Top Ten Books That Were Hard To Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovelies over at The Broke and the Bookish



1.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
I just really really hated this book. I could not get into it for the life of me and my English teacher hated that I hated it. She thought it was the perfect book and thought I was crazy for not liking it. So much for being able to like what we want to, huh?


2.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
This one for obvious reasons. If you've read it you know what I'm talking about, if you haven't, read it then come join the club of people who were heartbroken after reading this book.

3.

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
I can't actually think of any other books that deal with incest. I was apprehensive about even picking up this book, but Tabitha Suzuma approached the subject with such eloquence that I wasn't reading the book and yelling "This is soo wrong!!!" the entire time...I actually got the other side of the story and why what happened happened. The ending was tough to get through though.

4.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Anne Frank is one of my favorite books. But I can't help that each time I pick it up to read it that something will change before the end and they'll make it out this time. That doesn't ever happen.

5.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Being the story of a little girl that was kidnapped and held captive against her will for years and years I think you can imagine why this was hard to read.

6.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
I can't say anything without spoiling the story, and if you haven't read it I don't want to do that...so just know this one gets hard. But I love it soo much.

7.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The things that Charlie has to deal with is incredible. All the while feeling like no one sees him, that no one cares enough to see him. It's a tough situation that just keeps getting tougher for him. And the things that come out about him in this book are deep. They just make you sit back and go "Oh, that's why he was acting like that." It's definitely a book that makes you realize you can't judge someone purely off what you think you see. There could always be underlying issues.

8.

Dear America: The Winter of Red Snow by Kristiana Gregory
This book gets very descriptive about what the soldiers and nurses went through during the Revolutionary War. It's very gruesome, but factual, so it was a bit tough to get through.


9.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Hold Still deals with suicide. Tough subject.

10.

Stay by Deb Caletti
This is the story of an abusive relationship. Coming from an abusive relationship myself, it kind of hits home.

What was on your list this week?

Music Monday {5} - Country Songs for Fall vl. 1

Fall is my favorite time of year.

It's just kind of perfect. 

Road Trips. All the colors. Flannel. Boots. Wrapped up in blankets by bonfires. Hikes. Being able to see your breath in the morning. Night drives with the windows down feeling the cool air blow through your hair.

Here are a couple of my favorite songs that just put me in the mood for a drive through the hillcountry with the windows down.

Kissin' in the Tail Lights by Shane Lee

Don't You Wanna Fall by Frankie Ballard

Close Your Eyes by Parmalee

Silverado Bench Seat by Granger Smith

Always the Love Songs by Eli Young Band

This is probably just the first of many Fall lists as I have many many songs that I love, and love even more when played at this time of year.

Top Ten To-Be-Read Books for Fall

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovelies over at The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is the 10 books that are on my to-be-read list this Fall.

1.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

I try to read this book every Fall/Winter and then watch the movie so it's definitely on my list for this year.

2.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

Since everyone cannot believe that I haven't read past the first Harry Potter book I've finally decided to move forward with the series and read the second in the very near future.

3.

The Merciless by Danielle Vega

I have been waiting to read this book for what feels like forever. It sounds like the perfect Halloween read.

My library FINALLY emailed me and told me that they have ordered a few copies so hopefully they'll be in soon!

4.

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

I LOVED The 5th Wave so I cannot wait to get my hands on this book.

5.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

I'm in the middle of reading The Maze Runner right now, but I went and saw the movie yesterday and was BLOWN AWAY. I did not expect to enjoy it that much.

Why can't all book to movie adaptions be like that????

Anyways, the ending left me hangin and I cannot wait to finish the first book so I can move onto this one.

6.

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

So excited for this one!!

I want to read it so badly, it's sitting on my shelf ready to go...but I don't want these books to end yet!

7.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I've been wanting to read Gone Girl for a while now but I just haven't gotten to it. The movie looks really good and the previews have me very very intrigued. This one is a must before the movie releases this Fall.

8.

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

I started reading this one and it is sooo good so far. But I know Nicholas Sparks is notorious for killing someone off in his books and I'm really nervous who is going to die in this one so I stopped reading it. This Fall I am determined to finish it.

9.

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy is a favorite series of mine but I've put off reading Bloodlines for fear that it won't live up to the VA, but I've seen so many good things about it that I'm going to give it a shot.

10.

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I love love loved the first book and I've been dying to dig into this one. I believe this Fall will prove to be the opportune time to get to it.

What's on your list this week? What book do you think I should get into first?

Music Monday {4} - Into the Wild Edition

 If you were to ask me what some of my favorite books are, Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer would probably be the first one to pop into my head.

If you were to ask me what some of my favorite movies are, Into The Wild (screenplay and directed by Sean Penn) would be one of the first to pop into my head.

The story of Chris McCandless is a fascinating one. Even though we were a couple generations apart in age, we share a lot of the same views on life and a lot of the things he did I would love to do.

I'd like to think if he were still here and we somehow met we'd be friends.

With that said, if you've never seen the movie, you probably don't know how incredible the sound track is.

Well, for this Music Monday I am here to share with you a few of the beautiful songs that were made for the movie. It was actually Eddie Vedder's (lead singer of Pearl Jam) first solo album.

This music. Perfect. 

It doesn't get Eddie Vedder than this (:D see what I did there?)

I've been craving a reread of the book and a rewatch of the movie (yet, again) but I am already in the middle of a couple other books at the moment. So sharing these with you will do for now :)

Top Ten Authors I've Only Read Once, But Want To Read More.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovelies over at The Broke and the Bookish



With all the books I have piling up on my shelves and on my Kindle, sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to finish a series or read another book by an author I really enjoyed.
Creating this list really made me want to jump back into these author's work!

1.
J. K. Rowling

Yep, I'm one of those rare people that hasn't read the entire Harry Potter series. I really did enjoy the first book in the series, so I can't wait to read more. And maybe one day I'll give her adult books a try.

2.
Lauren DeStefano

I read the first book in the Chemical Garden series back in 2011 right around the time it was released. I really enjoyed Lauren's storytelling style so I couldn't wait to get the next one...I have it. Just haven't read it. And now she has other series that sound fantastic that I want to read. I really need to get caught up on my DeStefano books.

3.
Beth Revis

Beth Revis made me fall for her stories with Across the Universe. It was the very first ARC I'd ever received and I could not wait to read it. I devoured the book. That's where that stopped. Now I realize I've been missing the rest of her space story in my life.

4.
Michelle Hodkin

I can't believe I'm actually saying this one. Michelle Hodkin was a mean and twisted person ending The Unbecoming the way she did. So now I've been dying to find out how things end for a while. This one I've purposely been avoiding though. I've been waiting for Retribution to come out so I can binge read the 2nd and 3rd books.

5.
Leigh Bardugo

The Grisha Trilogy is hot right now! Everywhere I look people seem to be talking about it. Shadow and Bone was fantastic. It was such an interesting and new fantasy story. I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague...so I really need to get around the other books soon.

6.
Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink was such a pleasant surprise. Can I have more by Mindy like now please?

7.
Alexandra Bracken

Just thinking about The Darkest Minds makes me really happy. Never Fade is coming up on my TBR list and I cannot wait to get to it. I also really want to read Brightly Woven by Alexandra and her new series that will be coming out in 2015.

8.
Kasie West

I've heard really good things about Kasie's contemps so I really would like to give them a shot.

9.
Rick Yancey

This was another story that took me by surprise and I love the way Rick executed it. Definitely looking forward to something else by him.

10.
Madeleine L'Engle

I've only read A Wrinkle in Time from this series, but I cannot wait to see what happens in the other books.


What about you? What books have you read that you want more from that author? Any from my list?
Have a great week, readers!

Top Ten Underrated Books or Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovelies over at The Broke and the Bookish



This weeks Top Ten Tuesday proved to be a bit difficult for me. I haven't done much reading in the past 6 months so I'm not on top of new releases...and I'm not on top of what books have what kind of reviews so I don't realllly know what is really truly underrated. All I'm going off of are books that I've read that I think people should read and soon. Also, it was set up to do this week by genre....but I read way too many different genres so I'll just be picking random books from all genres.

1.


Pivot Point by Kasie West
I loved this book a lot. It had such great story telling. I thought it was going to be difficult to keep up with the same girl but from two different story lines but it wasn't. Kasie West is genius.

2.


The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
I guess this one would actually be popular since it's being made into a movie, but I don't care. I wanted something dark and different when I picked up this book and it satisfied both of those things.
It was a great alien book.

3.


My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking
Sure I realize a lot of people claimed these stories to be Twilight knockoffs, but I think more people know Amanda Hocking for her newer books. I love this older indie series though. She selfpublished it so when I read it the writing was a little choppy and there were grammatical errors but I'm sure by now she has fixed all that. This was just a good series. I wish she would finish and put out the last one.

4.


Sign of the Crescent by Debbie Federici
It's been 4 years now since I've read this one but I remember really enjoying it and being very intrigued by the story. It was definitely an under the radar kind of book though. I picked it up at the bookstore on a whim one day. I'm pretty sure it had an open ending and I really wanted a sequel to be written because the story could have gone down a very dark path but as far as I know there hasn't been one written.

5.


Stolen by Lucy Christopher
I thoroughly enjoy stories about Stockholm Syndrome and this one was just so beautiful.

6.


A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies
I didn't really get into angel books when they were flooding the YA scene, but this one I loved. A lot. But I think since there were so many at the time that it came out that people just kind of passed over it.

7.


Dark Parties by Sara Grant
This was a really good dystopian but again, like with A Beautiful Dark, it came out when dystopians were flooding the market and I think it just got passed over.

8.


The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
I just loved this book. So so much. So everyone should read it.

9.


Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
This is my favorite book. I know a lot of people have read it, so if you have, read it again. It gets better every time. If you haven't read it, you should.

10.


Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
I liked the take on this book but it didn't seem to have the boom in the YA market that I thought it would.

There's my list for the week. What books made yours?

Top Ten Characters At My Lunch Table

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovelies over at The Broke and the Bookish

A little fact about me: I was homeschooled. Most of my classes were done at home until I reached highschool and I started going to a co-op once a week to take classes that my mom wasn't comfortable teaching, like foreign languages, higher levels of math, etc. At the co-op we had a cafeteria but some kids only went for one class in the morning or evening so we weren't there consistently all day to have a set lunch period. I usually showed up at 8:30 and left at 3 because of how many classes I took, but I had a hour and a half break for lunch. So I never really had that 'cafeteria experience'.

This Top Ten Tuesday is fun for me because I get to pretend for a little bit I'm getting to hang out with some of my favorite characters doing something I've never done before.

So let's meet some of the characters I would like to have at my lunch table.

1.

Bilbo Baggins

From Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

I rather like going on adventures. I think Bilbo would be a fun one to sit with. We could go on adventures together of he could tell me all about his.

2.

Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp

 From Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

So I know this is technically stretching it as Chris McCandless was a real person...but I love this book almost more than any other and I'm pretty sure had Chris and I gone to school at the same time we would have ended up as best friends. Most of the journeys he went on sound incredible and life changing, and we share a lot of the same beliefs about life. So I'm picking him.

3.

Puck 

From The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

Puck is sassy and a trouble maker. I like that. It would make lunch fun.

4.

Rose Hathaway

From The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

 

Another sassy and funny one, just like Puck. I like my table to have copious amounts of humor and sass.

5.

Peter Townsend

From My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

He'd be the brooding, quiet, good looking one.

6.

Audrey

From Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Audrey and I would be able to share tunes with one another.

7.

Belly & Conrad

From The Summer Series by Jenny Han

I have always found Belly and Conrad to be two of the most interesting characters. They are so different yet so similar and both are so intriguing. They would definitely add depth to the table.

8.

Neville Longbottom 

From The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

I adore Neville. He would help keep us out of trouble (because we all know how good Neville is at standing up to his friends). And he's just incredibly adorable.

9.

Luna Lovegood 

From The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

I love Luna. I want her and her craziness at my table.

10.

Gemma, Ann, Felicity, and Pippa

From The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray

Can you see the pattern in me liking adventurers? Cause I do. And these girls were dreamers and adventures so it would be a must that they are at my table.

So there are just some of the characters I would like to sit at my table at lunch. There are so many more that I could add to this list, but alas, my table is already more than full.

What about you, what characters would you have at your table?