These are a few of my favourite things

Tags

Cara Lynn Shultz, Cynthia Hand, Everything Everything, Lauren James, Lauren Oliver, Leslye Walton, Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley, Mary E. Pearson, Michelle Hodkin, Nicola Yoon, Spellbound, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Vanishing Girls

Sometimes, you read a book, and it is just full of all the things you love in a book.

Here’s a list of all my favourite things:

Short non-chapter-ish format

As seen in: Everything Everything, The Adoration of Jenna Fox

I’m not sure exactly how to describe this format, but if you’ve read the books above, you’ll know what I’m talking about…those books that are not made up of chapters, but of snippets. Random thoughts, short moments…I just LOVE a book that does this.

Reincarnated/Fated love

As seen in: Spellbound, The Next Together

There’s just something I really love about the whole reincarnated thing, where two characters fall in love over and over only to get horribly separated and have to relive the whole thing again.

News articles/Blog posts/etc

As seen in: Vanishing Girls, The Next Together

Don’t know why, but I always love it when the book is full of news paper articles, or blog posts, or police reports, or the like. I just find it really interesting.

General Weirdness

As seen in: Magonia, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava lavender

When things are weird, and don’t make a brilliant amount of sense, I just love it!

A good, healthy does of ‘what the heck is going on here?’ is exactly what we all need sometimes.

Amnesia

As seen in: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Where the main character has forgotten things that need remembering. Whether the memories are gradually brought to light throughout the book, or if the character just has to learn to cope with knowing nothing, I very much enjoy forgetfulness.

SCIENCE! And Nerds/smart people

As seen in: The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together

Smart people are the greatest. Especially when they also love maths 🙂
I like maths.

Stories told in Flashbacks

As seen in: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

I absolutely LOVE the flashback thing. Where there’s a story happening in the present, and there’s one happening in the past. Love it.

---

So, those are my favourite things. What are yours? Do you agree with anything on this list? Do you disagree? Let me know.

Also, if you have any recs you’d like to give me of books containing any of these things. Let’s here ’em.

The Liebster Award…again

Tags

Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Harry Potter, Heir of Fire, J.K. Rowling, Michelle Hodkin, Sarah J. Maas, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Throne of Glass

So, I have once again been nominated for The Liebster Award. Go me!

This time I have been nominated by the lovely Janna from Writing Visually

So, once again, the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Answer 11 questions from the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate other bloggers.
4. Give those bloggers 11 questions to answer and let them know they’ve been nominated

And now for the questions:

1. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I’m tempted to answer with Harry Potter. However, I already have those books practically memorised.

So, since you are forcing me to choose, I’m going to say The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin.

2. If your life was a book what would it be called?

The Magical Adventures of Cassie the Weird.

Since it couldn’t be a book, I made it a blog.

3. Who was your first fictional crush?

Harry Potter, I believe.

4. Traditional publishing vs self publishing – which would you choose if you had the choice? And why?

Ok, back to the hard questions.

Probably traditional publishing. Because with self-publishing you have to do all the work yourself and that sounds hard and I’m lazy.

5. Ebooks vs real books? Which wins?

Real Books. Always.

6. Do you read picture books or graphic novels? Why/why not?

Not really, but that’s mainly because other books take up so much of my time.

I’ve got nothing against them, though. I just prefer novels.

7. What are your thoughts on NA (new adult) fiction?

Well, I haven’t really read any NA. However I do see it’s relevance, and I think it’s a good genre to have.
Really, I think of it as YA, but for a different age group. People look down on it, but it has so much potential. Because the generation of kids that made YA so popular are starting to finish high school, so they aren’t relating to those character’s as much, and so we need more books about people leaving school and going off to college, or starting work, etc.

8. What is a book you’ve read purely because of the cover?

Ok, this is hard, because I know there is one.

Oh, wait, I didn’t read Throne of Glass for the longest time because of this cover:

But then people started getting excited for Heir of Fire, and then I saw this cover:

And I was like “WHOA! I have to read that!”

9. What must a book have in it for you to fall in love with it?

Words. Words are good.

But aside from that…it usually needs some sort of paranormal/supernatural/dystopian happenings. I’m not a big fan of contemporaries (unless they rip your heart out and leave you to die…then I seem to like them).

And romance. I love romance.

But otherwise I’m not overly picky. I don’t mind clichés or predictability or similarities to other books. As long as it’s done well, I like it.

10. Are there any movies/TV series out there that you think are better than the books from which they originated?

I haven’t seen any that I would consider better as such.

I thought City of Bones came close, though. Because, while I love that series, I do have some serious issues with it that weren’t as present in the movie.

11. Where is your favourite place to read/write?

My bed is the answer to both.

---

So, that’s it. I’m not going to bother with the tagging and the questions and things. If you want to consider yourself tagged and answer the above questions, you can go ahead. But otherwise,

TTT: All Time Favourites

Tags

Alexandra Bracken, Amy Zhang, Bloodlines, Brigid Kemmerer, Disruption, Divergent, Falling into Place, Jessica Shirvington, Kasie West, Maggie Stiefvater, Markus Zusak, Michelle Hodkin, Pivot Point, Rachael Craw, Richelle Mead, Spark, The Book Thief, The Darkest Minds, The Raven Cycle, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Top Ten Tuesday, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Books you would classify as your all time favourites from the past 3 years

Note: I’m taking ‘from the past 3 years’ to mean books that I have read in the past 3 years.

1. Vampire Academy/Bloodlines series, by Richelle Mead

2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

3. The Raven Cycle, by Maggie Stiefvater

4. Divergent, by Veronica Roth

5. Pivot Point, by Kasie West

6. Disruption, by Jessica Shirvington

7. Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang

8. The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken

9. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

10. Spark, by Rachael Craw

Bonus: Spark, by Brigid Kemmerer

TTT: Favourite Book Heroines

Tags

Ambelin Kwaymullina, Bloodlines, Brigid Kemmerer, Disruption, Harry Potter, Hex Hall, I Am Number Four, J.K. Rowling, Jessica Shirvington, Julie Kagawa, Maggie Stiefvater, Michelle Hodkin, Pittacus Lore, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Richelle Mead, Sarah J. Maas, Spark, The Darkest Minds, The Immortal Rules, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, The Iron Fey, The Raven Boys, The Raven Cycle, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Throne of Glass, Top Ten Tuesday, Vampire Academy

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Fifteen Favourite Heroines from Books

1. Hermione Granger, from Harry Potter

2. Rose Hathaway, from Vampire Academy

3. Sydney Sage, from Bloodlines

4. Blue Sargent, from The Raven Boys

5. Celaena Sardothien, from Throne of Glass

6. Sophie Mercer, from Hex Hall

7. Maggie Stevens, from Disruption

8. Evie, from Spark

9. Mara Dyer, from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

10. Allison Sekemoto, from The Immortal Rules

11. Meghan Chase, from The Iron Fey

12. Layne, from Spark

13. Ashala Wolf, from The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf

14. Number Six, from I Am Number Four

15. Ruby, from The Darkest Minds

Top Ten Tuesday

Tags

All Our Yesterdays, Cristin Terrill, Divergent, Hex Hall, Julie Kagawa, Kasie West, Kiera Cass, Kylie Fornasier, Legend, Marie Lu, Masquerade, Michelle Hodkin, Neal Shusterman, Pivot Point, Rachel Hawkins, Richelle Mead, The Immortal Rules, The Selection, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Top Ten Tuesday, Unwind, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth, YA Books

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Books I would give to people who have never read YA

(These are not in any particular order)

1. Divergent, by Veronica Roth

2. Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

3. Legend, by Marie Lu

4. Pivot Point, by Kasie West

5. The Selection, by Kiera Cass

6. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

7. Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

8. The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa

9. All Our Yesterdays, by Cristin Terrill

10. Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins

And because since writing this list another book has come out, and I couldn’t decide which book to replace with it, I’m adding this book on the end as a bonus:

11. Masquerade, by Kylie Fornasier