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)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books To Be Made Into Movies

LOOK AT THAT AWESOME OUTFIT

Hello, hello! Happy May! Today's post is a Top Ten Tuesday. Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, this list-mania meme is dedicated this week to the top ten books we would love to see be made into movies. Here it goes!

1 and 2:  I have been cool with Sci-Fi YA since Zenon (Anybody?) so I would love to see Cinder by Marissa Meyer and The Rowan by Ann McCaffery!  It has been 20 years people, lets get The Rowan on the big screen. ( this and Zenon together made Sci-Fi a big thing for me and Crazy Camper).
 
3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This is an obvious one. This book is dying to become a movie, its so visual.

4. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. (review!) The vistas of Ireland alone would be worth it! SWOON.

5. "Goblin Fruit," a short story in Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor. You would need to flesh the story out more, but Taylor has all kind of cool tricks in  Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I am sure this is possible: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?


6. His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pulman. That movie was mostly AWFUL( I reserve the little bit not awful for Daniel Craig). Lets pretend it never happened and make these into movies again!

7. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart.  I am only halfway through this book, but who doesn't love a good caper flick? And I love that she is always two steps ahead of the boys.

8. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Vampires that DON'T sparkle (they are creepy and gray-ish) in a post-apocalyptic magical world for the win! Things blow up, too. So this would be a vampire action movie.

And a book I would worry about being made into a movie: 

9.  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Now, I loooovvve this book. But so much of what makes Hazel awesome is how she is so much more than her illness, but also is who she is because of the awareness being sick has given her. What if that didn't translate!?! Plus I don't know if my emotions could make it. I might cry myself into a puddle.

Top Ten Tuesday: Hello, Gorgeous (book covers)

Hello from YA and WS land!  Today the peeps at The Broke and the Bookish have given us all permission to judge books by their covers with today's Top Ten Tuesday. (Which, lets be serious, I do all the time when I am browsing at the library). I love my Nook, but there is something to be said for a real hardcover book with the glossy plastic cover from the library.

It is probably once a week that my roommate comes into my room, rolls her eyes, and says 'WHAT are you reading?!' usually it is because there is a fairy/girl swimming in a prom dress/shinny silver background to my book. THE HORROR, THE HORROR (thanks, J. Conrad). Sometimes I can convince her its ok. But not always. For example on Sunday, she caught me a book that said on the back "She was cyborg, and she would never go to the ball." Once she regained the ability to speak, I tried to explain that Cinder was a pretty cool mechanic, but it was a hard sell!

Here, in no particular order, are my Top (8) Covers I like and am not embarrassed by:
1. A Million Suns, Beth Revis. I know there was all the hullabaloo about the cover of Across the Universe, but I love these covers on Beth Revis's series.

2. Hourglass, Myra McEntire.  I have already made the case for this. Its cool. and it reminds Goosie Mama of Taylor Swift, which is my mind is almost always a good thing.

3. Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

4. The Romantics, Galt Niederhoffer. Disclaimer: my high school girlfriends and I read this together, and did NOT give it two thumbs up--every character is a miserable person. BUT I can't help but love the cover.

5. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. The cover is gorgeous, and the writing is very visual, but my favorite were the interior designs.

6. Delirum, Lauren Oliver. The sequel cannot compare.

7.The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fizgerald. (CLASSIC)

8. Rules of Civility, Amor Towles. Classy act, all the way.