Top Ten Tuesday 09/16/14

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is, Top Authors I’ve Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More, and there is a really good chance that I m not even going to come close to ten authors. If I read a book that I really like, I tend to rent or buy more of that author’s books. There are only a few authors that I can think of right now that I have only read one of their books that I liked and want to read more. Anyhow, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. As I mentioned earlier, this week’s topic is…

Top Authors I’ve Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More

1.) Deb Caletti – Surprisingly I have only read one of her books, The Nature of Jade, but I loved it and have since purchased 3 more of her books, I just haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet.

2.) Angie Stanton – I loved Snapshot and really want to read the first Jamieson Brothers book, Rock and a Hard Place, along with Royally Lost and Snowed Over.

3.) Michelle Dalton – Loved Sixteenth Summer, bought Fifteenth Summer and want to read Pulled Under.

4.) Nina de Gramont – Loved her book, Every Little Thing In the World and cannot wait to read The Boy I Love.

5.) Jennifer E. Smith – I really enjoyed This is What Happy Looks Like and I do have her other book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

6.) Ransom Riggs – I seriously need to hurry up and read Hollow City.

7.) Abigail Haas – OMG loved Dangerous Girls and cannot wait until Dangerous Boys comes out in paperback.

8.) Gretchen McNeil – She wrote my all time favorite YA thriller, Ten, and I really need to read more of her books.

9.) Joanna Philbin – Need to get a copy of the sequel, Since Last Summer.

10.) Leila Howland – Same as above…need to get a copy of the sequel, Nantucket Red.

Well I guess it wasn’t as hard as I had expected. A few of the authors I only have interest in reading the sequels to the books I have already read but figured they still count for this list.

Top Ten Tuesday 06/17/2014

Wow, so I just realized I haven’t posted anything since last Tuesday. This new job has me going crazy though, and in pursuit of a second job as well. Anyhow, I am going to try to get back on top of everything. I did just finish a book Sunday that I loved. I will be posting a review on it this week since I am off the next couple of days! (Yay!) So today is my favorite blogging day, Top Ten Tuesdays. I love making lists and I think that’s why I enjoy Tuesdays the most. Top Ten Tuesday topics are always thought up by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is: Top Ten Books On My Summer TBR List. Sorry because some of these books may be repeats from last week’s list, but that is only because I am so excited to read them.

1.) Nantucket Red by Lelia Howland

2.) Since Last Summer by Joanna Philbin

3.) Thirty Sunsets by Christine Hurley Deriso

4.) Summer of Yesterday by Gabby Triana

5.) Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

6.) Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt

7.) Pretty Little Liars: Toxic by Sara Shepard

8.) Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

9.) What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

10.) After the End by Amy Plum (Had to throw one distopia in the list!)

And a random list of more books on my summer TBR list because let’s face it, there is no way I only have ten on my list…

-Side Effects May Vary – Julie Murphy

-The Program and The Treatment – Suzanne Young

-Hollow City – Ransom Riggs

-The Beginning of Everything – Robyn Schneider

-We Were Liars – E. Lockhart

-The Geography of You and Me – Jennifer E. Smith

-Rock and a Hard Place, Royally Lost, Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em, Dream Chaser, Snowed Over – Angie Stanton

-Getting Over Garrett Delaney, Sophomore Switch, The Anti-Prom, Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood – Abby McDonald

-Smart Girls Get What They Want – Sarah Strohmeyer

-The Prince of Venice Beach – Blake Nelson

Okay I am going to leave it at that even though there are plenty more books I could add. I am hoping I can read most of these before summer is over, but if not, at least by the end of the year.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Wow. I cannot tell you how many times I picked this up at the bookstore or looked at it on Amazon, everytime going “eh, maybe next time” or “this doesn’t seem like my type of book”, well I am kicking myself now for waiting forever to buy it and read it. Even though I have about 30 books I just got over the past few weeks, as soon as I bought Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, I had to read it right away.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Jacob, a sixteen year old, travels to a mysterious island off the coast of Whales after a horrible family tragedy. Hoping while he is there, he can find some of the answers to questions he’s had his whole life, but he ends up finding out a lot more than he ever expected to. While on the island he finds the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and Jacob explores the bedrooms of the children and the basement which harbors some strange, unexplainable items. Jacob comes to realize that maybe the children were more than just peculiar, perhaps they were dangerous and there is a very good reason that they were kept quarantined on an island. Even though Jacob knows it’s pretty impossible, the children may still be alive and on the island with him.

I loved this book and am currently waiting for the second book, Hollow City, to be delievered because the book leaves you hanging. I began reading this book expecting a completely different storyline due to the summary on the back of the book. I think it gives the wrong impression and the reader expects something different than what they end up reading. (I don’t feel like I should write my summary on the book, so I took the summary used on Amazon and put it into my own words.) The actual book though is amazing. It is unlike any other book I have ever read and the vintage photographs really help the visuals you have and some are a bit creepy looking. I don’t think this book was really scary or under the “horror” category, maybe a thriller at the most, but never was I getting the chills or creeped out. The chapters were lengthy and while I liked that they went on for so many pages, I also have this weird thing where I can’t leave off in the middle of a chapter so I always felt the need to finish the chapter, not that I could easily put this book down anyways, but I guess I’m lucky I wasn’t ever reading it at a time when I had to stop to do something else. Okay now back to the actual characters and storyline. I loved (most of) the characters and my heart broke for some of them. Some just made me so furious that I wanted to throw the book at my wall, others I wish I was on the island with them experiencing some of the events they were involved in. There isn’t too much I feel I can say on my feelings and the thoughts I have of the characters without giving too much away. This story though was so original, wonderfully written, and had parts that we so shocking and unexpected that they made me go, “oh my god, wait what!?”. I am hoping this will turn out to be a trilogy or a small series (4-5 books), because the first one showed how much potential it has to be more than just a book and it’s sequel, and I would be so disappointed if the second doesn’t live up to the first book and it ends there. If you are into thrilling, supernatural books, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a great book for you. It has a bit of historical events tied in to it as well, and I would say it’s an appropriate book for any age (granted they can reading a close to 400 paged novel).  Oh and I almost forgot, it is or was a New York Times Bestseller.