Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out.

This week's Top Ten was hard.  I don't read many books that are all about the tender loving moments!

Top Ten Books That Will Make You Swoon

1. A Time to Love by Barbara Cameron--Honestly don't remember too much about this except it was a stereotypical romance, so kind of predictable.  No sexy times, which is also nice.  I have an imagination; it makes me blush when authors write out the bedroom details.

2. Spanish Holiday by Kate Cann--Don't remember a ton about this one either (I read these first two years ago, and they were on my very spare "Lovey Dovey" Goodreads shelf) but that it was light & fun.  Main character is in college, so I'd classify it "New Adult."  Slightly sexier than A Time to Love but still no details, thank God.

3. The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus (This was actually required reading for some medieval literature class I took in college and I loved it!  It's all these "rules" for courting someone, from the 1500s.  Capellanus covers every scenario imaginable, from a knight courting a lady to a man of the cloth wooing a servant girl.  Fantastic.)

4. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (Required reading from the same college course.  Again, I LOVED it!  It's a collection of 100 short stories about romance, originally written in the 1500s.)

5. Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews--This is actually the fourth book in a series, and all of them have lighthearted fun little romance aspects to them.  They're sweet, not steamy and that's how I prefer my literary romances.

6. The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal--The romances in this one are a bit messed up.  You know, like married people sleeping around.  But they're royals, so they do what they want and then all end up with syphilis and then go crazy.  You get what you pay for.

7. The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller--This romance is so tender and sweet!  I fell head over heels for the guy.  He's real and he's got great personality and the dialogue between the characters was just so great.

8. Delirium by Lauren Oliver--In a world where love is forbidden (and even viewed as a "disease" to be "cured"), what's sweeter than two people falling in love?

9. Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi (actually the second book in a trilogy, but this is where we see the character development of the hottie)  Perry sounds So. Hot. in the descriptions.  He's all ripped from living off the land and fighting and hunting and he's got tattoos and he's a leader (power is sexy).

10. Tarnish by Katherine Longshore--Who doesn't love a good royal court romance?  :)

The Making of Middle-Earth: A New Look Inside the World of J.R.R. Tolkien by Christopher Snyder | Book Review

(GORGEOUS cover!)

Did I just read a textbook?  I think I just read a textbook.  The most gorgeous and engaging textbook ever, but a textbook nonetheless.

I saw the beautiful cover of this book and read in the description that there were plenty of pictures, so I thought I was getting a coffee-table style book, you know?  But maaaaaaan.... Christopher Snyder goes IN DEPTH with his book!  And there were also a lot a lot (on purpose repeat there) of nice, big, chewy SAT words in there.  I was about halfway through the book when I decided to read the author blurb on the back flap and it said that Dr. Snyder teaches Honors seminars on Tolkien at Oxford University.  I bet this is the assigned reading.  :)

I'm so glad I read this!  I learned so many new-to-me facts about Tolkien and the road to LOTR.  I definitely enjoyed the entire book.  I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting on a snow day.  The chapters cover a biography of Tolkien's life and a chapter on medieval history and how Tolkien drew so heavily on it for his LOTR and related books.  Did you know that Tolkien was fluent in Middle English?  And Old English?  And Latin?  I did not have a full enough appreciation for the man's genius before reading this book!  He was a true scholar.  Part of me would really love to sit down and have tea with him and pick his brain; part of me fears, and rightly so, that he'd leave me in the dust intellectually if I tried!

My only beef with the book is in the layout.  I feel like the three appendices could've been full chapters in their own right.  I think some readers could miss out on some great information if they skip the appendices, and not everyone reads appendices.  I'm just nerdy like that.

I loved this book and definitely recommend to all Tolkien and LOTR fans.  I gave it 4 of 5 stars only because it's so very dense with information that it might be too much for the casual reader.  It's got such gorgeous detail (such as all the pages being printed to resemble aged paper instead of stark white), lots of illustrations and photographs, and is peppered with quotes from Tolkien.  Overall, a great read.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs | Book Review

(Look at her feet!)

What a fantastic book!  I'm absolutely kicking myself for not reading it years ago when it first came out.  The good news is that I get to go straight into Hollow City.  :)  This book has it ALL:  pictures--real pictures (photographs), history/historical fiction, paranormal people, and mystery!  Yup--ALL of it.  My mind was blown.

Pictures!  I like pictures in books, but that's much more common in non-fiction than fiction, so it's always a pleasant surprise to find pictures.  These are replications of actual photographs from the turn of the last century.  I've read other reviews that said that the children in the photos were "creepy."  The photos are a little dark, and the kids aren't smiling, but that's not unusual for the time when they were taken.  I loved the pictures.  And I read this on my black-and-white Kindle and the pictures were super clear, even in daylight!

History!  The book is told from the point of view of Jacob, a modern teen.  But Jacob has a really good relationship with his grandfather, who tells him stories of growing up in a children's home in WWII Wales, and shows Jacob pictures of the "peculiar" children he grew up with.  Jacob does some extra digging into this grandfather's past on his own and learns that he had to flee Poland as a child and live in the children's home because he was Jewish.  Then he joined the British army and fought in WWII before eventually coming to settle in America.  After his grandfather passes away, Jacob travels to Wales with his father and find the children from his grandfather's past are still alive and well... and still children.  I don't want to give anything away, but there's even more history once Jacob encounters the children from Miss Peregrine's Home!

Paranormal People!  The book title mentions this:  the children living in Miss Peregrine's Home (group home) are "peculiar."  Again, don't want to give anything away... Oh, but I can assure you that none of the characters are vampires.  It's not that kind of paranormal.

Mystery!  Jacob's grandfather dies an unexpected death, and Jacob is the only witness.  When he tries to explain what happened, his family and friends assume that he's lost his mind and don't believe him.  What Jacob finds in Wales may vindicate him...

Such a fantastic book!  I can't wait to read the sequel.  I can't believe it took me so long to finally read this!

One of the fantastic photos from the book (there's many more!):

Coffee With Jesus by David J. Wilkie | Book Review

(Clip art fun!)

I had read only a few Coffee With Jesus strips before I got hold of this book through my library, and I hadn't really gotten into them.  I absolutely loved the book, though!  It had me laughing out loud.

Coffee With Jesus is a comic strip that started online, and I'd first encountered it when friends re-posted strips to Facebook.  You can see Coffee With Jesus strips here:  http://radiofreebabylon.com/Comics/CoffeeWithJesus.php.  David J. Wilkie took clip art from ads from the 1960s and 1970s and gave them names and coffee time with Jesus (who is Himself clip art from old Sunday School print materials).  The characters always have very "real" observations on life or questions about faith for Jesus, and Jesus always answers them in "real," modern language.

One thing the book did was give me background.  The book opens with just a couple pages that give the backstory to the creation of the comic strip, and an explanation that this comic isn't meant to poke fun at Christians but to allow Christians to see Jesus as approachable.  What would you ask Christ if you had a daily coffee time with Him?  Coffee With Jesus had me laughing out loud, but I felt like I was laughing with other Christians and not at other Christians.  Very well done!

And here's a strip for you!

W... W... W... Wednesdays

This meme is sponsored by the blog Should Be Reading at http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com.
On W... W... W... Wednesdays book bloggers are asked just three simple questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you just finish reading?

What will you read next?

I think this will be a nice recap and will give me one day a week with an easy peasy blog post.  :)

This week,

 Currently reading Arclight by Josin McQuein

  Just finished reading Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

  Next, I'm reading The Art of Being Cool by Dr. Theodore Ransaw

                                

What about ya'll?  What are you up to, bibliographically speaking?

Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out.

It's raining here in my corner of NC today.  This Top Ten is just perfect for an overly gloomy day.

Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

(One note: *my* list is mostly books that almost made me cry.  I very rarely actually shed tears over books.)

1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  Fiction.  Teen Jewish girl narrator is shipped off to Siberia with her mom & younger brother to live in a Siberian work camp during WWII.

2. In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Enaiatollah Akbari.  Fiction based on a true story.  Young boy flees terrible hardship and abuse in multiple countries and grows up a refugee.  Heartbreaking what the boy goes through just to live.

3. Push by Sapphire.  Fiction.  Teen girl is raped and abused (mentally & physically) over and over and over and over again.

4. Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  Fiction.  Young boy is starting public school for the first time in fifth grade.  He has a facial deformity and that's rough but he's got such a good indomitable spirit and spunk to him.

5. The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  Fiction.  The couple's long, hard journey to having a child kind of tore me up.

6. Gerald's Game by Stephen King.  Fiction.  Oh, the absolute horror...  This is one book I came very, very, very close to DNFing.

7. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. Fiction.  Another one with a kid with a major disability to overcome.  I guess I have a soft spot for kids who have it extra rough in life, and who overcome the odds and make friends.

8. The Kid by Sapphire.  Fiction.  Young boy loses his mother at an early age and is being raised in a boys' home where he is sexually abused by the staff and where he himself becomes an abuser because he simply doesn't know any other way to show affection.  So.  Sad.  This is the follow-up to Push by Sapphire.

9. Room by Emma Donoghue.  Fiction.  As soon as you figure out where Jack and his mother are, your heart breaks.

10. Ripples by Lee Gilliland.  Non Fiction.  A girl and her sisters lose their father in a horrible car accident when they were young; mother remarries; the guy's a total jerk.  Made all the more emotional for me because I know the author personally.

What about you?  What books have made you cry?

I'm actually surprised that I could come up with 10.  I studiously avoid books that are billeted as books that'll make you cry.

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd | Book Review

(Great cover, but I'm not sure I "get it" in relation to the story.  After a couple weeks living in the jungle, especially after all the running around she does in the jungle, I'd think Juliet would be looking a little worse for wear.  The dress definitely wouldn't still be white.  But what do I know...)

Such a great book!  I would describe this as Stephen King for teens.  It was so well written, had a gripping plot that WILL. NOT. LET. YOU. GO., and was spine-tinglingly chilling thrilling.  I do not possess the wordsmithery to adequately describe it.

The Madman's Daughter is a re-telling of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells.  In Megan Shepherd's version, the tale is told from the point of view of Dr. Moreau's teenage daughter, who is traveling to the island to reconcile with her father.  See, a few years before, Juliet's father had disappeared and was assumed dead.  She and her mother fell a long way down the social ladder; her mother ends up dying and Juliet ends up a maid at the medical college where her father was once lauded a genius.  When she discovers that her father is, in fact, alive and well on an island she goes to see him and escape her hardships in London.  However, when she arrives on the island she soon finds that nothing is at it seems....

This book has everything you'd never expect to find smooshed together in one book: a madman, very questionable/objectionable medical experiments, a daring escape from a very isolated island, half-human/half-beast creatures forming a church, and a romantic triangle.  Yup.  ALL of that.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wanted a "clean" thriller.  Yeah, I know that sounds a bit oxymoronic.  It's a YA book without cussing or tender lovin' but with lots of scary keep-you-up-at-nightness.  Absolutely delightful.  I can't wait for the next book from Ms. Shepherd.