This Time They Talk About The Casual Vacancy

The Broke and The Bookish have started a new weekly event.  This week they're talking about what everyone in the book community is probably talking about: The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling.  They're asking if you plan on reading it.  I do.  I pre-ordered it.  I wasn't sure if I was going to.  I decided that I want to read it before I hear to much about it from critics, bloggers, etc.  I don't expect it to be like Harry Potter, but not all the books I read are like Harry Potter.  Variety is good.  I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also trying not to let my expectations get out of control.

Head over to The Broke and The Bookish to get a variety of opinions.

The Broke and the Bookish - A Book Blog For The Eclectic Reader: A Cocktail & Conversation -- JK Rowling's Newest B...: Every other Thursday here at the Broke & The Bookish is going to be A Cocktail & Conversation time. We'll pose a question to 2-3 member...

A Cocktail & Conversation -- Naughty Authors & Its Affects On Us As Readers

I wanted to highlight a new feature on The Broke and The Bookish.  Each week they'll be talking about a different bookish topic, sharing their opinions.  I found this week's topic really interesting and something I've discussed with friends before.  Tahleen's link is also really... informative.  Click the link below to be taken to the discussion.

The Broke and the Bookish - A Book Blog For The Eclectic Reader: A Cocktail & Conversation -- Naughty Authors & Its...:  Every Wednesday here at the Broke & The Bookish is going to be A Cocktail & Conversation time. We'll pose a question to 2-3 members of ...

(Too bad I'm at work and can't have a cocktail... or can I?)

Top Ten Unfortunate Character Names

Spoilers!! I don’t think I can talk about these names without giving away a little of the story, but I’ll try to keep them to a minimum


The first four are ones that as soon as I read them, I thought they were terrible choices.


1. Renesmee - Breaking Dawn, by: Stephenie Meyer. Really? Really?! Their baby is named what? You couldn’t come up with a name that was easier to pronounce. I know other characters in the book comment on the difficulty of the name, so that her nickname is “Nessy”, which is still dumb. I think this was the first name I ever looked at had to pause in my reading to contemplate how terrible it was.


2. Bree Tanner – The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, by: Stephenie Meyer. I get she’s young and we’re supposed to feel sympathy for her, but “Bree” is not a sympathetic name. The surname is fine, but I just can’t stand the name Bree for a heroine.


3. Courtney Stone – Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by: Laurie Viera Rigler. This was another name that jumped out at me. I loved the story, thought it was interesting, but when I hear “Courtney” I think snobby teenage girl.


4. Fuschia – The Fuschia Is Now, by: J. Otto Seibold. I disliked this children’s book. One of the things I didn’t like was the main character being named after a silly colour. The colour/name is yelled through the whole book. It has yet to hold my daughter’s interest.


The rest aren’t terrible, but I thought they could have been better.


5. Artemis Entreri – The Legend of Drizzt series, by: R.A. Salvatore. I love Salvatore’s Drizzt books. I think they’re fun and exciting. I also think Salvatore is excellent when it comes to naming characters. Except when he name Artemis Entreri. Have you ever tried to pronounce his last name? It’s hard, but that’s not the part the really bugs me. Artemis is a girl’s name. Artemis is a Greek warrior goddess. A friend pointed out to me that she’s heard Artemis as a boy’s name before and I have too. Any time I hear it as a boy’s name, it irks me.


6. Dale “Barbie” Barbara – Under The Dome, by: Stephen King. Dale is a perfectly fine name. I even don’t mind the nickname, Barbie, when it’s used cleverly. But why does EVERYONE have to call him that? Even the woman he has sex with?


7. Liz Dunn – Eleanor Rigby, by: Douglas Coupland. Eleanor Rigby was a fantastic novel and Liz was a great character. Was Liz Dunn done from the beginning?


8. Samantha Sweeting – The Undomestic Goddess, by: Sophie Kinsella. She’s supposed to be a lawyer. Sweeting is just a very unlawyerly name.


9. Lord Bostock – The Princess and the Whiskheads, by: Russell Smith. As soon as I read that name, I thought “botox”. Sorry.


I could only come up with nine. A friend of mine suggested my last entry.


10. Every Mary Higgins Clark Character – I admit to never having read one of her books. My friend tells me that the women are supposed to be young and sexy, but they have “old lady” names. I’m taking her word on this.


Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for another great list and the most difficult one for me since I've been participating.
 

Top Ten Tuesday: The Sad Books

This week The Broke and The Bookish asked for the Top Ten Books That Make You Cry. I don’t know if I’ve ever cried while reading a book, though I’ve read many sad tales. So here are my Top Ten Saddest Books, in no particular order.

1. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by: Audrey Niffenegger – I don’t know if I found this sad because I started it when I was almost nine months pregnant and finished it shortly after giving birth, but the story seemed like a sad destiny.

2. The Cleric Quintet 5: The Chaos Curse, by: R.A. Salvatore – I know most people don’t find fantasy books sad, but I was sad when I got to the end of this one. Cadderly has to give so much up for his faith and to make the world a better place. I really empathized with his wife, Danica.

3. The Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower, by: Stephen King – Roland appears to be trapped in an endless cycle of loss. There is so much in this novel, each one hits me.

4. The Giving Tree, by: Shel Silverstein – The poor tree!

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by: J.K. Rowling – Poor everybody! This is another series ender that is filled with loss. It all starts with Hedwig and it goes down from there. (I don’t feel that bad mentioning Hedwig. It happens in the first bit of the novel.)

6. A Complicated Kindness, by: Miriam Toews – Nomi’s life is so sad. What she goes through would be difficult for anyone to deal with.

7. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by: Khaled Hosseini – Poor Mariam. Mariam and Layla were an amazing pair. This story is touching in a deep and profound way.

8. The Reptile Room, by: Lemony Snicket – Another children’s story! What is it with sad tales for kids? I found this second installment in An Unfortunate Series of Events the saddest of all the books because I could feel the children’s futility in their struggle. It didn’t seem like Mr. Poe or any other adult learned from the events of the first book. I could feel the doom the whole time.

9. The Lovely Bones, by: Alice Sebold – I don’t know how anyone could read this story and not feel the sadness and loss of the whole family, not just who’s left on Earth, but Susie’s too, as she has to watch her family deal with her death.

10. 1984, by: George Orwell – Though one of my scariest books, it’s also one of the saddest. I wanted Winston to win. I wanted revolution. I wanted the Party to be destroyed!

Runners up for the list were The Handmaid’s Tale and The Good Earth. I decided I can’t keep putting The Handmaid’s Tale on my lists, even though it’s one of my favourite books. I’ve reviewed all of my top ten over the years except for The Lovely Bones. I read that ages ago, long before I started blogging.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Top Ten. What books do you find sad?

Top Ten Scariest Books

 

What do I do about this week’s top ten?  The Broke and The Bookish want to know what the scariest books are.  I decided to look for books that induce a feeling of tension/the creeps or have horrifying events, not necessarily "fear-producing".  Here is my top ten, in no particular order.

1. 1984, by: George Orwell – This one actually scared me. The situation, what’s happening to Winston, the lies, the watching, all of it.

2. Misery, by: Stephen King – I mentioned this one in a previous Top Ten list. It’s so creepy that I haven’t even read it yet.

3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by: Robert Louis Stevenson – Classically creepy and very interesting.

4. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by: Mary Shelley – Also another classic. Mary Shelley really knew how to create a compelling Monster. I think any horror fan needs to read this.

5. The Raven, by: Edgar Allen Poe – I know it’s a poem, not novel, but it’s still one of the creepiest things I’ve ever read.

6. The Turn of The Screw, by: Henry James – Are ghosts driving her crazy or is she just crazy? I’m inclined to think the first.

7. Under The Dome, by: Stephen King – I wasn’t scared by the dome itself, what disturbed me was what the people trapped inside were doing to each other.

8. The Handmaids Tale, by: Margaret Atwood – I know it’s not a horror book, but I was afraid for Offred pretty much all the time.

9. A Series of Unfortunate Events, by: Lemony Snicket – I tried to decide which one was the scariest. Maybe it was number 2, or 1 or 6. Even though they are children’s stories, they are all full of tension.

10. Nightmares and Dreamscapes, by: Stephen King – a collection of scary short stories. “Popsy” has stayed with me for years.

I could have put more Stephen King books on the list, but I thought three was more than enough. I also considered Anne Rice, with The Witching Hour and Interview With A Vampire, but I don’t know if I was actually scared/tense when I read those books.

Top Ten Fictional Crushes

Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for hosting such a fun meme.

Except for number one and two, they are in no particular order.

1. Roland Deschain from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I’ve loved him since The Gunslinger and will hopefully continue to love him, even though they’re doing some crazy movie/television thing with the books.

2. Drizzt Do’Urden from R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt.

3. Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. It started with Interview with a Vampire and grew with The Vampire Lestat.

4. Mikael Blomkvist from Stieg Larrson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. He’s my new crush.

5. Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudices.

6. Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen (but really Seth Graeme-Smith’s) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Everything I liked about Lizzy in the original, plus she can kill zombies and kick ninja @$$.

7. Eric Northman from Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series. I think I always liked him, but Dead to the World really made me fall for Eric.

8. Wolverine/Logan from the X-Men.

9. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s series The Cleric Quintet.

10. Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

I thought this was going to be difficult and it was a bit. I’m not a swooner (except for Roland, I’ll always swoon for you), so I had to think about some of these guys (and girls) for a while. Each person on the list has qualities that make me happy.

When I told my husband what this week’s top ten was, he wanted to share a few crushes with me too. He didn’t reach ten, but here are my husbands top six.

1. Storm/Ororo Munro from the X-Men.

2. Hermione from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

3. Catti-Brie from R.A. Salvatore’s series, The Legend of Drizzt.

4. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s series, The Cleric Quintet.

5. Arwen from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

6. Buttercup from William Goldman’s The Princess Bridge.

My husband reads a lot of fantasy. These are six great females and I like them a lot too. One even appears on my list!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite Authors

1. Margaret Atwood – For The Handmaid’s Tale; as well as all the other books I’ve read and loved.

2. Michael Ondaatje – For In The Skin Of A Lion; I know The English Patient is the big one that everyone knows, but the former came first and it got me hooked.

3. Gregory Maguire – For Wicked and Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister; I hope the Wicked sequels live up to the first.

4. Stephen King – For The Dark Tower series; I love Roland.

5. William Shakespeare – For your entire body of work. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; I could go on forever, but I don’t have to, your work will.

6. Jane Austen – For the three books I’ve read so far, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion and for the rest I plan on reading.

7. Douglas Coupland – For The Gum Thief; I worked at Staples. I know what box-store monotony can do to a person.

8. Khaled Hosseini – For A Thousand Splendid Suns; I will never forget Mariam and Layla.

9. J.K. Rowling – For the Harry Potter series; I don’t usually like saying things like this, but Harry Potter might just be the Chronicles of Narnia for our generation. (Though, let’s see where we are in twenty years.)

10. Lemony Snicket – For you Unfortunate Series of Events; I loved the Baudelaire children and I’ve wondered what they would be like when they grew up.

This was another difficult one for me. There are so many authors that I love. I have to give honourable mentions to J.R.R. Tolkein, R.A. Salvatore, Charlaine Harris and Sophie Kinsella. I love and have read so many of your books too!

Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for hosting another great Top Ten Tuesday.  Who tops your list?

Book Blogger Hop

This week, our host Jennifer is asking how we promote our blogs. In the beginning, I didn’t really think about promotion. I did the blog mostly for myself. I told some friends about it and they read it sometimes. I created my blog so that when I finished a book, I could write about what I thought and felt. Though an avid reader, I don’t belong to any reading groups and until the last couple years, I hadn’t found anyone with similar tastes in books.

After a while, I decided to venture out into the blogosphere. I found some interesting blogs and started following/subscribing to RSS feeds. I commented occasionally, but it was still some time before I started promoting my blog. I haven’t done anything extraordinary. I participate in a few different weekly events, like the Hop. There’s also Short Story Monday at The Book Mine Set and Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and The Bookish. I also comment more often on all the great blogs I’ve found. I make sure to leave quality comments, taking the time to read a couple posts, the blogger’s profile if they have one and anything else that catches my eye. I agree with Jennifer in what she said about leaving good comments behind on your visits.

I don’t have a Facebook page and I don’t Twitter (though I’ve considered both). I don’t want to stretch myself too far; I don’t want to start, only to have it fade away into nothing or have it become a chore. I write my blogs because I enjoy it. I still think about Twitter and Facebook. Maybe one day I’ll join up and you’ll find me tweeting away. Until then, I’m happy here in the blogosphere.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Couples in Literature

I’ve decided to again join in The Broke and The Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesdays. The first five couples came to mind easily. The rest took a little thought. Once I had the first four down, I decided to expand and include favourite couples from different genres.



1. Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy – Lizzy and Darcy are the staring couple in Pride and Prejudice. They are probably number one on a lot of lists.


2. Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars – Sense and Sensibility was Austen’s first published work. Though in love, Elinor and Edward never let their “sensibilities” overtake them. They use their “sense” instead.


3. Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester – The madwoman in the attic won’t keep this couple apart! Jane Eyre made me love classic literature.


4. Romeo and Juliet – Unlike the first four couples, Romeo and Juliet doesn’t have a happy ending. However, they’ve influenced countless stories about star-crossed lovers.


5. Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane – There is no comic couple that has endured the way Lois and Clark have. Their story has been written and re-written countless times. There have been comics, novels, television shows and movies, where even if it isn’t obvious, their love is always there.


6. Wesley and Buttercup – Okay, I haven’t actually read The Princess Bride, but I’ve seen the movie. A lot. My husband has read the book and he says the movie is pretty close. (I will read it eventually.) Wesley and Buttercup are cute and sweet. They fight the bad guy and live happily-ever-after.


7. O-Lan and Wang Lung – I recently read and reviewed The Good Earth. I still can’t even get over what an amazing novel it is. Thought not really in love, they are a partnership.


8. Drizzt and Cattie-Brie – They are a couple that began in 1988 with the Forgotten Realms novel, The Crystal Shard. No matter what genre I read, I appreciate strong female characters. Though Drizzt is the hero of these books, Cattie-Brie provides balance (and she can kick butt in a fight).


9. Arthur Dent and Trillian – They’re not your typical couple. They don’t live happily ever after. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy takes them everywhere, but they end up back at home. (I have read the five books by Douglas Adams. I have not read the new one by Eoin Colfer. I’m scared to.)


10. Aragorn and Arwen – He’s the rugged hero of The Lord Of The Rings, she’s the beautiful elven princess. There’s no real logic to why they are one of my favourites. Maybe the movie influenced me. I don’t care. They make me happy. (I thought of replacing them with Sam and Frodo. I know they weren’t a “couple”, but they were together more than any other pair in the books.)


That’s it! I considered Odysseus and Penelope, but all that waiting and they didn’t give me the same good feelings. I also considered Layla and Mariam from A Thousand Splendid Suns, but like Frodo and Sam they’re not a real couple. They were more like sister-wives (Big Love/polygamy reference). Anne and Gilbert also came to mind, but I never finished the Anne series, so I don’t know how they end up. There was also Sookie and Bill or Sookie and Eric, but I don’t know which couple I prefer.


I thought this was going to be difficult, but then I ended up with so many options!


Who are your favourite literary couples?

Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Books I’m Dying To Read

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke And The Bookish. This week’s topic, pick ten books you’re dying to read.

It was difficult for me to pick just ten. I have over a hundred books that are sitting neatly in my bookcases waiting to be read. Plus, there are the books I don’t even own yet.

Except for the first book, they are in no particular order.

1. Year of the Flood, by: Margaret Atwood – I’ve been itching to read this since it was published. I almost bought it over and over again, but I was trying to be good. But I saw a stack of them at Costco last weekend, and my final bit of resistance was gone.

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by: Stieg Larsson – I’m not dying to read this as much as a couple of my bookish friends are dying for me to read it. The copy I have is borrowed and, succumbing to peer pressure, I will read this next instead of Year of the Flood

3. Son of a Witch, by: Gregory Maguire – I’ve wanted to read this for a while. I absolutely loved Wicked and I’m going to see the musical in just over a month! I came across a copy of Son of a Witch at a used bookstore. I had to have it, especially after I bought…

4. A Lion Among Men, by: Gregory Maguire – I saw it at a different bookstore and bought it.

5. The Battle Of Jericho Hill, by: Stephen King – This is one of the graphic novels that have been written as prequels to King’s Dark Tower series of novels. Jericho is where THE big battle takes place, helping to forge the man the main character is in the novels.

6. Dead and Gone, by: Charlaine Harris – I’ve read all the books staring Sookie Stackhouse up to From Dead To Worse. After a fantastic ending, I wanted to start the next book immediately. Sadly, I don’t own this one yet.

7. The Chronicles of Narnia, by: C.S. Lewis – I know it’s more than one book, it’s seven. So maybe I’ll just say, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet. It seems like something I would have read as a kid.

8. Night of the Living Trekkies, by: Sam Stall and Kevin David Anderson – I just got it last month. A gift from my husband. He knows what I like and this book combines two of my favourite things, Star Trek and zombies!

9. Dracula, by: Bram Stoker – Classic gothic horror. The one that started all the vampire fiction, really. Written before vampires were teen dreams. Here, vampires are scary and I can’t wait to read it.

10. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini – I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read. The only reason I haven’t read it is because I don’t own it. If I somehow got a copy tomorrow, I don’t know if I’d be reading Year of the Flood or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next.

Word Of The Week!

This week’s words have a few different sources – two blogs and a short story.

From Virginia Woolf’s The Mysterious Case of Miss V.

Neuter: In the context of Woolf’ story, is a noun of the neuter gender. The neuter term is what the narrator says she is using in reference to Miss V. She equates Miss V. to a shadow of a piece of furniture; therefore she uses the neutral, not feminized terminology.

From Ahab at Republic of Gilead.

Proselytization: Is a way of converting people to another opinion, particularly to another religion. In modern times proselytization/proselytism have negative connotations, used to describe a forced conversion. Ahab is talking about Kirk Cameron speaking in Maryland.

From Jen at The Broke and The Bookish.

Facetiously: A flippant manner; treating a serious issue with deliberately inappropriate humour. Each week The Broke and The Bookish host Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday you create a top ten list, the topic of which is given the week before at the end of the previous post. This week, Jen posted her top ten favourite words and facetiously was number two. Did you know that all the vowels appear in order?

I like facetiously the best. It’s a word I might actually use (after I learn how to pronounce it properly).