Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'd Recommend to People who Haven't Read YA Contemporary

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we discuss wonderful bookish topics.

This week's topic is a choose your own. So here's mine:

Books I'd Recommend to People who Haven't Read YA Contemporary 

I've noticed that a lot of people won't read contemporary books. They much prefer something supernatural or with some sort of twist in it to make it more interesting. But then again, everyone has read The Fault in Our Stars, so if you loved that one here are some of my other faves that deal with real life, teen issues:

1. Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schimdt: A great companion to TFIOS, Mia has cancer but she will not let it rule her life. A much happier ending than the latter.

2. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord: A great story about friendship and love and trying to find out who you are.

3. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour: A very likable character in a world I'd love to live in, this book shows that we can't always get what we want but things will work out anyway. 

4. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: A very cute romantic story that will have you hoping for a happy ending. 

5. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: For anyone who loves France or is ready to fall in love with France, or really for anyone just looking to fall in love.

6. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick: A very good story about love from the wrong side of the tracks and the difficulties that come with it.

8. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: A great book for anyone who has ever been obsessed with something, especially good if you've read Harry Potter. Lots of fun with some real life drama.

7. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: A different take in grief, this book paints a way too realistic picture of life after death.

9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: A book about redemption and trying to make things right even when there's no real way to fix it.

10. Looking for Alaska by John Green: Because if you liked TFIOS, you'll love all of his other books. This is his first and it's pretty amazing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I'd Frame on my Wall

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we discuss our top tens on different bookish topics.

This week's topic is: Book covers I'd frame as art pieces

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

Bunheads - Sophie Flack

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin

With All My Soul - Rachel Vincent (though any Soul Screamers cover would make beautiful art)

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor

Cress - Marissa Meyer

Bright Before Sunrise - Tiffany Schmidt

Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver

This is What Happy Looks Like - Jennifer E. Smith

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

Book covers are my favourite! I hate to say it, but sometimes I judge a book by its cover. What are your favourite covers you'd want framed? Any of these interest you?

Mean Girls 10th Anniversary Reading List

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the awesome, grool movie, Mean Girls. It's quite nice that it lands on a Wednesday, so we all get to wear pink for it today! To celebrate this wonderful day, I thought I'd create a reading list that goes along with the theme of the movie, because who doesn't like a mean girl?

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers: “I didn't want to be popular because it was easier; I wanted to be popular because in high school that's the best thing you can be: perfect. Everything else is shit.” 

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: “You set fire to my house, killed my family, and ate my dog. But steal my boyfriend? That's a step too far.” 

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: “It's funny how you can know your friends so well, but you still end up playing the same games with them.” 

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian: "This is Karma. I’m a bitch. Can you think of anyone who deserves a bitch slap?"

Speechless by Hannah Harrington: “I'm an expert at finding out secrets, but keeping them- especially a secret of this magnitude - is something else.”

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: “Tell Liz,' I say, 'the mean girl totally got what she deserved in the end.” 

 Have fun reading about some mean girls who either get what they deserve or learn how redeem themselves. What other books do you think should be added to this list?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that will make you cry

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we discuss bookish topics every week.

This week's topic is Top ten books that will make you cry

1. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green: This is the perfect book. Yes you'll cry, you may even throw it across the room, but boy will you be glad you read it.

2. The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson: Grief and acceptance are huge parts of this book. You'll laugh and cry and end up with a warm fuzzy feeling when you're done.

3. If I Stay - Gayle Foreman: A girl in a coma looking at her life and deciding if she should keep on living or not. Need I say more?

4. Send Me a Sign - Tiffany Schmidt: Another cancer book because these ones make me bawl. This one is wonderfully written and has stayed with me long after reading it.

5. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks: I watched the movie first (many a times) and when I finally read the book I thought I'd be prepared for what I knew would come. I was not. Needless to say my pages are wrinkled from my tears now.

6. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: These two kids got to me. Eleanor's home life was awful and there was nothing Park could do to save her. The ending killed me. I want a re-write!

7. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Awful things happen to people who used to be awful. But some people change! The agony I felt for the character in this book, as well as all of Summers' others is so real that I thought it was happening to me.

8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: I'm sure if I cried the first time (probably) but I definitely cried the second time I read this book. Why, Suzanne, why?

9. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan: He's an evil man and I should really read The House of Hades so I can control these feels.

10. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: I wanted a different ending so badly for this book even though I knew it was impossible. Amazing prose, amazing characters, and still one of my favourite Oliver books to this day.

Who doesn't love a good cry? What are some of your favourite tearjerkers?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books you'd pair with required reading/should be required reading

Top Ten Tuesday is a fantastic meme hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is all about high school reading. I loved reading in high school, though some of the books they made us read weren't that great so I went and read my own instead. This week's list is broken into two categories (because it always seems easier to come up with 5 instead of 10!)

contemporary books paired with required reading

1984 by George Orwell/ The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Dystopian novels have changed a lot throughout the years and I think it would be fun to compare and contrast these two extreme novels.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee/ The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Taking the extremes from both books and comparing how rape is discussed differently. I like the idea of revamping an old tale and I loved both of these books.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien/ Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

I read HP first, but once I read the LOTR trilogy, I noticed a lot of similarities, though HP was much easier to get through. I'd love to have a discussion about these two.

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger/ The Spectacular Now by Tim Thrapp

These two characters reminded me of each other and their destructions would be fun to dissect side by side.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding/ Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Both are about kids/teens being stranded on a island without parental supervision. Boys in one, girls in the other. The differences and similarities will surprise you.

books that should be required readings

Looking for Alaska by John Green: I wish I had read this in high school, it was thought provoking and much better than most of the books I read!

Speak or Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: There are realistic issues in these books that need to be in the forefront of people's minds. What better way than to discuss them in class.

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous: A first hand experience about what drugs can do to a person. It's harsh, but what better time to teach people then when they are in the right age group to be tempted.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: bully is an issue that teens need to stop from happening. By putting it all on the table, hopefully kids would come forward if it was happening to them.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: The other side of bullying and popularity, this book goes through the steps of grief, forgiveness, and redemption. All important qualities for teenagers to know about.

I would have rather read books about hard issues and things I could relate to as opposed to some of the books we were made to read. Though I did love the Shakespeare and they should never stop teaching teens the glory that is plays!

19. Before I Fall

Book #19: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Published: March 2, 2010
470 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

This book broke my heart. Lauren Oliver captured redemption and love and loss perfectly. Yes all of this could have happened to the character while she was alive, but instead she finds her peace through death after reliving the final day of her life over seven times. Samantha Kingston is your average mean girl: she has her popular clique of friends, has ditched anyone from her past that wasn't cool enough, and is too cool to hang out with her family. Friday should just be another day in her wonderful life but it turns out to be her last, well not really. Samantha gets the chance to do something that we all wish we could do - a do-over. 

Failure, mischief, and complete lack of caring ensue as Samantha goes through that Friday over and over, trying to discover the mystery behind her death. It's exactly the same way anyone who could have the chance to do this would do. You live it up, but still end up alone at the end because you are dead. She hurts some people, gets to know some people better, and in the process learns who she really is and tries to change herself. It's brutal and heart wrenching, watching Samantha become a better person when it's not going to change anything really. And yet, it captured my heart and torn at its strings and I never wanted it to let go.

Each character has a unique story and even they change over the course of the novel even though they aren't the ones going through what Samantha is. There are her best friends, Lindsey, Ally and Elody, who we find out secrets, hopes, dreams and mistakes that change how Samantha sees everything. Kent, Samantha's old friend from grade school whom she ditched once she got popular, becomes a bigger part in her life than her boyfriend. He is caring and has never stopped thinking about Samantha even after she chose to pretend he didn't exist. And of course Juliet, a hauntingly beautiful girl who they make fun of so much without realizing what effect it was actually having on her. 

Oliver's prose flowed from page to page, leaving me breathless. She captured death, life, and pain so perfectly that I believed everything Samantha went through and felt, everything that she faced was real and felt like it w as happening to me. I'm not normally a fan of books about death, since I don't handle it very well, but after reading this, I may just pick up some other ones. It reminds us that this could be our last day on earth and we should live it to its full potential. 

“Here's another thing to remember: hope keeps you alive. Even when you're dead, it's the only thing that keeps you alive.”