Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted for us book blogger types by the Broke and the Bookish. They provide a topic, and all of us participants post our answers on our blogs and we hop around checking out one another’s answers! This week’s topic is

Top Ten Books You Wish Were Taught In Schools


1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I think that this novel would be a really great companion to a Holocaust unit that also used Night by Elie Wiesel. It is emotional, clever, and reinforces the importance of Holocaust knowledge. 

2. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Perhaps for use in a unit exploring point of view because of the wonderful use of Second Person.  

3. If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
This novel is extremely well written and deals with extremely hard subject matter.  It reminds me of Speak in the sense that it is important for young adults to read and understand the story. 

4. This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel alongside Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mostly I think that Oppel’s novel could really boost students interest in Shelley’s classic tale, and it would be fun to teach alongside it. 

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
With the huge boost in Dystopian YA Literature, I really believe that Collins’ trilogy would be an excellent way to teach some of the features of Marxism (Alienation, Rebellion, etc) and students would be receptive to reading such a popular novel. 

6. Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman
This picture book is an excellent way to introduce young children to the story of 9/11 and shows how heroic American citizens were in the form of a Fireboat. 

7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This is a controversal text, and I know that a lot of schools would choose to not teach it because of some of the subject matter, but its letter based format, use of music, and extremely contemporary text makes it an important story. 

8. Ten by Gretchen McNeil alongside And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
I know that my eighth grade English class required us to read Agatha Christie’s excellent and creepy story.  Ten is a modernized version of the tale with its own specific twists.  I think it would be a fun comparison course for students to enjoy.

9. Fairytale Retellings by Jackson Pearce alongside Corresponding Fairy Tales
Mostly I would really enjoy teaching these novels with the Grimm/Anderson/Perrault originals, because it would be a lot of fun to show how fairy tales can still be applied to modern life and still retain their original intent and purpose. 

10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
In a world of Bullying and constant criticism and questions concerning body image, I can’t think of a better series to have teenagers read that could really help explain what it would be like if we all looked the same. 

What are some titles you would like to have taught in schools? Why? 

Waiting on Wednesday

Release Date: November 5, 2013

Kai and Ginny grew up together–best friends since they could toddle around their building’s rooftop rose garden. Now they’re seventeen, and their relationship has developed into something sweeter, complete with stolen kisses and plans to someday run away together. 

But one night, Kai disappears with a mysterious stranger named Mora–a beautiful girl with a dark past and a heart of ice. Refusing to be cast aside, Ginny goes after them and is thrust into a world she never imagined, one filled with monsters and thieves and the idea that love is not enough. 

If Ginny and Kai survive the journey, will she still be the girl he loved–and moreover, will she still be the girl who loved him?

Book Review: Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant — until Celia meets Lo.

Lo doesn’t know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea — a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid — all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she’s becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she’s tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude’s affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there’s only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.

I can’t imagine how well Jackson Pearce must know her fairy tales in order to give them a proper update and be able to let them stand on their own.  Not only does Pearce manage to make the stories even darker than the originals by the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson….but she has reinvented my perception of the possible world within world fairy tales.

Think, Once Upon A Time (see the gif with Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, and Rumplestiltskin alive and active in the same world) with teenagers and an even different twist since the stories are all intertwined.  Not only should fans of Once Upon A Time try to pick up this series, but fans of fairy tales in general should.
I can’t say that Fathomless is my favorite of Pearce’s Fairytale Retellings, because the original Little Mermaid fairy tale wasn’t one of my favs either. I mean…air spirits? C’mon, Anderson, I really liked the Disney happy ending for Ariel.

Either way, there is somewhat of a happy ending in Pearce’s story, but I refuse to tell you because the getting there is the best part.  Plus, why should you miss out on her glorious story telling because some blogger wanted to give it away? Hm?  Think of it this way, however, if you haven’t read the first two novels, Sisters Red and Sweetly, you might not quite understand the circumstances of the overall story arc. 

Word on the street is that Pearce will be doing another Anderson tale for the fourth installment in her Fairy Tale Retellings, currently titled Cold Spell.  Does anyone else find it interesting that there are 2 Grimm tales and then 2 Anderson tales?  Mayhap Pearce will take on Perrault next! (I’m 100% okay with it.)

Overall, I’m giving Fathomless 4 Bards. Now go grab a copy!

Top Ten Tuesday

Each week The Broke and the Bookish (an excellent book blog, by the way) hosts a meme for bookish bloggers.  Every week they provide us with an excellent topic to respond to, and this week’s topic is:

Top Ten Anticipated Books of 2013

1. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Release Date: March 19, 2013
If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the final installment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.

2. Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
Release Date: January 8, 2013
It’s been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don’t take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe’s precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both. Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

3. Untitled Divergent #3 by Veronica Roth
Release Date: September 26, 2013
No synopsis yet…Veronica you are killing us!

4. Goddess by Josephine Angelini
Release Date: May 28, 2013

After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count. To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

5. Level 2 bye Lenore Appelhans
Release Date: January 15, 2013
Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved. Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again. Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

6. The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd
Release Date: January 29, 2013

London, 1894. Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns her father is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations were true. Juliet is accompanied by the doctor’s handsome young assistant and an enigmatic castaway, who both attract Juliet for very different reasons. They travel to the island only to discover the depths of her father’s madness: he has created animals that have been vivisected to resemble, speak, and behave as humans. Worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island’s inhabitants. Juliet knows she must end her father’s dangerous experiments and escape the island, even though her horror is mixed with her own scientific curiosity. As the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father’s genius—and madness—in her own blood.
7. Dark Triumph by R.L. LaFevers  
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons. But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for?

8. Taken by Erin Bowman
Release Date: April 16, 2013

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone. They call it the Heist. Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive. Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?
9. Dracomachia by Rachel Hartman

Release Date: July 9, 2013

No synopsis yet!
10. Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce

Release Date: Fall 2013
Retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, about a girl on a journey to save her childhood friend after he’s captured and held hostage in the unforgiving north.

Top Ten Tuesday!

Every week The Broke and The Bookish hosts a meme for book bloggers to post about a specific topic chosen by the moderators.  This week’s topic is: 

Top Ten Bookish People I Want To Meet 
(Authors, Bloggers….etc)

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: 

Veronica Roth
-Author of the Divergent Trilogy
-Why? Because I really wanted to use the Divergent books in my Dystopian Master’s Thesis, but since the trilogy wasn’t finished yet I couldn’t.  I would love to pursue that essay and talk to Roth about the different influences on the text. 




Markus Zusak
-Author of The Book Thief
-Why? The Book Thief is a beautiful novel, and I would love to pick his brain about the different themes and the authorial decision to use Death as the narrator. 

Suzanne Collins
-Author of The Hunger Games trilogy
-Why? Speaking of that Dystopian Thesis, my main chapter was on Marxism and The Hunger Games trilogy, so I would love to have an interview to add to my 25 page chapter. Plus, she is brilliant. 




Scott Westerfeld
-Author of the Uglies series
-Why?  Remember that pesky thesis I keep mentioning? Yeah the second chapter was on the first three books in the Uglies series, and again, an interview with Westerfeld would just make the chapter THAT much stronger. 

James Dashner
-Author of The Maze Runner trilogy and Prequel
-Why? I wanted to use this dystopian series in my thesis as well and I never got to since the series wasn’t complete.  Now that it is, I want to pick his brain too! So many novels I want to write academic critical essays on…


Jackson Pearce
-Author of the Fairy Tale Retellings series
-Why? Not only does she seem like a cool person, but I’d love to discuss other possible fairy tales for her to adapt for her series. 



Josephine Angelini
-Author of the Starcrossed series
-Why? I want to discuss the importance of Greek Mythology on modern literature, and of course, Lucas and Helen. 


Melina Marchetta
-Author of the Lumatere Chronicles
-Why? Just so I can say I met her. Her novels are exquisitely written and well plotted. I envy her immense talent!


Charlaine Harris
-Author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels
-Why? I want to convince her of why Sookie and Eric need to be together forever.  Oh, and to ask her if I can get Alexander Skarsgard’s phone number….





Kenneth Oppel
-Author of the Victor Frankenstein diaries
-Why? Just to discuss Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and Victorian era literature and culture! 


I went with all authors, who are some of the people on your list? 

Top Ten Tuesday!

Every week the Broke and the Bookish (best title for book blog, right?) hosts a meme for book bloggers called Top Ten Tuesday.  The moderators provide all of us with a topic, and then we proceed to “hop” through each other’s blogs and check everyone’s responses out!  This week’s topic is:

Top Ten Books On Your Fall TBR List
1. Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel

When does obsession become madness? Tragedy has forced sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein to swear off alchemy forever. He burns the Dark Library. He vows he will never dabble in the dark sciences again—just as he vows he will no longer covet Elizabeth, his brother’s betrothed. If only these things were not so tempting. When he and Elizabeth discover a portal into the spirit world, they cannot resist. Together with Victor’s twin, Konrad, and their friend Henry, the four venture into a place of infinite possibilities where power and passion reign. But as they search for the knowledge to raise the dead, they unknowingly unlock a darkness from which they may never return.

2. Ten by Gretchen McNeil

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury. But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine? 
3. Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr
In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures–if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live. All Mallory knows of The City is that her father–and every other witch there–fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it’s only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.
4. Beta by Rachel Cohn
In a world constructed to absolute perfection, imperfection is difficult to understand—and impossible to hide. Elysia is a clone, created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen year old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of teenaged clone.
She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to be created. Elysia’s purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Everything about Demesne is bioengineered for perfection. Even the air there induces a strange, euphoric high that only the island’s workers—soulless clones like Elysia—are immune to. At first, Elysia’s new life on this island paradise is idyllic and pampered.
But she soon sees that Demesne’s human residents, the most privileged people in the world who should want for nothing, yearn. And, she comes to realize that beneath its flawless exterior, there is an undercurrent of discontent amongst Demesne’s worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care—so why are overpowering sensations clouding Elysia’s mind?
If anyone discovers that Elysia isn’t the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When Elysia’s one chance at happiness is ripped away from her with breathtaking cruelty, emotions she’s always had but never understood are unleashed. As rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her, Elysia must find the will to survive

5. Fathomless by Jackson Pearce 


Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant — until Celia meets Lo. Lo doesn’t know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea — a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid — all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she’s becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she’s tempted to embrace her dark immortality. When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude’s affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there’s only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.

6. The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer
(non-fiction)  I think this one is pretty self explanatory.
7. Venom by Fiona Paul


Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape. When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin… and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco?

8. The Innocents by Lili Peloquin
Nothing ever came between sisters Alice and Charlie.
Friends didn’t.
Boys couldn’t.
Their family falling apart never would.
Until they got to Serenity Point.
9. Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening.

Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux. But she can’t do either alone. With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack.

If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him? Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side…

10. Black City by Elizabeth Richards
In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.
When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.
What are some of the books you are looking forward to reading?