Top Ten Tuesday Archives - Page 4 of 12 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Reasons Why I Love YA

By Brookelorren on May 19, 2020May 18, 202036 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Every week, we get to talk about a different book topic. Today’s topic is “Reasons Why I Love _____.” There will be much love shared this week, I’m sure. Rather than gush over one of my auto-buy authors (which I do all the time anyway), I’m going to talk about why I love YA in the first place.

1. It’s full of adventure. Sometimes I hear (usually 20-something) people say how they want more protagonists their age. I don’t particularly want to read about protagonists my age. Sorry. Not that older protagonists might do something interesting, but I really can’t imagine waking up one day and leaving my kids to go save the kingdom.

2. First loves. My life in high school was pretty pathetic. All the boys liked other girls and wouldn’t be interested in me if I paid them. It was pretty depressing. In YA, I get to walk in the shoes of someone else who (probably) had a better time than I did.

3. Books I can share with my kids. My kids have read many of the same books I have. Although my boy likes to read middle grade books sometimes, he’s also read most of Marie Lu’s books. After listening to most of Astrid Scholte’s The Vanishing Deep together in the car (we still haven’t finished it because that was our car book and we don’t go places together right now because of coronavirus), he found Four Dead Queens on his Kindle and started reading it. After things get back to normal and we finish The Vanishing Deep, I’m going to make him listen to City of Bones with me in the car, because he started it, but I don’t think he actually gave it a chance.

4. Book experiences I can share with my kids. About a year ago, my boy had finished Legend and I asked him if he’d go meet Marie Lu with me at the Tattered Cover if she ever went there. He said he would, and asked if we could go to the Lego Store while we’re there. I agreed. In March, she came to The Tattered Cover with Astrid Scholte and Melissa de la Cruz, and we had an amazing day together. We got cupcakes, went to the Lego Store, had dinner, and then got front row seats at the bookstore. It was an all-day event and was great.

5. It’s a family tradition. My grandma shared the Anne of Green Gables books with me when I was in middle or high school. I ended up inheriting those books from her.

6. Why grow up? Along the same lines, my grandma played with dolls in her 80s. You can like whatever you like, no matter what your age. I read other books too, but there’s no expiration date on liking things.

7. The category is quite diverse. I know YA is often considered a genre, but it’s actually more of a category, and it’s fairly diverse. There’s fantasy books with dragons, contemporaries with people graduating from high school, and futuristic dystopians with teens fighting tyrannical governments. It covers every kind of topic under the sun, from bullying to evil tyrants trying to take over the world. There’s always something to grab my interest.

8. The book community. YA is a book category that people of (almost) all ages can enjoy. I can go to a book signing with my boy or buy the Legend trilogy for my niece and then have her tell me she loved the books I bought. The age ranges of people on Twitter vary also. And many people over here at Top Ten Tuesday also like YA.

9. Hopeful stories. A lot of YA stories are hopeful. The good guys usually win. People usually look for a brighter tomorrow. This isn’t always the case, but a lot of the time it is.

10. I’m not old enough for adult books (sometimes). I’ve often said I’m not old enough to watch Game of Thrones. While technically, yes, I am old enough to read any book in the bookstore, there are some books I don’t want to read. I believe books influence your mind, and most YA books are positive, family friendly influences.

Those are some reasons why I love YA. What did you write about today? Next week we’re going to talk about opening lines. I’ll write about some that I really love. See you then!

Last 10 Series I Haven’t Finished (Yet)

By Brookelorren on May 12, 2020May 12, 202019 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Here’s where we talk about books every week. Today’s topic is supposed to be “The Last Ten Books I Abandoned,” but I really don’t try to abandon books, so I’m going to go with something similar, but different: the last 10 series I haven’t finished. It could be for a variety of reasons, and I’ll tell you why I haven’t finished them yet. Let’s get started!

Chosen Ones – Veronica Roth

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: The second book isn’t out yet! It doesn’t even have a title. But I have every intention of reading it once it comes out.

System Divine: Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The third book isn’t out yet! It’s title hasn’t been announced yet, although the authors know what the title is. The third book hasn’t even been announced on Goodreads, but I went to a book event with the authors and I know they were going to do one.

The Last Hours: Cassandra Clare

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: Only the first book is available. I’m so looking forward to reading more of this series. I keep looking to see if Chain of Iron is available to pre-order. I might reread this twice before the next book comes out, I love it so much.

St. Rosetta’s Academy: Sandhya Menon

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The second two books aren’t out yet! I sound like a broken record at this point. But there are other reasons why I haven’t finished a series, just not the last books I’ve read up to this point.

Dollar: Pepper Winters

Length: Pentalogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: Just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve read four of the five books so far. I’ve put the fifth book, Millions, onto my TBR lottery, but it hasn’t won so far. Plus, I’m having trouble getting books read right now. Don’t know why.

Camelot Rising: Kiersten White

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The other two books in the series aren’t available yet. I do plan on reading them though.

Sea Witch: Sarah Henning

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: So many books, so little time. Maybe I’ll read the sequel someday? I’m a never say never kind of person. But it’s not one of my top priorities.

Dreamer Trilogy: Maggie Stiefvater

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The other books aren’t out yet. I don’t think I liked this book quite as much as The Raven Boys, so I probably won’t pre-order it, but I’ll probably get the other books from the library and read them.

Monsters of Verity: Victoria Schwab

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: I haven’t gotten around to it. It’s in my TBR lottery, so I intend to read the finale at some point; I just haven’t yet.

The Beautiful: Renée Ahdieh

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: The Damned isn’t out yet. Like Call Down the Hawk, I’m not sure I liked the first book enough to buy the second book, but I’ll probably get it from the library.

So there are the last 10 series that I’ve read partway through and haven’t finished. So far this year, I’ve finished four series, and this list goes back to mid-October of last year, so I guess I tend to finish most series that I read. Not all of them, but many of them.

Next week is “Reasons Why I Love…” I think I’ll write about “Reasons Why I Love YA.” But don’t quote me on it. See you then!

Books Kids Like

By Brookelorren on April 28, 2020April 27, 202021 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today’s topic is “Books I Wish I Had Read as a Child,” but I can’t think of any, so I’m going to make a list of books kids like. I’m going to get my own kids involved in this! My youngest loves Middle Grade and some YA books (I’m happy to say he’s read 10 Marie Lu books), so I’m going to split today’s list between books me, my boy, and my girl liked as kids.

Prince Tanis

My boy likes Lauren Magaziner’s books like I like Marie Lu’s. He adores her Case Closed books. Lucky for him, when coronavirus shut down our library, he happened to have one of these books checked out.

Here’s another Lauren Magaziner book that my boy loves. He read The Only Thing Worse than Witches a while back, and loved it. These books have adorable covers.

Sensing a pattern here? Wizardmatch was the first Lauren Magaziner book my boy read. We don’t own any of these books (although if she ever comes to The Tattered Cover I’d definitely bring him and buy a book for her to sign for him) but our library has a good selection of these.

Here’s a book that’s not by Lauren Magaziner! Wanna take a quick guess as to how Prince Tanis started reading the Spirit Animals series? Anyway, I was going to only give each of my kids 3 books for today’s list, but he loved this series so much (and he read the entire series, unlike me, who’s only read this one) that he wanted me to give him four book picks today.

Prior to discovering Lauren Magaziner, my boy pretty much exclusively read Minecraft books.

Laurana

My daughter didn’t really want to participate (she says she can’t remember what books she liked as a kid) but I did get her to agree that she liked these three books. One of the book series she liked as a kid were the Percy Jackson books. I think she’s read all of them.

My daughter was also into the Warriors series when she was younger. Our library didn’t have all of them, so she didn’t get the chance to read them all, but she read several of them.

My daughter also liked reading the Michael Vey books. I’m pretty sure we have all of these. I still haven’t read any of these yet, even though I want to at some point. Oh well.

Me

I loved the Little House on the Prairie books when I was a kid. I read this entire set several times. When my daughter was little I read most of these books to her. I’m not sure how far we got, but I know I read The Long Winter to her. Sadly, I let my daughter borrow my boxed set and she pretty much destroyed it.

My grandma got me interested in reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I think my favorite was Rilla of Ingleside, the last book in the series. I ended up inheriting my grandma’s set. I still need to read these again.

I can’t really think of another book that really stood out to me like the first two books. I did like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume though. I remember (in 4th grade) my teacher, Ms. Cheron, reading this book to the class. I think she followed up with Superfudge too. These were great books.

So there are ten books that me and my kids liked as kids! What books did you pick for today? Next week is “Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party.” I have no clue what I’m doing for that.

Titles that Would Make Good Band Names

By Brookelorren on April 21, 2020April 20, 202026 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Every week, we talk about a new topic. Tuesday is our day to gush over books, and you’re welcome to join in! Today we’re talking about Book Titles that Would Make Good Band Names. There are so many books that would make good band names! Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments came up with some REALLY horrible band names, until he finally decided to call his band The Mortal Instruments. That one stuck. But let’s see some more! I decided to go mostly with books I read in 2018, just so I can talk about some different books than I normally do.

Maybe some of these titles already are band names? I don’t know. If they are, it’s entirely coincidental.

I just finished reading Veronica Roth’s Chosen Ones, and that’s the first book that came to mind. That’s why it’s here. I love it as a title.

There was Ace of Bass, so why couldn’t there be a band called Ace of Shades? I was sad to learn, years later, that one of Ace of Bass’s band members was a former skinhead. 🙁 Let’s hope the band members of Ace of Shades are not that way. Maybe we can have the characters form a band with this title.

I could definitely see War Storm as a heavy metal band. It might not be my cup of tea music wise, but as a band name, it’s definitely catchy.

Frequency actually is a very music-driven book, so it’s not surprising to me that it seems like a good band name. Maybe the main character starts a band called Frequency after the book ends.

The Midnight Star would probably be a pop band with huge stage shows and flashy pyrotechics. At least that’s how I’d imagine the band to be.

I see Fangirl as the female equivalent of a boy band. A group of teenage girls singing pop songs about cute boys and crushes and things like that.

Addicted to Outrage would be another heavy metal band, I think. I don’t think the lead singer could audition for the role of Colonel Sanders though. I imagine the band members to be in their 20s with mohawks and a very gritty sound.

I think Fawkes would be a band whose brand would be wearing those Guy Fawkes masks on stage. They could get the audience to chant “Remember! Remember! The 5th of November!” as something of a catch phrase.

I actually still have to read Starfish (bad me!) but I think this would be a really cool band name. I think this would be a pop band with catchy tunes and the occasional ballad or mellow song you could chill out to.

A Reaper at the Gates would probably be another good metal band. It makes me think of death and anger. I probably wouldn’t be too fond of their music, but the band name is pretty cool. Maybe they could wear masks too.

So there’s ten! This was a fairly unique topic this week! What books did you decide to immortalize today as band names?

Next week we’re supposed to do Books I Wish I had Read as a Child. I’m not sure if I’m going to do that one, because I can’t really think of anything. But I do have an idea that twists the topic, and I think I’ll go with that. See you then and you’ll see what I come up with!

Books I Enjoyed But Rarely Talk About

By Brookelorren on April 14, 2020April 13, 202025 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! The other day I couldn’t remember what day of the week it was, but then I remembered that it was Top Ten Tuesday, so I knew it was Tuesday. It’s come to that. Anyway, today we’re talking about books we enjoyed but rarely talk about. There are books and authors I talk about all the time, and there are some that I loved but–don’t get the love they should. So today, we’re going to give them some love. So, no auto-buy (or nearly auto-buy) authors today, no books that were in my top ten for the year, etc. I’m not going to talk about books I read this year, because I haven’t had the chance to talk about them (or not) yet.

Alex, Approximately was such a good book, but I haven’t had the chance to mention it that much. I just love a story where characters meet over the internet. Maybe because I met my husband over the internet. This was my first (but not last) Jenn Bennett book.

I had difficulty putting down Every Other Weekend. It’s the story of two teens whose families have separated, and they get to see each other (and develop a relationship) every other weekend. It’s such a sweet story!

Safe Harbour is another book that I read last year, really liked, and haven’t said much about since. It’s about a girl who lived on a boat with her father, until he sent her up to Canada to wait for his arrival. He never shows up. The book deals with her life as she first realizes her dad isn’t going to show up, deals with being a homeless teen, and then ends up trying to figure out why her dad never came for her.

It would be terrifying to live in a city where people end up getting randomly attacked by mobs of teens. This is what happens in Every Stolen Breath. Lia’s dad died in one of these attacks, and when she tries to get to the bottom of it, she ends up endangering herself–and her loved ones. The book was hard to put down, but I haven’t talked about it much since my review.

Across a Broken Shore is a lovely historical novel that takes place in 1930’s San Francisco. It’s a book about a girl whose family has expectations for her that conflict with the things she wants. A little like the book I’m editing (except mine is fantasy). It’s a great story, but somehow when I’m talking about books each Tuesday, this one doesn’t often come to mind.

I could probably do several Top Ten Tuesdays like this. Song of the Crimson Flower was beautiful and I loved the story between Lan and Bao, but again, it just hasn’t come to mind for me to mention it.

Start Here by Trish Doller is such a lovely story about a couple of teens who were once a part of a trio of friends. When their mutual friend dies, they realize they don’t have a great deal in common; however, their mutual friend’s dying wish was for them to go on a sailing voyage together. It was a lovely story and I’m starting to tear up thinking about it. This is a fun summer read that I rarely talk about, but probably should.

I read On the Come Up last June, and I think I mentioned it a couple of times, but it was a really good book, but I don’t talk about it a lot. It was especially good on audiobook.

The Last Year of the War was such a sweet story. I think I talked about it a little shortly after it came out, but I read it last January and haven’t mentioned it in several months. I cried so much while reading this story. Make sure you have tissues ready. Or if you’re having trouble finding tissues in the store due to coronavirus, at least a towel or a sleeve to wipe your tears off on.

I haven’t mentioned Storm and Fury much since reading it either, even though I really liked it and hope to read the next book in the series. This was the first book I read by Jennifer L. Armentrout, but it wasn’t the last one (and I plan to read more). I really enjoyed reading about Trinity and Zayne and their magical world, and would love to find out more!

What books did you mention this week? It seems like it’s easy to forget about books that you really liked when they’re not YOUR MOST FAVORITE BOOK that you have to scream about week after week, or they’re not books that other people really liked that they mention all the time. I hope to hear about a lot of underrated books this week! Next week we’re going to talk about books that would make good band names.

Books I Bought Because They Were On Sale

By Brookelorren on April 7, 2020April 6, 202026 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and I hope you’re doing well. It’s another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today’s topic is “Books I Borrowed/Bought Because…” and I’m going to do books I bought because they were on sale. I have trouble passing up $1.99/$2.99 books! I figure even if I’m only mildly interested in a book, it’s worth picking up at that price. So I’m going to go through my order history and share some of my bargains!

My favorite price for books? Free. That’s what Obsidian is going for, as of Monday (so it might still be free). There are always free books on Amazon, but they’re not always books I want to read. Anyway, I borrowed Obsidian from the library last year and I liked it, so I figured for free, I might as well get it.

Right before The Kingdom of Back came out, most of Marie Lu’s books went on sale. Don’t you already own them all? you might ask. Yes, but I didn’t own them all on the Kindle. Now I do. My family members tend to prefer Kindle books, plus you can search through them. So next time my family want to borrow my Marie Lu books, they can read them on the Kindle, instead of on my (now signed) first print hardcovers.

EreaderIQ is a great place to go to if you’re looking for cheap books. I track books that I’m interested in purchasing but don’t want to pay full price for and don’t have an urgent need to read right away. I was tracking The Bride Test for months. Although I saw the bargain first on Twitter, EreaderIQ did send me an alert to let me know this book went on sale. I’m tracking four other books at the moment. If they don’t go on sale by the time I want to read them, there’s always the library.

I wanted to read Romanov when it was still an ARC, but I didn’t get approved. However, I did see it on sale for $1.99 and I couldn’t pass it up at that price. I still haven’t read it yet, but I plan to at some point.

I tend to get a lot of books for $1.99. Sometimes I even forget that I’ve purchased them. One gem I’ve discovered while going through my orders to write this post today is Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea. I liked her book The Fountains of Silence, and when I saw this on sale, I couldn’t pass it up.

I keep saying that I need to read The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Myer. I’ve had the whole set for over a year–they were on sale for $2.99 each over Cyber Monday in 2018 (they also were on sale over Cyber Monday in 2019 too, but I had already purchased them). One of these days I really need to.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January was also another book that went on sale for $2.99 that I couldn’t pass up. Like many of the books on this list, I still haven’t had the chance to read it, but hopefully I’ll get to it at some point. At least Kindle books don’t take up a lot of space in your house.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely was another book I was able to find for $1.99. I really need to get to reading some of these books! Many of them look so good but I haven’t gotten around to reading them yet!

Sometimes I feel like a bad friend. My friend Katerina King’s book, Malediction, came out last fall, and I still haven’t read it yet. I want to! This book I also got on sale for $1.99.

Another book I got for $1.99 was A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas.

Sometimes I’m surprised at what books go on sale at such bargain rates. I certainly can’t afford every book I want at full price, so it’s nice that I can find these books at such low prices. It’s either that or the library, and sometimes it’s checked out.

What did you write about today? Next week, we’re going to talk about books I enjoyed but rarely talk about. So no books by my auto-buy authors next week!

Spring 2020 TBR

By Brookelorren on March 17, 2020March 16, 202022 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! I hope everybody is staying safe with that nasty virus going around. Today we’re talking about our Spring TBRs. Too soon! I didn’t get the chance to finish a lot of my Winter TBR, so a lot of the books on my list this quarter will be books that were on my list last time. But not all! There are several new books coming out and those are taking up most of the space made available from the books I did read.

So how did I do on my Winter TBR?

The Kingdom of Back – Marie Lu: Read
A Treason of Thorns – Laura E. Weymouth: Read
Light From Distant Stars – Shawn Smucker: Read
Chain of Gold – Cassandra Clare: Read
Descendant of the Crane – Joan He: Unread
Keeper – Kim Chance: Unread
99 Percent Mine – Sally Thorne: Unread
Tell Me Everything – Sarah Enni: Unread
Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips: Read
Broken Throne – Victoria Aveyard: Read

Even though I didn’t get all of these books read, I still read enough that I’ll be able to read the spring books I’m getting, so there’s that.

I’ll start by going over the new books I’m adding to my TBR for this quarter.

I’m so excited for Between Burning Worlds, which is coming out on March 24th! Jessica Brody was supposed to be at The Tattered Cover on the 25th, but the bookstore has been temporarily closed for the coronavirus, so I’ll be reading this book at home and I’ll have to meet her some other time. I’m rereading Sky Without Stars, the first book in this duology, right now to get ready.

Veronica Roth is one of my favorite authors, and I’m looking forward to her adult debut, Chosen Ones, which comes out on April 7th! I pre-ordered this book back in August and can’t wait.

My friend Katerina King wrote a book, Malediction, and I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. I meant to read it in December, before I started reading books for my winter TBR, but I didn’t get around to it. I definitely want to read it, so I’m adding it to my spring TBR.

Another friend of mine, Celeste Harte, has also written a book, Conquest. I bought the electronic copy, then I won a paperback copy, but I plan on reading it over the next few months.

I wasn’t initially going to pre-order The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is a Hunger Games prequel, because it was too expensive. I’m not interested enough in this book to pay $25 for it, but the price has gone down, and I’ve pre-ordered it. This book is supposed to come out on May 19th.

Because I didn’t finish all the books on my winter TBR, there’s only one new TBR lottery book this quarter: 1453 by Roger Crowley. It’s a nonfiction book about the fall of Constantinople.

Descendant of the Crane was on my Winter 2019/20 TBR, and since I didn’t get to it then, I’m going to try to get to it now. Hopefully I’ll have more reading time in this quarter. Perhaps I will with this coronavirus thing going on?

Keeper was another TBR lottery winner from the previous quarter that I didn’t read. I have this one on Kindle (like Descendant of the Crane) so hopefully I’ll get to this one.

Sally Thorne is a new-to-me author still, but I got 99 Percent Mine for $1.99 when it was on sale on Amazon.com. It was also a TBR lottery winner from the winter that I didn’t read. So onto the spring it goes.

I didn’t get the chance to read Tell Me Everything, and I requested this book from my library last week. The book was on the shelf in the library, but not one of the branches I normally go to. Well, the library is closed now, so I guess I have to wait for it to reopen again? Either that or buy a copy. I have other books on my shelf to read, so unless the coronavirus keeps things closed for months, I’ll probably just wait.

So what books are on your TBR for the spring? Were you able to read all your Winter TBR books? Are you staying inside and reading books? Next week is a genre freebie and I haven’t decided what to do with that yet.

Authors I Follow on Social Media

By Brookelorren on March 10, 2020March 2, 202020 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books. It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is authors with a fun social media presence, but I’m not really sure how to gauge that, so we’re just going to talk about some of the authors I follow on social media.

Today’s links will point to their Twitter accounts.

Susan Dennard – Last year, she had a Choose Your Own Adventure story running, which was a lot of fun, if you were able to get in on that. She has a newsletter that gives writing advice. Normally, I don’t subscribe to newsletters because that’s more clutter for the inbox, but I follow her both on Twitter and her newsletter.

Danika Stone – Ms. Stone is a ray of sunshine! She’s almost always smiling in the photos she posts. Follow her if you need some brightess in your day.

Kim Chance – Ms. Chance hosts Chance2Connect on the second Tuesday of every month. If you’re a writer, you might want to join her and meet other authors. It’s a lot of fun.

Sandhya Menon – She is such a sweetheart! I’m on her street team and I’ve met her a couple of times, so I might be a little biased, but one of the reasons why I signed up for her street team was because she was so nice when I met her at last year’s Colorado Teen Literature Conference.

Laura E. Weymouth – Laura and I have been mutuals on Twitter since before I even knew she had a book coming out. I thought she was just a really cool person who wrote. Sometimes she posts about her chickens, or her kids, or things like that.

Kiersten White – If you ever get the chance to go to one of her book signings, you should. She’s really funny. I followed her for a year before I ever read one of her books. I’ve still only read two of them, even though I own six.

Marie Lu – Ms. Lu is much more active on Instagram right now, but she’s worth following. In addition to talking about books, sometimes she posts about politics. As her books tend to have political undertones, that’s probably not a surprise.

Sabaa Tahir – She’s been working on Sky Beyond the Storm (AKA Ember 4) for years now, and it’s been interesting to see her journey. She even did a few word sprints with us peons a couple years ago. She can be pretty funny too.

Jodie Lynn Zdrock – Ms. Zdrock is always so nice. Sometimes she posts about her cats, or her running, or her books. You can’t help but to root for people that are nice like her.

V.E. Schwab – I started following her over a year before I read a book from her (I still have only read This Savage Song). She always seems so friendly.

So there you have it. Ten authors I follow on Twitter. I follow a lot more than that, but these are some whose social media presence stands out to me.

Next week, we’re posting our Spring 2020 TBRs! That’s when you can find out what a slacker I’ve been for the last few months. Who did you post about today?

Books with One Word Titles

By Brookelorren on March 3, 2020March 5, 202020 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! Top Ten Tuesday has a new topic every Tuesday, and is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today we’re going to talk about books with one word titles. There were a lot of ways I could go about this, but I decided to use titles from “My Books” on Goodreads, oldest ones first (to bring a little variety into the picture), arranged by date added. I’m also not going to include the articles the, a, or an. Let’s get started!

I went through four pages of books on Goodreads before I came across The Century. Here’s where I realized that it’s not going to be very easy to come up with 10 books that only have one word titles (especially if I don’t include books that start with articles). This book is over 20 years old now, but I still might reread it someday. It is a book that gives a broad overview of the history of the 20th century, using the words of people that lived through it. It also has tons of pictures.

I read Rora last year and… it was just okay. I liked reading about the Waldensians, who were considered heretics by the Catholic church, but the story didn’t grab me. Which is sad because this is an unknown but interesting part of history.

I didn’t use Goodreads much until recently, which is why we’re already up to Divergent, which I had never heard of before the movie came out. There are three other books in this series with one word titles (Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four) and we’ll just skip over them for variety’s sake.

I added a lot of books with one word titles in 2014 because there are three of them on this one page alone. Both Legend and Divergent are some of my favorite books. Like the book before, Legend‘s sequels are also one word titles (Prodigy, Champion, and Rebel) so I won’t mention them here.

Another book I added in 2014 was Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games series. All of the other books in this series have more than one word in the title.

Ōkami is a short story that is part of the Flame in the Mist series. Another short story in the series, Yumi, is also one word.

Warcross is another book that only has one word (as does Wildcard, the second book in the series). It’s a story about a girl who hacks her way into a video game and was my favorite book from 2017.

Marissa Meyer’s Heartless is really good Alice in Wonderland fanfiction. I haven’t had the opportunity to read The Lunar Chronicles yet (also using one word titles) but I did like this one.

Stephen King’s The Stand is another book with one word (and an article) in the title. It’s also the longest book on my list today.

Last but not least, Caraval is a trilogy whose books all have one word in the title (the others are Legendary and Finale). If you like magical books with a circus-like atmosphere, you might like this series.

That wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I only went through nine pages on my Goodreads books to come up with these. Evidently most of the books I read have multiple words in the title, but there are some with only one word. What books did you come up with?

Next week we’re going to talk about authors with a fun social media presence. I’m not sure about that, I might just talk about authors who I like following on Twitter. Close enough.

Characters I’d Follow on Social Media

By Brookelorren on February 25, 2020February 23, 202023 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today we’re talking about characters we’d follow on social media. I’m not sure? I have a couple of characters with Twitter accounts, but I’m not sure they’re very interesting.

Lucie Herondale (Chain of Gold): I was going to say I’d follow Cordelia Carstairs because she’s awesome, but let’s be real. I mostly follow writers on Twitter. I’m not really into gossip or things like that. So I’d probably follow Lucie to see how things are coming along on her book, The Beautiful Cordelia. I get the impression that it’s not very good, although I’d be happy to cheer her on as she writes her book and improves as an author. The only way to get better is to practice, right?

Cath Avery (Fangirl): Cath is another author I’d follow on social media. She kept her Simon Snow writings a secret, but after she graduated, she’d probably become a professional writer and her publicist would probably tell her to get a Twitter account. She might use a pen name so she could keep her identity a secret.

Wallace Warland (Eliza and Her Monsters): I don’t really follow webcomics like Monstrous Sea, but Wallace writes stories. So I’d probably follow him. He’s at the beginning of his career, and it would be cool so see him as he grows as an author.

Riley Kennedy (The Christmas Pact): Riley Kennedy works in publishing. She might have some insider tips for people like me, who would like to publish a book someday.

Katy Swartz (Obsidian): Katy is a book blogger. How could I not follow her? I’d follow her to find out about all the awesome new books coming out, and I’d root (and sympathize) for her over her personal life.

Dimple Shah (When Dimple Met Rishi): Dimple doesn’t write books, but she is a computer programmer. My major in college was computer science, so I might follow her to see how her career is going.

Emika Chen (Warcross): Emika is another computer programmer. Plus, she works for Henka Games, so I’m sure she’d share news on new technological developments with her followers. I’m sure her tweets would be worthwhile reading.

Gin Hartson (Crow Flight): Gin is another computer programmer. She might have something interesting to say about apps or technology. She’d be worth a follow.

Cara (Divergent): I’m sure a lot of people would be following Tris and Four, but I think I’d find Cara’s posts to be much more interesting. She’s Erudite like I am, so I’d probably enjoy what she had to say on different topics. Plus, she’s not like most of the Erudite people who think they’re too good to help the factionless.

Corrie Ten Boom (The Hiding Place): Corrie was a real person, so I guess this is an anomaly for this list, but she died in 1983 so maybe she can count? Anyway, I ran out of other ideas. But I’d follow Corrie because she believed in forgiveness and in helping other people. I follow a few political/news figures on Twitter and the ones I care about most follow this philosophy. I follow Operation Underground Railroad, which rescues people from sex trafficking and slavery, which I think Corrie would also follow if she was still alive today.

So those are nine characters (and one historical person) that I’d follow on social media. Who would you follow on social media? Next week we’re talking about books with one word titles. See you then!