Top Ten Tuesday #34: DO NOT WANT

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Worlds I Would NOT Inhabit/Characters I Would Not Trade Places With If They Payed Me in Solid Gold

I know the actual title of this post seems mean, but I would never, ever want to permanently inhabit these places or be these characters.

1. Katniss/Panem, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. No. I'm sorry. No amount of boys passing me life-sustaining carbs would ever be able to force me to choose to live in Panem. Love the series, but that country is so messed up.

2. Cassie, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. Terrifying. The United States that Cassie knows is utterly terrifying. Like, wet-your-pants-might-as-well-curl-up-and-die-because-you're-going-to-anyway brand of terrifying.

3. Amelia, Hereafter trilogy by Tara Hudson. Oh, Amelia. This series is lovely, but so incredibly heartbreaking. I wouldn't want to switch places with Amelia because she's strong enough to make the decisions she did. I don't know if I would have been.

4. David/Newcago, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I love superhero stories, but this is a superhero horror story. The guys who should be good? Yeah, they're despicable, murderous monsters. Nothankyou.

5. Allie, Blood of Eden trilogy by Julie Kagawa. Vampires plagued with a superiority complex, a super bug, horrifically genetically engineered canibalistic monsters, and a psychopathic genius. Um...I'll pass. This series is so ridiculously good and wrings all the feels out of me, but I could never live in it. I would die. Literally. Immediately. Just...*poof* *iz ded* *rabids go nom nom nom*

6. Liesel/WWII Germany, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The most heartbreaking of this list, I think, because it was a real place and a real time. I can't even begin to imagine the sorrows of the people during that time.

7. The peculiar children in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Creepy, creepy world those kids live in. They have powers, yes, but they are hunted for them, and the only semi-safe option they have is to hide themselves away from the world a la Peter Pan and the Lost Boys and relive the same day over and over and over and over and over.... Never growing up and getting to experience all life has to offer is a horrible thing, and I pity them. They're in their 70s and 80s, and yet, they're still only children.

8. Meghan & Ethan Chase/The Nevernever, Iron Fey & Iron Fey: Forgotten series by Julie Kagawa. Julie sure knows how to write 'em. The Nevernever, aka Faery is the worst. I'd actually take the world in Blood of Eden over the Nevernever because at least Allie knows where she stands. The Nevernever and its inhabitants are always scheming to do you grevious damage, the least of which is death. Give me a dang sword or a branch or whatever, and I'll at least make a stand against the rabids, but in the Iron Fey series, your own words can destroy you faster than a weapon ever could.

9. Ember, Article 5 trilogy by Kristen Simmons. More than some other highly excellent and creeptastic future dystopians (Divergent, Delirium, Legend, Wither, etc), the Article 5 series really does scare me because I can honestly see how we could go from our society today to the shambling country Ember and Chase reside in. This one hits me especially close to home because quite literally, half of the series takes place in my hometown. The square my mom and I watch Shakespeare plays in each summer? Scene to brutal mobs and murder. Wonderful series, but it scares the crap out of me.

10. Tina Fey, Bossypants by Tina Fey. Wait, no, that's a lie. I do want to be Tina Fey. I can do her Sarah Palin impersonation and everything!

Actual #10. Alina/Ravka, Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Unless Mal/The Darkling/Sturmhond/Nikolai are all shirtless at all times and hanging out with me exclusively, Ravka is not a place I would want to live. It's terrifying. Thanks a lot, Leigh. You create the men of my dreams and place them in the world of my nightmares. You did that on purpose.

So that's my list. Some real (or at least more realistic) worlds, some fantastical, some silly. All are stunningly horrific, and that's one reason I really love all those books.  What's on  your list this week? Share your links!

Top Ten Tuesday #19: Books I Was Forced to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I did not like this book the first time I attempted to read it, which was a whopping 14 years ago this month. I had no idea what was going on in that mess of a first chapter so I put it down. Two months later, my aunt gave me a copy for Christmas. I gamely tried again--it was a gift, after all--and I'm so glad I did. My mom was right when she first recommended I read it: it does get better after Harry gets to school. To this day, however, I think I have only read the first chapter twice because I disliked it so much.

2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I think this is one of those books where you're pretty much required to read it AND love it if you are a woman. I don't go completely bonkers about Mr. Darcy, but I have loved this book ever since I read it for school. I think Jane Austen had no idea she'd become such a phenomenon and such an inspiration to women everywhere to write.

3. William Shakespeare. I love Bill. I love every single sonnet and play of his I've ever read.

4. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Read this in my senior AP English class, and it was an absolute riot. We had waaaaay too much fun with this book.

5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I hadn't even heard of this book before I took adolescent literature in college. I'm so glad that my professor was a complete fangirl for it because this book is lovely. It's one of those novels that I think every single person alive should read it at least once in their lifetime.

6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Another pick from adololescent lit. There's a story for everyone in this novel, and the drawings are perfection.

7. Holes by Louis Sachar. In seventh grade, my English/homeroom teacher read this to us every day after lunch. I loved it! The movie may not have been an exact adaptation, but I enjoyed it as well.

8. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. My seventh grade teacher read this to us as well that year. I remember being totally sucked in and always wanting her to read more after she stopped for the day. I don't read many mysteries anymore, but this novel, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys will always be dear to me. Read this last year or perhaps the year before, and I still adore it.

9. A Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Oh, my. I believe this was the first book that made me cry in class. How can you not love it?!

10. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It's been many years since I read this novel, but I remember loving it every time I did.

The Book Thief Event Recap

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On Tuesday, September 10, I got to do something completely amazing: I met Markus Zusak. Yes. THE Markus Zusak. The Book Thief. I Am the Messenger. He was in town for Richardson Reads One Book, which is a program where the city of Richardson (a northern suburb of Dallas) reads a book of the year. This time, it was The Book Thief. Here's what you need to know to read this recap: 1. Markus Zusak is incredibly handsome. I'm sorry I forgot my actual camera at home and had to settle for my not-so-good tablet camera. I'm still searching through the pictures to see if there's a usuable one. I doubt it. 2. He's Australian and therefore has the best. accent. ever. Please feel free to read this in your best Aussie. 3. GIVEAWAY. Let us begin.

Note: this is going under a cut because 1. It's long, and 2. there are spoilers for The Book Thief.