Top Ten Tuesday #9: Top Ten Characters We'd Never Want To Trade Places With

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I (Tierra) noticed that there hasn't been a Top Ten Tuesday for a while on this blog, so I thought it would be fun if this week Summer and I did it together!

1. Penryn (Angelfall) - One thing I know for sure, I'd NEVER want to live in Penryn's post-apocalyptic-dystopian world where angels are taking over. Add that to having a psychotic mother and a lost sister, and you've got a very screwed-up world.

2. Puck (Iron Fey series) - I adore Puck. He will always be one of my favorite characters. But, throughout the series he's forced to do Meghan's dirty work, and is easily discarded once she meets Ash. He's treated like nothing, and he definitely doesn't deserve this unfair treatment.

3. Anyone from Of Poseidon aside from the main characters - Mostly because I feel bad for anyone who has to endure through the "ohmysweetgoodness!" exclamations and witness the barf-inducing relationship of Anna and Galen.

4. Mal (Shadow & Bone) - Poor Mal. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's always being made fun of by readers, just because he's "wimpy" or "boring". His presence is ignored once The Darkling is around, and he's just never good enough, no matter how hard he tries.

5. Gemma (Stolen) - Being drugged, kidnapped, and forced to live in the Australian outback is not exactly an ideal life. I would never, ever want to be in her situation. 

6. Any student at Hogwarts in the same year as Harry Potter (The Harry Potter Series) - Imagine how much stuff they had to go through because "The Chosen One" was battling something different every single year. I very much doubt that they got a substantial education.

7. A Katherine (An Abundance of Katherines) - I don't have anything against Colin, but all the way through the book the extent of each Katherines personality (apart from maybe K19) is just a number. I don't want to be just known as Katherine number 5 who was part of a mathematical equation.

8. Jacob Black (The Twilight Saga) - Always having to come second? No thanks. I almost felt sorry for him until he fell in love with Bella's daughter... Seriously, who does that?

9. Hazel Grace (The Fault in our Stars) - I admire Hazel so much, but I would not be able, nor would I want to deal with so much heartbreak and loss at such a young age. Having the knowledge that death is inevitably close would not be a nice way to live.

10. Anna (My Sister's Keeper) - She lives her life to keep someone else alive. She was literally only conceived so that she would be a bone marrow match for her sister. That sucks! And then to make it even worse she has to make the decision to stop helping her sister so that she can finally live her own life.

WHICH CHARACTERS WOULD YOU NEVER WANT TO TRADE PLACES WITH?

Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make Me Not Pick Up A Book (8)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while, but this topic caught my attention, so I decided to do it. I tend to be quite open in what I read, but there are a few things that will cause me to put the book down and give up on it altogether.  

1) Male POV/male protagonists: Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against guys, but if a female author is trying to portray the thoughts of a male character, I'm a bit hesitant. But if the author is a guy, then I would be fine with that. In my experience, most female authors fail in portraying male characters *cough* Ethan from Beautiful Creatures *cough*

2) The synopsis contains the word "mysterious guy/girl": More times than not, I've found that when this phrase is present in the synopsis, the author is just trying to cope out of character development. I mean, just as long as the person is mysterious there really is no point in developing that character, right? /sarcasm Example: Daniel Grigori from Fallen

3) When an author I don't like blurbs on the cover of the book.

4) One word: Werewolves. I find them gross and icky and not something I want to read about.

5) Character X moves to a new town because of recent tragedy: Come on. This is getting pretty old, and if authors think they are catching our attention by doing this, they are incorrect. And usually, if a book contains an unoriginal element like this, the rest of the book will probably be just as unoriginal.

6) Love triangles: Don't even get me started on this.

7) Set solely in high school: I already have to deal with the drama associated with high school every day. I don't find it very enjoyable to read about it in a book.

8) Dystopias set in the future but are actually romances: I cannot stress enough how much I hate these. It's like, I want a dystopia, but I end up with a book full of drama and little to no action and worldbuilding. *Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi*

9) Survival stories: Excluding The Hunger Games, I don't have a great history with survival stories. Namely, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, and The Sign of the Beaver.

10) Characters are under 14: I know this is weird, but I don't like reading about characters that are much younger than me. Probably in a few years I would, if I wanted to go into the mind of a ten-year-old and relive my childhood.

Make sure to link to your TTT post so I could check it out!    

Top Ten Tuesday #7: Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's topic is pretty serious. Not all of the listed affected me on an extremely personal level, but they all evoked some feeling out of me, such as depression, sadness, grief, and the like.

1. Stolen, by Lucy Christopher: Personally, I haven't read this yet, but I have read enough reviews to know that it is about a girl who was kidnapped. Pretty depressing subject.

2. Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson: This book effectively portrays anorexia and not only the physical effects, but the psychological effects.

3. Mornings in Jenin, by Susan Abulhawa: Out of all of the books, Mornings in Jenin probably affected me the most. It is a story on the Israel- Palestine conflict (a very complex and tough subject), and really touched me on an emotional level. The horrors this book described were unimaginable and brutal.

4. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson: Evidently, LHA handles tough topics very well; she managed to tackle the topic of rape and how drastic the effects are on the victim.

5. Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver: The subject of death is a tough one in and of itself, and Lauren Oliver did an outstanding job in her novel. Honestly, I think this should be required reading in high school, to teach the students a life lesson. I know it affected me and my outlook on life tremendously.

6. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green: Few authors can manage to pull off a book on cancer while at the same time enjoyable to read (except the ending). But c'mon, we're talking about John Green here.

7. A Child Called "It", by Dave Pelzer: Back in elementary school, my friend persuaded me to read this. You can imagine the effects it had on 10-year-old me.

What are your top 10 picks? Comment and link below!

Top Ten Tuesday #6: Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Here are the books that I thought I'd like more than I actually did:

Books I thought I'd like LESS than I actually did:

As you can see, there are a LOT more books that were disappointing to me. Mostly I was disappointed because all my friends would be raving about how good it was, and once I read it, I never ended up understanding what made that book so special. Or, in the case of Everbound and Ceaseless, these sequels were not as enjoyable as the first books.

I think many people, like me, were not that sure about Bloodlines, mostly because the main character is Sydney, the "boring" girl from VA. But I, like countless others, were surprised to find out that we actually ended up loving this book.

What's on your top ten list? Comment and link below!

Top Ten Tuesday #5: Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

1. Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
What a girly assassin she is.

2. Half-Blood, by Jennifer L. Armentrout

3. Neverfall, by Brodi Ashton 

This cover is pretty and all, but it's exactly the same as the second one, only a silhouette.

4. The Iron Legends 

That is NOT how Puck looks. And why are they in such awkward positions?

5. Finale, by Becca Fitzpatrick

The cliche-ness of this cover is unbearable that I literally just burst out laughing when I saw it. What, is he going to push her of the cliff??

6. ALL of the Vampire Academy books

7. Holes. by Louis Sachar 

Is that supposed to be Stanley at the bottom...

8. Blue Bloods, by Melissa de la Cruz 

One word: Gross.

9. Paper Towns, by John Green

Wow. A picture of a girl. How utterly fascinating.

10. The Iron Traitor, by Julie Kagawa

I simply refuse to believe that that is Keirran. 

This week we could choose ANY of the past topics. Which topic did you choose, and what's on your list? Make sure to leave your link below so I could check it out! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I was a Blogger

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish

Since I am a relatively new blogger (I started in late December of 2012), most of my current favorite books are books I read before I began blogging. So, I will instead make a list of books that I loved a few years ago, when I was in middle school, and still hold dear to me.

1. City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare

2. The Giver, by Lois Lowry

3. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

4. Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver

5. Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

6. Entwined, by Heather Dixon

7. Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson

8. The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke

9. Tiger's Curse, by Colleen Houck

10. Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

11. HARRY POTTER BABY!

(That's 11 books, but whatever...)

What's your Top 10? Comment below!