killed me in this one. I wanted to smack Emma and tell her to get over him because she could do better.

6) Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay: World War II historical fiction, sounds right up my alley! While I did love the historical aspect, it flipped back and forth to a modern day setting and the main female drama didn’t work for me.

7) Sandman: Volume 1 by Neil Gaiman: I’m a huge Gaiman fan, so I assumed that I would love this. Unfortunately, the illustrations in the graphic novel were a bit too dark for me. I’ve always wondered if I should have tried another volume, but I never did.

8) The Passage by Justin Cronin: The hype surrounding this one made me think it would be incredible, always dangerous. I really loved the first half, but right around the middle we left every single character we knew and basically started a brand new book. It was frustrating enough that I didn’t pick up the sequel.

9) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne: Holocaust from a child’s point of view, again it sounds like one I would like, but I could never buy the young boy’s completely naïveté. It was too unrealistic to me.

10) The City & The City by China Mieville: I wanted to love this one, but man, I was just left feeling like the author’s goal was to leave the reader feeling completely lost.

Top Ten Books I Wish I Read as a Kid

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie so I picked an old topic, Books I wish I read as a kid. Every book on my list is one I enjoyed as an adult, but I know I would have absolutely adored it if I’d read it when I was young.

1) Half Magic series by Edward Eager

2) Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

3) The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke

4) A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

5) The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

6) The Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart

7) The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

8) The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

9) The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

10) Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Photo of me as a kid (check out that sweet carpet!)

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012. Many of these are authors I’d heard of before, but this was the first year I read one of their books. Now I will be on the lookout for new and old books from all of these authors.
 

1) Tana French (In the Woods)

2) Julia Alvarez (In the Time of the Butterflies)

3) Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

4) Wendell Berry (Hannah Coulter)

5) Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)

6) Joanne Harris (Chocolat)

7) Rainbow Rowell (Attachments)

8) Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (The Yearling)

9) Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruin)

10) Stephen King (The Stand) – I’ve read novellas and nonfiction from King before, but this was the first year I tried one of his massive novels and I absolutely loved it!
 

Image from here.

Top Ten Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for your Top Ten Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines. The women on my list are ones who decided not to be victims. They are women who are smart and clever and aren’t afraid to let people know that. These are women who bucked societal norms and did their own thing. They are all my heroes.

1) Jo March (Little Women)

2) Hermione Granger (Harry Potter series)

3) Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series)

4) Valentine Wiggin (Ender’s Game series)

5) Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games series)

6) Eowyn (Lord of the Rings)

7) Dagny Taggart (Atlas Shrugged)

8) Violet Baudelaire (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

9) Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables series)

10) Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) 

Image from here. 

Top Ten Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit

**Stop by Suey's blog It's All About Books today. My review of two Markus Zusak books is up as part of her Zusak celebration week!**

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books that get you into the Halloween Spirit. I’m not a big fan of blood and gore, but I love gothic mysteries. My list is full of books that scare me silly and mess with my mind a little bit, but in a good way.

1) The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

2) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

3) The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

4) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

5) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

6) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

7) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

8) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

9) The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

10) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Image from here. 

Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the top ten bookish people you want to meet (Authors, Bloggers, etc.). There’s the normal list that’s a mile long of deceased authors I would love to meet, but I’m going to skip those this time and only limit myself to living bookish people. 

1) My fellow co-moderators at The Classics Club. There are so many book bloggers I would love to meet in person, but it would be so great to sit down in person with Allie, Sarah, Jillian, Adam and Heather. We are constantly chatting behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly on the blog, but we’ve never met in person.

2) Nancy Pearl – I would love to discuss books with this author of Book Lust.

3) Ira Glass – I think he would be fascinating!

4) Amy Sherman-Palladino – The creator of Gilmore Girls is an avid reader and her taste in books is impeccable. I want to pick her brain!

5) Stephen Moffat – He writes both Doctor Who and the BBC’s Sherlock. You just know he would be so cool to talk to!

6) Marjane Satrapi – The author of the Persepolis graphic novels has led an incredible life and she seems to have a sharp sense of humor. I’d love to talk to her!

7) Steve Martin – Actor, author, musician, he is an absolute Renaissance man. Oh yeah, he’s also hilarious.

8) Neil Gaiman – From his books to his love of Doctor Who, Gaiman is awesome. His blog also makes it clear that he would be so much fun to hang out with.

9) J.K. Rowling – No explanation needed.

10) Markus Zusak – I just want to meet him. I want to meet the man behind The Book Thief.
 
**I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few of my favorite authors (Jhumpa Lahiri, Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris, Lois Lowry, John Green and Nicole Krauss) in the past couple years, otherwise they would have made the list too!
 
Images from here, here, here and here.

Top Ten Books on my Spring To-Be-Read list

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my Top Ten Books on my Spring To-Be-Read list. I’m on a United We Read (UWR) committee and we meet once a month from March to June, so many of my Spring reads are from that committee. I’m so excited about many of the books, but that’s how they made the list.

1) The Submission by Amy Waldman - (UWR)

2) A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines - (UWR)

3) Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo - (UWR)

4) Chocolat by Joanne Harris (UWR)

5) When She Woke by Hillary Jordan - (UWR)

6) Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson – Do any of you read Lawson’s blog? She is hilarious! So I was excited to find out I’ll be getting an ARC copy of her memoir in the mail sometime soon. Here’s a link to one of my favorite of her posts.

7) Literary Brooklyn by Evan Hughes – An ARC copy that’s shamelessly never made it to the top of the TBR stack.

8) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen – In the next two months I’m throwing a bachelorette party, planning a 60th birthday surprise for my Dad, attending my 10 year high school reunion, I’m a bridesmaid in my brother’s wedding, planning a trip to Tennessee, Wisconsin and Montana and about 2 dozen other fun things. It will be a very busy spring and I have a feeling I’m going to need a comfort reread of some Austen.

9) Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss – It’s been on my list forever.

10) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin – I’ve heard about this author for years and have yet to read anything by her. That must be remedied.

Do you guys highly recommend any of these? Should I bump them up the queue?

Image from here.

Top Ten Victorian Novels

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my Top Ten books in the genre of my choice. I decided to do Victorian novels, because to complete the Victorian Literature Challenge last year I read 15 books from that period and I have a few others I already loved.

The Victorian era is usually defined as the lifespan of Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837-1901. Books published during these particular years and authors who lived during this time usually fall in the “Victorian” category. I’ll also add that there are still many Victorian novels that I haven’t read yet, so if you don’t see your favorite here, tell me I should read it soon!

1) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)

2) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)

3) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890)

4) Middlemarch by George Eliot (1874)

5) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1895)

6) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

7) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)

8) The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (1881)

9) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1859)

10) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1851)

Image form here.

Top Ten Books I'd Want on a Desert Island

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie category. So I decided to give you my Top Ten Books I'd Want on a Desert Island. I’m going to preface this list by saying I’m counting series or “complete works of” as one book. That’s not cheating, right?

1) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Comedy, drama, tragedy, bawdy jokes, desperate love, Shakespeare has it all.

2) The Harry Potter series – I never get tired of reading these books.

3) The Shadow of the Wind – Gothic mystery, the cemetery of forgotten books, a Barcelona bookshop, yes please.

4) Dombey and Son – Or whatever Dickens novel I have yet to read when I’m about to be stranded.

5) The Complete Works of Jane Austen – I love these books more with each reread.

6) The Lord of the Rings – A tale of adventure, friendship and good overcoming evil; plus there are wizards and hobbits and epic battles.

7) Proust – because really, when else am I going to read all of In Search of Lost Time?

8) The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe – For when I’m feeling spooky.

9) The Time Traveler’s Wife – For when I need a beautiful love story.

10) The Anne of Green Gables series – When I’m feeling down about being stranded, I think Anne would brighten up my day.

Photo from here.

Ten Books That I Read That Were Outside Of My Comfort Zone

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for Ten Books That I Read That Were Outside Of My Comfort Zone (whether you liked them or not)

I don’t read a lot of memoirs, self-help books or books about politics or economics. I don’t read these because I’ve learned that I usually don’t enjoy them. There are a few exceptions, but usually books about modern politics/economics bore me. Memoirs seem self-indulgent and gossipy and self-help books just aren’t my thing. Sometimes though, you stumble into new territory and you’re thrilled with what you find.

1) Freakonomics – I was expecting this to be really hard to follow and dry as toast, but it was surprisingly entertaining.

2) Watchmen – My very first graphic novel. A friend convinced me to try it and I was skeptical. Aren’t graphic novels basically just comic books? Nope, they’re amazing.

3) The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court – I do love learning about new things, but I might not have picked this one up if it hadn’t been for my United We Read committee. It was a wonderful read.

4) The Sparrow – A priest in space, doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, but it was SO good!

5) Cesar's Way - Cesar Millan’s books were really valuable to me this year as a brand new dog owner, but they definitely aren’t something I normally would gravitate towards.

6) Ender’s Game – The book that made me realize Science Fiction could be so incredibly fantastic. I love this book.

7) Twilight – Vampires, teen drama, swooning and such, not my style. But I got completely hooked on these, even though they are fluff books, and read the whole series.

8) Glenn Beck's Common Sense – A family member talked me into this one. It’s just not for me.

9) The Art of Racing in the Rain – I don’t do sappy books from animals’ points-of-view. I shouldn’t have made an exception for this one. If I’m going to read something from an animal’s POV I would rather it be Watership Down, because I couldn’t stand this one.

10) How Starbucks Saved My Life – My book club picked this one. It was fine, but it falls it reminded me that I don’t really like those books to begin with.

Image from here.