Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Covers I’d Frame As Pieces of Art

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 Book Covers I’d Frame As Pieces of Art. I’ve done other top 10 lists with favorite covers (and even one with scary covers) — so I’ll try to come up with 10 “work of art” book covers without repeating myself… too much.

1) The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

2) Mokoka’i by Alan Brennert

3) Impossible by Nancy Werlin

4) The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

5) Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore

6) Meet Me in the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich
(I haven’t read the book, but I do love the cover!)

7) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (original edition with Tolkien’s cover art)

8) Any of the new series of covers for Susanna Kearsley books, especially:

9) The covers from any of the Fables series volumes, especially:

10) The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
(Two different covers, and I like them both!)

If you want to see one of my earlier posts about favorite covers, check it out here. (Only 2 repeats! Not bad…)

What’s on 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. 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!

28Apr2014

Top Ten Tuesday: You watch that? Then read this!

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 If You Like… (fill in the blank with your favorite TV shows, games, movies, comics, etc) This is a hard one! I’m mostly sticking to TV, since that’s my biggest vice/guilty pleasure after reading.

So, what to read? Depends on what you like to watch!

images via Google and Pinterest

1) If you like Downton Abbey… check out Longbourn by Jo Baker. A different time period, true, but this book offers a behind-the-scenes view of life “downstairs”, showing us just what it takes to keep a proper household in clean linens and with a nicely set table.

2) If you like The Big Bang Theory… check out The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I could not get the voice of Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) out of my head the entire time I was reading Rosie. A genius-level scientist with no social skills, resulting in a multitude of faux pas and unintended hilarity? Yup.

3) If you like The Originals… check out Anne Rice’s vampire books, especially Interview with the Vampire or The Vampire Lestat. You just can’t beat Anne Rice for supernatural goings-on in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

4) If you like Helix… check out Parasite by Mira Grant. The new Syfy series is full of icky microbes infecting people and threatening to take over the entire world — and if you want icky threats from within the human body, you’re sure to love (and be grossed out by) Parasite.

5) If you like Once Upon A Time… check out the Fables graphic novel series by Bill Willingham. Fairy tale characters are real and are living in hiding in our world! Sure, there was a lot of angry speculation when it first aired that Once was basically a Fables rip-off — but Bill Willingham did his best to get his rabid fans to stand down. You can read his Q&A here from 2011 before you decide whether to take up a pitchfork.

6) If you like Frozen… check out any of Robin McKinley’s fairy tale retellings, especially Beauty, The Rose Daughter, or Spindle’s End. No singing princesses or talking snowmen, just excellent writing, darkly reimagined worlds of magic, and more depth than you might think possible.

7) If you like Hart of Dixie… check out Raney, Walking Across Egypt, or any other of Clyde Edgerton’s quirky and charming novels, full of the odd-ball characters with a decidedly Southern twist that make towns like TV’s Bluebell, Alabama so much fun.

8) If you like Orphan Black… check out Archetype by M. D. Waters. Something is going on — and it involves evil scientists, shady plots. and human experimentation. Yikes! Complicated and delicious.

9) If you like Game of Thrones... well, read the books, obviously! Or for something different set in a kingdom with deadly power struggles, battling families, secret powers, and even an ice wall, check out the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Six books, done, no waiting for sequels!

10) If you like The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Batman — okay, superheroes in general… check out After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn. Okay, this is a bit of a cheat for me, since I haven’t actually read the book… yet. After the Golden Age has been on my TBR pile for a while now, and I’ve been saving it for a summer vacation treat. From the description, it sounds perfect!

Ha! Look at my self-restraint! I was tempted to write a list that consisted just of:

If you like The Hunger Games movies… read the books!
If you like the Harry Potter movies… read the books!
If you like The (three) Hobbit movies… read the (one) book!

But that would have been totally obnoxious. Although not entirely out of character. 🙂

What’s on 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

21Apr2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters With Essential Survival Skills

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 Characters Who… (choose a characteristic and find ten characters who fit). So many options! Characters who make the best friends? Characters I’d like to invite for dinner? It’s so hard to narrow it down!

Going with my chosen theme, these are my picks for characters who you’d want by your side in a crisis — characters who have the skills it takes to survive!

1) Claire Fraser (Outlander series): You’ve got to hand it to Claire. She manages the transition from 20th century to 18th century without missing a beat, and adapts her modern-day physician skills to become a healer woman in her new home. Medicinal herbs, home-brewed penicillin, hand-made ether for surgical anesthetic — Claire can do it all!

2) Brianna Randall MacKenzie (Outlander series): Just as inventive as her mother Claire, although with a different focus. Bree is an excellent shot, can hunt for dinner any day of the week, and in her spare time figures out how to create a kiln and make water pipes from clay.

3) Darla Edmunds (Ashfall series): Darla, a super-talented teen, is the key to survival for her entire community. She invents Bikezilla (a hybrid bicycle/snowmobile that can be used to haul just about anything), bike-powered corn mills, wind-powered turbines, and central heating. When there’s no electricity and everyone is on the verge of starvation, Darla figures out how to feed, house, and warm hundreds of people at a time.

4) Lauren Olamina (Parable of the Sower): Lauren founds a religion, protects her people, creates a community, and keeps hope alive when the world seems to be falling to pieces. She also thinks ahead to the little things, like stocking up on ammo and plant seeds.

5) Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire): Tyrion seems to always manage to survive, somehow, by using his wits and his tongue. Whether these will continue to work for him remains to be seen.

6) Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games): No explanation needed, right?

7) Yorick Brown (Y: The Last Man): After all males on the planet are wiped out in an instant, Yorick is literally the last man on Earth — and there are plenty of people who’d like to get rid of him too. He survives through goofiness, charm, and his ability to roll with the punches and not give up. Despite his slacker exterior, Yorick excels at forging alliances, and the biggest plus in his fight for survival is the excellent team he holds together.

8) Hig (The Dog Stars): Being a pilot is a matter of survival for Hig in this post-apocalyptic novel, in which viewing the surrounding terrain from the air and being able to spot danger before it arrives at his door is what’s kept him alive for so long.

9) Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Never underestimate the survival ability of a burglar! For a simple hobbit who never wanted to leave his own comfy home, Bilbo certainly has a talent for getting into and out of the unlikeliest of places. And clearly, being able to solve riddles when your life is on the line is no small ~~feet~~ feat.

10) Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files): Not only is Harry the only professional wizard in Chicago, he’s a man with the ability to face down any foe, human or otherwise, cast enchantments and spells, and even come back from the dead. Can’t beat that for a survival skill!

What character traits were on your mind 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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14Apr2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Things (That Aren’t Books) That I’d Like To Own

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 Bookish Things (That Aren’t Books) That I’d Like To Own. Book goodies? Oh, be still, my little book-obsessed heart!

Here’s what I’m lusting after the most:

1) A new book light: Probably the least expensive item on my list. I have a clip-on book light that I’ve had for years, and I think it’s time to upgrade to something sleeker and less clunky. Maybe something like this:

2) I love cool/different/attractive bookends (although, speaking realistically, I have very little need for bookends because my bookshelves are all full to overflowing). Still, if I were going to buy bookends, here are a few I’d probably consider:

3) Bookmarks: As in, I can never have enough. I don’t particularly care for fancy bookmarks with gems, beads, or dangly bits. But some of my favorite things to collect when I travel are plain old paper bookmarks from the different places I visit… and since I love to travel, I hope I’ll have lots and lots more to add to my collection, like these:

4) A new e-reader, perhaps? I have an older Kindle which works just fine, plus I can use the Kindle app on my IPad. I prefer my old Kindle over the IPad, as I don’t like reading on back-lit screens. Still, I’m a little teensy bit tempted by the Kindle Paperwhite. Has anyone tried one of these? What do you think?

5) Bookish T-shirts! Because booklovers need to proclaim their bookish ways with pride! I love the entire collection over at Out of Print, especially these:

(Images from the Out of Print website; and really, I love every single shirt and design on their site!)

6) A custom print from Ideal Bookshelf: I love just about everything these amazingly creative folks have to offer, and I’m crazy about the My Ideal Bookshelf book. I’m so tempted to buy myself framed prints or notecards or bookmarks… but if I were ever to truly splurge, I think a custom design would be the way to go!

Here’s their fantasy shelf print, as an example:

https://i0.wp.com/cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0172/1910/products/IdealBookshelf629_Fantasy_large.jpg

Image belongs to Ideal Bookshelf (see more at www.idealbookshelf.com)

7) Now we’re really getting into my daydream realm… but if we’re talking bookish delights, then I’d like a reading nook something like this:

8) … or a cozy hammock on a beach:

9) A big comfy armchair would be nice…

10) … or my ultimate fantasy space for reading, a room full of pillows!

… which I think I’ve wanted ever since reading Dr. Seuss’s I Had Trouble In Getting to Solla Sollew

Then I dreamed I was sleeping on billowy billows
Of soft silk and satin marshmallow-stuffed pillows.

What are your bookish desires? 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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7Apr2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Unique Books I’ve Read… in 5 words or less*

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 focuses on books that we consider unique. I had a hard time narrowing it down to a manageable list, until I decided on a guiding principle: To make the list, I had to be able to come up with a “tagline” of 3 – 5 words that captures the spirit of what makes the book unique.

Without further ado, my list of unique books… in 5 words or less!

1) The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: Jesuits in Space!

2) Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore: Jesus’s Wacky Sidekick!

3) Room by Emma Donoghue: Five-Year-Old Narrator!

4) The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion: Love, Quirks, and Lobster!

5) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: Disappearing Husbands Are A Pain!

6) Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith: Apocalypse By Praying Mantis!

7) The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: Mythical Creatures Take New York!

8) Fingersmith by Sara Waters: Con Artists Need Love Too!

9) Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan: Evil Parents Suck! Teens Rule!

10) Every Day by David Levithan: Different Day, Different Body! (Whoa…)

every day

What are the most unique books that you’ve read? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

*Yeah, yeah, I know… but “5 words or fewer” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

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

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17Mar2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR List

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, we’re focusing on the books we most look forward to reading this spring… and yes, I have plenty! Here are the top 10 books on my to-be-read list — some upcoming new releases, and some books that have been patiently waiting for me for months (or years) already:

1) Written In My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Outlander, #8)

2) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes

3) The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

The Serpent of Venice

4) My Real Children by Jo Walton

My Real Children

5) Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline

6) The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

7) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites

8) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life

9) The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1)

10) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

What books are you looking forward to reading this spring? 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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10Mar2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 1970s Horror Novels

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. For this week’s top 10, the topic is Top Ten All Time Favorite Books in X Genre — pick a genre, and write about whatever books you love. I was drawing a blank until a friend and I ended up discussing The Omen (yes, it just happened to come up in conversation), and that’s when I decided to make my list about all those amazing 1970s horror books with awesome covers:

1) The Omen by David Seltzer

7851887

2) The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Exorcist

3) Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

Harvest Home

4) Audrey Rose by Frank De Felitta

455764

5) ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

6) Suffer the Children by John Saul

Suffer the Children

7) The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror

And three more books that — while not truly horror — certainly are horrifying in their own way, and are iconic works of the 1970s:

8) Jaws by Peter Benchley

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9) The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

The Stepford Wives

10) Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan

Logan's Run (Logan, #1)

What genre did you pick 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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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3Mar2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Popular Authors I’ve Never Read

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.

Here is my list of authors whose works I’d really like to read… but for whatever reason, it hasn’t happened yet:

– Patrick Rothfuss: I’m really looking forward to reading his Kingkiller Chronicles series — but in keeping with my reading resolutions, I’m not going to start these books until I know that book #3 has a release date scheduled.

– Kristin Cashore: I have all of the Graceling Realm books on my shelf… but just haven’t gotten around to them yet.

– Agatha Christie: I always thought I should give her books a try.

– Alexander McCall Smith: I’d like to try his books — either the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series or his 44 Scotland Street books.

– Ned Vizzini: I’ve been wanting to read It’s Kind of A Funny Story, although I think I’ve hesitated lately just because it’s so sad to read a book by a talented writer, knowing his life was cut short.

– John Corey Whaley: Still haven’t read Where Things Come Back, winner of the 2012 Printz Award.

– Paolo Bacigalupi: I’m under the impression that I’ll love this writer, based on all the great things I’ve heard about Ship Breaker and The Windup Girl.

– China Mieville: I have a friend who keeps insisting that I’ll love China Mieville if I give him a try… but frankly, I feel intimidated every time I think about starting one of his books. Sigh.

And here’s where I’m interrupting my top 10 list… because in my first draft, the rest of this post ended up sounding super negative and cranky, all about authors whose books I didn’ want to read… and frankly, it sounded kind of obnoxious. And who needs that?

So instead, I’ll use the rest of my TTT energy for going to a happy place… oh, like this, for example:

(And if that video doesn’t work, you can also see it here: http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/03/02/pharrell-happy-oscars-performance/)

Which popular authors have you not read yet… but really, really want to? Let’s keep it upbeat, folks — I’m in my happy place right now!

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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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24Feb2014

Top Ten Tuesday REWIND: Top Ten Books I HAD To Buy…But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread

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 Tuesday Rewind:
Where we pick a topic we’ve done before, or one we skipped the first time around, and come up with a whole new top 10!

I wrote my first version of this list in March 2013… and sad to say, some of the same books are still on it! Yes, I’m the type who buys candy while waiting in line at the check-out stand, who picks up goofy souvenirs at the airport gift shop two minutes before boarding — I’m totally prone to buy on impulse, and nothing attracts me more than a brand new, shiny book THAT I HAVE TO HAVE RIGHT NOW.

Here are the top 10 books that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on, bought in a fit of total urgency, preordered months in advance… and they’re still sitting there on my shelves (or on my Kindle), taunting me with their pristine dust jackets, uncreased spines, and 0% completion.

1) S. by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. I was so fascinated by this book when I first heard about it, couldn’t wait to get my own copy… and then once it arrived, I realized I had no idea how to actually go about reading it. It felt kind of like a chore, so I put it aside and never picked it up again.

2) The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott: A friend recommended this historical novel centered around the Titanic, and I thought it sounded like something I’d love. And I’m sure I will enjoy it, when I finally read it.

The Dressmaker

3) The Buffy graphic novels: I’ve read all of Buffy season 8, but I fell seriously behind on season 9 and its various spin-offs, so now I have several volumes of Buffy, Angel & Faith, and Willow to read.

4) Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson: This ended up being one of Richard Matheson’s last novels, published two years before his death in 2013. I loved the plot description for Other Kingdoms, and bought a copy as soon as it was released.

Other Kingdoms

5) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: I was absolutely convinced that I was going to read this right away… and that was last September.

In Cold Blood

6) Me Before You by Jojo Moyes: I know this book is supposed to be amazing! I swear, I will read it in 2014!

Me Before You

7) Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh: Picked this one up in a bookstore a few months ago…

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

8) Small Damages by Beth Kephart: The reviews were excellent, and I couldn’t wait to read this young adult novel:

Small Damages

9) If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman: After reading Just One Day, I knew I needed to read more by Gayle Forman, and quickly got myself copies of these two books. I know, I know… gotta read them ASAP.

If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)

10) All the books from last year’s various TBR lists that I still haven’t gotten to:

Once again, this top 10 list is a good reminder to me of all the amazing books I ALREADY OWN that I need to read. (In other words, note to self: STOP BUYING BOOKS! Or more realistically, buy fewer books and read the ones I already have!)

Have you read any of these? Which of these should I dive into first?

17Feb2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Reader

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 Reasons I Love Being A Reader. Just 10? Okay…

1) I never mind waiting at the doctor’s office, movie theater, or a restaurant where I’m meeting friends — so long as I have a book with me.

2) I’m never lonely. No one to talk to? No problem. Give me a book, any time.

3) Long plane rides are extra fun, no matter where I’m headed. More time to read!

4) When I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, I can just grab the book on my nightstand and read until my mind settles down enough to sleep some more.

5) Excellent vocabulary builder! I’m constantly learning new words and phrases through the pages of a book.

6) I get to explore new worlds, new cultures, and new ideas — every time I open a book.

7) Look how many fabulous people I’ve met through reading! Whether in bookstores, on a beach, or online, books are the best conversation-starters!

8) It’s healthy to have a mind-blowing experience every now and then… and a good book is the surest way of making that happen.

9) Reading a book creates memories beyond just the pages and the plots. I love thinking back to where I was in my life when I read a particular book, what it meant to me then, and what it might mean to me now.

10) Excitement! Laughter! Tears! New ideas! Imagination! Brain power! Being a reader constantly challenges me, delights me, entertains me, and sometimes even puts me through the emotional wringer. And I love it all!

Why do you love being a reader! Or — if you went with the other option for this week — why do you love being a book blogger?

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 our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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