Top Ten Tuesday #121

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good weekend, mine was relatively quiet, but when you’re reading this I’ll be with my friend Nicola celebrating her birthday, so that should be pretty fun! Anyway, another Tuesday means another Top Ten, courtesy of the lovely ladies over at The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s prompt is a Back To School based freebie and since I’m going to be returning to Uni in a few weeks, I figured the perfect prompt to do for this week is Top Ten Best Books I’ve Read In My First Two Years of Uni. For this, I’m only counting books I’ve read in the Uni year, so only books from Sept 2015-May 2016 and Sept 2016-May 2017, basically nothing that I’ve read over the summer as that’s not part of the Uni year. So here we go, the best books I’ve read at Uni in the past two years:

1. A Conjuring of Light-VE Schwab

My absolute favourite book of this year, this was such a perfect finale to the Shades of Magic series and definitely one of the best books I’ve read at Uni! Any book that can get me through a five hour train journey and make it seem like nothing at all is definitely something special.

2. The Raven King-Maggie Stiefvater

I have such fond memories of sitting out in the sun reading this book at the end of first year! I was utterly captivated by the magical conclusion to The Raven Cycle, I sat reading for hours and hours and lost all sense of time and place, only the very best books allow you to do that.

3. Rebel of The Sands-Alwyn Hamilton

Okay so I actually read most of this during the mid semester break from Uni, but it’s still part of the semester so it counts! It’s such an action packed, thrilling story, again it was perfect to read on the long journey back from Peterborough to Stirling.

4. A Court of Mist and Fury-Sarah J Maas

Diving into one of Sarah J Maas’ epic tomes was a great relief from the stress of exam week! I wasn’t expecting to love this one as much as I did as I was kind of ambivalent about the first book of the series, but this was a big step up.

5. Timekeeper-Tara Sim

I spent my mid semester break of second year in Tara Sim’s steampunk world, with my adorable boys Danny and Colton and I can’t wait to go back there in November when Chainbreaker releases!

6. The Assassin’s Blade-Sarah J Maas

I read this book in the autumn semester of my first year and it broke me but in all the best possible ways. If you haven’t read this collection of novellas yet, then do, it will give you a whole new insight into Celaena as a character.

7. Code Name Verity-Elizabeth Wein

This book is honestly one of the most beautiful and heartwrenching tales of friendship I’ve ever read. Yes it’s a book about WWII but at the heart of it is this friendship of these two amazing powerful women in a time when women were still considered to be very much secondary to men and it honestly gives me life reading about amazing women doing amazing things!

8. Daughter of The Pirate King-Tricia Levenseller

This was honestly just such a fun piratey romp, it was a great end of semester read for me this year.

9. Caraval-Stephanie Garber

It took me a while to get into, but once I was, I loved everything about this vivid, magical world, the writing was gorgeous, the game was mysterious, it was just so much fun to read.

10. The Crown’s Game

The Russian setting, the food, the characters, the world building, the writing, aside from the romance and the slow pace at the start, this book was awesome! Plus I can basically forgive anything if there’s a masquerade.

11. Empire of Storms-Sarah J Maas

Yet another Sarah J Maas book that completely crushed my feels! I can’t believe we won’t know if Aelin’s going to be okay until next year!

12. The Dark Prophecy-Rick Riordan

I loved The Hammer of Thor too and actually gave it a slightly higher rating, but I’m going with this one  as Apollo is completely hilarious and I love him so much, plus I flew through it in like a week.

13. Ink and Bone-Rachel Caine

The whole concept of this book is so awesome, and the world building was so fantastic, plus yay for older LGBTQ+ characters being together and happy!

14. Challenger Deep-Neal Shusterman

This heartbreaking, unflinching look at schizophrenia is such a beautiful story, it’s by no means an easy read but it’s definitely a necessary one.

15. Small Great Things-Jodi Picoult

In the current political climate, this book is definitely a must read. It’s not an easy one, but I definitely came out of it feeling like I’d learned something.

That’s all I have for this week! I have read so many amazing books since starting University, if I’d included books I’d read over my summer breaks, this list would have been twice as long. Any one out there also at Uni? What are the best books you’ve read since starting Uni? Or what were your favourite books when you were a late teen-young twenty something? Have you read any of these? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

I will have another new TTT for you next week, the topic is another freebie of sorts, Ten Hidden Gem Books In X Genre, so I will of course be doing Hidden Gems In The Fantasy Genre. In the meantime, I have some discussion posts up my sleeve for the next week, so stay tuned for that!

Top Ten Tuesday #120

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good weekend, mine was pretty cool, I got to go and see Mamma Mia with my friend Ellie on Saturday, it was so much fun! However this week I’ve had to start packing to go back to Uni, so not so much fun, as I loathe packing! Anyway, it’s Tuesday, which means another Top Ten Tuesday prompt and this week, the lovely ladies from the Broke and The Bookish have rejoined us, with official prompts once again, can I get a hooray? The first prompt of their return is Top Ten Recommendations For X. I’ll be honest, I was struggling to decide what to fill X with because I always do Fantasy and end up recommending the same ten books, I wanted to do something different this time, so I’ve decided to do Top Ten Recommendations For Those Who Like Books Without Romance. This might be a tricky one to do, but as a reader who frequently grows weary of the fact that every YA book has to have romance in it, I feel like I should share some of the gems I’ve found that show you don’t have to have romance to be a good YA book. So here we go:

1. Code Name Verity-Elizabeth Wein

If you like female friendship and women generally being awesome, then Maddie and Verity’s story is definitely the one for you. It has female pilots, female spies, an unreliable narrator and absolutely not even a whiff of romance.

2. This Savage Song-Victoria Schwab

Whilst not my favourite of Schwab’s books, this story about humans and monsters and the blurred lines between the two is still pretty darn engaging, and the main characters are a boy and a girl with a platonic friendship. Platonic male/female friendships people! It can be done!

3. Challenger Deep-Neal Shusterman

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking story about mental illness, and the book is entirely focused on Caden and his journey, there’s no romance angle because the book simply doesn’t need it.

4. The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

Sure, there are inklings of first love between Liesel and Rudy, but they’re pretty tame and honestly the book is more about family and war and friendship and death than it is about romance!

5. Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer-Rick Riordan

The second book dives a little bit more into the romance plotline, but this book is all about the action, there is no love interest for Magnus, he is simply trying to stop the end of the world with his best friends, one of whom is a girl and they have a totally platonic relationship and it’s awesome and can we have more of this please?

6. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

The second and third books in the trilogy do delve deeper into the romantic storyline (which I actually liked because it was done well and the characters have a real connection. I feel like I rant about romance so much that people don’t know that I actually do like it when it’s done well, I just don’t think it’s always necessary), but this first book, has no real discernible romance to speak of, Kell and Lila are just friends, there is the occasional kiss but it doesn’t go further than that, it’s all about the action!

7. Skulduggery Pleasant-Derek Landy

There is romance later on in the series (isn’t that always the way?) but in this first book, Valkyrie is 12, and just diving into the world of magic, so it’s all about her and Skulduggery’s friendship and her discovering magic and learning to be a detective and no romance to be seen! In fact the entire series is pretty light on the romance in general, it’s only really in the later books that there is any kind of romance and even then it’s pretty light, so if you’re someone who prefers action and magic and friendship to romance, I would definitely recommend this series.

8. Artemis Fowl-Eoin Colfer

I think there might be a smidge of romance or at least hints towards it in the later books, but that was around books 6-8 in the series and really isn’t that prominent at all, in the first book and for most of the series, there is no romance whatsoever, it’s all about Artemis being a criminal mastermind and him and Holly Short working together to bring down the bad guys, in a platonic relationship, she actually kind of hates him at first (which is fair enough since he kidnaps her in the first book). If you like books with criminal masterminds, antiheroes who redeem themselves, and all variety of magical creatures and basically no romance, then this series is definitely one for you.

9. Asking For It-Louise O’Neill

No romance whatsoever in this one cause you know, RAPE IS NOT ROMANTIC PEOPLE (I get very tired of non consensual sex being portrayed as romantic as you can probably tell). It’s a very important story about consent and slut shaming and sexism and rape culture and I think it’s a book that all teenage girls (and boys too) should read.

10. A Series of Unfortunate Events-Lemony Snicket

It’s been a long time since I’ve read these books, so I can’t remember if there might have been some hints of romance towards the end of the series, but for the most part, the Baudelaire kids are far too busy evading Count Olaf, trying not to die and getting into one scrape after another to have any degree of romance.

That’s all I have for this week, it was hard to even come up with ten books that had little or no romance in them! Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite books with little to no romance in them? Let me know in the comments!

I will have a new TTT for you guys next week, as Broke and The Bookish are back to their regularly scheduled topics, no more scrambling to come up with topics, yay! Next week is a Back To School Freebie, so you’ll have to wait and see what Back To School related topic I choose! In the meantime, I have a discussion post that I’m hoping to get up at some point this week, so stay tuned for that.

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday #119

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week last week, mine was quiet for the most part, but I did get to spend the weekend in Amsterdam celebrating my sister’s birthday which was nice. I’m also going to see Mamma Mia in London on Saturday as an early 21st birthday celebration (my birthday is in about a month’s time), with one of my best friends, so I’m really excited about that! I’m back with my final makeshift TTT topic before the official Broke and Bookish prompts return next week (is it just me or did that six weeks go really quickly?). Anyway, this week I’ve decided to do Top Ten Older Books I Don’t Want People To Forget About, as I think as bloggers we do have a tendency to focus more on the shiny new pretties and forget about some of the amazing older books there are out there, so I’m going to talk about some of my favourites today! Here we go (these will all be books published more than 5 years ago):

1. Noughts and Crosses-Malorie Blackman-First published 2001

Malorie Blackman’s dystopia about an alternate society where the dark skinned Crosses are in charge and treat the pale skinned Noughts as second class citizens, is even more important now in the current political climate. It’s such a powerful story about love and race and prejudice and it was one of my favourites when I was an actual YA (I first read it when I was about 13 and have devoured it again several times since).

2. Ballet Shoes-Noel Streatfeild-First published 1936

Yup a really old one! This was one of my favourite books as a child, it’s such a lovely story, not just about dance, but also choosing your own family and discovering who you are. Years later and I still really love the Fossil sisters!

3. Unwind-Neal Shusterman-First published 2007

I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily know about this one or remember it because it was published before The Hunger Games started the massive craze of YA dystopias. It’s an amazing, thought provoking, kind of creepy book set in a dystopian world the likes of which I’ve never read before, it’s such a unique concept, the whole kids being taken apart whilst alive in order to provide organs thing. Definitely read this one, you won’t regret it!

4. Blind Beauty-KM Peyton-First published 2001

No, it’s not like Black Beauty. It’s the story of Tessa, a troubled young girl and her horse Buffoon and the love they have for each other and the obstacles they overcome together. It’s such a beautiful story and again was one of my favourite books when I was an actual YA.

5. Pure-Julianna Baggott-First published 2012

This is a book that I feel may have been lost in the haze of YA dystopias, but it’s a very dark and gritty dystopian, set in this post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear apocalypse that has left most people with strange fusings and only the lucky few who were taken into “The Dome” are Pure, ie have no fusings. It’s a really cool world and a great concept and I feel like it’s often overlooked or not really heard about.

6. Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants-Ann Brashares-First published 2001

This was another of my favourite YAs when I was a teen, and if teens today aren’t reading this beautiful story of female friendship then they are definitely missing out on something.

7. The Heartland Series-Lauren Brooke-First Published from 2000-2003

These books were among my favourites when I was a pre-teen/in my early teens, I completely devoured any and all stories about horses and these books about Amy and her family and how she healed troubled horses were definitely ones I loved to read. I now love the TV series even more than I loved the books.

8. Artemis Fowl Series-Eoin Colfer-First Published from 2003-2012

I never hear anyone talking about these awesome middle grade fantasies which is such a shame! They’re so much fun and have one of the best anti-heroes I’ve ever read. It’s all fairies and pixies and centaurs and elves, it’s a classic type of fantasy story, which I just love and don’t think there’s enough of nowadays!

9. Between Shades of Grey-Ruta Sepetys-First Published 2011

I know Salt To The Sea was a big hit last year but I don’t want people to forget about her first book, Between Shades of Grey, it’s a beautiful, harrowing story about a family under Stalin’s deportations, and the sorrow but also the amazing strength and hope of people in that time.

10. The Roman Mysteries Series-Caroline Lawrence-First published 2001-2009

I never actually read the entirety of this series, I think I got to about 10 of 17, it just got impossible to find them after about the 10th book. I used to love them though, I would get them from the library every week when I went there and own a couple of my favourites from the series. I’m probably a little old to finish the series now, but I did love these when I was younger and would encourage any young reader interested in History to give them a try.

That’s all I have for this week, I’m going to be good and just stick to ten! Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite older books? Let me know in the comments!

I will have a new TTT for you guys next week, when the Broke and the Bookish girls return officially with new topics! The first topic back is Ten Recommendations for……..X, I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to use in place of the X, so you’ll just have to wait until next week to see. In the meantime, I have lots more planned for this week, so stay tuned!

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday #118

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week, I had an amazing weekend meeting authors at YALC and I’m already so excited to go back again next year (although not gonna lie, slightly bummed I missed the many Benedict Cumberbatch sightings!). Now to read all the books I acquired there! I’m back with another makeshift TTT topic whilst the Broke and Bookish girls are on hiatus (only two more weeks to go until topics officially resume!). I had initially planned on doing a different topic this week, but after YALC, I decided I wanted to do something else. I realised that since I did my first “authors I want to meet TTT” all the way back when I first started doing these two years ago (yup all that time ago!), I’ve actually met quite a few of the authors on that list and have read books by other authors who I’d really like to meet, so I thought I’d do an updated list for you guys that is accurate for the authors that 2017 Jo would love to meet. So here we go:

1. JK Rowling

Yup number one is still the same! I know this is a complete long shot and would probably never happen but if I ever got the chance to meet JK Rowling I would be the happiest person ever (never mind that I’d likely not be able to speak in front of her because I’d be so gobsmacked).

2. Rick Riordan

Also still on the list from last time, the guy is one of my favourite authors but unless I suddenly become a millionaire and can afford to go to the US for one of his tours, it’s unlikely to happen. I have hope that maybe one day he’ll make it to the UK? Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I have to have hope.

3. Ruta Sepetys

I don’t think I’d read any of her books when I first did this topic, but since then I have read Between Shades of Grey and Salt To The Sea and really enjoyed both of them, and I’d love to meet her and ask her about the research she does for her books as she always does historical fiction based around lesser known events, so it would be interesting to know how she researches those.

4. Rachel Caine

I’ve really enjoyed The Great Library series so far (so looking forward to reading the third book), so I’d love to get to meet the author and ask her questions about the world and characters and everything, it’s such a unique and inventive series and I’d love to know where she gets her ideas from!

5. Neal Shusterman

He was on my list last time as well, but I’m such a big Unwind fangirl that I would just love to meet him! As far as I can see he’s never come over to the UK (I would have been ON IT if he had been) but I hope that one day he does!

6. Abigail Haas

If only because I need to flail over how much I’m still shaken from that Dangerous Girls ending!

7. Eoin Colfer

I loved Artemis Fowl when I was a young teenager and I would love to be able to meet the author and tell him how much I enjoyed his books and how much I loved Artemis!

8. Tara Sim

So I could flail to her about how cute I find Danny and Colton and how much I love her alternate steampunk clock towered powered world!

9. Ally Carter

I love the Heist Society books and I almost had the chance to meet Ally Carter a few years ago but I wasn’t able to make it down to her signing in London and she hasn’t been back since as far as I know! Hopefully she makes a return visit some time soon!

10. James Dashner

I really enjoyed The Maze Runner when I read them, so it would be great to get a chance to meet the author!

11. Carmen Reid

Her book Cross My Heart is one of my absolute favourites, so it would be great to get the chance to meet her.

12. Julianna Baggott

I absolutely loved the Pure trilogy when I read it, so it would be amazing to have the chance to meet this author and find out how she came up with the disturbing world of that trilogy.

13. Stephanie Garber

I really loved Caraval and Stephanie is so lovely on Twitter, it would be awesome to get the chance to meet her. Sadly I missed her at her UK tour stops this year, but hopefully when the second Caraval is released next year, I’ll actually be able to make it to one.

14. Evelyn Skye

I loved The Crown’s Game, so it would be great to get to meet the author in person, she seems lovely from what I’ve seen of her on Twitter.

That’s all I have for this week! Have you met any of these authors? Would you like to? What authors are at the top of your to meet list? Let me know in the comments!

I will have a new TTT next week, the last of these improvised posts before the regular prompts return (yay!), where I’ll be talking about my Top Ten Older Books That I Don’t Want People To Forget About. In the meantime, I have other posts planned for the rest of this week, so stay tuned!

Top Ten Tuesday #117

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week, mine has been pretty quite really, but we have YALC coming up this weekend, so I’m so excited for that! I can’t wait for all the books! As usual, I am back with another of my makeshift TTT topics whilst the Broke and Bookish girls are on hiatus (only 3 more weeks to go until topics officially resume!). This week, I’m going to be talking about books that I feel everyone has read but me, which should be pretty straightforward, seeing as I haven’t read all the books of ever! So here we go, my list of shame (or not so much depending on the book):

1. Twilight-Stephanie Meyer

I was only 10 or 11 when this book first came out so I was a little young for it when all of the hype was going around about it and then when I got older, I decided it just wasn’t my thing. I’m not really big into vampires at the best of times, but make them sparkly? Ugh no thank you! I think it’s safe to say I will never be reading this one.

2. Six of Crows duology/Grisha Trilogy-Leigh Bardugo

I’m lumping these two series together as they are the same author and same universe. I’ve heard so much about Leigh Bardugo and how brilliant her books are, but I just haven’t got around to reading them yet.

3. The Lord of The Rings-JRR Tolkein

Yes, yes I know, I’m a fantasy lover who hasn’t read these books, I should hang my head in shame or burrow in a hole and never come out. Okay it’s confession time *deep breath*, I’ve never actually had any interest in reading this book? I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s just never appealed to me?

4. Game of Thrones-George RR Martin

I’ve caught up with the TV show now, so I don’t feel quite as bad, but I still have never read the books. And if I’m being honest? I don’t plan to. They’re so huge and I’m not the fastest reader in the world, so I’d rather read other books and just keep watching the TV show for this one. Plus I don’t really like reading books that have TV shows based on them after seeing the show?

5. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen

Okay yet another potentially unpopular opinion here, I don’t really see what the big deal is about this book? It sounds super boring to me and honestly, there’s no reason why I feel I should pick it up when I know I’m likely to be bored and I hate classics anyway.

6.  The Mortal Instruments-Cassandra Clare

I know there is a huge fandom out there for Cassandra Clare’s books, and two of my friends love them, but I’ve never really seen the appeal? I don’t know, Paranormal fantasy isn’t exactly my favourite and whenever I see these books in bookshops I just don’t feel the urge to get them? I think it’s another one of those, it’s not the book, it’s me.

7. Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda-Becky Albertalli

Everyone in the blogosphere seems to have read and loved this book, and I feel like I should have too, only again, it doesn’t really appeal to me? I’ve heard it’s very cute and that’s fine and everything but I don’t really do cute? And it seems like it’s mostly centred around romance and that is a big no-no to me.

8. The Hate U Give-Angie Thomas

Everyone has been raving about this book since it’s release, but again, it just doesn’t really appeal to me? Maybe it’s just because everyone is telling me I should read it and therefore that makes it instantly unappealing because I feel like I’m bound to be the one black sheep that doesn’t like it? I don’t know what it is, but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to pick this one up anytime soon.

9. When Dimple Met Rishi-Sandyha Menon

Another 2017 release that everyone has been raving about that just doesn’t appeal to me. Again it seems like the main focus of this book is a cute contemporary romance and whilst that may be for some people, it just isn’t for me, I don’t really like books where the majority of the plot is based around a romance.

10. All The Bright Places-Jennifer Niven

This book was everywhere when it came out and everyone seemed to love it, but again it never appealed to me. It just sounded really sad and once again very romance focused, so it was never something that I wanted to pick up.

11. Anna and The French Kiss-Stephanie Perkins

Everyone in the blogosphere raves about this book and how adorable it is. That’s all well and good, but I think if we’ve established anything in this post, it’s that I’m not really one for “adorable”. It just doesn’t appeal to me at all, whilst I love Paris, I have no intention of reading a Parisian romance.

12. An Ember in The Ashes-Sabaa Tahir

I’ve heard so many amazing things about this book and I swear I really want to read it because it sounds so good, I just haven’t got around to it yet! One day!

13. The Girl on The Train-Paula Hawkins

I keep meaning to read this one, but then I get distracted with all the pretty fantasies and read those instead. I will read this one day, I swear!

14. Fangirl-Rainbow Rowell

YES, YES, I know, I know. Everyone loves this book and I still haven’t read it, it’s not even on my TBR. I don’t even really know why I haven’t read it, I am a massive fangirl and would probably be able to relate to Cath but again, it’s a case of fear of the cute contemporary! Apparently I like reducing myself to a puddle and steering clear of books that might make me happy!

15. The Handmaid’s Tale-Magaret Atwood

Again, this book has never really appealed to me? I tend to avoid anything labelled as a classic, because they usually wind up disappointing me. I tried to watch the series but I found it kind of confusing and weird. I don’t know, maybe I’ll read this at some point, but I doubt it.

16. The Great Gatsby-F Scott Fitzgerald

Yup. Another one for the classics pile of shame. Do you know what’s even more shameful? After watching the movie, I can with confidence say that I doubt this book is for me and will probably never read it.

17. 1984-George Orwell

And the fear of classics strikes again! Honestly if a book ever appears on one of those awful “Books Everyone Should Read Before They Die” lists, then the likelihood that I won’t read it multiplies by like a thousand!

18. If I Stay-Gayle Foreman

I’ve heard so much about this book and even watched the movie but I’ve never read it. To be honest, I’m not sure I will now, because I hardly ever read books after I’ve seen the movie, but it is still on my Goodreads TBR, so we’ll see!

19. Me Before You-Jojo Moyes

I’ve seen the movie, but not read the book and like I said above, I don’t usually read the book after having seen the movie. I liked the movie, but I feel like this is one of those times where I’d like the movie, but wouldn’t be so keen on the book as I tend to enjoy romance more in movies than in books.

20. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before-Jenny Han

This book has been everywhere what with the movie news coming out in the last few days, but again I’m not really sure it’s for me. Cute contemporary romances and I don’t really go together!

That’s all I have for this week, I could have done way more believe me, but I thought why extend the list of shame any longer? Have you read any of these? What books are on your list of shame? Let me know in the comments!

I will have a new TTT next week, the second to last of these improvised posts, all about books I would give people who say they don’t like to read. In the meantime, I have several posts planned for the next few days, so stay tuned for them!

 

Top Ten Tuesday #116

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week, mine has been relatively quiet really, I’ve been catching up on Game of Thrones over the past two weeks (whilst I have a free NowTV trial), and have just started Season 5. I think it’s safe to say that I am officially addicted, but dodging spoilers for S7 whilst I catch up is gonna be hard!

Anyway, as usual, I am back with another one of my makeshift Top Ten Tuesday topics whilst the Broke and the Bookish ladies are on hiatus (congrats to Jamie who just had her baby!). This week I’m going to be talking about Book To Movie/TV Adaptations and the ones that are *takes deep breath* better than the book, because there are some out there (very few, but some). So here we go, the Top Ten Movie/TV Adaptations that are better than their source material:

1. The Perks of Being A Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky

Okay confession time, I actually saw the movie before I read the book for this one (I saw the movie in the cinema when it was released and only read the book this year) but I still think the movie is better. I wasn’t all that keen on the epistolary format of the book and the movie manages to flesh out all of the characters better than the book did I think. The movie is pretty close to the book anyway, but I felt just that bit better because it wasn’t confined to the letter writing format of the book.

2. The Maze Runner-James Dashner

The Maze Runner is one of those books that I feel like just works better on the screen. It’s such a cinematic, visual type book that when you see it on the screen, you feel like that’s how the story was meant to be seen. Unfortunately the second movie was not so good, but I have high hopes for the third!

3. PS I Love You-Cecilia Ahern

I think this is one of those cases where I preferred the movie simply because I’m not that keen on romance centred books but I can manage (and okay, quite enjoy) romance centred movies. Okay Gerard Butler’s Irish accent could be a little better, but overall, I found this movie a lot more enjoyable than the book it is based on.

4. Heartland-Lauren Brooke

The CBC TV adapatation of Lauren Brooke’s books is amazing! By this point (and for a long time really), they’re telling their own story simply using the characters from the books and it doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the books at all, but it keeps the heart and feel of the books whilst also developing the characters far beyond their book counterparts. I loved the books when I was a kid, but I love the TV show even more now!

5. The Princess Diaries-Meg Cabot

Granted, again, The Princess Diaries are the sort of book that I would be more inclined to enjoy as a movie anyway, but I loved the movie way more than I loved the book. I found Mia far less annoying and way more relatable in the movie, Grandmere is Julie freaking Andrews and the movie was just far more fun for me than the book was.

6. Gossip Girl-Cecily Von Ziegesar

Granted, I watched the show before I read the books and I only read one or two of the books anyway, but I felt like the characters in the books were just unbearable and okay, the TV show doesn’t portray them as model human beings (they’re not meant to be) but they felt a lot more fleshed out and real on the show as opposed to the stereotypes they seemed to be in the books.

7. Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins

Whilst I don’t think the movies necessarily needed to be split into two parts, I found them a lot more engaging than Mockingjay the book. For the other two films, yes, the book is better, but I would argue that the Mockingjay movies are far less tedious than the book.

8. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-Ann Brashares

Again, this might be a case of me preferring certain things in movies rather than books, or the fact that I read the book such a long time ago, but I love the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants movie, even more than I did the book.

9. 101 Dalmatians-Dodie Smith

I read this book when I was a kid and I remember liking it, but the movie has real dalmatians (well at least the live action one does) so it wins!

10. Divergent-Veronica Roth

I liked the book, but I thought the movie had a much better pace and was generally more exciting than the book was. It’s a shame the subsequent movies were as bad as they were because they could have had a good thing going!

That’s all for this week, it got a bit hard at the end to even make it to ten! I am of the general bookworm opinion that the book is better than the movie, although these are definite exceptions for me. Which movies have you enjoyed more than their book counterparts? And conversely, which movies utterly destroyed your favourite books? Let me know in the comments!

We still have another 4 weeks of my improvised TTTs, next week I’m going to be talking about books I feel everyone has read but me (spoiler alert, there will be a lot!). In the meantime, I’m hoping to get my Wishlist Wednesday posts started up again, starting tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

Top Ten Tuesday #115

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last posted one of these, mine has once again been pretty quite but I have two pieces of good news, first off, I finally got a job! It’s a zero hour contract job but that kind of works perfectly for me since I’m only around for the summer. Second of all, I’m definitely going to YALC! Booked my ticket for the Saturday and will hopefully also be going on the Friday as well. Anyone else going to YALC? Hit me up in the comments, perhaps we can meet there!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the lovely Broke and Bookish ladies are still on hiatus (Good luck to Jamie, whose baby is due today!), but I’ve got another post pulled from the archives for you all to enjoy. This week I’ve chosen Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time. I have been a serial rereader through my life, although not so much now as I never have the time, but it’s never quite the same as experiencing a new book for the first time. Here are the ones I most wish I could revisit with fresh eyes:

1. Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone-JK Rowling

Okay I know this is an obvious one and would probably be on most people’s list for this kind of thing, but I would love to be able to go back and experience the Wizarding World all over again for the first time. It’s wonderful to revisit these books (and I do, often!) but it’s not quite the same magic as reading the first book for the very first time.

2. The Lightning Thief-Rick Riordan

The Percy Jackson series is one of my absolute favourite book series and I would love to be able to experience the start of Percy’s adventures as a demigod over again for the first time!

3. My Sister’s Keeper-Jodi Picoult

This was the first ever book of Jodi Picoult’s that I read, and the one that got me hooked on her writing. I would love to be able to read it over again for the first time (and be totally mindblown by that ending!).

4. Dangerous Girls-Abigail Haas

I would love to be able to read this book again for the first time and experience all the twists and turns, not to mention that mind fuck of an ending!

5. Ballet Shoes-Noel Streatfield

This book was one of my childhood favourites, and whilst I love to return to childhood favourites every now and then, I’d love to be able to read this one again for the first time and experience it the same way I did as a kid.

6. Unwind-Neal Shusterman

This is one of my absolute favourite books, so I would love to be able to read it again for the first time and get to discover this creepy dystopian world all over again.

7. Blind Beauty-KM Peyton

This was another one of my favourite childhood books, I read it so many times when I was younger (I think it was actually my sister’s first!), but nothing will be as good as the first time I ever read it. Definitely one of my favourite horse stories!

8. The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

I LOVE this book so much. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to reread it, knowing what happens to some of the characters, but I would love to be able to experience this for the first time all over again.

9. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

I don’t know if this is kind of a cheat, since I only read this book for the first time last year, but I got so swept up in the world and characters, and I’d love to have that feeling for the first time again!

10. Matilda-Roald Dahl

Another one of my childhood favourites, this book is one of those that makes you feel so proud and happy to be a bookworm and I would love to be able to experience that feeling again for the first time.

I think I’m going to stick at ten for this week, else I’ll just be listing all the books I’ve ever loved! Which books do you wish you could read over again for the first time? Anyone else going to YALC? Let me know in the comments!

These improvised TTTs will be continuing for the foreseeable future, as the B&B girls are on hiatus for another month or so, so next week I’ll be talking about Movie Adaptations That I Liked Better Than The Book. In the meantime, I will have a review of my latest read Frozen Charlotte for you guys very soon.