Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I’d Want With Me On A Deserted Island

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 I’d Want With Me On A Deserted Island… which is going to end up being remarkably similar to a list I did back in April on the Top Ten Characters With Essential Survival Skills. Most of my original picks hold true, but I’ll make a few substitutions just for the sake of switching things up.

Who would I want by my side on a deserted island? Read on.

Kicking things off are my beloved folks from the world of Outlander:

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 anesthesia — 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) Jamie Fraser (Outlander series): Okay, mostly for the eye-candy value (I mean, really, what IS there to look at on a deserted island?), but also for all-around protection (the man is a warrior), as well as other types of stimulation. (Intellectual! Get your minds out of the gutter! The man is an expert chess player, knows a bazillion languages, and can declaim poetry. We’ll need entertainment on our deserted island!)

But since there’s more to life than Outlander (wait, what??), I’d also want:

4) 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.

5) Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire): Boredom will not be a problem, so long as I can chat with Tyrion.

6) Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games): In case we need to go a-hunting with bows and arrows.

7) 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. So just in case there are some evil spirits flitting around the island, I’ll need Harry to set up some wards, or figure out how to do a reverse locator spell, or some such essential magical working.

8) Emilio Sandoz (The Sparrow): Emilio is smart, honorable, funny, and dedicated. He’s a masterful linguist who seems to learn new languages in the blink of an eye — so just in case the island is not as deserted as it seems, Emilio can converse with the locals.

9) Pi Patel (Life of Pi): In case we do manage to build a boat, Pi’s the guy for staying alive while drifting at sea… especially if a tiger decides to hitch a ride.

10) Henry DeTamble (The Time Traveler’s Wife): First of all, I think Henry’s just a fascinating guy, so it would be great to have him for company just for the sake of hearing stories about his life. Plus, he’s a time traveler! So I’d hope that on one of his time-hops, he’d managed to get word to someone reliable to come rescue me in 2014!

Which characters will be sharing your deserted islands? 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!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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!

30Jun2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Classic Books I Want to Read… or Re-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. This week’s topic is Top Ten Classics — and I can see taking a few different approaches: Favorite classics already read? Classics that we want to read? Classics that everyone should read? And just what is a classic, anyway?

For me, I’m splitting my list between classics I really want to read (you know, someday) and classics that I read long ago and would really like to read again. And for purposes of this list, my definition of “classics” is pretty fluid: Older parts of the “canon”, to be sure, but also more modern works that have become cultural reference points.

Classics I want to read:

1) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

2) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

3) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

4) Cannery Road by John Steinbeck

5) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

6) The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

7) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Classics I Want to Re-Read:

1) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2) Dracula by Bram Stoker

3) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

And to round it all off: A few “classic” authors whose works I’ve never read. Must fix that ASAP! (And if you’ve have a favorite book by one of these authors, please leave me a comment with your recommendation!)

1) Agatha Christie

2) Jack London

3) Jules Verne

How do you define a classic? What classics are your favorites? And which classics are on your to-read list?

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

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

26May2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far in 2014

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 Top Ten Freebie — we choose whatever topic we want to write about. Since I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks and will miss out on a few TTTs, I figured the simplest approach for my “freebie” topic is to do one of the June topics a bit early! So here goes… my favorite books so far in 2014:

(Note: Click on the links to read my reviews if you want to know more!)

1) I Shall Be Near To You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

2) The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

3) Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

4) Archetype by M. D. Waters

Archetype

5) Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle

6) Harrowgate by Kate Maruyama

Harrowgate

7) The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's Secret

8) The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty

The Shambling Guide to New York City

9) The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

10) Re-reads of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, and the novella The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon… in preparation for the release of Written In My Own Heart’s Blood on June 10th! (You didn’t actually expect me to write a top 10 list without an Outlander reference, did you?)

Can’t wait to check out everyone else’s freebie lists!

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

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

19May2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books About Friendship

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 About Friendship… and it was a surprisingly difficult list to put together! Every time I had an idea about a book to include, I’d realize that it ended up as a love story or a family story. In fact, it was hard to come up with a selection of books that didn’t focus on romance or wasn’t about siblings — but that really just place the emphasis on friendship. But after much torment and scouring of my real and virtual bookshelves, here’s what made my list this week:

1) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White: I don’t think there’s a better friend in fiction than Charlotte the spider. And I’m sure Wilbur would agree.

2) The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien: A motley band, to be sure, but from a group of strange companions, the fellowship develops into a deeply devoted band of friends.

3) Code Name Verity: Sigh. Julia and Maddie. Tears. Oh my.

4) The Harry Potter series: This probably belongs up at #1. Why was Harry able to survive and triumph? Because he didn’t have to do it alone. Ron and Hermione are the best friends a young wizard could have, not to mention all the various and sundry other members of the Hogwarts gang and their extended families. (Dobby! Neville! Weasley twins!)

5) Lamb by Christopher Moore: I hope it’s not disrespectful to say that this novel about Jesus and his childhood pal Biff is one of the best buddy books I’ve ever read! Hilariously funny, and surprisingly touching as well.

6) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See: Just a beautiful, beautiful book about two friends in 19th century China.

7) Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando: This is probably the newest book on my list. I really loved the focus on two strangers getting to know one another via email before becoming college roommates — with all the revelations, secret sharing, and misunderstandings that you’d find in real life. True friendship may not be easy, but it’s worth the work!

8) Doc by Mary Doria Russell: This may seem like an odd choice, but one of my favorites things about this historical novel about Doc Holliday is the portrayal of his friendship with Wyatt Earp.

9) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 8 and beyond): Okay, maybe it’s a bit of a cheat, but I love the comic series that picks ups where the TV series left off — and as with Harry Potter, the secret of Buffy’s success is her gang of friends. Where would Buffy be without the Scoobies?

10) And finally, for a unique look at friendship gone wrong, check out the darkly comic The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler.

I’m sure I missed some books that will pop into my head in the middle of the night…

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!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

5May2014

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!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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!

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!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥