Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme posted by The Broke and the Bookish. A new top ten question is posed every week. I encourage you to start your own Top Ten Tuesday list. This week:

Top Ten Dynamic Duos (those bffs, partners in crimes, or powerful couples that you just can't forget about)

1. Rose and Dimitri -- The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
They remind me it's possible to find that true love, the perfect match that knows you instead and out, that anticipates your moves and words, that compliments you. I need my own Dimitri :)

2. Harry and Ron -- The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Sure, Hermione had the brains that kept them in check, but it was the dedication in their friendship that really made it work, with or without her. Who else would suffer through the Yule Ball with you while the girls you really want are with others guys? Your best friend that's who.

3. Ennis and Jack -- Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
I think this duo speaks for itself. I still cry every single time I read the story and feel a deeper layer of their love each reading. I love these boys and I don't need to hide it with a fishing trip.

4. Stickboy and Matchgirl -- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton
Yes, that's right, Tim Burton. I discovered this book a decade ago and I have never been able to put it down. It is morbid and beautiful, and with its simple rhymes I read it to my son as nursery rhymes from the day he was born. Stickboy and Matchgirl were my favorite characters and their story is hot and destructive, like most seem to be.

5. Holden and Phoebe -- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
This book will forever be one of my favorites just as Holden will forever tug at my heart. Phoebe looks up to her big brother as a savior and in turn it is Phoebe that saves Holden. Love in its purest form.

6. Claire and Shane -- Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
His protection of her is fierce and her strength in his stupidity is hilarious. Their romance is so wrong and so right at the same time. It gives me the warm, gooey chills and keeps me rooting for them.

7. Percy and Annabeth -- The Last Olympians series by Rick Riordan
While the love-hate relationship thing might be cliche, it works for them and they compliment each other in so many ways. Just as Athena and Poseidon worked together to create horses, these two can achieve great things when they stop bickering and put their heads together.

8. Clare and Henry -- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I usually say the book is better than the movie, but this was only one exception as the movie was immensely better. It's hard to get emotion across during time travel without movie cut scenes and honestly the book felt like it was droning on at some points. HOWEVER, their love is a love for the ages and after all they went through together their love was strong, so strong she waited for him all her life to meet her in the future.

9. Ever and Damen -- The Immortal series by Alyson Noel
It's easier to name the challenges this couple doesn't face. Their lives seem to be eternally against them and nothing will stop to get out of the way. But despite the challenges, past lives continue to meet and connect hoping that this time will finally work out right...or will it?

10. Victor and his monster -- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Each is the driving force of the other. The monster is bent on destroying Victor's life for denying him love and Victor is bent on destroying the monster he created. Their lives are so intertwined that they almost can't live without the other. It's Victor's dedication to his mission that takes his life metaphorically and literally.


This was a good week. So many duos so little time. I can't wait to get to my next stack of books to discover more dynamic duos that'll warm me to the core! :)

Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary

Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary ☆☆

For my children's literature class we were asked to do a book report on a selection of realistic fiction for middle-graders. Having just watched Ramona and Beezus not long ago with my son, and having been clueless on realistic fiction since I live in fantasy, I figured this was my way to go. I was disappointed. The story was great, the theme of coming-of-age was excellent and came across perfectly, but the language, oh dear the language. Even though this book was originally published in 1984 was no excuse. I'm a twenty-seven-year-old senior in college that is minoring in Literature and I was stumbling over the sentences from their poor structure and outdated language. In terms of story and theme this book would get five stars, but the language and sentence structure was beyond sub-par and barely deserves a one star, so my rating has been reduced to two stars sadly. One point to mention though, this book is the one book from the series that the movie is most modeled after, so if you liked the movie it might be worth checking out, but only if grammar doesn't make you want to pull your hair out. And to think I was told today to apply for a TA job this fall to start teaching composition classes, if I can't make it through a published author, what would I do with a classroom full of belligerent freshmen trying to get their basics done?

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme posted by The Broke and the Bookish. A new top ten question is posed every week. I encourage you to start your own Top Ten Tuesday list. This week:

Top Ten Books I Just HAD to Buy...But Are Still Sitting on My Bookshelf

1. Prom Nights from Hell by Meyer, Harrison, Cabot, Myracle, and Jaffe
(impulse purchase at Sam'sClub)

2. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

3. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

4. Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

5. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

6. Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast

7. Evernight by Claudia Gray

8. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

9. Old Magic by Marianne Curley

10. Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

This list does not include all the classics I bought at B&N's buy 2 get 1 free sale: Austen, Tolstoy, Carroll...


Notable mentions are series' I'm in the middle of and haven't read the latest release, yet I had pre-ordered the copies a year in advance:
Radiance and Night Star by Alyson Noel
Beautiful Darkness by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires 1) by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine ☆☆☆☆☆

The world of the Morganville Vampires has been on my wish list/reading list for longer than I care to admit to. After finishing Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead, the final book in the Vampire Academy series, I was having vampire withdrawal from the finale of one of my favorite series' of all time (which I do intend to re-read and review appropriately in the future). Fans of the series encouraged me to bump Morganville up on my reading list. But what really finally pushed me to buy the book was finding a flyer at my local pulic library announcing the author, Rachel Caine, would be doing a book signing THAT weekend! I drove all over town for a copy to no avail and finally the night before the event an amazing B&N employee found me a copy of Volume 1 (which includes books 1 & 2), the last copy, hidden on a shelf behind the information counter.

I managed to get in one chapter that night before her signing the next day, needless to say I was blown away and told her as much. I found out that day that she was from my hometown, making her a true inspiration as someone working in my genre from my hometown that became a New York Times best-seller! Is it possible? Can I be that author someday? "To Elizabeth, With all my best! Rachel Caine" Those words will highlight my shelves for years to come. And the plot bunnies from her mini-lecture on the history of vampires will hopefully find homes on paper soon.

And so in one of the best weekends of my life I discovered the life of Clare Danvers, a 16-year-old freshman in college, and the secrets behind the people of Morganville, Texas. And also my latest and greatest addiction.

This book proved to be a shocking look at the darkest side of humanity. In the opening of the book Clare is nearly killed...and not by vampires. When you think that these attacks on her by humans can't get any worse, they do. And this is all well before the vamps themselves are even introduced. The vamps fit the typical classifications: avoids sunlight, retractable fangs, can't enter without invitations. Their difference is that they function like a mob and that's where it gets interesting.

As Clare is learning that Morganville is more than just a small college town in Texas, the vampire world begins to unfold before her as she fights to save herself from the college mean girls, make new friends, and protect those that she grows to love. And just to add to the drama, it ends with a cliffhanger that leaves you drooling for more.

This book had me not wanting to put it down even once, but I had to get schoolwork done, which was really sad. I ached for these characters, I loved for them, and wished I could be there backing them up. And I have to say, as for me, my favorite scene was midway through the book, and anyone that has read it or is about to, you'll know exactly which scene when you heart stops and beats rapidly all at the same time. Bravo, Rachel Caine! You have won me over.

It's that over-commercialized time of year again ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've got a date with a fictional heartthrob;
chivalrous, romantic, with a tortured soul,
you know the type. ;)

Tell me, who's your hero this year?

2011 Reads

1. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

2. Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

3. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

4. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (re-read)

5. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

6. Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary

7. Matched by Ally Condie

8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

9. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

10. The Watsons Go To Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

11. The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales

12. Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

13. The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine

14. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

15. Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

16. Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine

17. Monster High by Lisi Harrison

18. Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

19. Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine

20. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

21. The Ghoul Next Door by Lisi Harrison

22. Divergent by Veronica Roth ***Favorite Book of the Year***

23. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

24. Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

25. Bumped by Megan McCafferty

26. Night Star by Alyson Noel

27. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

28. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

29. Everlasting by Alyson Noel

30. Enclave by Ann Aguirre

31. Hula by Lisa Shea

32. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

In the beginning there were stories and one day they became books...

Every story has to start somewhere. I happen to like stories that start in medias res, so of course that's I'm choosing to start, in the middle. I've been reading more and more and more to generally escape from reality, and as an author to mimic styles of other authors I come to like and even pick up some plot bunnies of my own along the way. But by the beginning of 2011, I realized that I no longer had reading buddies to squee with over everything I was reading. It's like going to the movies by yourself and not having that person to turn to and mouth "OMG did you see that?!" and do a play by play with after the movie is over. In a college Creative Writing program I have realized that the people that I write with are fans of Cormac MacCarthy and Kurt Vonnegut, and here I am a fan of the weird, supernatual, vampiric, and geeky teen romance found in J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and Richelle Mead to name a few. So yeah I'm missing that connection to someone who is as excited about the teenage first kiss as I am. I realized the best way to talk to someone about the books I'm reading is to just review them for myself, to make a mental note of the things I loved or hated about a book. But still, where is the fun in that? So here I am, putting myself out there as a reviewer of young adult fiction, coaxing others to read my library (or avoid titles that sold themselves short), and open up a book-club-like space to enjoy together. I'm here to review YA novels one book at a time as I stroll through the land of writer's block surrounded by a library of tattered spines...