Top Ten Favorite Musicals

Last month I picked my own Top Ten Topic for The Broke and the Bookish meme and I'm doing it again. Here are my Top Ten Favorite Musicals. As I mentioned before, I love live theatre and I'm lucky enough to get to see a ton of productions because I review shows once a week at Stage Write! Musicals get a bad rap sometimes, but they can be so incredibly good without being cheesy when they are well done.

1) Les Misérables

2) Singin' in the Rain

3) RENT

4) The Sound of Music

5) Wicked

6) In the Heights

7) Cabaret

8) Jersey Boys

9) My Fair Lady

10) Chicago

Top Ten Bookish Things That I'd Like To Own

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Bookish Things (That Aren't Books) That I'd Like To Own. I could list 100 things. Every time someone asks for something specific I'd like for a birthday or Christmas it is inevitably something bookish. 

1) A bookish flask - Seriously, typewriters on flasks, you just can't beat that! 

2) A Spineless Classics print - There are so many great ones (Hamlet, The Hobbit, etc.) but I always thought one of the children's prints (The Secret Garden or Wizard of Oz) would look incredible in a nursery. Not that I will be adding a bursary to my house right now! 

3) An old vintage typewriter - I've always wanted one, but there's not really a good spot in my house to put it. 

4) A Literary Map of Britain 

5) A Persuasion Scarf - It's so beautiful, there are no words. 

6) Things from Out of Print. Seriously, that store is my kryptonite. Their sweatshirts, t-shirts and now jewelry are all so fantastic! I've got my eye on the red Fahrenheit 451 t-shirt and the To Kill a Mockingbird necklace (or maybe the Moby Dick necklace or maybe Vonnegut!) 

7) A classic book cover for my kindle 

8) British phone booth bookends 

9) A custom print with a few of my favorite books 

10) This lovely HP pillow quote.

Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry.

1) The Book Thief - I ugly cry every time I read this.
2) The Time Traveler's Wife - Beautiful romance, impossible obstacle
3) Song of Achilles - The Trojan War never felt so personal.
4) Anne of Green Gables - One word: Matthew
5) The Sparrow - Tragedy on an epic level
6) Still Alice - If you know anyone who has had Alzheimer's this one will get you.
7) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - 9/11 heartbreaker
8) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Just about my worst nightmare, but also incredibly inspiring story of the human spirit.
9) Jude, the Obscure - Leave it to Hardy to redfine tragedy.
10) Little Women - Do you guys remember Joey's reaction on Friends? Exactly.

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 Things I Am Thankful For

I have so many things in my life to be thankful for this year. I’m glad that this week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks us to name a few. I’m going to list 5 general things and then 5 bookish things.

1) This summer my Dad’s cancer (Lymphoma) came back and this month he finished his last chemo treatment! I’m so grateful that it went well and hopefully kicked the cancer’s butt. My father-in-law had a pacemaker put in this summer and the surgery and recovery has gone really well. So much to be thankful for!

2) The Huz and I re-roofed our house this summer. It was brutal, but I’m so grateful for the family and friends who jumped in to help and make that job possible. We felt very loved by all the people who sweated it out in the July heat with us.

3) As we watched friends struggle with being laid off or let go this year I’ve been so grateful that both the Huz and I have full-time jobs that we enjoy. Even when I’m not having the best day at work, I’m so glad I have great co-workers and a laid back work environment that doesn’t require heels!

4) We welcomed a new niece into the world in October and I’m so grateful for all of my happy and healthy nieces and nephews. I love getting to know each one of them and seeing the people they are becoming.

5) I’m so grateful that even when our budget is tight or we are saving for a big home improvement project we still make it a priority to take a vacation. I know that we might not always be able to, but travel is so important to me and I love that we take little road trips to random places every year.

BOOKISH ITEMS

6) I’ve already finished all three of the 2013 Reading Challenges I tackled this year, so I’m thankful December will be “read whatever I want” month!

7) The Classics Club has become really successful. I’ve loved adding new members and reviews every week. It’s a lot of work, but I’m thrilled that people have embraced it.

8) I finally read the first Game of Thrones book and I LOVED it! Now I have lots of GOT reading to look forward to. There’s nothing quite like discovering a new series you love.

9) The library, I am so happy to have access to a huge library. I go through so many audiobooks and I would never be able to afford that without my brilliant library.

10) I’m grateful for this blog and the community that I’m part of because of it. I finally purchased the domain avidreader25.com and I’m currently working on a blog redesign with a professional. I’m grateful to be making this blog better in 2014!

Top Ten Scariest Looking Book Covers

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for Ten of the Scariest Book Covers. I made my list and started finding images for the covers and I realized I apparently think little girls are super creepy. 

1) Dracula

2) The Picture of Dorian Gray

3) The Passage

4) We Have Always Lived in the Castle

5) The Bad Seed  

6) Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

7) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

8) Autumn People

9) H.P. Lovecraft books

10) Stephen King books

Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read (either by teachers, friends, other bloggers, reviews). I’ve picked books that someone recommended; 5 that I read and ended up loving and 5 that I read against my better judgment and didn’t like at all.

LOVED

1) Watchmen – Recommended by a friend, introduced me to the world of graphic novels.

2) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Recommended by fellow bloggers, love Flavia!

3) The Golden Compass – Recommended by a friend with flawless taste in children’s lit, read it years ago and was so caught up in the story.

4) Ender’s Game – Recommended by my Dad, changed my opinion of science fiction.

5) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Read during a creative writing class in high school. First time I realized that plays could be hilarious!

YUCK

6) Outlander – Recommend by and friend and the entire internet.

7) The God of Small Things – Recommended by Amy Sherman Palladino (a list the Gilmore Girls created with book recommendations). So slow and depressing, just couldn’t get into it.

8) One Day – Recommended by book bloggers, damn it Dexter, stop being such a jerk!

9) The Shack – Recommended by family, I’m not a fan of being smacked in the face with religious allegories.

10) The Celestine Prophecy – Recommended by a co-worker, one of the worst books I’ve ever read.

Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Best/Worst Series Enders. I came up with three for each category.

BEST

1) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Epic in every sense of the word.

2) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – The perfect way to wrap up the series; a bit of tragedy and a bit of hope. I just loved it.

3) Mockingbird – A lot of people didn’t love this one, but the tone felt right to me. War is chaos; there aren’t always long goodbyes before people die.

MEDIOCRE

1) Breaking Dawn – If vampires and werewolves weren’t weird enough, how about we throw in a gruesome birth, rapidly growing kid and a strange affection between the newborn and mom’s old crush.

2) Monsters of Men – I didn’t hate this, but the ending was pretty frustrating to me.

3) The End (Lemony Snicket) – Again, it’s not horrible I think I just wanted a lot more answers than I got.

Top Ten Favorite Books Set During World War II

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for ten great books with the setting of our choice. I picked World War II, because I have always been drawn to those books and I feel like there are a wide variety of books set during that time period.

1) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – One of my favorites, this novel tells the story of a young German girl during the war. Oh, and did I mention it’s told from Death’s POV?

2) Maus by Art Spiegelman – This Pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novel is about the author’s father’s time in a concentration camp. Just incredible.

3) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein – Women are not often the focal point of WWII stories, but this gem tells the gripping fictional story of a female pilot and spy.

4) Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys – Ever wonder what was happening in Lithuania during the war? This intense book is about the work camps in Siberia.

5) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Finding the humor in the direst of circumstances, Heller gives the soldier’s POV.

6) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand – Plane crash, torture, shark attacks, a nonfiction account of soldiers who survive the unimaginable in the Pacific. 

7) Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli – The Warsaw ghetto shown through the eyes of a young orphaned boy.

8) The Reader by Bernard Schlink – There are very few books that focus on the German guards during the war. This slim book handles the subject in a very personal and delicate way.

9) City of Thieves by David Benioff and The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean – Both of these books deal with Russia during WWII. One focuses on a soldier’s time and the horrors he sees, the other is more about the famous Heritage museum and the people who lived there during the war.

10) Night by Elie Wiesel and The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank – Two real life accounts of the Holocaust and Jews living in hiding. They are essential for any WWII list.

Image from here. 

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 Beach Reads

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Beach Reads (however YOU define a beach read!) For me a beach read isn’t necessarily fluff, but it is a book that hooks you and keeps you entertained while still providing good characters.

1) The Harry Potter series! I love re-reading these on vacation.

2) The Count of Monte Cristo: Couldn't. Put. It. Down.

3) Paper Towns: Road trips, Florida, it's perfect.

4) The Pillars of the Earth: A big fat epic novel that you can sink in

and enjoy.

5) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Sweet story and the epistolary style makes it an easy read.

6) Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series: You can't help but get caught up in these.

7) The Shadow of the Wind: The perfect mystery novel.

8) Maeve Binchy novels (Tara Road, Circle of Friends): Great characters, great stories.

Categories I don't read on vacation:

9) Nonfiction: I love this genre most of the time, but while traveling I usually avoid it.

10) Shakespeare: I read a few of his plays each year, but definitely not on vacation.

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 Books I Thought I'd Like LESS Than I Did

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks Top Ten Tuesday Freebie: Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like LESS Than I Did.

1) Case Histories: I was expecting a basic mystery, which I would probably like, but definitely not love. Instead I got a twisty beautifully layered novel with incredible characters.

2) Beat the Reaper: Violence and mob stuff, but it sucked me in and was so well written!

3) City of Thieves: WWII in Russia/buddy comedy, surprisingly violent, but I ended up loving it.

4) The Stand: I always thought I would hate Stephen King’s books. I don’t like horror at all, but I quickly found that the man writes damn good characters!

5) The Happiness Project: I don’t like self-help books of any kind, but this one was so wonderful. I wouldn’t even call it a self-help book, but more of a realistic look at practical ways to improve your everyday life.

6) Moby Dick: An entire book about a giant whale, yuck. But it was funny and deep and more about personal struggles and obstacles than just about fishing.

7) Life is so Good: This nonfiction book tells the story of a man who doesn’t learn to read until he is in his 90s. It’s so full of lovely advice about life that comes from his unique experiences.

8) The Good Women of China by Xinran: Honestly, I read this to fill the X category when I was reading one author for every letter of the alphabet one year. It looked interesting enough, but it ended up being a really powerful book.

9) Hannah Coulter: My very first book by Wendell Barry and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought it might be boring and slow, but it was wonderful.

10) My Life in France: Julia Child was just indescribably lovely. I was completely enamored by her after reading her memoir.

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 Dealing With Tough Subjects

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects. 

1) The Submission: Racism

2) Speak: Rape

3) The Longest Goodbye: Losing your mother to cancer

4) The Cement Garden: Incest

5) Rabbit Hole: Coping with the death of a young child

6) The Innocent Man: The death penalty

7) The Yearling: Animals being killed   

8) Beautiful Boy: Addiction

9) Unbroken: Torture

10) Columbine: School shootings

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