Tag: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted February 24, 2015 by in General / 10 Comments

This week’s topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a great one: top ten heroines. Let’s see…

  1. Yeine, from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Seriously, seriously kickass lady who navigates politics, would prefer a fair fight, and becomes a goddess. Why not?
  2. Tenar, from The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin. That was always my favourite book of the bunch. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but Tenar is strong in a way that has nothing to do with physical strength.
  3. Mori, from Among Others by Jo Walton. Because she’s quite a lot like me, only she really can see fairies and she has a streak of pragmatism I could really use.
  4. Harriet Vane, from the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers. Bit of a change of pace from the first three, being a different genre. But she’s a woman in a man’s world, pursuing both writing and academia, a strong woman who knows her own mind and sticks to her principles. But at the same time, she’s not perfect: she snarls at Peter, she’s unfair, etc, etc.
  5. Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève, from Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. If there’s anything that can hold her back, I don’t know what it is. She’s gorgeous, she’s a spy, she manipulates politics and gets involved in all kinds of stuff on behalf of her country.
  6. Katherine Talbert, from The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. Even if she doesn’t want to learn to fight at first.
  7. Ki, from Harpy’s Flight by Megan Lindholm. Practical, determined, fierce, and good to her animals, to her friends.
  8. Caitrin, from Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier. She doesn’t seem like she’s going to be a strong person at first, yet she learns to face her fears — without it ever seeming too easy.
  9. Mirasol, from Chalice by Robin McKinley. She’s thrown in at the deep end, with very little gratefulness or support from those around her, and she pushes through it to do whatever she has to do.
  10. Csethiro Celedin, from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. She basically says that if anyone hurts Maia she’ll duel them and gut them. Like!

I’m gonna have to look at loads of posts on this one, because stories with good heroines are definitely of interest to me!

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted February 17, 2015 by in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “top ten book related problems I have”. This is, ahaha, not at all difficult for me.

  1. I had to modify my ereader to fit more books on it. No really, I even made a post to show other people how.
  2. I have over 1,000 books on Mt. TBR. I don’t actually dare count. And that doesn’t really include ARCs and library books.
  3. I don’t have enough shelves. See #2.
  4. Nobody ever knows what books to buy me because I might’ve got them already. Though now I have a wishlist, so there’s no excuse.
  5. I really like lists. This can sometimes get in the way of actually reading the books on said list.
  6. There are some books I daren’t share with my partner in case she hates them. This is rare, but she doesn’t, for example, share my love for Cherie Priest’s Bloodshot and Hellbent, and it makes me pout.
  7. My books are never in the right place. I travel a lot. You know I’m gonna want to read something as soon as I leave it somewhere for a few months.
  8. Why isn’t it out in ebook? I like instant gratification, and ebooks are the easiest way. What do you mean I can’t get most of Patricia McKillip’s books on Kobo?!
  9. Why isn’t it out yet? Impatient!
  10. I preordered it, I was really excited… and a year later, I haven’t got to it yet. Um. Oops.

What’re your problems, guys?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted February 10, 2015 by in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is ‘Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes To Romances In Books’.

Top Five I Like:

  1. Intensity. I like to see some give and take. The ability to say ‘you’re wrong’, yell at someone, and still have them respect you.
  2. Communication. Talk. To. Them. (The flipside, miscommunication, tends to really embarrass me — I’m easy to embarrass.)
  3. Forbidden love. Actually, this has to be done right, but I spent most of my academic study on Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde. Rosalind Miles’ take on both failed for me, but Steinbeck did Lancelot and Guinevere in a lovely way, and I’ve played with both stories in my own writing.
  4. “I see who you really are.” The classic is, of course, Beauty and the Beast.
  5. Equal partnership. Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle might not be the most popular couple in the Arthurian canon, but they’re my favourite by far. Challenged to tell another knight what women want most or be killed, Arthur flounders. A really ugly woman comes to court and says she will give the answer — if Sir Gawain marries her. He says yes, of course, and she gives the answer that saves Arthur’s life: “sovereignty”, the power to choose for oneself, is what women most want. So the wedding goes ahead, but on their wedding night, Ragnelle turns out to be a beautiful young maiden. She asks Gawain whether he would rather she be a beautiful woman in the daytime, when everyone can see her, or at night, when only he can. He lets her choose — which breaks the whole spell she’s under, because he has given her “sovereynté”. It’s maybe the most equal partnership in Arthurian literature, because it’s not from courtly literature where a knight is supposed to worship his lady, and yet it still gives power to the female partner, and shows him respecting her.

Top Five I Dislike: 

  1. “You are a precious little flower and I will protect you.” Enough said.
  2. Stalking = love. Just say no.
  3. Keeping secrets. I guess that’s often related to #1, but yeesh, come on, be honest. (Circumvented if this has consequences, though. Like in The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.)
  4. Insta-love. Still needs saying, apparently. Which is actually where people fall down for me even if the things I mentioned above are alright!
  5. “I’m too low/high in station to marry you.” This can be played well (come on, I like Jane Eyre), but after a certain era, the class implications become too awful.

And if you’re really curious, you can read ‘The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle’ for yourselves here; someday I will both translate the original into modern English, and write my own novel based on it, if I get all my dreams.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted February 3, 2015 by in General / 8 Comments

This week’s theme is ‘Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read From X Genre’. I’m going to go for a bit of a twist and give you the top ten books my mother can’t believe I haven’t read from the classics, particularly because I’ve got English lit degrees… It’s also my mother’s birthday today! (She does read this blog, so stick your head in and say hi.)

  1. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Laurie Lee. 
  2. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad.
  3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain.
  4. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.
  5. Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy.
  6. The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde.
  7. The History of the Decline Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon.
  8. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill.
  9. Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift.
  10. Ulysses, James Joyce.

So if you’re feeling bad about not reading the classics, neither have I… (I’m also missing out on The Count of Monte Cristo and other such classics!)

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted January 27, 2015 by in Reviews / 20 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is ‘ten books I’d love to read with my book club’. I am a member of an awesome group for SF/F, so that’s easy — except that we’re quite particular about the sorts of books we end up reading for discussion. So hmmmm.

  1. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. This is kind of cheating, because we are discussing it. And actually, I’m supposed to be leading it.
  2. Mélusine, Sarah Monette. Because it’s so different to The Goblin Emperor! (It’s the same author under a pen name.) And it’s a bit more dark than I’d normally go for; I need some impetus to get on and read it.
  3. Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds. Or really anything by Reynolds; I used to like his work a lot, though I haven’t read any in a long time, and Century Rain was my favourite.
  4. Lock In, John Scalzi. We’re planning to read this anyway, but it does sound fascinating. We normally enjoy Scalzi, and this sounds like there’s a fair amount to chew over here.
  5. Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Because hey, I love this series and I want to share it. And talk about how it could be even better and all the places we wanna see Carol go.
  6. Just about anything by Octavia Butler. I think we’ve probably already discussed some of Butler’s work, but it’s all great to talk about (and sometimes problematic, too, in ways that would make it even more interesting to bat it back and forth).
  7. The Unreal and the Real: Collected Stories, Ursula Le Guin. It’s most often Le Guin’s short stories that I find I want to discuss and pick apart to make sure I really understand them.
  8. The Just City, Jo Walton. And we probably will, since we’re big fans of Jo.
  9. Under the Skin, Michael Faber. I’ve been convinced to buy it, so let’s discuss it. I think someone in the group actually suggested this one, too.
  10. Anything by Ian McDonald. I think they might’ve discussed one of his books without me at some point, but I’ve read a couple of his older ones that’re really interesting too.

What about you guys? Any reading groups online to recommend?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted January 20, 2015 by in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie, so I’m gonna go with ‘top ten desert island books’. These are the books I’d take for when my ereader runs out of charge, which would happen all too soon…

  1. The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper. It comes in an omnibus, so this only has to count as one. I can’t imagine life without this series at least once a year.
  2. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. I am positive I could read this over and over again and get different things out each time.
  3. The Earthsea Quartet, Ursula Le Guin. A long-term favourite of mine, and even better, it’s been a while since I read it.
  4. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. Another one I periodically reread; I love the development of Cassandra’s character, and I don’t know a first and last line that stick better in my head.
  5. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay. I don’t think the Fionavar Tapestry books come in an omnibus, so I’d have this instead, although those might be my actual favourites.
  6. The Inheritance Trilogy, N.K. Jemisin. Just come out in an omnibus! I love these books so much, and I think they’d stand up to more rereading.
  7. Among Others, Jo Walton. This book means too much to me to be left behind.
  8. The Complete Brandstetter, Joseph Hansen. I think I’d enjoy rereading these, and there’s plenty of them in this omnibus.
  9. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. Because I think I’d need a touch of humour now and again.
  10. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. I’m taking a bit of a chance on this, as I’ve only read it once so far, but I’m pretty sure I could enjoy reading it over and over, imagining myself into the world, etc.

Looking forward to seeing what other people have done with the freebie theme, now!

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted January 13, 2015 by in General / 8 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is ‘Top Ten 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To’. I probably just need to look back at my Netgalley account for this one, ha.

  1. Willful Child, Steven Erikson. A spoof on Star Trek, by Steven Erikson? Yes, please. I had this as an ARC, but… Yeah.
  2. The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley. I’m just hangin’ my head here, guys.
  3. Half a King, Joe Abercrombie. Uh, ditto.
  4. The Dead in their Vaulted Arches, Alan Bradley. Had an ARC. Am terrible. ’nuff said.
  5. Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor. I love this series. I think I might be a bit afraid to read the last book.
  6. Landline, Rainbow Rowell. In fairness, I didn’t ‘discover’ Rowell’s work until Landline was already due to come out.
  7. Illusive, Emily Lloyd-Jones. Superpowers! Heists! An ARC I still need to get round to…*
  8. The Girl With All The Gifts, M.R. Carey. I think I picked up a library copy of this near the start of 2014. I dread to look.
  9. Of Metal and Wishes, Sarah Fine. I’ve seen some mixed reviews, but I wanted to pick this up just from the cover… I don’t quite know why.
  10. The Falconer, Elizabeth May. I picked this up a few months ago and still haven’t got round to it. Gah.

There’s just too many books, too little time, am I right?

*I should perhaps at this point note that I will get round to every ARC I’ve received, though in many cases I have to order them from libraries or buy them now that they’re no longer available to download.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted January 6, 2015 by in General / 14 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “top ten debuts you’re looking forward to in 2015”. I didn’t actually know much about who had a debut coming out, so I ended up turning to Goodreads lists. These are mostly YA books, since I couldn’t find convenient lists of upcoming fantasy. Clearly I am not very plugged in to what’s coming out soon!

Since these are upcoming books, I’m gonna link the titles to the Goodreads page so other people can check them out in more detail.

  1. Red QueenVictoria Aveyard. I’ve been looking at this one for a while, at least — I kept seeing it in other people’s StS posts and such. It sounds interesting, though I can’t say I really know much about it beyond the basic summary.
  2. The Girl at MidnightMelissa Grey. I hadn’t heard of this one till I started making this list, actually; I’m intrigued by the idea, and I do always love the ‘there’s-a-city-below-the-city’ trope (Neverwhere, Un Lun Dun, King Rat, etc).
  3. ShutterCourtney Almada. The cover looks really freaky, and it sounds fun. I’ve seen a couple of advance reviews already and my interest is definitely piqued.
  4. A Wicked ThingRhiannon Thomas. It’s a Sleeping Beauty rewrite, shut up and take my money.
  5. The StoryspinnerBecky Wallace. There’s a touch of the troubadour tradition about the idea of the Performers, so yeah, I’m in on this one.
  6. The Wrath and the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh. Definitely want this one — it’s a reworking of Scheherazade’s story, and it sounds like it has an interesting take on it.
  7. The Invisible LibraryGenevieve Cogman. You had me at ‘library’. (Have bought it since I made the list!)
  8. An Ember in the AshesSabaa Tahir. Set in a Rome-like world, you say? Rebel Scholars, you say? Gimme!
  9. The Witch HunterVirginia Boecker. Seems like my kind of book, especially with the comparison to Graceling.
  10. The Unhappening of Genesis LeeShallee McArthur. I read a review of this and it intrigues me, though I’m sort of side-eyeing that new title trend of ‘the [x]ing of [name]’ (e.g. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer).

I’m obviously in need of more titles, so I’m definitely going to be paying attention to TTTs this week…

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 30, 2014 by in General / 13 Comments

Today’s prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is “Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014” — which don’t have to be to do with books. Still, most of mine probably will be to do with books. Let’s see what I can do…

  1. Never impulse-buy a book. Always always wait a day or two, or make sure it’s been on the wishlist for a while, etc. I mean, geez, self: it’s very rare you’re ever going to come across a book where this is the only copy you ever have access to.
  2. Read every day. Even if it’s just five minutes before bed. I always feel better when I do, more like myself, and yet often I don’t make the time for it.
  3. Bed before midnight. I was starting to get into this habit, and then I stayed up reading. Which doesn’t contradict #2, I swear.
  4. Up before ten. Up before eight, preferably, but I figure I can stick to ten even when I wanna give myself a lie in.
  5. Buy only one book from a series at a time. Even if I know I’m gonna love it. See also #1!
  6. Post something to the blog every day. I’m already pretty much achieving that, but I’d like to get better at having a buffer of posts ready to go live as well.
  7. Comment on at least one other blog every day. It’s a nice low bar to set, and it encourages me to be social.
  8. Tithe 10% every month. I did this in 2014, too. It wasn’t always easy to keep up, especially when my earnings were pathetic, but it’s something I’m proud of doing.
  9. Do 100 hours volunteering. I should manage this easily, if I volunteer the same amount as I did in 2014, especially now I’m a committee member for the library and not just a volunteer librarian. But it’s good to pledge a solid number; makes it easier for me to keep rolling out of bed on a cold Friday morning, or walk into the clinic on a warm sunny day. If it’s not meeting the target, it’s by how much can I beat it?
  10. Review all new books from Netgalley/bookbridgr/Edelweiss within a month of receiving access. I’m still struggling to catch up with books I was approved for over a year ago; obviously, I’ve lost access to a lot of them, so I’m borrowing them from libraries or buying them so I can fulfil my promise of reviewing them. It would be better all round if I just reviewed them in time, though!

An odd mix of book, blog and general life, I know, but if I have a secret eleventh goal it might be “stop being so obsessive about lists”. I love lists, goodness knows, and they’re helpful, great, fun, etc, etc. But sometimes I let myself get a little too caught up in organising a list and not in doing what’s on it, or I get so obsessed about getting a list done that I neglect everything else.

Maybe the by-word for this entry should be “happy mediums”?

As for how I’m going to stick to it, I’m planning to figure out a way to fit the ten resolutions above into the habits/dailies sections of HabitRPG. It’s a great way of gameifying your life and making yourself accountable, and it’s pretty flexible for whatever goals you need to set. It’s pretty much trained me to remember to floss every day, from never flossing at all, for example — and it keeps track of when my library books are due back. There’s nothing like the cute pixel art for a reward for getting stuff done, for me, and you can set up custom rewards too. If anyone’s on the site already and interested in figuring out some kind of book related challenge, let’s put our heads together and come up with something!

Anyway, I’d love to see everyone else’s goals and resolutions, so please leave me a comment — I’ll visit everyone who comments, and leave comments back as long as technology permits.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 23, 2014 by in General / 10 Comments

This week’s prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is “Top Ten Books You Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing”. Which is a little awkward, as I know almost exactly what Santa’s bringing me — so I’ll have to try and think of books I didn’t put on my list, to make this a bit more fun.

Italics added to ones that I’ve been bought since I made this list!

  1. Two Serpents Rise, Max Gladstone. I really need to read more of this series. I enjoyed the first book, and people have been pretty enthusiastic. (Aaaand my partner’s buying me this.)
  2. Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie. As of typing this, I haven’t read Ancillary Justice yet. But I’m still reasonably sure I’m going to enjoy it…
  3. The Book of Atrix Wolfe, Patricia A. McKillip. Or, in fact, anything I haven’t already got by McKillip.
  4. Dreamer’s Pool, Juliet Marillier. It sounds like one of her books that I might well enjoy.
  5. Mélusine, Sarah Monette. Since I adored her book as Katherine Addison. (And partner’s getting me this one too.)
  6. Faery Tales, Carol Ann Duffy. It’s Carol Ann Duffy! ’nuff said. (Though my aunt may be getting me this one.)
  7. Beowulf, trans. J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve read it, but I don’t have my own print copy to go on my shelf.
  8. The Gift, Alison Croggon. Since a friend talked a lot about this series.
  9. Those Who Hunt the Night, Barbara Hambly. For some reason, I’m seeing people recommend this a lot lately. And somehow I still haven’t tried reading anything of Hambly’s.
  10. Mindscape, Andrea Hairston. I can’t remember much about this, but it’s been bookmarked for ages in my ‘looks interesting’ queue, and I remember being veeeery tempted to buy it at the time.

Now I’m thinking maybe I should’ve let this go live way before 23rd Dec, to give people a chance to maybe make some of my wishes come true… Ah well, I’m being spoilt enough already!

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