Top 10 Tuesday - Fictional Crushes

This is a repost from last year, but it fits this Tuesday's Top 10 from The Broke and the Bookish.

 

I have so many fictional crushes. To be clear I have a broad interpretation of the word "crush". Yes, I'm talking about fictional men I wish weren't fictional so they were date-able, but I'm also talking about women I really want to be friends with. And across all mediums - Books, TV, Movies.

Sometimes I wonder if it damages my dating life cause non-fictional guys just can't measure up! Here are a few of my favorites:

Myron Bolitar is the main character in a series by Harlan Coben. I'll get the obvious stuff out of the way first - he passes the obviously list: Tall, funny, smart, and kind. Top it off with former college athlete, owns his own business, and very family oriented and I'm just head over heels. He has two "nerdy" traits. First, he likes to play original TV Batman trivia with his best friend and second he's 30 and still lives with his parents. But he still lives at home because he likes his parents - not because he's a deadbeat so it's actually kind of attractive (in fiction - it might freak me out in a guy I actually met).

Veronica Mars played by Kristen Bell. I wish I was half as confident as Veronica. She's hated/mocked by half her school and is still confident enough to talk to anyone. She sticks her foot in her mouth occasionally (or frequently), gets embarrassed but then moves on and doesn't let it phase her. As a side note - this has phased into a girl crush on Kristen Bell. Seriously she's hilarious - you can waste a day watching YouTube clips of her on the late shows. Not to mention the sloth video!





Lincoln, Beth, and Jennifer from Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Is it weird to be slightly jealous of a fictional character (Beth) because another fictional character (Lincoln) likes her. I identified with Lincoln quite a bit. I loved when his mother told him he had a problem with school. Because he just kept going back for more degrees. I want to do that so bad. If I won the lottery I'm fairly certain I would just be a professional student - lots and lots of bachelors and no advanced degrees. Plus yes he hits the trifecta of tall, smart and nice. By the end of the book I felt like I was friends with Beth and Jennifer. Their conversations were so real. Sometimes I'd have deja vu because I had very similar conversations with my friends. Beth and Jennifer's conversations are the perfect combination of funny and supportive.  

Jennifer: Did Chris notice that you couldn't face him?

Beth: No, there was no face time. He fell asleep before I could ask him how practice went. A long night grinding the ax takes it out of you.

Jennifer: Ew. Is that a euphemism for masturb@tion?

Beth: No. I think it's @ euphemism for pl@ying the electric guit@r. Or @n idiom. I don't know. Do you really think "masturbation" is one of Tron's red-flag words?

Jennifer: Well, it doesn't matter now. If we get fired because you insist on poking the dragon, you're going to have to support me and my pricey Baby Gap habit.

Beth: 1. Poking the dragon. Is that another masturbation reference? 2. Baby Gap. Still?

Jennifer: 1. Ha. 2. Still. Last weekend, I scored a celery green snowsuit with matching mittens for $3.99!

Beth: Green is a smart choice - good for an imaginary girl or an imaginary boy. And the season isn't at all relevant for imaginary children.

Jennifer: Exactly. I don't even go to the adult Gap anymore. Once you're an imaginary mother, it's hard to take time for yourself.

Ed Stevens played by Tom Cavanagh on the TV show Ed. Ed is a corporate lawyer in New York. His girlfriend cheats on him and then he gets fired (he missed a comma in a contract - it was an expensive comma). He heads back to his hometown to regroup and runs into some of his old friends and sees the girl he had a crush on in high school. Ed decides to stay in Stuckeyville, buys the bowling alley, and practices law out of an office in said bowling alley. Ed does all the over the top stuff women wish men would do to try to win the affections of his high school crush, Carol. Dresses up in a suit of armor, throws waffles at her bedroom window (first clip towards the end), you get the idea. Then there are the $10 bets with his best friend - they are hilarious (second clip)

  

And my original fictional crush.....Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. What's kind of embarrassing to admit is that I'm not sure if I read the book or saw the movie first. Gilbert didn't run away when Anne was prickly, he was smart and secure enough with himself to like that Anne was smart too. Gilbert's loyalty makes him so attractive. This list goes on and on, but I think these are my top 5 (or 7 really).

Top Ten Books I Recommend the Most

This week’s Top 10 from The Broke and The Bookish is Top Ten Books I Recommend the Most.

 

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Pretty safe bet because it’s almost universally enjoyed and not too daunting.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay – One of my favorite books ever.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell – Love this book.  It’s the perfect mix of fun with depth.

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver – More people need to read it so they can talk to me about it.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max – Not one of my favorites, BUT even though the author is an A**, it’s funny and told in short stories.  I recommend it to people who say they don’t like to read.

Exile by Richard North Patterson – Fiction but super educational about the history behind the conflict in the Mid East

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – Love, Love, Love

East of Eden by John Steinbeck – My favorite “Classic”

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand – My go-to nonfiction recommendation

Prey Series by John Sandford – I recommend these for people looking for a thriller series with plenty of material.

Myron Bolitar Series by Harlan Coben – Ditto (not as many books though)

For those of you counting....yes I picked eleven.  I struggle with boundaries and I gave myself an extra for my birthday :)

Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Through the Ever Night
Veronica Rossi
2012, 341
Library

Summary from Goodreads

SPOILER ALERT!  THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS TO THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES UNDER THE NEVER SKY.

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?

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable. 

My summary

So, so, so, so, so, excited about this book!  A Trilogy book 2 that didn’t have me tearing my hair out in disappointment!

Through the Ever Night starts where Never Sky ended.  Aria and Perry reunite and their feelings for each other haven’t changed, but the circumstances around them have.   Eventually those circumstances force them to separate.  Perry stays with his tribe while Aria and Roar go off in search of Liv and the Clear Blue.

This book focuses much more on Perry’s relationship with his tribe and the problems that arise from being Blood Lord.  We also get to see Aria develop a friendship with Roar.  It’s awesome to watch that relationship grow without ever feeling like a love triangle is being forced – they are friends.

My biggest frustration reading the first book in the series was some holes in the world building.  Book two answered all of the questions and then some!  I know what the Aether is and what caused it!

This book also had the perfect blend of action and character/scene development.  Tension is build beautifully without action sequences that go on for too long.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars)
Relationships (4 out of 5 stars)
Writing (4 out of 5 stars)

So excited for "Into the Clear Blue" next year.  I’ll buy this one when the price comes down a bit - this series is worth owning.

 

 

 

 

Top 10 Books I HAD to Buy...that are still unread

This week’s Top 10 from The Broke and The Bookish is Top Ten Books I HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread.

 

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larrson – I was going to wait and read it after the US movie for the 2^nd book came out, but that keeps getting pushed back.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Margaret Farley

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater  (Kindle – not pictured)

The Devil's in the Details

I love DIY but I struggle with the little stuff.  Paint a room, picking a sofa...cake.  Finding accent pillow, curtains, and rugs......not my strong suit.

In my previous post about painting my kitchen I mentioned that I chose the paint color based on the hand-me-down patio door covering I got from my mom.  That post was getting fairly long so I didn't include a pic.  Well here it is.

 

It doesn't show up in this picture but there's a green patterned band on either side of the red.  Check out the inverted box pleating at the top of the curtains - my mother spend a long time making this (and about 6 more like it), and just switched out to gray. 

 

Up next in the accessories department - covering up the table.  Refinishing that table is on my DIY to-do list, but that's at least two months away.  My mom (can you tell that she's awesome?) found this tablecloth at Gordman's for $5.  The picture distorts the color a bit, but I swear it goes.



And the final addition to room (at least for awhile) - I found this rug on Joss & Main.  I think it was $30-$40.  It's not the highest quality rug, but the price was right and the colors were perfect.

 

I still have quite a bit to do, but it's really starting to come together.

Kitchen when I moved in:

And now

The most pressing not too expensive items on my to-do list:

• Re-finish table/chairs and recover chairs
• Update window covering over sink
• Finally finish the crown molding around the light fixture

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
1960, 323 pgs
Audiobook (Library)

Summary from Amazon
 

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often.

My summary

This was my first attempt at a fiction audiobook.  All my previous audiobooks had been autobiographies and generally humorous ones. 

Sissy Spacek narrates To Kill a Mockingbird beautifully.  She varies the voices and captures the spirit of Scout the main character – a young girl.  To Kill a Mockingbird unfolds slowly, taking a long time to get to the point of the story.  I enjoyed hearing about the children’s lives as they grew up and their obsession with Boo Radley.    Any other Gilmore Girl fan’s out there?  I was constantly agreeing with Lorelai that all towns need as many Boo Radley’s as they can get. 

I also thought it was genius of Harper Lee to tell this story through the eyes of a child, because you hear the racism they are being taught just by watching the actions of those around them, but children also have an instinctive sense of fairness and question things that adults don’t.

I did struggle at times with how slowly it moved.  I could have read it in 4 hours, but instead listened to the audiobook on a road trip.  It took about 11 hours to listen to the whole thing.  Compound the long listening time with the story unfolding slowly and I got a little antsy to finish.

 My Rating
Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars) (Listening vs reading may have knocked off that star)
Relationships (4 out of 5 stars)
Writing (5 out of 5 stars)

 I’ll remember To Kill a Mockingbird forever.  I also think I’ll reread (rather than listen) at some point in the not too distant future.

 

 

Top 10 Books on My Spring TBR list

This week’s Top 10 from The Broke and The Bookish is Top 10 Books on my spring TBR list!

 

New Releases

Silken Prey by John Sandford

Six Years by Harlan Coben

Fragments by Dan Wells

 

Classics Challenge

 Beloved by Toni Morrison

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (re-read)

TBR Challenge

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

Other

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

The Twelve by Justin Cronin