Top Ten Books to Read This WinterTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!
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Ten authors I’d love to have for Thanksgiving? Let’s do it! Just for my own purposes, I’m keeping this list to living authors, not dead authors who I would pretend to invite to Thanksgiving. I’m looking for living, breathing guests, my dears. I’ll save the ghosts for my books!
In no particular order…except for probably the last two (the last two being possibly my most fangirly. Although, maybe I’d be fangirly with them all…hmm…):
1. Jandy Nelson. You guys…this lady is exceptional. She’s only written one book so far, THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, and it picked me up, tossed me about, wrung me out, and the dropped me, nonsensical and drooling with adoration, on the ground. This book is amazing, not least because it is a book about grieving a loss so totally that actually managed to give me the warm fuzzies and the lovey tingles. Jandy’s (cause I’m on a first-name basis with all my guests) language is gorgeous, and I’ve never enjoyed reading poems more than I did reading the poems here. We would talk about it, have a few glasses of wine, and then laugh and just hit it off in general and become BFFs. Best Thanksgiving ever.
2. Kristin Cashore. I love her. GRACELING was possibly the first YA book I read before I really started reading YA at all and it was like the spark that lit the flame. I love her stories and the way she writes. I’ve been following her blog for ages and feel like we could definitely hang out at Thanksgiving and talk about having sisters and traveling and why she can move around all the time but I like it where I am. Yay!
3. Maggie Stiefvater. I’ve read all of Maggie’s books and I’ve loved all of them, but none as much as THE SCORPIO RACES, my favorite. It makes me wish I was a horse-riding, small-island-in-the UK/Ireland-living person. Even though that might mean that I wouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Hmm…. I would still have Maggie at my holiday table because she could bring awesome desserts and we could talk about books and writing and why I like traditional Irish music even though I am not Irish (I don’t know…something about those fiddles…). It’d be great fun, I know it.
4. Diana Gabaldon. One of my favorites. I love her Outlander series because its got most of my favorite things: historical fiction of colonial America, Scottish people, some kind of magic (small amounts, but important), GREAT romance (the adult kind), amazing characters, politics, emotional investment…and time travel, done without seeming to science-fictiony. Love her.
5. Stephanie Perkins. Stephanie Perkins would be SO FUN at Thanksgiving, right? I LOVE her books. They’re romantic, funny, genuine, quirky, and character-driven. I can just picture the the two of us laughing and chatting the whole day away. Plus my sister would love her hair.
6. Lauren Willig. Do you guys know Lauren Willig? Please forgive me for asking, but I want to make sure that I introduce all of my guests and since Lauren writes adult historical fiction and this is a YA blog, I just wanted to make sure. Because Lauren, I think, would be a blast at Thanksgiving, if the humor and fun in her books (the Pink Carnation series) are any indication! Seriously, her books are insta-buys for me, and they are always a guaranteed good read.
7. Jeanne Birdsall. This is a sentimental pick for me. Jeanne writes the Penderwicks books, a completely adorable, sweet, endearing, lovely middle-grade series about the most instantly likable family in the whole world. I LOVE these books because I LOVE the Penderwicks, a plucky and loving gaggle of sisters who live with their rumpled but wonderful father in Massachusetts. Reading about them is like sitting in the grass on a beautiful spring day with not a cloud in the sky and a breeze blowing around–they’re a breath of fresh air.
8. Lauren Oliver. *Sigh* Lauren Oliver. I’ve read all of her books so far and they’ve all touched me, made me think, squee, cry, get tingly (perhaps there weren’t so many tingles with Liesl & Po, but you understand), laugh, rage…everything! Plus she just seems so darned NICE!
9. J.K. Rowling. Oh my goodness, we’re getting down to it now, everybody. This is one of my biggest fangirly ones. J.K. (probably I would call her Jo) would be on my one side, and the next guy would be on my other and I would drool and gush and embarrass myself in front of them both. Plus, Jo would hit it off with my dad, who has the audiobook of Half Blood Prince on constant repeat in his car. Having her for the holiday would probably be HIS best Thanksgiving ever, and that makes it mine as well.
10. George R.R. Martin. Oh, yes, I am OBSESSED with A Song of Ice and Fire. Crazed. I read the blogs, the books, the forums. I theorize on the prophecies and who is Jon Snow’s mother and who will ride the dragons with Dany. I watch the show. About the only thing I don’t do is dress up like the characters from the books and attend fan conventions (they’re mostly in Ireland anyway). George would be right next to me at the table so I could pump him mercilessly for info and spoilers and he would love it because he would get to be back in Jersey, where he’s from. Then we could talk about the Jets and have such a great time that we would wind up talking allllllll the way to Christmas and he could pretend to be Santa! He totally reminds me of Santa.
So, Thanksgiving is in two days, right? I can totally make this happen by then.
So, I know that you guys can’t actually see me, but trust me right now: I’m cowering in a corner in mild fear of your disbelief and disdain. This is because–gulp–I have a particularly large pile of really well-known, popular (mostly) YA books that I haven’t read yet, and it just so happens that this week’s Top Ten Tuesday meme addresses this very issue! Don’t misinterpret that exclamation point, though: It’s an embarrassing pile, it’s way bigger than ten books, and I’m not proud of it. I keep it off to the side to further prevent my tripping over it and thus renewing my shame. But listen! I have a really good reason for this pile, and in my defense, it’s not that I haven’t tried to tackle these books before. It’s just that something always comes up, whether that’s life or just another book. Because I trust you guys, though, I’m going to share the ten most egregious items in my shame pile in the hopes that we can talk about it and move forward. Be gentle, though, ok? Ohmygod, I’m sooooo nervous.
