Top Ten Tuesday, as  always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Books When You Want Something Light & Fun

I realized, in looking through all the books I’ve read, that I read a lot of dark books apparently. I do think  I’ve gained a better balance lately in the past year or so with reading some light and fun ones to break up some of the heavier ones.  I did notice even in some of my “light and fun” picks they are still dealing with a semi serious life issue but the general feel is more light and fun.  Another interesting thing? Most of my light and fun picks are more romance-y.

1. The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E.Smith: This was so cute & romantic and I read it in one day.

2. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway: This was one of the most  fun books I’ve ever read — it made me laugh in a way that only Jessica Daring has succeeded.  Definitely a fun one  when you need something light and cute!

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins:  There  is some serious in  the book but overall  the feel is light and fun and romantic. Not complete fluff but it’s definitely one I reread when I need a pick-me-up.

4. Also Known  As by Robin Benway: What is more fun than a teenage spy! I could not stop smirking while reading this one. It made for a perfect gym read besides the fact I looked psychotic all smiley on the treadmill.

5. How My Summer Went Up In Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski: I  LIKED this one but didn’t love it but it was still something that was incredibly light and fun that I would recommend to people. Especially if you like road trip books. Despite some of my problems I can’t deny how absolutely fun this book was!

6. Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt: This was really sweet and fun and I read it in between two heavier books  and it was  PERFECT. Made me smile and I loved  the family aspect of this one!

7. All I Need by Susane Colasanti: This honestly was just a good read for me — not great — but it was light and fun and I wouldn’t hesitate to someone looking for something light and romancey even with some things that might be bothersome about it. It was one of the more lighter and fun reads I’ve read recently.

8. Over You by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus: This one was really fun as a honeymoon read and it was perfect because I needed something just fun and light. There are things about this one that I had to suspend my disbelief but it was just FUN and I didn’t need to think  much of.

9. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard: This is one of my favorite YA contemporaries and I think  that it has a lot of depth compared to the rest of the ones I’ve listed but it still is really fun and light. Definitely makes you think a bit but still not super heavy.

10.  Ten Things We Did  (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) by Sarah Mlynowski: This was FUN. A pretty outlandish plot, I’ll be honest, and my belief had to be suspended a few times but this was pretty light and fun despite some issues dealt with. The MC will irritate you and make you want to be like GIRL WISE UP! but I really enjoyed this one.

So tell me…what are some books you would recommend when I need something  light and fun?? I honestly never read many light and fun books before the past year or so.

Top Ten Tuesday, as  always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Words/Topics  That Make  Me  Instantly Pick A Book — it’s true. I have these trigger words/topics that make skip any of the rest of the summary if I catch wind of it. I CAN’T HELP IT.

Road Trip
Seriously, if there is any hit of a road trip I won’t even read the rest of the summary. I love a good road trip across country with the windows down and the music on. Road trips always equals shenanigans.

Paris
I can’t return to Paris anytime soon so anything that makes me relive the city, the accents and the French pastries and such makes me happy. Plus we know there is typically romance when it comes to Paris.

Grief
I’m a glutton for punishment apparently. I can’t help it but stories dealing with grief always call out to me — especially that of a MC losing a parent. They are always hard to deal with personally because a lot of things with my mom come surging back but they just always are a bit healing and validate some of the things I felt during that time when I felt crazy. It was grieving.

1920′s
I am fascinated with the 1920′s and any book that is set in the 20′s is a must for me — double bonus if it mentions flappers in the summary!

Parallel Lives

This is a new addition for me but all these upcoming releases I’ve seen SOO many parallel lives type stories and I KEEP ADDING THEM ALL. It’s always something that I was fascinated with as a child — what if there was another ME out there in a parallel world??

Summer Romance

Whatever. I’m a sucker for a summer romance what can I say! That is one time where you cannot deny insta-love! Summer romances are a whirlwind and they are fun and complicated and I LOVE THEM.

Music Themed
Anything that has a hint of a musical element in it is so up my alley as someone who feels so moved by music. I love talented YA characters playing music, I love playlists integrated into it, an MC who has a connection to music…ANYTHING.

Beach
I dream of plopping my butt on the beach all day long in the summer but unfortunately being an adult who has to work STINKS and does not allow for that every day so I’m always excited to read a book set at the beach!

Travel Abroad
Any hint of travel abroad makes me SO EXCITED. Like I say in my about me, I want to be everywhere I’m NOT and would love to be a nomadic wanderer all my life. I love travel stories because travel opens your eyes,  aids in self discovery and awareness of the world, there are always mishaps and adventures and it shows you what you are made of. Sometimes it kills me to be reading it and not experiencing it but WHATEVER. I want them all!

Offbeat
I don’t know but I have this penchant for things that are offbeat and quirky but in the real senses of the words. Sometimes quirky gets used in a way I don’t like but I love a lot of really offbeat and quirky films and other things so I snap those books right up though most of the time it just isn’t quite THERE for me.

Survival

I love any sort of survival story — the elements, the apocalypse, surviving a kidnapping, etc. I just love how fierce the human spirit is. I especially like those minimalistic worlds where people don’t have technology and such. Probably why I love The Walking Dead so much. I also love when they get to use swords. Is that weird? haha

“For Fans of Gayle Forman/Stephanie Perkins/John Green”

I can’t help it. When you namedrop some of my favorite authors I CANNOT HELP MYSELF. It also works if you compare it to a favorite book EVEN THOUGH I KNOW IT IS A MARKETING PLOY BECAUSE IT NEVER COMPARES. I’ve gotten burned SO BAD but never learn. It’s not so bad when they namedrop an author but when they do it with the book it never works out well for me.

Gothic
Gothic mysteries, thrillers or romances. YEP. I wants. I love how creepy and dark they can be in atmosphere. I always compare them to Rebecca, which none seem to surpass, but I’ve found  a few good ones!

So tell me…do any of these words or topics make you pick up a book? What things are insta-buys for you when you see it on the summary or blurb?

Top Ten Tuesday, as  always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like MORE or LESS

I totally thought I would enjoy all of these books MORE than I actually did. SAD FACE.

The Beginning of After was a highly anticipated read for me and, I can’t explain it, but I just read the summary and it sounded like very much a Jamie book. It was GOOD but it was not great or wonderful like I expected it to be.  Just never quite made it there for me though so many people I know loved it.

This was really sad for me because Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook was one of my most anticipated debuts for 2013. I mean, a YA Bonnie & Clyde type story? I was so game. Unfortunately I just wasn’t impressed which was a shame because I REALLY thought I was going to love this one.

When I first heard about Everything Is Going To Be Great I was STOKED — I love travelogues and from the description of this one I thought it was going to be my new favorite one because I just needed a story of a twenty something who also was trying to figure out this post-college real world like I was. There were definitely enjoyable moments but I really thought I was going to LOVE it and mostly it just wasn’t there.

I had followed Maureen Johnson for a while on Twitter and she is hilarious AND 13 Little Blue Envelopes promised European travel so it should have been a total Jamie book but I honestly never connected with it on the level I thought I would. It just stayed an ok to good read for me.

I was recommended the Uglies before I ever really got into reading YA much less YA dystopian. This had been highly recommended all around Goodreads but I just really didn’t care for it nor have the desire to pick up book 2.  SADS because Scott Westerfeld is pretty darn cool and lots of people loved this one.

I never thought I would have LOOOOOOVED these books in the way that I did.

I was CURIOUS about The Program by Suzanne Young  but honestly didn’t have high hopes for it because lately awesome premises have just seemed to fall flat for me and I thought it would hover in the “it was good/pretty entertaining but that’s it” category. This book honestly just had it all and I was INCREDIBLY surprised at how much I LOVED it to pieces. One of my favorite new series which is hilarious since I have been so anti-series and so over dystopians lately.

I ignored you all for so long.  I’m not a paranormal girl and angels? PSHH. I thought I was seriously going to not be a fan of the Unearthly series but I can’t even tell you how much I devoured it and LOVED it.

HAHA. I read Cinder by Marissa Meyer to pacify you all and also out of curiosity because all sorts of different readers were LOVING this one. I really thought I was not going to like this but I was easily swept  up in it and need to get my paws on Scarlet. CYBORGS = MORE AWESOME THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED.

Admittedly I’m a newbie to the fantasy realm and I honestly thought maybe I would ENJOY The Girl of Fire and Thorns but I absolutely devoured this book on my honeymoon and decided that I needed to explore the fantasy genre more if this was what I was going to get! Game changer for me! Could not believe I LOVED it like I did.

 I LIKED The Scorpio Races but didn’t love (I think reading it during a stressful period of wedding planning didn’t help it) so I really thought I’d feel the same about The Raven Boys – especially since the summary didn’t really sound AMAZING to me. I was blown away when suddenly I found myself reading this in a single day! It is totally NOT something I would have thought I would have loved by any means!

So tell me…have you read any of these books? Did you like them more or less than you thought? What are some of the most noteworthy books did you think you’d like more/less than you actually did.

Top Ten Tuesday, as  always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Tuesday FREEBIE so I picked Top Ten (YA) Books I Recommend The Most since I missed it two weeks ago (I think it was two weeks).

 I left out some pretty obvious ones like John Green, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Hunger Games because they are gimmes at this point. ALSO, I apologize for the too tiny font on the graphic. I was too tired to fix it after the fact. SORRRY.

Contemporary: If you guys have been a reader of this blog for  a while these are the TOP of my GO TO contemporary YA recs! I’m always shoving them on somebody.

Otherworldly: We’ve got the Unearthly series which is one of my favorite paranormal series EVER and I rarely read paranormal. Then Tiger Lily is an amazing fairytale retelling that wrecked me. Under the Never Sky is one of my favorite series right now in the science fiction/dystopian-ish genre. Book two was even better!!

Historical Fiction: These two books have made me cry harder than most books. Fantastic stories and I always recommend them to people even if they think they don’t read historical fiction OR even YA for that matter.

So tell me…are any of these books ones you’ve recommended a lot? Did I recommend any of these to YOU? Which books would you say you recommend the most?

Top Ten Tuesday, as  always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Started  Blogging In June  2010

 I read a lot differently before I started this blog (a topic which I’ll expand upon in a future Before & After) so this should be fun! I wasn’t really up in the YA scene and ones I read were only because I heard great things about them. I’ve started doing “Before  I Blogged I Read…” reviews so you’ll see some of these featured in that or have already seen them talked about.

Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden: God, I loved this book.  One of those where I had to pry myself out of it because I felt like I was so deeply embedded in the story and setting. I HIGHLY recommend this book — even if you typically only read YA I think you will love it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusack: OH MY GOSH. Everything about this book was just perfect for me — an unusual narrator, characters I could see vividly and love, a compelling plot and the ability to absolutely wreck me by the end. OH GOD. I can still remember staying up and bawling while reading it until 4am with very red eyes.

The Giver by Lois Lowry: A childhood favorite that I absolutely need to read again soon!

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen: Forever and always will be a favorite.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: I wasn’t really a YA reader but heard everyone in the world talk about this book and WOW. Since blogging I’ve had the pleasure to read more LHA and meet her and she is a fabulous author, person and champion for YA lit. A must read if you are just delving into YA lit. If you haven’t gotten to this one, it’s on sale for the Kindle as I write this!

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: I know a lot of people think JSF is pretentious or what not but I love what he writes and this book made me bawl and also laugh out loud. There are two storylines and Oskar’s is definitely the more compelling one for me. One of my all time faves!!

Love Is A Mixtape by Rob Sheffield: I just did a “Before I Blogged” review for this one last week so go check it out!

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: I read this one back in high school in 2004 (I think). A friend had given it to me and I didn’t even KNOW it was YA lit. It was just a book to me and then I read it and I was BLOWN away. I just recently saw the movie and I thought it was one of the best adaptations ever and captured how I felt perfectly.

Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: If you hate overly verbose books, step away from this one. BUT OMG can this man spin the words. I loved this book so much as well as his other book One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum: If you love historical fiction (esp that set in WWII) I highly recommend this. A beautiful and touching mother daughter story this one was. It’s one I recommend regardless if you read YA or Adult Fiction.

So tell me…have you read any of these? Are any on your TBR  list?

Top Ten Tuesday, as always, is hosted at my other blog — The Broke & the Bookish

This week’s topic: Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

So many books coming out this Spring as well as SO many books I just haven’t gotten to yet plus Summer releases I want to get a jump start on…trying to prioritize! I’m REALLY REALLY proud of myself because I read/am currently reading now (Cinder) 7/10 books on my Winter TBR list. I normally SUCK at sticking to a list but apparently this Winter I was totally feeling my picks!

1. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta: I know, I know. I need to get on this so I’m doing it this Spring so you can all stop telling me how much I need to read it.

2. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: Okay, technically this is not “long overdue” as it hasn’t been out that long BUT it’s long overdue considering all the raving I’ve heard about it and I’ve owned it for like 2 weeks already. MUST get to it soon.

3. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: Considering my love for Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to this one already and I think I’m finally ready. I’ve heard it was a tearjerker and I haven’t been sure I’m ready for it!

4. How To Save A Life by Sara Zarr: I loved Sweethearts when I read it last year and I need to get to this one finally PLUS it will give me something to read while I wait patiently for The Lucy Variations.

5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Eyre: In my attempt to work on my bookish resolution about reading more of the classics sitting on my shelf, I’ve picked this one!

6. The Program by Suzanne Young: I’m so excited to have just received this for review and to read with my book club next month so this is obviously on the top of my priority list!
7. A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty: I recieved this for review and am going to be part of an awesome promo for it! It’s one that I’ve been so excited about so YAY!
8. Golden by Jessi Kirby: This is high on my list because I love Jessi Kirby’s previous novels and she’s on my auto-buy list! I’ve heard this one is amazing and cannot wait to read it soon!
9. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith: My lovely friend Mitali let me borrow this one and I’m so stinking excited since I finally read The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight.
10. The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen: Obviously I bounced off the wall when this pretty thang came my way and Spring-time is the perfect time to read it to get in the mood for summer!

So tell me…