Lisa's Bookshelf

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The only thing harder than choosing a favorite male character is choosing a favorite female character.  Again, I can't choose just one.  (Note: These are in no particular order.)

1) Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.  

2) Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind.

3) Alanna from the Song of the Lioness quartet.

4) Arya from A Song of Ice and Fire.

5) Jane from Jane Eyre.

As you can see I'm drawn to strong female characters, or rather well-rounded, flawed female characters who are also strong.  All of them are intelligent, they're survivors, and none of them are doormats in their respective romantic relationships.  But they aren't perfect either.  Elizabeth is prejudiced, Scarlett is selfish and childish, Alanna is stubborn and, at times, willfully ignorant, Arya is vengeful and ruthless, and Jane is prideful.  Scarlett, in particular, is an awful human being in many respects, but that's one of the reasons she makes this list.  I admire Margaret Mitchell's ability to take a character who would traditionally play the role of the villain and not only cast her as the protagonist, but also make her likable (to me, and a large portion of readers).

There is no way I can choose just one.  That's even harder than choosing a favorite book because there are more choices since there are multiple male characters per book.

1) Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

2) Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind.

3) Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series.

4) Po from Graceling.

I really enjoyed reading The Time Traveler's Wife but the movie was a complete disaster.  I had a sneaking suspicion that the book would not translate well onto film and I was so right.  The script was awful and Eric Bana was horribly miscast as Henry.  Rachel McAdams was perfectly cast as Clare, but for some unknown reason they died her hair the wrong color, and the horrible script was not something that could be overcome.  This was probably the worst translation of a book into film that I've seen.  

Honorable Mentions:

Every adaptation of Pride and Prejudice other than the BBC/A&E miniseries.  Note to Kierra Knightly: Elizabeth Bennet does not giggle.

Don't Look Behind You by Lois Duncan.  This book was adapted to a TV movie and it was truly awful.

There's really no contest here.  Jane Austen is the only author whose books haven't disappointed me.  I've loved every single one of her books.  The only other authors who have achieved this have only written one book, like Margaret Mitchell.  Other authors like Tamora Pierce, E. Lockhart, and George R. R. Martin who have written some of my most beloved books have also written books that didn't work for me.  For this reason, Jane Austen is my favorite author.  

Honorable Mentions: Margaret Mitchell, E. Lockhart, Melina Marchetta, George R. R. Martin, and Tamora Pierce because they're still great writers.

I am completely intolerant of animals dying or almost dying in books and movies.  Nothing makes me cry more than a cute and cuddly creature being harmed.  For this reason I will never read Stephen King's Cujo or Old Yeller, nor will I watch their respective films.  I can't watch The Lion King or Bambi without crying even though they're animated, and I'm a sobbing mess at the end of movies like Homeward Bound and My Dog Skip (which I was forced to watch on an airplane) where the animals don't die but have near death experiences.  But I love Watership Down.  It's a fantastic book.  And yet BUNNIES DIE.  So I hate this book, but I also love it.

There are many books that have been rage inducing, but none more so than Alexandra Adornetto's Halo.  Before reading it, I thought I had hit rock bottom when I read Hush, Hush, but I was so very wrong.  Halo has absolutely no redeeming qualities.  The main character is the biggest Mary Sue I've ever had the misfortune of reading about, the love interest is a misogynistic asshole, the plot is non-existent, the writing is laughably bad, there is slut shaming galore, the mythology is poorly constructed, and there is a total lack of common sense and logic when it comes to every single aspect of the story and writing.  The fact that this book was published at all makes me weep for the publishing industry, and the fact that it actually sold copies makes me weep for the youth of today.  

You can read my full thoughts on this book here or here.

Honorable Mentions: Hush, Hush by Becca Fizpatrick, Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The first two books in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet make another appearance.  I suppose they remind me of home because I read them so many times.  I still remember laying on the bed at my grandmother's house (my second home) listening to the Alanna Morissette's Jagged Little Pill on repeat (on my discman because, yes, I'm that old) while reading these books over and over again the summer after I discovered them.  I can also remember reading them countless times at my mother's house, crying once because I got Cheeto cheese on one of them.  They were with me through a big part of my child/teen-hood.  Ah, nostalgia.

This is certainly an interesting question, and it's a situation I've rarely found myself in, mostly because I make it a point not to read books I think I won't like.  The only exceptions are a few YA novels I read out of morbid curiosity and they all turned out to be terrible.  Anna Dressed in Blood is the only book I can think of where I went in thinking I wouldn't like it and ended up loving it.

Before reading it I was pretty sure I was going to end up being Debbie Downer once again.  You may wonder why I thought this with rave reviews from nearly all of my friends, an awesome cover, and an intriguing summary.  Well, I have a confession to make.  The summary didn't impress me, and I of all people know you can't judge a book by its cover, otherwise Fallen would have been the greatest book ever written (excuse me while I laugh hysterically) and Dairy Queen would have been one of the worst.  I'm also not a fan of ghost/human romances, and I'm always wary of books with male protagonists written by female authors due to some past negative experiences.  

I was pretty sure I was never going to read Anna Dressed in Blood but I couldn't completely write it off because of all those glowing reviews, so I kept it my To Read list.  I might never have gotten around to it if it had not been for Goodreads Reading Challenge.  I desperately wanted to make my goal and I was about nine books behind in December 2012, which meant I needed some shorter books to read.  Anna Dressed in Blood fit the bill, and it turned out to be one of my favorites of the nine books I read that month.

(Note:  These are not the worst book ever written—though they're both pretty bad—just the ones that most failed to live up to their insane hype.)

I read The Da Vinci Code back when it was all the rage.  Going into it I expected something truly awesome, but what I got was complete and utter crap.  The writing was truly awful.  As I was reading I kept thinking that Dan Brown was actually trying to write a screenplay because the text was so bare.  There was almost no description making it hard to visualize anything.  The plot wasn't super amazing either, and the characters were all forgettable.  I can remember almost nothing about any of them now.  I fail to see why this book was so popular.

Twilight has had its fair share of detractors but they were few and far between when I first read Stephenie Meyer's debut novel.  Everyone and their mother (and grandmother) was raving about this book, but its appeal was completely lost on me.  This book has zero plot, a creepy/abusive love interest, flat characters, and cringeworthy writing.  And yet it is still touted by many to be the greatest love story ever told, the books have sold millions upon millions of copies, and the movies have grossed billions of dollars.  This is one pop culture phenomenon that I will never understand.  

Ruby Oliver makes an appearance in this challenge once again.  All the books in this series are laugh out loud funny.  These are the sort of books that will cheer you up when you're feeling down.

There are many many books that make me sad and The Giving Tree is among them.  No other book has been able to make me choke up with so few words.  This book gets me every single time.  

There are probably a million books that make me happy but none more so than Pride and Prejudice.  Words cannot express how much I love this book.  I've read it about a million times and watched the BBC/A&E miniseries (the only acceptable film adaptation) another million times.  The reason this book makes me happy is not just that I love it so freaking much (I love a lot of books that make me sad ::cough cough::Gone with the Wind::cough cough::), it's that Pride and Prejudice is a happy story with delightful characters, lots of humor, a couple swoon-worthy romances, and a very happy ending.  

I spent months lurking on Goodreads before I eventually joined in 2009, but once I did, I was hooked. Money drained from my account and into Amazon's as my reading appetites increased exponentially. Connecting with other "weird" people who loved books as much as I did helped me enormously, having never heard of the term 'introvert' before. I'd finally found my tribe, my people. People who rarely failed to bring a smile to my face and never looked down on me for being a geek. 'Reading' and 'Goodreads' quickly became synonymous with 'freedom', 'escape', and 'relax'.

Paradise, thy name was Goodreads.

I've invested thousands of hours of my free time visiting the site on a daily basis for my fix, and I've always said I'd happily pay a subscription fee to ensure the place I loved preserved the same quality and values it had when I first registered for an account. It's got me through some incredibly tough times and I will be forever grateful for that. It was my safe haven tucked away from the real world, and I believed no one could take it away from me.

Read the rest HERE.

[Forgive me for dropping the link instead of posting it in its entirety, I'm still feeling my way around BL and I haven't quite figured out their formatting.]

Harry Potter:

I haven't read the Harry Potter series in a long time (I'm rectifying that this November) so it's hard for me to distinguish which is my favorite but I definitely preferred the earlier books to the later ones.  My favorite is among the first four.

Ruby Oliver:

It's hard to choose a favorite among this series, but the third book, The Treasure Map of Boys, wins by a nose.  Ruby has the most growth in this book, and finally learns some important lessons that she struggled with during the first two.

A Song of Ice and Fire:

Book three, A Storm of Swords, is by far my favorite book in this series.  As I said in my very short review, even if the rest of the series sucks reading it will have been worth it just because of book three.  I don't think I've ever exclaimed "What!?" so many times while reading a book before.

[Reblog] Reblog from http://rameau.booklikes.com/post/557656/post

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