Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

This week's Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Will Make You Cry.  Other then sad country songs and commercials for the Olympics that show parents of Olympians, books top the list of tear-inducing material.


1. The Fault in Our Stars.  Does this even need explanation?  The movie is also going to wreck us I am sure, the trailer did....

2. The Book Thief.  Again, a given.

3.  Harry Potter Book 8.  Not only an end of an era, but the ends of our character's lives were not all butter rum and quidditch practice.

4.  Allegient.  Tears for Four always.

5. Similarly, tears for Gale in Mockingjay

6. Just One Day- GS's review is coming and it made her sad. (ADDENDUM: it made her happy said, she reports, but tears nonetheless)

7. Code Name Verity.  I cried so hard at the end of the book, which was terrible because I was on the metro on the way to work....

8. Jellico Road.  (and here, we really loved this) We have gone on about those one before, but the relationships just hurt in a real way.

Cheers to the Broke and Bookish for hosting as always!  What's on your list?

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers Of Books We've Read

Hello and happy almost Memorial Day Weekend....errrr, Tuesday. While we wait for the long weekend, it is time again for Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. (Thanks, ladies!) This week's TTT is dedicated to books with covers that we loved. It is hard to be an adult reading YA with all the terrible big faces and prom dresses, but here is a list of books we would be happy to be seen in public with. What made your list?

 

because its not embarrassing

 

"because show me a flowing hair shot that i DONT love."- Goosie Mama

    

because they are pretty

 

"For its simplicity in a world of insane graphics on YA book" -Crazy Camper

  

because they are badass

 

"Cinder because x-ray shots are super edgy....Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is pretty epic too (also Pride Prejudice and Zombies - like i said, show me some bones on the cover (errr) and i can't pick it up fast enough)" -Goosie Mama

Which YA Series Is Your Next Hunger Games–Level Obsession?

Thank you Vulture once again for keeping us entertained:

Which YA Series Is Your Next Hunger Games–Level Obsession?

Head over to Vulture to give it a try... we all certainly did:

• Grad Student on Goosie Mama’s FB wall: MY personal favorite question was 

  
  

  about how  much I  wanted romance in my books.... I went with "Are you kidding right 

  
  

  now" and got myself to Delirium.  This is pretty funny.

  
  

  Grad Student: to clarify, I played with it again. I got Delirium. Again.

  
  

  Crazy Camper:  I had a hard time not getting Delirium too! Finally got to City of Bones and Maze Runner

  
  

  Goosie Mama: I GOT THE FAULT IN OUR STARS - John Green and I really are meant to be ... sigh!

  
  

  Grad Student: How many of these do you THINK I have read?

  
  

  Goosie Mama: That's not even a question ...

  
  

  Goosie Mama: clarification: ALL OF THEM

  
  

  Grad Student: TRUE STORY

Top Ten Tuesday: Inspirational Characters

On Sunday the ladies of YAF & WS had this email conversation: "Got any ideas of awesome characters that make you, in the words of Tom Cruise in Jerry MaGuire, make you want to be a better man?" AKA we are dedicating today's Top Ten Tuesday Rewind to Inspirational Characters. As always cheers to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting TTT!

Grad Student:

1. The teacher in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (and Paul Rudd playing him in the movie is only an added bonus. Teachers that make kids believe the are in fact smart are so important!)

2 and 3: Maddie and Julie from Code Name Verity. I am inspired by their friendship and their bravery. Cue the tears!:

“And this, even more wonderful and mysterious, is also true: when I read it, when I read what Julie's written, she is...whole and undamaged...Gloriously daft, drop-dead charming, full of bookish nonsense and foul language, brave and generous. She's right here. Afraid and exhausted, alone, but fighting.” 

Crazy Camper:

4. Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief, because in the face of Nazi oppression, she believes in the power of her words.

Goosie Mama:

5-6: I think you have to include Katniss Everdeen because she's a really strong female role model who is badass, but not at the expense of others. She's one tough, flawed cookie, but has a heart at the same time. I would actually couple her and Tris from Divergent/Insurgent in the same bucket.

7.: When I told Crazy Camper and Goosie Mama that I wanted to pick some great parents that are role models for happy homes, CC suggested "can we do the parents from Easy A? Because I loved them." GM says "YES EASY A IS THE BEST!: I agree with this over-application of capital letters and inclusion of movie-characters rather than book characters. We tots want to be adopted.

                                            

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I'd Want On A Deserted Island

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is dedicated to "Top Ten Books  I'd Want On A Deserted Island." I am interpreting this as a list of books that I am happy to re-read. I am definitely a big re-reader of books. In fact I usually do not buy a book until I have read it and know I would want it around to reread. I don't want to end up stranded with a set of un-vetted books. What if I got stuck with Rapture. GASP!

1. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.  I have already read it more than once. It is a book that you can read one page and you are sucked back in again.
2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. This book begs to be re-read so you can see all the clues leading to the big reveal that you missed. Ok, maybe you didn't miss it, but I did. This book is sneaky like a spy. (Pun intended)
3. Dragon Singer by Anne McCaffery. I LOVE when Menolly goes to Harper Hall. It is dragons + boarding school. For the win.
4. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. Love it, BOUGHT IT. Like the rest of the planet. It is amazing.
5. Chime by Franny Billingsley. More people should read this. BOUGHT IT.
6. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Love, BOUGHT IT.
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Because CC read them so so so fast, and in such a short amount of time,she is sure she missed things.
8. 13 year old CC would have said Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingles Wilder.  These books were read over and over.  Maple Sugar candy in snow? Pigs bladder balloons? ( on second though..who put their mouth to that to blow it up?)  "Too young for me now, but on an island, maybe again." -CC
9. Sookie Stackhouse, all of them, by Charlaine Harris. "Oh wait, I have done this, during heat waves, during snow storms, and once during a breakup.  Thank you Sookie." -CC

Want to know more about these reads? See our reviews of Chime, Jellicoe Road, Code Name Verity, The Scorpio Races, Sookie in Dead Until Dark and The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (Goosie Mama's Review, Grad Student's Review). A big thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting TTT each week. Cheers!

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines

Hello all- hoping this Tuesday finds the East Coasters dry, and if you are lucky, enjoying a day off with a good book.

We here at YAW & WS's love to participate in Top Ten Tuesdays, hosted by Breaking the Spine.  This week's TTT is Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines.  Check out our list of bad ass female leads that we have pulled together earlier this year.

If you liked Graceling by Kristin Cashore

This Top Ten Tuesday is a list of suggestions for those of you who like strong, kick-ass female characters! If you liked Graceling by Kristin Cashore, then these books are for you! (we know Katniss isn't on this list, but you already know she kicks butt)

Proof of leather jackets, handsome side-kicks
and excellent vision. Katniss, the prototype
of kick-ass heroines.

Further considerations on kick-ass heroines from Grad Student (since we are sitting on the couch together):

1. They are more fun than Bella Swan (YAWN) and usually have handsome side-kicks

2. None of them seem to worry about contact lenses. Color us jealous!

3. Cool leather jackets are the norm. LIKE.

4. They tend to know they are awesome. Please see Crazy Camper's love of Rose from Vampire Academy for proof.

In other news- CC and GS continue to live the dream in Grad Student's NYC apartment. Be safe, East Coast people!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make You Think

Today's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Books That Make You Think (About The World, People, Life, etc.). In the words of Grad Student "you might not think we are challenged to think deeply about the world since we read a lot of YA, but thankfully we are omnivorous readers! Cue the heady intellectualism!"

via

1. As is no surprise to our readers, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars tops this list, because some infinities are bigger than others.

 2. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.  One of Crazy Camper’s favorite books and one that changed how she felt about the wild: “An exhilarating meditation on nature and its seasons -- a personal narrative highlighting one year's exploration on foot in the author's own neighborhood in Tinker Creek, Virginia. “ (Good Reads).

Is this where we live, I thought, in this place at this moment, with the air so light and wild?

3. Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Again this book opened Crazy Camper’s eyes to the world of conservation and preservation, and may be one of the main forces for why she choose to study environmental policy. Remember Grad Student's Pilgrimage? If no part else, read "Thinking Like a Mountain."

4. Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut: “Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.” (GoodReads). When was the last time you read a book about getting unstuck in time? Mind bending to say the least.

5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, for its devastating look at the impacts of war, hiding behind Katniss’s coming-of-age story.

6.  Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand - see Goosie Mama’s review. She was moved and inspired by this history of WWII Japanese POW camps.

 I would obvi want the cake, too, lady!
Via

7. Food Rules by Michael Pollan. A common-sense healthy-eating manual in bullet form. And funny! And illustrated! GS gave a copy of this to CC.

#4. If You’re Not Hungry Enough to Eat an Apple, Then You’re Probably Not Hungry

This little thought experiment is a good way to assess whether your desire to eat is really based on hunger or something else. If the idea of eating an apple doesn’t appeal to you, then chances are you’re reaching for food out of habit, boredom, or sadness. The urge will pass. But if you find the idea does appeal, then go ahead: have an apple.

8. Bringing it back again to some classic high school English- The Gift of the Magi, by O'Henry.  It is a short story about love and what you do for the person you love.  If you havent read it, you should, right now.  

9. Goosie Mama nominates  The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (Goosie Mama's Review, Grad Student's Review)- and as she says, this book "beautifully walks the line between grief, teenage emotion and gorgeous eyelashes."

And one book that I think was supposed to make us think, but that in reality Crazy Camper just hated:

10.  Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. UG. that pickle dish? the sled ride? I still have no idea what that all meant. Sorry Edith.  If you dont know it, Liam Nielson starred in the 1993 version with Cat from Winterfell, which this YouYube video is loosely based on...

Top Ten Tuesday: Books to Read in A Day

Its time for another edition of The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday: Books To Read In A Day. Per-usual, I cannot come up with ten. But this is a top eight list, my personal specialty! Another specialty? Reading a book in a single day. So here are books I have gobbled up in a single day/night, and not minded the sleep-deprivation that followed.

1. The Girl who Chased the Moon (see review) by Sarah Addison Allen. The epitome of an easy, fun, one-day read.

2. The Sky is Everywhere  (see review) by Jandy Nelson. Because it is physically impossible to stop. You have no control when those charming Fontaine boy show up. Just make yourself some coffee and give in!

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- does this even need to be said at this point? It is a verb in my life. Hunger Game a good book!

4. Glass Houses (the Morganville Vampire Series) by Rachel Caine. A Victorian house and wacky roommates and vampires? Fun! A bit predictable, but so what! I think if you had more than one of these lying around you could have a multiple-books-read-in-a-day situation on your hands.

5. The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley. This under-the-radar book was surprisingly charming and short enough for a single night’s read.

6. Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep. Sometimes you need a little fluff. And I found Gwen entertaining, even though I am not on the mythic-warrior bandwagon.

7. Matched by Ally Condi. I didn’t love this book’s sequel, but I read this in a single sitting this summer, when it was too hot to go outside and my roommates had scattered to cooler pastures. And I just. kept. rooting. for. Xander.

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. We have not discussed how awesome this book is on YA F and Whiskey Sours. But we are aware. Juliet is fantastic and saucy and I would love to be her pen pal.

The moral of the story is sleep is overrated! Read more books!

      

Inevitable Hunger Games post

Hello, hello! To balance the POV of Young Adult Fiction and Whiskey Sours on HG v. Divergent I have a story. I went to Spain last spring with Crazy Camper and some other peeps and we all read  Hunger Games in such a major way, without being able to stop, (there was lots of public transit involved) that it became a verb. We Hunger Games-ed things. If you got really hungry and couldn't stop eating cheese, you Hunger Games-ed the cheese. There has been NO Divergent-ing in my life. Hunger Games for the win!

Now that that is out of my system (for the moment) I wanted to share a good article over at New York Magazine's Vulture blog. What Got Left Out of the Hunger Games Movie, and How Much it Mattered. This is a great recap--its like the journalist followed the people I saw the movie with down Second Avenue cribbing notes.  WHERE WAS THE LAMB STEW, WORLD!?!

Gale=Hunky. 

Things that should have been said in the Hunger Games movie:

“up you go, Catnip” and the entire post-HG interview.

Best additions:

Saucy notes from Haymitch and flashes to Gale every time Peeta and Katniss kiss. I think someone shouted “oh, snap” in the theater.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Dystopian Books

Happy Tuesday! I am jazzed for this week's Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish which is a great way to find out what books are catching people's attention. This week, I offer a list of the best Dystopian books I have come across.  (It is really a list of "creepy places I would never want to live but am fascinated by in book form")

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is a master dystopian-world-inventor.

2. The Hunger Games triology. (obvi, PEETA is there).

3. Divergent by Veronica Roth (I am MEH on this but Goosie Mama thinks it is far superior to the Hunger Games. Things got heated on two separate occasions last Friday about this. Once via text, once at the bar, OPPS. Agree to disagree)

4.The Giver by Louis Lowry. When that color pops, it is crazy good.

5. The Maze Runner by James Daschner. These kids and their lingo are cool. I wish the last book wasn't such a mindblowing dissapointment. I was so jazzed by books one and two, and tried to explain all the layers of conspiracy to whoever would listen.

6. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I have only read the first of this triology, but it was hang-on-the-edge-of-your-seat creepy. I am going to get around to finishing it.

7. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. NOTE: THIS IS PROBABLY one of the only fun Dystopian worlds in existence. They treat Shakespeare's plays like people treat the Rocky Horror Picture Show! You can be a tourist inside a book! The Bad Guy's name is literally Mr. Schitt. It is so beyond inventive and fun.

8. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (for Crazy Camper, who is currently camping and can't weigh in, but is a big fan)
9. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Why aren't more people loving this vampire tale?

(and a honorary Whiskey Sour to my fav, Kevin Cosner (you dance with those wolves!) for staring in two of the worst dystopian movies of all time--The Postman and Waterworld. Crazy Camper and I used to threaten to show Waterworld when the kids were bad at the camp where we had summer jobs once upon a time. Result=scared straight.)

   

NPR likes YA, too!

Great piece at NPR from All Things Considered on Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium, The Hunger Games, and the world of YA dystopian fiction. You can listen here at NPR's website.  And they interview Sarah P. from Forever Young Adult that is my absolute fav book blog site. They are VERY funny people. They are the people behind the

 and  T-shirts!

Crazy Camper found this interview, and I think Sweet Tea is absolutely right in that this is the quote of the day:

 "Of course, a dystopian world WITH vampires? That's another story."

Top Ten Tuesdays: Books That Broke Your Heart (a little)

A Valentine's Day Whiskey Sour to all!
Today, in honor of St. Valentine, the patron saint of YA true love stories the world over (possibly not true, don't right that in a paper for school/ mention it in front of your boss) we here at YA fiction and Whiskey Sours are participating in The Broke and the Bookish's weekly meme/group blog event Top Ten Tuesday. Each week offers a different theme.

The claim is that this is an anti-Valentines theme, but love is a bit about heartbreak, non? (imagine a french person saying that, it acquires a certain gravitas).

So books that induced whiskey drinking, errrrrr, broke some hearts over here:
1. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

2. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
As Sweet Tea points out, these are two classic weepers

3. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Grad Student)
Alright, so this is fiction about the battle of Gettysburg. But it is literally my favorite book of all time. If it doesn't make you cry I am concerned for the status of your soul.



4. So Silver Bright by Lisa Mantchev (Grad Student)
This one caught my by surprise, usually love triangles are underwhelming, but oh boy, what a revisiting of Shakespeare's the Tempest.


5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Grad Student et all)
GAAALLLLLEEEEEEEEEEE, PRRRRRIIIIMMMMMMMMM, NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Sweet Tea, Crazy Camper, and I literally all had to stalk each other via telephone to talk this one out.

6. Bridges of Madison County (Crazy Camper) by Robert James Waller
Nothing like lost love remembered to stir those heartstrings.

7. Tuck Everlasting (Crazy Camper) by Natalie Babbitt
Living forever is not as easy as it seems.

8. The Rowan (Crazy Camper) by Anne McCaffery
When anyone dies, I cry. Every time. Set in outer space in a telepatheic society, this is a book for the ages. I mistakenly lent this to a boyfriend in college as a joke, but he never gave it back. Maybe I should look into it again...

The moral of the story here is we don't read a lot of sad books. Not our style. So we are offering a condensed version of this list. Its really an ode to sneaky sad books that creep up on you. (Minus the Sparks, cause that's the goal of all those books). We do watch sad movies. In fact we tend to spring them on each other when people feel low. Ask Crazy Camper about the time a good mutual friend showed her Legends of the Fall after a breakup. That's what I am talking about. Cue the tears!

In case you are thinking of sending any Valentine sentiments of your own, Gentle Reader, I leave you to consider this as the ideal Valentine: