Top Ten Tuesday: A Whole New World...

Today's TTT is dedicated to the top ten most vivid worlds/settings in books. This prompt meant that we had to explain to Goosie Mama what world building is. CLEARLY she did not read enough sci-fi as a young adult herself (cough cough, Crazy Camper and Grad Student certainly did, please see the epic-ness that is Ann McCaffery below).


1. Lani Taylor's alternate universe/portals with human/beasts in Daughter of Smoke and Bone

2. Diana Peterfreund's Luddite-explorer future in For Darkness Shows the Stars.

3 & 4. Anne McCaffery's singer/rock miner in space in The Crystal Singer AND the dragon-filled future world (which people got to on spaceships) of Pern where Thread falls from the sky like a terrible acid rain. There is also time travel. Whhaaatttttt. But it is all soooo intricate you can't help believe.

5. Rosemary Clement-Moore's Texas Gothic, a "world where good intentioned family magic over a long period of time builds a protective sphere around your house -- something about generations of family magic protection I love!" -Crazy Camper (review coming soon).

6. Ali Condi's dystopian world of Matched and Crossed. Not a world you would want to live in, BUT the whole 100 songs, 100 stories, 100 paintings culture control is a well thought-out dystopian.

7. Lisa Mantchev's Théâtre Illuminata  from her series by the same name. A theater where every character ever  written for the stage exists! A book that, when you write in it, shapes the world around you! The details really make this world, like when Ophelia always shows up in water sets (as we know, she drowns herself in Hamlet)

A big thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this weekly meme. Share your TTT below! 

GET A LOAD OF THE CRYSTAL
 SINGER, FOLKS!

Top Ten Tuesday: Places We Want to Go (And Dont!)

A cheers of our whiskey sour to The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday In honor of this week's TTT choose-your-own-adventure, here is YA & WS's top ten places we would like to visit/would never be caught dead in from the books we read:


Let's start with the "Classics":

1. Narnia: Grad Student is afraid to go here, but I would love to escape through a wardrobe to a magical forest or beach, just preferably not during one of the wars.

Hogwarts, yes please.

2. Hogwarts:  Does this even need a reason why?  And even though Disney now makes this a reality, I am sure the one in my imagine is better (and alot cheaper) and with alot less fast food and marketing.

PERN

3. Pern: Crazy Camper and Grad Student were enormous Ann McCaffery fans growing up. E-NOR-MOUS.  I dont know if i can emphasize this enough.  I would take the High Reaches, or the Southern Continent, Ruatha (during Jackson's time, not Lessa's)... really, plop us down anywhere. And also give me a dragon. thanksosmuch.

Recently Discovered Places to Visit

4. Lani Taylor's world in Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Grad Student would like to travel through the portals and go anywhere in the world on a whim, as well as the alternative world

5. The Summer Court of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series: Grad Student would like to hang out with Puck and Grimalkin!  Yes, she is picking her worlds based on boys here... (GS edit: Grimalkin is a CAT...geez, and you read some of these)

6. Westeros of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series: I would love to see the Great White Wall. Also, a dragon would be nice here, too.

7. The Night Circus of Erin Morgenstern's book by the same title.  So beautiful to read about! (GS's review)

8. New Beijing from Cinder by Marissa Meyer: The cool sci-fi future to have a fun robot friend (this probably stems from Grad Student's love of the noises R2D2 makes. (beep bop beep!)

9. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children from Ransom Rigg's book by the same title: Goosie Mama says "It would be like an idyllic circus slash fountain of youth since you don't age. Plus, maybe some of the peculiarities would rub off on you and you'd, I don't know, develop x-ray vision or something amazing like that?"

Via

10. Sookie Stackhouse's hometown of Bon Temps, LA:  mostly would want to visit here in the off chance that Jason was in town doing some character research for True Blood. Also,  Goosie Mama has never been to Louisiana, but a place with shapeshifters, vampires, mind readers, fairies, etc. wouldn't be a half bad place to start she thinks!

And, last but not least....


Places to Avoid
1. East Meadow (both present day or as it exists in Partials by Dan Wells) Gah! Long Island!


1. Swamplandia (read Goosie Mama's review, in her own words, "nuff said")


3. Post-apocolyptic Chicago a la Divergent by Veronica Roth (jump from the El to the roof of the building?? Sounds risky)