Top Ten Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish blog.  Click on the image above to visit their blog and join in the fun yourself!  Today the girls announced that they're still in a food coma from last Thursday, and told us all to do a Top Ten Gift Guide.  Here are some cool things I came across while Cyber Monday browsing yesterday!  (If any family/friends are reading this, know that I'd be happy to receive almost any/all of these things! *wink wink*)  Click on the item names to go directly to the websites to purchase!

Top Ten Gift Guide

1. Anne of Green Gables Phone Case - Right now I just have a generic $5 case from Target on my phone.  I love Anne of Green Gables, and love the pretty colors on this case!

2. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow - Can't have too many Washington biographies!  And the hubby was just asking me the other day for a good Washington biography recommendation.

3. Hufflepuff Cardigan - I got sorted into Hufflepuff, and I'm totally happy with that!  I feel it's a good fit for me.  AND I need a new black cardigan for work!  So this cardigan would definitely get worn and would make me smile.  :)  The hubby is Ravenclaw, so you get bonus points if you also get the boy this Hufflepuff onesie.  ;)

4. Ten Thousand Skies Above You and A Million Worlds With You by Claudia Gray - In hardcover, please.  I have the first book in hardcover, autographed, and would like to complete the set.  Such a good, unique story!  Love it!

5. Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 - I don't always fall for commercials, but I fell hard for this computer after seeing a commercial for it!  I've been doing grad school work on a very, um, "well loved" laptop.  This one looks so versatile and shiny!  

6. PancakeBot - the most wonderful and perfect union of a 3D printer and a pancake griddle.  What home would be complete without one?

7. Qixels - another perfect union!  This one is a fun joining of perler bead crafting and 3D printing!  I'm so excited about this one that I've submitted a consideration for purchase to my manager at work.

8. Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal Onesie - Hubby and I LOVE the Home Alone movie series, so I wanted to get this cute onesie for the boy.  Unfortunately, they seem to be on back order, and Amazon told me it wouldn't be delivered until after Christmas.  I'll have to be more on the ball next year!

9. Spoutless Sippy Cup - Might not seem exciting to everyone, but the boy finds these SUPER EXCITING.  He is so excited at every meal to get to drink an ounce or two of water from a "real" cup.  And I get excited that the design makes it so that I don't end up with many ounces of water on my floor when he inevitably drops it.

10. Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny by Jan Karon - I LOVE Jan Karon's Mitford books, and she's also written children's books!  I could share this one with the boy!

And you?  What's on your gift list this year?  Leave a comment and I'll visit you too!

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  For more information, or to join the fun yourself, check out their blog by clicking on the image above!

Top Ten Books to Buy for Your Friends and Family for Christmas

(In no particular order)

1. For your great aunt who has doilies on all her furniture:  Hooked on Murder (and the rest of the series) by Betty Hechtman.  These cozy mysteries will keep her up late turning pages, and the crochet projects in all the books will help her use up her yarn stash.

2. For your little brother:  Grasshopper Jungle or Winger by Andrew Smith.  Both have innocuous covers, so your parents won't know that you're giving him books chock full of slightly-raunchy teen boy stuff and language.  And they're hilarious.  He'll love you for it.

3. For your goth sister:  Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco.  Delightfully creepy and such a good mystery!  She won't be able to put it down, even if she insists on putting you down for such a "lame" gift as a book.

4. For your conspiracy-theory uncle:  Storm Warning by Billy Graham.  Unlike all his other conspiracies, this one is rooted in Truth, in the Bible.  In it, Pastor Graham shows all the ways our current events point to Revelation and the coming of the end.

5. For your mom: the Mitford series by Jan Karon, which begins with At Home in Mitford.  She'll fall in love with the population of this cute little town and you'll end up road tripping together to meet the author.*

6. For your baby nephew:  Goodnight Train by June Sobel.  You can get it in board book form, perfect for little hands (and little mouths).  Such a sweet little bedtime read!

7. For your dad:  Shovel Ready and Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh.  This duology isn't long, so he won't have to spend weeks on it, and he'll love the main character's sarcasm.

8. For your WWII-loving hubby:  Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke.  No matter how many WWII documentaries he's watched or how many WWII books he's read, he probably hasn't heard of the Elephant Company.  My hubby hadn't!

9. For your grandma:  A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller.  Such a sweet book!  It takes Psalm 23 line-by-line, relating it to modern shepherding and explaining it.  Such a comfort.  And it's a short read, so she won't have to take much time from grandbabies to read it!  ;)

10. For your brother-in-law:  Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan.  A hilarious read from the guy with a love affair with bacon.

And you?  What do you recommend I buy for my loved ones this season?

*True story.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  For more information, or to join the fun yourself, check out their blog by clicking on the image above!

Top Ten Eight Things I'm Grateful For

This one is a Thanksgiving "freebie," and we were encouraged to write a top ten thankful list rather than a bookish list.  You'll see that books did, of course, make my list... but only amongst other, more important things.

1. The Hubby.  I mention him all the time in my Top Ten Tuesdays because he's so very entwined in my life.  I can't imagine life without him.  I love him very, very much and am so glad he continues to put up with me!

2. The Boy.  My son!  He's new to the family this year.  His first Thanksgiving!  Just like with The Hubby, I can't imagine life without him.  What on earth did we do with ourselves before we had him in our lives?

3. All the Fam.  All the parents and siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews and dogs!  What a lonely life I'd lead without them!  I am so so so blessed with so many loving family members.  I couldn't begin to describe all the help and support we've received this past year, with the new babe in the house.

4. My Church.  More support and love from my church family!  I miss church so much when I have to work on Sundays.  I love all the friends we have there.

5. My Job.  In this economy, I'd be grateful for nearly any job, but I'm extra blessed to have a job that I truly enjoy.  I work in teen library services... which isn't for everyone!  But I love "my" teens and have so much fun at work every day.  I'm even ok with the commute because I love my job so much!

6. My Educational Opportunities.  I'm in graduate school right now.  It's tough but I'm making it work.  It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time, and I'm finally in a place where I can.  And you know what?  I'm only able to do it with the support of my family and manager.  So to any of them out there reading this:  THANK YOU!  Thank you to the hubby for helping take care of the boy and the dog when I'm in class and thank you to the hubby and my parents for financial aid and thank you to my manager for letting me work on homework on the reference desk (as long as the patrons still come first).

7. My Car.  This might seem like a small thing compared to the first six items on my list, but my car means so much to mean:  it means independence and the ability to get to work and the ability to take care of my family without being reliant on public transportation.

8. Books!  You knew I couldn't do a Top Ten Tuesday on a book review blog without mentioning my love of books!  In all seriousness, I am grateful to live in a country where very, very little censoring happens.  I can read pretty much anything I want!

*I would have included "Health" in the list (I think I did last year) but my goodness... ever since The Boy started daycare, the three of us have had one cold after another!  Here's to hoping for a healthier new year!

And you?  What are you grateful for?  Leave a comment and I'll be sure to visit!  I'm looking forward to a day of warm fuzzies, reading all the TTT!

Dorothy Must Die: Stories by Danielle Paige | Audiobook Review

Dorothy Must Die: Stories packages together three prequel novellas:  No Place Like Oz, The Witch Must Burn, and The Wizard Returns.  I've already reviewed all three separately, but wanted to quickly let you know that the package-deal audiobook is excellent.  I didn't exactly connect with Amy McFadden, but there wasn't anything terrible about it.  And I loved Andi Arndt and LOVED LOVED LOVED Luke Daniels.  I definitely recommend!

*I checked out my copy of Dorothy Must Die: Stories from my local library.

The Wizard Returns by Danielle Paige | Audiobook Review

(I've been loving all the covers in this series, but this one, with it's bright green, is my fave!)

Today I'm over at Tynga's Reviews, talking about The Wizard Returns, the third prequel to Dorothy Must Die.  I've been loving this retelling of The Wizard of Oz!  Click on the cover image above to find out what I thought of this one.

*I checked out my copy of The Wizard Returns from my local library.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  For more information, or to join the fun yourself, check out their blog by clicking on the image above!

Top Five Book-to-Movie Adaptations

*These are my favorites, not all-time universal favorites

**Doing something different this week, and doing my Top Five Faves AND my Top Ten Dislikes!

1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  WOW.  I mean, they're not word-for-word true to the books, but they're pretty damn close.  And that's really impressive, considering all the fantasy elements!  The hubby and I re-watch all three extended versions every December.

2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, of course!

3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  I thought this one was really well done!  The hubby didn't even know it was based on a book, and really liked it.

4. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  The Muppets do a really good job acting this one out.  ;)

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  All three books, really.  They were so good that the hubby, who doesn't usually like YA-book-to-movie adaptations watched all four with me!  (He still won't say that they're "good," but he watched all four- why would you watch all four if you didn't think they were good?)

Top Five Worst Book-to-Movie Adaptations

*Again, just my humble opinion... not based on rating or box office sales or anything.

**In order of least worst to worst worst.  ;)

1. The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  I was SO EXCITED to see this with the hubby.  He usually hates YA book-to-movie adaptations, but I was certain that the excitement of this book would make for a great movie.  I was wrong.  The director managed to mess it up.

2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  Unfortunately, the actors chosen for the lead roles were really good at acting and not good at singing and they did a musical version anyway.  The hubby and I have a "rule" in our house that we read the book before we see the movie, so I wasted three weeks of my life reading an incredibly dense historic French novel just to be disappointed in the movie.

3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I LOVED this book!  It was a super captivating page turner!  I talked it up to the hubby until he relented and watched it with me... and major disappointment ensued.  He thought it was terrible (I agreed) and my right to pick the movie on date night was revoked for three weeks.

4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  This one was a bad book to begin with, and the movie only made it worse.

5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre.  I don't like being made to feel stupid, and this movie made me feel stupid.  I couldn't follow what was going on at all.  Neither could hubby, and he's really smart.

And you?  What are your top favorite movies/book-to-movie adaptations or least favorites?  Leave me a comment and I'll come visit!

The Witch Must Burn by Danielle Paige | Audiobook Review

(Love the covers on these books!!)

Today I'm over at Tynga's Reviews, reviewing The Witch Must Burn.  I loved it!  I think it was my favorite out of the three prequel novellas to Dorothy Must Die.  Click on the cover image above to find out more.

*I checked out my copy of The Witch Must Burn from my local library.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  For more information, or to join the fun yourself, check out their blog by clicking on the image above!

The Last Ten Books I've Added to My "To-Read" List

I have such a HUGE "to-read" list... it's ridiculous, really.  These ten books are just a drop in the bucket when we're talking about all the books I want to read.  And more great books are written every day!  It's almost overwhelming to think about.  These are listed in simply in the order that I added them to my list.  (Is it too obvious that I work in youth library services...?  lol)

1. Allie, First at Last by Angela Cervantes

2. Mission Mumbai: A Novel of Sacred Cows, Snakes, and Stolen Toilets by Mahtab Narsimhan

3. The Final Kingdom by Michael Northrop

4. A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty

5. Avenging the Owl by Melissa Hart

6. Local Girl Swept Away by Ellen Wittlinger

7. Illustrated Family Bible by Claude-Bernard Costecalde

8. Eat Your Greens, Red, Yellows, and Purples: Children's Cookbook by DK

9. Legendtopia Book #1: The Battle for Urth by Lee Bacon

10. Alight: Book Two of the Generations Trilogy by Scott Sigler

And you?  What were the last ten books that you added to your TBR?  Leave a comment and I'll certainly come visit!