Top Ten Tuesday #12: Top Ten Favorite Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

I'm so in love with this week's topic for TTT. I love reading about strong female characters. When I'm reading a book where the main character is too passive or too dependent on others - and most cases this tends to be a girl (I've never read a book where this has been an issue with a male protagonist) - chances are I get really frustrated with that character. But when a strong, independent heroine strolls across the pages, massive squeeing ensues. I know I don't actually have ten today but these are the ladies who win the title as my favorite heroines.

My Top Favorite Heroines

Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - Celaena is the newest addition to my top favorite heroines. She is the ultimate definition of a badass female character. She's the kingdom's greatest assassin but she's still a girl. A girl who loves food - chocolate cake! - pretty dresses, puppies, and books. Celaena also isn't without her flaws and fears but she faces all of those with confidence and strength. Also, I want to give a non-spoilery shout out to Nehemia because she's pretty awesome too in her own way.

Blue Sargent from The Raven Boys Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater - I just love Blue so so much. She is definitely not afraid to tell it like it is. She's comfortable in her own skin, a little strange, a lot smart, and she can juggle four very different Raven boys with confidence, sass, and humor.

Annabeth Chase from the Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series -Annabeth is nobody's sidekick. If you couldn't pick up on that just from her character arch, then she says so herself at one point. Being a daughter of Athena, she's smart but also extremely brave and strong. She's the absolute perfect match to Percy though she can definitely hold her own. I mean, she followed the the Mark of Athena to recover the Athena Parthenos and defeated Archne all with a broken ankle and all by herself.

Alanna of Tortall from The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce - What other little girl grew up knowing she wanted to be a knight regardless of the fact that girls weren't allowed but fought for it anyway? As we watch her grow up, we see that she's not afraid to love (though she was initially) but at the same time, her falling in love doesn't define who she is. She always remains true to herself even if it means she might die for what she believes in.

Daine Sarrasri from The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce - I almost lumped Alanna and Daine together since they're both from Tortall but quickly realized that wasn't fair to either of them. Daine lost everything she loved at a young age but grew up to be a powerful wild mage. What has always stood out to me about Daine's story is that there basically was no love interest until the last half of the last book. She rocked those books all on her own. By the way, Daine made archery cool way before Katniss.

Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien - That meme = enough said. Eowyn is basically the original female fantasy heroine.

Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - I haven't read The Scarlet Letter since high school but Hester Prynne but Hester has always stood out to me as a classic heroine. Though she's scorned by society she continues to live while the men in her life are consumed by their sins.

Hermione Granger from Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling - This list seriously could not be complete if Hermione wasn't in it. She's the brains behind all of their adventures even when she's petrified. She's not afraid to throw punches (literally) or to fight for things that no one else believes in like freedom for house elves. She obliviated her parents memories of her to save their lives. Hermione is the brightest witch of her age and she's basically, the reason why Harry and Ron aren't dead - or worse expelled.

Did any of my favorites make it to your list? Did one of your favorites not make it to my list? Let me know! I love reading about awesome heroines!

Top Ten Tuesday #11: Top 10 Book Related Problems

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Oh my gosh I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in FOREVER!!! And I have no excuses as to why except for the fact that I'm rather forgetful about what day it is. I spent all of last week thinking it was Friday then continually being disappointed for six out the of seven days of the week. Yup... that's how my brain works sometimes. 

Top Ten Book Related Problems

1. Not having enough shelves to hold all of your books. 

2. Not being able to find the perfect comfy position while reading and then dealing with book pains afterwards.

 3. Not having an appropriate answer when someone asks you what your favorite book is or why you liked a book so much.

4. Discovering that sleep is a necessary part of life even though your book just got really good.

5. Having to find a way to politely divert conversations with people who obviously can't tell how involved you are in your book and simply must talk to you.

6. Finishing a book and realizing the next one doesn't come out for another year - or longer.

7. Having to figure out how to deal with book hangovers.

8. When you have no one to talk about a particular book with.

9. When non-readers just don't understand your love of books.


10. Not having enough reading time.

What are your bookish problems???

Top Ten Tuesday #10: Top Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

 

Yay!! I love this week's topic! One (of the many) things I like about books is they can take you anywhere and everywhere without ever leaving your comfy bed/couch/blanket or wherever you read. Of course, it is definitely so much cooler to actually go and visit some of those places - providing they're real, of course - but sometimes, if you're like me, you've spent all your extra money on lovely new books and forgot to save for travels. Oops. I'm sort of terrible like that.

 

Top Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want to Visit

 

The Fictional

 

1. Hogwarts - Really now, what kind of booknerd-fangirl-Potterhead would I be if Hogwarts was not on my list. Who wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts and sit in the Great Hall - especially at Christmas with the giant Christmas trees - or drink all the butterbeer at Rosemerta's or just wander down Diagon Alley? No one, that's who. 

 

 

 

2. Camp-Half Blood - I probably wouldn't make a very good demi-god considering I have no athletic skills whatsoever. But yeah, Camp Half-Blood sounds like loads of fun. Especially if Leo's there. I love Leo. I mean Percy would definitely be my book boyfriend but Percabeth is just too perfect. Camp Jupiter sounds cool too but if I had to choose, I'd definitely be Greek.

 

3. Middle Earth - Rivendell! Fangorn Forest! (Legolas!) Lothlorien! The Shire! So so many places! And the movies make them look so beautiful. Not that the books didn't too. There are whole chapters on just Middle Earth landscape in The Silmarillion. Middle Earth is just so pretty. Can I borrow Will's knife to cut a window into Middle Earth? Woah, crossovers, sorry. But really, if I had the Subtle Knife, I'd totally hack into other book worlds. I'd close my windows up though, don't worry. Since Middle Earth and the Subtle Knife aren't real, I'll settle for a trip to New Zealand instead.

 

4. Tortall - Tamora Pierce's Tortall books hold such a special place in my heart that to not include Tortall would be horrible. Her books together with Harry Potter were my childhood. It's not even really the world of Tortall that I'd want to visit. I want to meet all the characters. Alanna and Daine most of all but Jon and George and Thayet and Numair too! By the way, I'm really excited that Tammy is working on a Numair series. He and Daine were my original OTP.

 

"I thought they'd killed you. I lost my temper." - Daine to Numair in Emperor's Mage
 

[fanart from Kathofel]

 

5. Neverland - So many books and movies have made Neverland so appealing. Especially Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tiger Lily. JLA wrote such wonderful descriptions that I just wanted to live in her words. I've said it before but I love anything Peter Pan related. And if Colin O'Donoghue happens to be Captain Hook, I won't complain in the least.

 

 

 

6. Wonderland - Oh Wonderland - so much frabjous nonsensical nonsense. I love it. I could do without crazed queens with a fondness for beheadings but tea parties and unbirthdays 364 days of the year sound perfect to me.

 

 

The Non-Fictional

 

7. The Empire State Building - Can you believe that I literally live less than 10 minutes away from New York City and I've never been to the Empire State Building? I mean I can see it from my bedroom window. When I'm lost, I basically just have to look for it in the skyline and head towards it to get home. I take back what I said in #2 - maybe I can be a demi-god after all considering Olympus is on the 600th floor and the Empire State Building is like my personal homing device.

8. England - So many books have been based in or relate to England somehow. However, it was the Once and Future King and basically anything King Arthur related that originally made me want to visit England. I actually woke up at 4am when I studied abroad in London specifically to take a King Arthur tour to see Stonehenge and Glastonbury and all the Arthurian legend sites. I'd love to go back one day and see the other literary places I missed. Although, I can already cross 221 Baker Street off that list.

But, if you go, and you happen to be looking for the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, don't ask the locals. They didn't know and I ended up lost. Though Kensington Gardens is probably the most beautiful place to be lost in.

 

9. Greece - I can relate this back to the Percy Jackson books too but it was The Firebrand and stories about Greek mythology and Troy that first perked my interest in Greece (more so than Rome. See? I'd totally be a Greek demi-god.) I always been a bit obsessed with mythology of any kind really. Sadly, the US doesn't have cool mythology like other parts of the world do. Plus Greece and the Mediterranean in general is just so beautiful. I mean, look at it:

 

10. Ireland - Sweep: Night's Child definitely isn't even remotely the best choice of book to describe Ireland but I really want to go there and I think it's the only book I've read that's set there. It's not even a very good book to be honest. Just something I read in high school. But by default, it's my Ireland book. It's super stereotypical but I've always wanted to search for fairies in Ireland. I figure if there's one place in the world where I'd be able to see one, it'd be there. Glastonbury Tor in England is said to be the entrance to the fairy world but somehow, I've always associated Ireland with fairies. To go along with my obsession with myths, I've also always had an obsession with fairies and fairy tales. I'm weird. I know.

 

 

While writing this post I've realized two things. One, I need a Signe Pike's Faery Tale-esque tour of the entire United Kingdom in my life. And two, I seriously need to read more books with real places. Fictional places, yeah sure, I'll think of a million of them on the spot that I want to visit. But books with real places that I want to visit? Not so much. I should work on that but it's definitely because of my favoritism for fantasy books over contemporary.

Top Ten Tuesday #9: Top Ten Books that were Hard for Me to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a couple of weeks now. I really wanted to do the lunch table one from a few weeks ago but I got busy and then it was suddenly Friday and not Tuesday anymore. I'm thinking maybe I'll do that anyway as a separate post. I really need to get up on the blog scheduling thing but... Queen of Procrastination here. Yup it's my unofficial title and I tend to do a good job at keeping it. I keep telling myself that I'll stop procrastinating so much and start planning ahead but guess what? I procrastinated with that too. Oops.

Anyway, this week's topic is books that were hard for me to read. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that I didn't like the books (though for some of these I really didn't). They were just hard to read, for various reasons.

Top Ten Books that were Hard for Me to Read

 

  The Ones with the Weird Language

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - So technically, I'm not done reading this book. I haven't DNF'ed it yet though. I started it for a book club in August but only got up to like page 60 or so. It's not really a bad book, it's just not my norm and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. It's historical fiction and it definitely read as such. What's really getting me though is all the plane vocabulary. My interest in planes and my general knowledge of them reached just about 0% so to have a character who explains in detail the ins and outs of planes, their types, and how she's directing air traffic is making it very difficult for me to read.

 

The Maze Runner by James Dashner - What with the movie out (which I still haven't seen) I figured I'd read this book. In short, I didn't not like it, I just didn't love it and it took me a long time to get into it. The characters seemed a little flat to me and it took me a long time to get used to their slang. I get that the slang was supposed to help immerse the reader into the secluded world these boys have been living in but, honestly, just say it. Their lives were shit not "klunk."

 

 

   

 The Ones that were Epically Long-Winded

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - I really, really, really want to finish this! I've started it so many times but it's just such a large book! I watched the mini-series when it first came on TV and I loved it. I was also in the middle of an Arthurian legends obsession that I haven't completely gotten over but that's beside the point. Every time I start this, I can't get past the first chapter. Morgaine's narration is just so long-winded. I will finish this though... eventually.

 

Wicked by Gregory Maguire - Now, I only read this once and it was a long time ago. My memory of reading this being bored through a lot of it but wanting to finish it just because it's related to The Wizard of Oz which has always been one of my favorite movies. (I should really read the book too, oops.) There was just a lot of politics going on in this book which I wasn't expecting when I started it.

 

Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull - This was the first book of Brandon Mull's that I've ever read and I got it as an ARC copy from work. Technically, I liked this book. There was a lot of really interesting world building and concepts that I found really cool. My only problem with it was book was about 500 pages when it really didn't need to be. It was wordy and overly-detailed to the point where I started skimming pages just to get back to what was important.

 

 

 The Ones that had Horribly Annoying Characters

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare - If you've frequented my blog before, you might know of my dislike for this book already. I realize I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to this one. After reading The Infernal Devices and absolutely loving it, I couldn't wait to start on The Mortal Instruments. Saying I got through this book, is saying a lot. I just, I couldn't with the  characters. Some of the choices they made were just so dumb I really wanted to knock some sense into them.

 

Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple - This is not a book I would have picked up if it hadn't been chosen for a book club I was a part of. It was interesting to read since the first part of it was made up emails and letters and other correspondence of Bernadette. However, the problems that surrounded Bernadette just seemed too upper class suburbia for me to relate to. Like really, there was a whole part complaining about blackberry bushes ruining the view or a garden or some silly thing like that. If blackberry bushes are your biggest concern, go pick them and make blackberry pies. Just stop whining about it.

 

 

   

 The Ones that Just Needed to End

Seeing Redd and Archenemy by Frank Beddor - I really loved The Looking Glass Wars which is the first book of this trilogy. But the second two, just seemed unnecessary. Yes, there were plot holes from the first book that needed to be filled but Seeing Redd and ArchEnemy just didn't do the first book proper justice.

 

 Something Blue by Emily Giffin - Okay so I'll admit that the only reason I read Something Borrowed was because I liked the movie. (It had Snow White from Once Upon a Time in it and Jim from The Office how could I not like it?) Something Borrowed was pretty okay but Something Blue, not so much. I didn't really like Darcy as a character to begin with when I read the first book. So reading a whole book all about her pretty difficult. It took a lot of redeeming just to get me to sort of like her.

 

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - I didn't finish this one. There was a lot going on but none of it was particularly interesting. I feel like this whole book could have been edited down to about 200 pages and readers would have gotten the gist of it. I was down to the last hundred pages when I gave up and stop caring about what was going to happen to the characters. I'm hoping something was just lost in translation since this was originally written in German because the concept of the book is really cool. I just couldn't get myself to finish it.