I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday (TTT) hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I didn't number them becayse I can't choose between a lot of them, but these are all in my top ten.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling) - Ending
It was a huge shock (Dumbledore!) but it was a really dramatic ending and I have to repect that.
Fragments (Dan Wells) - Beginning
This really kept up the momentum from the previous book, and it was a great entrance into a brilliant book. Started with a bang!
Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked (Derek Landy) - Ending
CURVEVBALL! The last chapter epilogue was just THE BIGGEST TWIST.
Partials (Dan Wells) - Ending
I don't know why I loved this so much. It was just enjoyable.
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - Beginning
Not the exact beginning, but the reaping - it was excellently described and really let me into the world.
Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox - Ending
All the plotlines melded really nneatly and naturally here, I loved it.
Temeraire: Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik) - Beginning
Drama was just brought right up from the start, as was the emotional core of the story.
Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik) - Ending
The ending to this one was really heartwarming after all the adventure, I must say.
Blood Ties (Sophie McKenzie) - Ending
This all tied in really neatly, and the description was beautiful.
North Child (Edith Pattou) - Beginning
This really brought me into the faiytale world well.
So those are my Top Ten for this week! Leave links to your own TTT in the comments, or if you don't have a blog you can just suggest some endings in the comment itself!
Showing posts with label Top Ten Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Ten Tuesday. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Top Ten Beach Reads
I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish which I'm really starting to like! And yes, I will have a real review up this weekend, never fear.
I'd just like to point out the irony that is an Irish person making a beach read list. Yes, we just had a week-long heatwave with temperatures as high as 21 degrees Celsius (that's incredible for Ireland, ok?) but it's certainly over now and LOTS of rain has been predicted for the coming months! I suppose I could indulge in a little wishful thinking and imagine myself on a beach though...
1. Tall Poppies - Louise Bagshawe
This one literally screams 'beach read', to me anyway. And it's not too vapid either, with a gripping plot and twist.
2. How to be Popular - Meg Cabot
Some interesting issues raised here, but all very easy to digest.
3. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Especially the early books in the series, because they're hilarious and not too heavy.
4. Dark Angel - Eden Maguire
This one is excellent, as light paranormals go.
5. Any of the Heartland series - Lauren Brooke
Very easy, but heart-warming. Good for people who like horses.
6. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
If you don't mind crying on the beach.
7. Airhead - Meg Cabot
Entertaining all round.
8. The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
This character has literally nothing to worry about, so she spends all the books making up worries. Can get irritating when you look at it, but fun to read at the time.
9. The Mel Beeby - Agent Angel series - Annie Dalton
Apart from the overuse of the word 'vibes', these are hilarious.
10. Little Women - Brown Watson
This book is gorgeous. I put it at the end because I'm not sure if it qualifies as a beach read*, but it's my all-time favourite classic.
*N.B. To me, a beach read is a book that you can read while being distracted by noisy siblings climbing on you, so it has to be quite simple and easy to get into at a moment's notice. Which means that I don't have many beach reads.
I'd just like to point out the irony that is an Irish person making a beach read list. Yes, we just had a week-long heatwave with temperatures as high as 21 degrees Celsius (that's incredible for Ireland, ok?) but it's certainly over now and LOTS of rain has been predicted for the coming months! I suppose I could indulge in a little wishful thinking and imagine myself on a beach though...
1. Tall Poppies - Louise Bagshawe
This one literally screams 'beach read', to me anyway. And it's not too vapid either, with a gripping plot and twist.
2. How to be Popular - Meg Cabot
Some interesting issues raised here, but all very easy to digest.
3. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Especially the early books in the series, because they're hilarious and not too heavy.
4. Dark Angel - Eden Maguire
This one is excellent, as light paranormals go.
5. Any of the Heartland series - Lauren Brooke
Very easy, but heart-warming. Good for people who like horses.
6. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
If you don't mind crying on the beach.
7. Airhead - Meg Cabot
Entertaining all round.
8. The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
This character has literally nothing to worry about, so she spends all the books making up worries. Can get irritating when you look at it, but fun to read at the time.
9. The Mel Beeby - Agent Angel series - Annie Dalton
Apart from the overuse of the word 'vibes', these are hilarious.
10. Little Women - Brown Watson
This book is gorgeous. I put it at the end because I'm not sure if it qualifies as a beach read*, but it's my all-time favourite classic.
*N.B. To me, a beach read is a book that you can read while being distracted by noisy siblings climbing on you, so it has to be quite simple and easy to get into at a moment's notice. Which means that I don't have many beach reads.
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Top Ten Favourite Quotes
For the first time, I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Just this time I decided to choose my own topic (Let's pretend it's May 28th - Tuesday Freebie). I think someone's favourite quotes say a lot about them, so I'm listing my Top Ten Favourite Quotes!
10. 'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.' - Oscar Wilde.
Oh Oscar, you legend. Also, 'Take everything in moderation, especially moderation.' I think you just wrote to amuse yourself with your smug ingenuity.
9. 'Easy reading is damn hard writing.' - Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is so true. I love reading beautiful prose, but having started writing a novel, it's rare that writing like that comes without very hard work. Of course, when it does it feels sublime.
8. 'You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams' - Dr. Seuss.
I'm incredibly sentimental, and I fall too hard. But this is still a gorgeous quote.
7. 'These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss consume.' - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
This just gives me chills when I hear it. We studied Romeo and Juliet for the exams, but it's also on the first page Breaking Dawn. And, not that I'm a Twihard, but I think that gives it a certain quality...any book written with that in mind is powerful, at least in the parts which truly show the spirit of Friar Laurence's statement.
6. 'Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel like I should be doing something else.' - Gloria Steinem.
I often find myself unable to study because I'm being tugged towards writing. During exams, I feel guilty writing. Then again, I feel guilty when I don't!
5. 'One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.' - Plato
I like a lot of Plato's quotes. I think I'm going to spend a good bit of the summer after the Junior Cert reading him. Should be an interesting experience.
4. 'I've been spending the last eight months, thinking all love ever does is break, burn end....
But on a Wednesday, in a café, I watched it begin again.' - Taylor Swift, Begin Again.
This was one I loved when I wasn't single, but it stays with me now, because it's so full of hope.
3. 'So many books, so little time.' - Frank Zappa
Oh, the bookworm life.
2. 'You cannot hope to sweep someone else away with the force of your writing until it has been done to you.' - Stephen King.
I practically live by this in my writing. I celebrate those scenes. For example, you write a genuinely sad scene and it actually makes you cry. That's one of the most important things in writing, I think.
1. “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Apple, Inc.
I love this quote. I think it really reflects the originality of Apple products and it's just so inspirational, because I'm one of those people.
BONUS!
3. 'Always.' - Severus Snape.
Just how emotionally loaded was that line?
_______________________________________________________________________
My exams start tomorrow, can you believe it, (I have 10 of them) so I'm getting this post out of the way now, but I'll be back next week!
So, what did you think? What are your all-time favourite quotes? Comment below!
10. 'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.' - Oscar Wilde.
Oh Oscar, you legend. Also, 'Take everything in moderation, especially moderation.' I think you just wrote to amuse yourself with your smug ingenuity.
9. 'Easy reading is damn hard writing.' - Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is so true. I love reading beautiful prose, but having started writing a novel, it's rare that writing like that comes without very hard work. Of course, when it does it feels sublime.
8. 'You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams' - Dr. Seuss.
I'm incredibly sentimental, and I fall too hard. But this is still a gorgeous quote.
7. 'These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss consume.' - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
This just gives me chills when I hear it. We studied Romeo and Juliet for the exams, but it's also on the first page Breaking Dawn. And, not that I'm a Twihard, but I think that gives it a certain quality...any book written with that in mind is powerful, at least in the parts which truly show the spirit of Friar Laurence's statement.
6. 'Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel like I should be doing something else.' - Gloria Steinem.
I often find myself unable to study because I'm being tugged towards writing. During exams, I feel guilty writing. Then again, I feel guilty when I don't!
5. 'One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.' - Plato
I like a lot of Plato's quotes. I think I'm going to spend a good bit of the summer after the Junior Cert reading him. Should be an interesting experience.
4. 'I've been spending the last eight months, thinking all love ever does is break, burn end....
But on a Wednesday, in a café, I watched it begin again.' - Taylor Swift, Begin Again.
This was one I loved when I wasn't single, but it stays with me now, because it's so full of hope.
3. 'So many books, so little time.' - Frank Zappa
Oh, the bookworm life.
2. 'You cannot hope to sweep someone else away with the force of your writing until it has been done to you.' - Stephen King.
I practically live by this in my writing. I celebrate those scenes. For example, you write a genuinely sad scene and it actually makes you cry. That's one of the most important things in writing, I think.
1. “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Apple, Inc.
I love this quote. I think it really reflects the originality of Apple products and it's just so inspirational, because I'm one of those people.
BONUS!
3. 'Always.' - Severus Snape.
Just how emotionally loaded was that line?
_______________________________________________________________________
My exams start tomorrow, can you believe it, (I have 10 of them) so I'm getting this post out of the way now, but I'll be back next week!
So, what did you think? What are your all-time favourite quotes? Comment below!
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