Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5… Covers of 2020

 

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of December topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to the weekly post.

Great topic this week, but I don't have time to go digging through my piles to participate today. I hope you check out Meeghan's blog to see what her choices are.

Top Ten Tuesday and Top 5 Tuesday

Because of my hectic schedule this week, I am going to skip Top Ten Tuesday and Top 5 Tuesday. That doesn't mean you shouldn't check them out and participate.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I Want to Read Again. You can check in with Jana at www.thatartsyreadergirl.com

Over at MeeghanReads, you can read about and share Top 5 Books with Disability Representation. Love this topic!!! You can find Meeghan at https://meeghanreads.com

Have fun!

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5... Books I'm Glad I Read

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of November topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

In some ways I expect this will be easy. I've been reading forever, so there are lots to choose from. But, then, how can I narrow this down to just five? Here are my picks for Top 5... Books I'm Glad I Read

I was a hold out on the Harry Potter series. Just like I haven't read the Twilight series, I just don't like reading wildly popular books. Maybe I'm afraid they won't live up to my expectations. Maybe I am too impatient to invest time in a series just to have to wait for each new book to come out. 

I finally took the plunge in 2015 and discovered what the big deal is about. I read through the rest of the series that year. 

Saffron Dreams was unlike any book I had read up until that point. It features a Muslim couple in New York City happily living their lives until the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. It provides a different perspective on how the world was changed after that day. It tells one woman's difficult journey to pick up the pieces of her shattered life in a country that has suddenly put her and an entire race under a microscope in order to make sense of a monumental tragedy.

Reading The Kensei was an accomplishment for me. I'm not much of a vampire story kind of person. This story, however, is a bit different because it takes place in Japan and has a character who is a former KGB assassin. It is fast-paced, which I love, and has tons of action and some witty banter. I also love those. 

If anyone told me I would like The Lunar Chronicles before I read Cinder and Scarlet, I would have laughed at them. I love historical fiction, not futuristic cyborgs. Cinder, the main character, drew me in right away, as did the plot of the first novel. I really need to catch up on this series. 

You really need to like reading if you're going to tackle a book that is over 1100 pages. What amazes me about The Stand is knowing I almost gave up on the book that remains my all-time favorite. Setting up all the characters and putting them in place, took time. Four hundred pages in, I really wasn't sure this was the book for me. Once I reached 600 pages, the pace picked up, the characters came together in two different places, and the storyline finally made sense. I breezed through it after that. 

I am not sure I would want to read it this year, considering it starts with a super flu that is accidentally released and kills off the majority of the population. A little too much like 2020 if you ask me. That said, I may need to read this again one day to see what my reaction is after being away from it for so long.

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5... Creepy Characters

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of October topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

As we come to the end of October, I hope you've enjoyed a month filled with family and friends and a bit more normal than much of these year has been. Today's topic is Top 5... Creepy Characters. Here is what I came up with.

Perhaps the creepiest character that comes to mind is Pennywise from Stephen King's It. I never found clowns creepy until I saw this movie. I can't even read the book. 

Annie Wilkes is enough to make you not want to do anything that warrants attention. A crazy fan that tries to kill you. No thanks. 

Peter Pettigrew "Wormtail" is so sick and twisted that no one liked him even as a kid. He betrayed Lily and James Potter which led to their deaths, chose to live as a rat for 12 years to avoid being caught, and hid out with Ron's family to protect himself from Death Eaters. Even Voldemort didn't like him. That says a lot.

President Snow from The Hunger Games Trilogy and its prequel was a conniving man who believed in the Capitol's treatment of those who lived in the Districts. His cruelty does not discriminate; he sends little children to their deaths and has his rivals and those who disappointment him killed. 

Did you ever go to bed the night before a new school year and pray you didn't have a headmistress as dreadful as Miss Trunchbull? She could give you nightmares for years. An excessive disciplinarian, she tortured children and teachers alike. 

What did you think of my list today? Would you add any to the list?

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5... Fave Characters U-Z

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of September topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

It is Tuesday again, so we are back to Top 5 Tuesday. This is the last week of the month, so we will end September with Top 5… Fave Characters U-Z. I think this will be a hard one.

The story of The Ugly Duckling has a message we should carry with us for the rest of our lives. We spend so much time thinking we don't measure up to everyone else or allowing others to make us feel like we don't measure up, that we forget one day we will come into our own. In this instance, it was a scrawny, gray duckling transforming into a beautiful swan. No matter what we are called to in our lives, we all have a purpose, and if we stay true to that purpose and true to ourselves, we will realize how spectacular we really are.

V is the main character in V is for Vendetta, a politically charged graphic novel. Set in London in the late 1990s, V is a cloaked anarchist wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. Although there is nothing physically wrong with him, the experiments he endured in the Larkhill Resettlement Camp likely impacted his mental health. His terrorist activity is investigated by veteran detective Eric Finch. The two will meet in a fight where one does not survive. V is a character who saved a young woman and stood up for what he believed in against Britain's fascist government. You can read more about this series here.

Willy Wonka teeters in between being eccentric and mean in most movie versions. The owner of a chocolate factory, he hides five Golden Tickets in his chocolate bars. The five winners will receive a tour of his famous factory. On the day of the tour, the five children and their parents enter the factory, and one by one all the children are eliminated except Charlie Bucket. Charlie is a poor boy who lives in a small house with his parents and four grandparents. Imagine his surprise when Wonka tells him that he has won the factory because the contest was set up by Wonka to find a worthy heir. Charlie and his family are then invited to live with Wonka at the factory. Willy Wonka is a unique character; one who could be said to capitalize on the bad habits of the children and their parents, but also one who sought a boy who displayed extreme goodness as his heir.

Professor X is often seen as the leader of the X-Men. A mutant, he is a powerful telepath. He promotes peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants where anti-mutant sentiment is strong. Part of the reason I like Professor X is because of Patrick Stewart's portrayal of him.

Yogi Bear started out as an animated character on The Huckleberry Hound Show (another one of my childhood favorites). He and his little bear pal, Boo-Boo, hang out in Jellystone National Park and create all kinds of aggravation for Ranger Smith, usually caused by Yogi's insatiable appetite for people's picnic food. 

Neeta Lyffe Zombie Exterminator is not to be messed with. She is sassy and smart and she has her own reality show. As host of Zombie Death Extreme she shares everything her late mother taught her about exterminating zombies with her apprentices and hopes the public will learn enough to keep them safe. 

This was a tough list to put together, but I hope you like it. I'm looking forward to October. 

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5… Fave Characters P-T

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of September topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

We are back for another Top 5 Tuesday. Continuing with this month's theme, we are looking at favorite literary characters. Sometimes it's easy for me, but sometimes I struggle. Let's see what this week looks like.

Top 5… Fave Characters P-T

The Amazing Spider-Man cover art by penciller Jack Kirby and inker Steve Ditko 

Peter Parker or Spider-Man joined the comic book world in 1962. Peter lived with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben after the death of his parents. He is bitten by a radioactive spider, which enhances his athletic abilities and allows him to cling to walls and ceilings. Peter then develops a gadget that allows him to shoot webbing. 

Unlike the typical superhero of the day, Peter is a teenager and self-centered. He refuses to stop a robbery, which would prove to be an error he would always regret, because that same criminal would later murder his Uncle Ben. As Spider-Man's first story closes, Peter reflects upon the horrible lesson he learned; a lesson that he would carry with him from that day forward. 

Panel from Spider-Man, Amazing Fantasy #15

Dr. Quinn, is such a cheater's way to approach this, but I'm really at a loss otherwise. Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman is a television series that aired from 1993 to 1998. Michaela Quinn is the daughter of a Bostonian physician, who answers an advertisement for a doctor to practice in Colorado Springs, CO. From the moment she arrives, she turns the town on its head, making enemies and friends along the way. The show became so popular, that a few tie-in books were written by two different authors. So, I guess it works.

Rue only appears in the first book of The Hunger Games series, but her impact lasted throughout the series. She is the youngest tribute in the 74th Hunger Games and from District 11. She finds Katniss trapped in a tree by the career tributes and points to a tracker jacker nest. Katniss cuts the tree branch and the nest falls on the career tributes, killing two of them. Rue cares for a sick Katniss, who was also stung by some tracker jackers. They become allies and make plans to destroy the careers' supplies. Unfortunately, Rue is killed after being trapped in a net set up by the careers. 

Determined to show the Capitol that Rue was more than just a part of their Games, she covers her body in flowers before bringing her fingers to her lips and raising her arm, a gesture signifying respect and admiration in Katniss' District 12. District 11 sends Katniss a loaf of bread as a sign of respect and appreciation. (In the movie, a riot breaks out after Rue's death.)

Katniss will mention Rue and their friendship more than once in future books, and it appears Rue's death propels Katniss in wanting to take revenge on the Capitol and make them pay for the dreadful Games where so many lives are lost.

Miss Stacy becomes Anne Shirley's teacher after Mr. Phillips leaves. She is Avonlea's first female teacher. Well liked and admired by her students, she employs more modern methods of teaching, which become popular with her students. Anne is immediately drawn to her and considers her an ally as Anne studies for her entrance exams at Queen's Academy.

It is possible, without Miss Stacy's influence, Marilla would have encouraged Anne to seek out a more traditional lifestyle for young women her age. Instead, she joins the class of scholars and, later in the series, goes on to teach at a private women's college.

We meet Mr. Tumnus in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. A male faun, he is the first Narnian Lucy Pevensie meets when she passes through the wardrobe into the land of Narnia. They become fast friends. 

When Mr. Tumnus invites Lucy to his home, he plans to lull her to sleep with his flute and bring her to the White Witch. He is, however, unable to go through with it and leads Lucy back to the wardrobe. Though Tumnus will pay the price for deceiving the White Witch, he takes the time to let Mr. Beaver know about Lucy and gives him the handkerchief Lucy originally gave to him so that she would know he is a friend. 

How do you like my list? Do we share any of the same favorites? What are some favorites I should add to my list?

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5… Fave Characters A-E

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of September topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

Top 5… Fave Characters A-E

This may be a bit of a challenge for me since I don't always remember character names unless I love, love, love them. Let's see how I do.

Anne with an E is one of my favorite all-time characters. Brought to Green Gables by accident, her impulsive nature and huge imagination gain her the favor of just about everyone in Avonlea. 

Beulah is an outspoken freed black woman who tests everything main character Reed Jackson believes as a man who grew up in the South. Reed has returned to his family's plantation in a wheelchair after the Civil War. When his father deems him unfit to run the plantation, Reed moves west to Fenton, Missouri, where he meets Belle Richards and Beulah. His life will never be the same.

Cedric Diggory is hard not to like. Sorted into Hufflepuff House, he went on to become a prefect and captained the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. He competed against Harry in the Triwizard Tournament. Ultimately, he is murdered. His tragic death, however, inspired the students of Hogwarts to rebel against Dolores Umbridge.

Dorothy lives a simple life with her dog Toto on her aunt and uncle's farm. This young girl finds herself and her canine companion in the land of the Munchkins when a tornado tosses her house up in the air and it lands on the Wicked Witch of the West. Along the way to finding the Wizard of Oz, and hopefully her way back home, she inspires her new friends to follow their own dreams.

I almost left this one for later in the alphabet, but it's my favorite Christmas story. Ebenezer Scrooge is the miserly, grumpy, nasty businessman featured in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. His transformation after the visit from the ghost of his former business partner and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future is nothing short of a Christmas miracle. I watch the Patrick Stewart version of this story every year.


So, what are some of your favorite book characters from A - E? Do we share any of the same ones?

Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5… Books Where Something Went Right

This a new meme for me, but it's not a new meme at all. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. For a list of August topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave her a comment on her weekly post.

Top 5… Books Where Something Went Right

This might seem like an odd choice, but hear me out. In the St. Nick of Time is a romantic suspense novel. The final book in The Sullivan Boys series by K.M. Daughters, the main character in this one is the Sullivan's only sister, Kay. A widow with four older kids, she has opted to return to the Chicago Police Department despite the reservations of her entire family. Kay is a woman who knows she wants more out of life than what she's been dealt and, by going after it, she finds herself in love again. The reader gets to see Kay succeed despite several obstacles and her own uncertainty.

On Strike for Christmas is such a fun story. A bunch of local wives feel their husbands don't appreciate the amount of effort they put into making sure their families have a special Christmas. So, these women go on strike. Then the media gets a hold of the story and they find support from all over the place. In the end, families are changed; the efforts of these and other wives is acknowledged; and everyone has a wonderful holiday.

In the first book of this series, The Madhatter's Guide to Chocolate, Jake Witherspoon is the victim of a vicious hate crime that cripples him. It was so nice to see him again in Up the Devil's Belly, where the Witherspoon Mansion is turned into an upscale day spa and Jake finds success. 

Melanie and Jack have been through a lot. Let's just say that Return to Tradd Street made it all worth it. 

This book starts out so sad, but The Santa Letters is such a heartwarming tale of the season that you will want to read it over and again.

After the sudden death of her husband William, Emma Jensen struggles to find hope in her life. Even knowing she must go on for her children is not enough to bring her out of the depths of despair. Then the first Santa letter arrives. The lives of the Jensens are forever changed by these messages from the man in the red suit who helps them find that missing hope they so desperately crave. 

So, what did you think of my list? What are some books you've read where something went right?