Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Can’t-Wait Books for the 1st Half of 2017

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’m Looking Forward To For The First Half Of 2017.

In no particular order, here are the books I can’t wait to read during the next six months:

1) The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian: This author’s books never disappoint!

2) Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs: It’s Mercy! The Mercy Thompson series is one of my favorite things ever. Simply cannot wait for the newest installment.

3) The Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth: Her previous novel, The Things We Keep (review) was heartbreaking and beautiful. I’m really looking forward to her newest.

4) Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire: Even the title of this novella gives me the chills.

5) A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn: The 2nd Veronica Speedwell mystery! I really enjoyed the first (review), and I’m delighted to have won this one in a Goodreads giveaway.

6) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Wow, can this author write a love story! This new book seems like it’ll be very different from her previous works, and sounds amazing.

7) Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn: Who doesn’t love a good Martian adventure? I’ve really enjoyed the pieces I’ve read so far by this author, and this book’s synopsis sounds right up my alley.

8) The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden: I love the sound of this Russian-flavored fairy tale.

9) Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser: Something about the description of this contemporary mystery really grabbed my attention.

10) Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon: It goes without saying — last but not least! I can’t wait for this story collection, even though I’ve already read five of the seven stories. If it takes place within the Outlander-verse, I want it.

seven-stones-lg

What books are you most eager to read in 2017? Please share your links!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

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5Dec2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2016

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2016. I love this topic! I “met” so many authors this year for the first time. Here are my top 10:

Note: If you want to know more about any of the books mentioned here, click on the links to see my reviews.

1) Blake Crouch: I thought Dark Matter was amazing!

2) Shirley Barrett: Author of Rush Oh!, a book that proves that reading about whaling in early 20th century Australia can be loads of fun!

3) Seré Prince Halverson: All the Winters After was one of my favorite books of 2016.

4) Fredrik Backman: I know, I know — A Man Called Ove got so much buzz this year… and I have to admit, it lives up to the hype!

5) Christina Baker Kline: I finally read Orphan Train with my book group, and thought it was wonderful. I look forward to reading more by this author.

6) Amy Stewart: Girl Waits With Gun was one of my favorites this year, and I can’t wait to read the sequel, Lady Cop Makes Trouble.

7) Sally Hepworth: The Things We Keep was such a sad but lovely book. I have the author’s previous novel, The Secrets of Midwives, on my TBR, so that’s one that I’ll need to make a priority in the new year.

The Things We Keep

8) Amy Schumer: Does Amy Schumer count? I’ve enjoyed her comedy for years, and had a blast with her book, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo.

9) Sylvain Neuvel: I thought Sleeping Giants was so inventive! I can’t wait for the next book.

10) Laura Barnett: The Versions of Us is a great take on the Sliding Doors style of storytelling. What if things went one way instead of the other? This book explores the different possible outcomes of a chance meeting and how people’s lives veer off into unexpected directions. Loved it.

I can’t wait to see who I’ll meet in 2017!

Which authors did you discover in 2016? Please leave me your link!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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14Nov2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten movies I’ve watched over and over and over

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a movie freebie — basically, anything at all so long as it has something to do with movies.

My movie-related TTT is about my movie equivalent of comfort food — the movies I love, for various reasons, that I can and do watch over and over and over again. All of these make me happy, in different ways, but I’ve yet to get tired of any of them.

1) Love Actually

2) The Harry Potter movies

3) Brigadoon

4) Serenity

5) Hair

6) The Princess Bride

7) The Lord of the Rings movies

8) Bride & Prejudice

9) Monty Python and the Holy Grail

10) A Knight’s Tale

There are actually quite a few more I could list, but I guess I really should stop at ten.

But wait! A bonus round!

Looking at my DVD collection, I really want to include these, which aren’t movies, but I’ve watched them a zillion times anyway, so how can I not mention them? Here are three TV collections that always make me happy:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica

What’s your movie-related TTT list about this week?

Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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7Nov2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books added to my (never-ending) TBR list – fall 2016 edition

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Ten Books I’ve Added To My To-Be-Read List Lately. My TBR list seems to grow and grow, almost by magic! In no particular order, here are ten books I’ve added in the last month or so:

1)Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill: A non-fiction book actually makes my TBR! A look at the nitty gritty details of Victorian women’s lives sounds too good to miss.

2) The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan: A friend just recommended this one, and I have to admit, it sounds perfect for me.

3) The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse: I just happened to pick this book up when there was a Kindle price drop. The description says it’s “a chilling and spooky Gothic historical thriller “. Works for me.

4) Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells: Creepy, satirical sci fi. I love the description – can’t wait to see if the book lives up to its billing.

5) The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian: Okay, I’ll read anything by this author at this point.

6) Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman: Yes, please.

7) Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire: A follow up to Every Heart a Doorway, which was one of my very favorite things this year.

8) Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart: Book 2 about the Kopp Sisters, after the terrific Girl Waits With Gun. I won this in a giveaway, and have been waiting for the right moment to dive in.

9) What Light by Jay Asher: A new book by the author of Thirteen Reasons Why. Tissue box is ready, so let me at it.

10) Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton: I’m not sure that I know what this book is about, but I’ve read enough of the synopsis to be intrigued.

Have you read any of my TBR books already? What books made your list this week?

Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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24Oct2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten creepy, gross, scary horror books for getting in the Halloween mood

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Happy (almost) Halloween!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie!

I’ve decided to focus on great books to scare or give the willies. To mix things up, I’m highlighting five books that I’ve read, and five from my TBR list:

Icky, squicky, creepy, scary books that I’ve read (with links to my reviews):

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (review)

The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey (review)

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy (review)

Breed by Chase Novak (review)

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (review)

Creepy, chilling, horrifying-sounding books that I really want to read:

Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Wraith by Joe Hill

A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

What scary books do you love to recommend? What’s on your Halloween TTT? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I host a Book Blog Meme Directory, and I’m always looking for new additions! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info.

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17Oct2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten character names for my imaginary babies and pets

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Ten Characters I’d Name A Child/Dog/Cat/Car/Etc. After — which strikes me as a really funny topic, but, hey, I’m game!

As I already have all the kids I intend to have and am not in the market for any fur (or fin) babies, I’ll just focus on character names which I think are cute or clever or cool or funny enough to become the NEXT BIG THING in baby and pet names.

For girls:

Demelza – inspired by the Poldark series of books by Winston Graham
Marsali – inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series
Cosette – inspired by Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Minerva – in honor of my favorite Hogwarts professor, thanks to Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling

For boys:

Rhett – inspired by Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Tyrion – inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
Quentin – inspired by The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Roland – inspired by The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

For the non-human family members, I’d want:

A dog named Rollo – inspired, once again, by the Outlander series
Three bearded dragon lizards, named Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion – another inspiration from the world of GRRM
Two fish (preferably big ones) names Ishmael and Queequeg – inspired by Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Oops! I realize that’s more than 10…

What character names do you think would be awesome people/pet names? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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3Oct2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten despicable bad guys in fiction

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is all about villains — fictional bad guys, TV bad guys, villains we secretly love, or any other spin on the topic.

I’m focusing on really awful fictional villains. Not the “love to hate” kind — there’s no secret love here. I just straight up despise all of these characters — no shades of gray or redeeming characteristics or hidden hearts of gold.

My 10 most hideous, despicable villains fall into two categories — the “real” people, as in, those who inhabit our world and are merely human, albeit terrible humans, and the fantasy/otherworldy villains; who are more easily classified as evil due to their superhuman or supernatural powers.

In the non-fantasy category:

1) Black Jack Randall (Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon): A sadist who delights in inflicting terror, pain, and psychological damage.

2) Stephen Bonnet (Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon): A pirate who’s casually cruel just because. He causes so much harm to beloved characters without even blinking an eye.

3) Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling): I include Dolores Umbridge in the real-world section of my list because what makes her so terrible is not her magic, but her mundane cruelty. She’s a despotic bureaucrat who enjoys using her power to make others suffer, not through charms or hexes, but by wielding her authoritarian control.

It’s a lot easier, in some ways, to come up with a list of horrible villains from fantasy worlds:

4) Voldemort (Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling): He Who Must Not Be Named. You Know Who. The Dark Lord. Tom Riddle. I don’t think I need to explain this one, do I?

5) Charles Manx (NOS4A2 by Joe Hill): One of the scariest horror novels I’ve ever read features one of the scariest bad guys in fiction. Wow. It gives me the shivers to think about this book too much.

6) The Beast (The Magicians series by Lev Grossman): The Beast is a thing of horror who used to be a person, and I won’t give away more than that — but the horror caused by the Beast is really awful.

7) Sauron (Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien): As with Voldemort, I’m not sure someone who represents ultimate evil needs an explanation!

8) Queen Levana (The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Mayer): Even though Fairest offers a glimpse into Levana’s childhood and seems to provide a teeny grasp at sympathy for her, Levana is such a cruel psycho that she remains an thoroughly villainous character.

9) Joffrey Baratheon (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin): Horrible little shit.

10) Walder Frey (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin): Worst host ever, basically.

(Dis)honorable mention (because I ran out of room):

From the world of Fables, the amazing graphic novel series by Bill Willingham, come two terrible bad guys who pretty much tear worlds apart: The Adversary and Mister Dark. And because The Adversary’s true identity is a secret for quite a while, I’ll avoid spoilers and not say any more about this character.

What villains made your lists this week? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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26Sep2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for fall 2016

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is the top ten books on our fall to-be-read lists. Only ten? I’ll give it a try. Some of these are recent and upcoming releases, and some are books that may have been around for a little while.

My top ten books to read this fall:

1) Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

2) Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

3) Cross Talk by Connie Willis

4) Paris For One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes

5) Heartless by Marissa Meyer

6) Yesternight by Cat Winters

7) Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

8) Miss Jane by Brad Watson

9) Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

10) The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

What books are on your fall TBR list? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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19Sep2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten reasons to listen to audiobooks

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is an audio freebie – any topic at all, so long as it relates in some way to audiobooks, podcasts, playlists… you get the idea.

Rather than listing some of my favorite audiobooks, I thought I’d list a bunch of the great things about audiobooks. Let’s see if I can get to 10!

They’re great for driving — either short trips across town or hours-long road trips. The miles fly by while listening to a good story!
They keep me from getting bored while doing mindless chores — especially folding laundry.
Audiobooks are a great way to re-read a book without feeling like I’m neglecting newer books that I’ve been meaning to read.
Listening to a book can give a new perspective on a story, just by hearing how the dialogue sounds out loud or how certain parts get emphasized.
Sometimes, the author is also the narrator, and in the best of these, it’s wonderful to hear how the author chooses to portray his/her own characters.
Great narration brings characters to life. For example, I liked Lord John (in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and in the Lord John stand-alone books), but I didn’t LOVE him until I heard Jeff Woodman’s awesome narration. Somehow, he captures John’s aristocratic upbringing, his dry sense of humor, and his innate goodness so just perfectly.
Funny books are even funnier read out loud. Wil Wheaton brought me to tears — laughing — with his narration of two of John Scalzi’s super funny sci-fi books. Something about the way he pronounced the aliens’ names… call me a child, but I cracked up every time.
Creepy books are even creepier read out loud. Case in point: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson may be a good book, but the audiobook is creeeeepy. The narrator puts in these odd inflections and does a sing-songy thing with some of the repeated lines, and man, it is so good.
Audiobooks make great exercise motivators! I like to go for long walks, but when I want to go for really long walks, an addictive audiobook really helps. I have a hard time listening to audiobooks if I’m sitting still — so if I’m listening to something really intense or suspenseful, maybe I’ll walk the extra several blocks just so I can see what happens next!
Somehow, I find myself willing to listen to books that I wouldn’t ever get around to reading. Again, this is probably because I listen to audiobooks at times when I just physically can’t read a hard copy book, so I don’t feel like I’m “wasting” my reading time. Through audiobooks, I’ve read some great non-fiction stories, and have even enjoyed a couple of collections of short stories, which I usually cannot stand to read.

There you have it — the 10 things I love most about audiobooks. Do you listen to audiobooks? What do you love most about them?

Please share your TTT link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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29Aug2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books from ye olde school days to re-read… eventually

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Back To School Freebie — so I’ve decided to focus on books from my school days that I’d really like to revisit someday.

Here are ten books from my middle and high school reading adventures that I recall fondly… and really should re-read to see if they still grab my attention:

1) Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

2) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

3) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

4) Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

5) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

6) 1984 by George Orwell

7) Hiroshima by John Hersey

8) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

9) Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markanday

10) Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

What books made your list this week? Please share your TTT links!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

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