Top 5 Wednesday l February

February 7th & 14 : M/M Couples &  F/F Couples

I don't like romanced focused novels of any kind, and as I have moved away from Contemporary and YA. You find less and less information about your characters sexual preference. 
For people who are calling BS. Every detective ever is broody with a poor romantic history or a platonic romantic history (sometimes we get any info, more often not really..)

I can only think of one couple for each.. 
1. Magnus and Alec, The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare 
2. Pippa and Felicity, Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray

February 21st: Favorite Romance Novels (Authors)

1. Mary Janice Davidson
2. Dark Hunter Novels, Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. Sisters of the Moon, Yasmine Galenorm
4. Katie McAlister
5. Immortals After Dark, Kresley Kole 

February 28th: Favorite Urban Fantasy Books *Book Babble Crossover Topic*

To stay in the Valentines spirit I am not really going with my favourite, but with the ones that learn and rotate heavily around only LOVE

1. The Daughter of Smoke and Bones Trilogy, Lani Taylor
2. Fallen, Lauren Kate
3. The Nightside Series, Simon R Green. * This is actually one of my favourite series and it has very different and interesting romances. 
4. Night Huntress, Jeaniene Frost
5. Spiders Bite, Jennifer Estep

Top 5 Wednesday l January

January 3rd: 2018 Reading Resolutions

1. Finish at least 5 series that I started
2. Read a book every week (52 books this year)
3. Read at 5 classics I haven't read before and 5 classics I have. 
4. Read at least 10 non-fiction novels
5. Read the unread books on my shelf (10 books)

January 10th: Books You Didn't Get to In 2017 

1. Kelan Patrick Burke Books
2. UnRead Stephen Kings
3. Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard
4. Fathomless, Grieg Beck 
5. Jaws, Peter Blanchey

January 17th: Forgettable Books (That you liked) 

1. Kelley Armstrong Books - I almost always love her books, but they don't really leave any impression
2. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher - considering how sensational this was and that I read it twice, I have the general gist obviously, but any and all detail is gone. 
3. Bad Girls Don't Die, Katie Alender
4. Jane Austen Books
5. The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken 

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January 24th: Books You Disliked but Love to Discuss 
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January 31st: Hidden Gems in Your Favorite Genre 

Horror

1. HP Lovecraft - he totally has a cult following but considering how popular horror is you don't hear too much about him
2. Kin, Kelan Patrick Burke - He took this most obvious idea ever (mash together horror cliches and tell a horror book in horror movie style), wrote an incredible story and you never hear about it or any of his other books really
3. Off Season, Jack Ketchum 

I know have a much bigger TBR thanks to this question and a little bit of googling but I still only have 3 answers... 

Top 5 Wednesday l December

December 6th - Bookish Things You're a Grinch About

-- Since being a grinch is a funny thing, try not to make this serious topics that make you angry (like lack of diversity or abusive relationships in fiction, etc) as this is supposed to be more of a petty bookish things you hate. This can be stuff about covers, dumb tropes, etc. Have fun with it.

1. When one book cover is beautiful and gets super popular so then you end up with 1001 copycats
2. Books with super small print, you buy them because they make the whole book smaller but then you have to read that little print. 
3.  Amazing Books With Ugly Covers, this doubles down when they change the covers from something ok (or heaven forbid beautiful) to something ugly
4. When they mix and match the books in a series, 2 hard cover and then a paperback, changing the covers. So stressful. I mean really!
5. Sales Stickers / Recommendation Stickers on my book.

December 13th - Characters on the Naughty List

Characters You Don't Like

1. Clary and Jace, separately and together, I don't like these two at all. The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare
2. Gwendolyn, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Dianna Wynne Jones
3. Tressa, Dragonlands, Megg Jensen
4. Hanna, and Just about everyone else in 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher - this is a tough one because I liked the book overall, but I have huge issues with how it comes across. I have several rants about this already, but back to my point. The characters are all very whiney and shallow and one dimensional and have no redeeming qualities... 
5. Queen Levena - A whole book just trying to redeem her character, and it still wasn't enough. But I do love to hate her. 

December 20th: Top 5 Books of 2017 

1. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
2. Heartless, Marissa Meyer
3. The Cellar, Minette Walters
4. The Dark Tower, Stephen King
5. The Butterfly Garden, Dot Hutchison

December 27th: 2018 Wishlist
--Looking forward into the new year, this is a list of the types of books you'd like to see more of in 2018! Try to avoid actual titles, and discuss themes, genres, or tropes you'd like to see more of in the new year!

1. Creature Features
2. The Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice) and Sleeping Beauties (Stephen King) have both opened the doors to worlds that are 100% women (or at least 90%) using elimination techniques or science to both procreate or curb the male population, it is a really interesting concept and someone could really write an original and interesting book on a variety of premises in this setting. (if they are low key on the crazier feminist, pushy statement, angle)
3. Horror : Short Story Collections
4. A really good non-fiction on the issue of "popularizing problems" (warning this would be SO controversial). Though a variety of sources - non-fiction reading, TED talks, conferences, statistics, being an older sister, and simple observation - I have noticed that people love to belong (common well known fact) but what about when people want to belong to something incredibly risky and potentially destructive? For example its been "popular" to have various mental illness in particular lately Depression and Bipolar (which was ADD and then ADHD when I was a child) which people have been very adept at faking, hand in hand with companies wanting to sell their drugs... studies on "mental illness contagion" "suicide contagion" and any other danger that people are willing to risk in order to fit in. 
5. More books with platonic relationships, with normal people. Romance isn't everything and LGBTQ+ should be represented in literature, but authors are saturating us with these characters now.  Particularly YA. Not that I think we should be pressing the "straight, white non minority" into everyones face either. Plenty of these novels I've been reading would have been amazing and are amazing, for all the other reasons. Unless someones race, gender or sexuality is adding something, you just end up taking away from the story. 

Top 5 Wednesday l Fall 2017

September / October / November

September 6th: Classes Based on Books/Characters 

I haven't read very many school setting books since I was in school 6 years ago... so I struggled a bit with this question. 

1. Talamasca Classes, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Studying Vampires, Werewolves, Paranormal Activity, Psychic Phenomenon with access to all kinds of proof and secret information
2. How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (from World War Z, Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy, The Resident Evil Novels, Everything from the initial outbreak, to weapons and how to use them, how to fortify your structure, the best and worst strategies. 
3. A Magic Class taught by Chrestomanci and or Howl from Diana Wynn Jones books
4. Any Hogwarts classes (yeah yeah not supposed to include this on the list but trying to fill the gaps here)
5. Criminology/ Serial Killer courses. 

September 13th: Books/ Authors to Read without the Synopsis 

1. Stephen King - his synopsis tend to be under-whelming and off topic in a round about way. I have gone into many of his books thinking "this is a witches book" or "aliens" and ended up with so much more than that, or that "topic" was really the smallest most insignificant part of the novel in the end. 
2. Fred The Mermaid, Mary Janice Davidson - This goes for most romance novels, they really can't do a story justice because the novels are character driven and not plot driven. It always makes the novels seem flat and silly in the synopsis (and some are no doubt), and/ or it gives away the entire plot. 
3. YA novels, As a teen (13,14,15) I could spend all day combing through books and reading synopsis and loving every single one. Now it seems like they all say the exact same thing over and over in different words. Good books and Bad books and novels I'm indifferent too are all summed up in the same way.

This question was good if your a synopsis reader.... which I'm not. I go into most books blind (because I like the cover, because I like the author, or because its been recommended).

I might do a list in the future that is best synopsis, which is way harder to find in my opinion (I am talking something really special and different)

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September 20th: Favorite Fancasts - Not my thing so no answer sorry people.
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September 27th: Authors/ Books/ Series You've Read Because of Booktube/Blogging/etc. 

1. Jane Austen 
2. HP Lovecraft
3. The Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
4. Kelley Armstrong
5. Lani Taylor

So if you know these authors and their books they all have a few things in common, they have lots of book and those books have lots of pages. These were authors that just didn't catch my attention for a variety of reasons, but after hearing so many good things over and over I finally decided to give them a try and ended up loving these series. 

October 4th: Books Featuring Witches 

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling. - This probably made the top of everyones list but.. whatever. 
2. The Crucible, Arthur Miller - Almost non fiction and in my opinion not what readers think of when they think "witch". 
3. The Otherworld Series, Yasmine Galenorn
4. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones
5. Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray 

I have so many books that are all about witches in my TBR hopefully this motivates me to read a few. 

October 11th: Favorite Creepy Settings 

1. Derry, Maine + The Overlook Hotel, Stephen King
2. The Chamber of Secrets and The Haunted Forest, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
3. HP Lovecraft's Existential Beyond + Dunwich
4. The Bamford Apartments, Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin
5. The House on Number 55, Lodovico Street, "Franks Room", The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker

October 18th: Books Featuring [paranormal creature of your choice] : 

Vampires

1. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
2. The Lesser Dead, Christopher Buelman
3. Salems Lot, Stephen King
4. The Strain, Guillermo Del Toro
5. Dracula, Bram Stoker

October 25th: Non-Horror Books that Scared You 

1. Not Without My Sister, Kristina Jones - This is a non-fiction account of the Children of God Cult, and its so horrifying, I had and have (after 6 reads) a hard time getting my head around, the fact that it is a true story. That something like this cult can exist in our modern day world... it just leaves you speechless. 
2. The Watcher in the Wall, Owen Laukkanen - A predator pushing vulnerable teenagers to commit suicide. To say more would give too much away. But this was supposed to be a typical detective novel and ended being way creepier than id anticipated. I think this actually ended up as an episode of Criminal Minds. 
3. A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley - This is a classic satire, that was written to make people think. Which it did, but reading it almost 75 years later and seeing it come true is a creeping, eerie horrible experience. 
4. 1984, George Orwell - Just like the above BNW
5. 11/22/63, Stephen King - Along with the multitude of other Stephen King's that are not classified as horror. They always have something very eerie and/or sinister

November 1st: Genre Benders

1. Stephen King *Doing the T5W enmass like this, I feel like every week at least once I mention King, He's such a big part of my reading (year round, but especially from October - December) that is hard for me to not include him and his 65 books...
2. A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness - This novel had a younger target audience but ended up dealing with very adult topics, it was a YA/ Fantasy/ Horror/ Contemporary / everything book. Haunting and Beautiful
3. My Sisters Keeper, Jodi Picoult - This book covered so many different angles, from growing up (child to teenager, teenager to adult, adult to parent) and in the process having to make impossible choices, illness, death, sickness, life were all present topics as well.  
4. The Dark Hunter Series, Sherrilyn Kenyon  - These are some of the most interesting romance novels I have ever read, way more complex than they have to be, but in an approachable/understandable/easy to read way. She tackles various historical and mythological angles, the topics of rape, child abuse and surviving these situations/coping. All based in a semi contemporary semi high fantasy realm/earth mix. These books range from 100% romance, to YA to mystery/thriller.. she covers her bases
5. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz - This book and this series drove me insane. It fits in no category at all. But was a great read (if its your cup of tea, one of those books that you will love or hate with nothing in between)

November 8th: Problematic Faves

Characters you don't want to love, but you can't help liking. 

1. Gemma Doyle, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray - There are 1001 issues I had with this girl but I still really loved her and the books
2. Edward and Bella, Twilight, Stephanie Meyer - a whole obsessed generation, should be seeing this on everyones list.
3. America, The Selection - such trashy books, but so perfect
4. Uglies, Scott Westerfeld - There is a theme here isn't there? YA's, particularly from that high school period... 

November 15th: Nostalgic Book Boyfriends/Girlfriends

-- Characters you swooned over when you were younger. This was a topic from our suggestion board :)

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling - Is there ever a bookish question that cannot be answered with Harry Potter? I had an equal crush on Ron.
2. John Taylor, Simon R Green 
3. Bones, Night Huntress, Jeannie Frost
4. Ig Parish, Horns, Joe Hill - tortured romantic soul, turned redeeming angel/demon. 
5. Wolf, Scarlett, Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer

November 22nd: Books You're Thankful For

--For whatever reason, big or small.

1. Goosebumps, RL Stine - This spawned my love of reading, and my love of creepy books. 
2. Harry Potter, JK Rowling - Brought me into the book community
3. Redwall, Brian Jaques - 
4. The Nightside Novels, Simon R Green
5. The Tortall Books, Tamora Pierce

November 29th: Authors You'd Want to Write Like

--In honor of NaNo wrapping up, discuss some authors you'd like to write like. Whether its their writing style, what genre they write in, or how many books they manage to churn out a year! 

1. Stephen King - Id like to steal his style, the number of books + short stories he turns out, the spectrum of genre's he covers
2. Brian Jaques - His timeless style, it is simple enough for children and the language / story is child friendly, but it also has layer upon layer of detail and such eloquent language it is just as great a read as an adult. 
3. RL Stine
4. Dr Suess
5. Sherrilyn Kenyon - Just like Stephen King, she has an amazing number of books, that span over a whole set of genre's. She has created a multi-faceted world that is semi-reality. But along with all the little details and complexities, the books are easy to read (which is something King's books are not, not that the reading level is the end of the world, but I feel like you have an even bigger audience if its the more reader friendly style)

Top 5 Wednesday l August 2017

August 9th: Second Book is Best

I have been reading lots of stand-alones lately and I was a little stumped when I saw this question and nothing immediately jumped out at me as an answer. Looking back at goodreads was a little bit of a shock I haven't read a series since May! So older stuff from before 

• Fever, The Chemical Garden Trilogy, Lauren DeStephano
• Scarlett, The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
• Finders Keepers, Stephen King - this is less of "best" than they are equally amazing
• The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien - I was the most invested in this book and its characters during the sequel, it had the most action in my opinion as well
• Visions, Kelley Armstong  - the entirety of book one, was setting up book two. 

August 16th: Characters' Fitness Routines You Want

Weight lifting, strength centred training is my style. Grateful that I do have the time and resources to workout regularly. I always get a thrill out of other girl characters fallowing the same kind of routines (as its not uncommon but its not really common either)

• Shadow Hunters, Cassandra Clare
• Camp Half Blood, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan
• Alanna's Training, Knighthood, The Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce
• Brienne's Training, Knighthood,  A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
• Menolly, Acrobate/Spy, The Sisters of the Moon, Yasmine Galenorm

August 23rd: Books from Before You Joined the Online Book Community

• Firebringer, David Clement Davis
• Redwall, Brian Jaques
• Goosebumps, RL Stine
• Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
• Harry Potter, JK Rowling

August 30th: Favorite Bromances

-- I think we have done this topic before in the distant past, but who doesn't love a good bromance? Bromance = platonic relationship between two characters who identify as male. 

• Harry and Ron, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
• Sam and Frodo, Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
• Sam and John, A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
• Gem and Will, The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare

I am excluding characters where one was gay, just because love/lust motivated half the relationship in many cases and the bromances tend to fall apart once feelings are known (Jace and Alec - Cassandra Clare Mortal Instruments - came to mind right away)

Top 5 Wednesday l Spring 2017

May 10th: Books as Event Themes

1. American Gods, Neil Gaiman - Each party guest much chose his or her god/goddess to personify or support. And whatever your bringing to the party should also be a traditional dish/drink from your god/goddess's home turf. Different sections/areas/tables around the event should be about different pantheons. 
2. Red Hill by Jamie McGuire, Resident EvilNovels by Various Authors and Canibalism a perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. -- Zombie / Cannibal themed party, perfect for halloween. *** This would be my favourite choice 
3. Lovecraft Halloween Party - there are so many options to chose from on how to interpret this party... I wouldn't even know where to begin. Would be very cool for fan's to geek out together though. 
4. The Selection - Kira Cast : Girls Night or Day Event --   Pedicures, Manicures, facemasks... watch a season of the bachelor (which is pretty much The Selection) there are a hundred different things you could do depending on the age range of the guests / number of guests... 101 variables. 
5. Rage by Richard Bachman and This is Where it Ends Marieke Nijkamp : a mystery party where you can #1 try to figure out who the school shooter is or #2 reconstruct the event leading up to _________ (whatever reveal or final event). This is not a topic for everyone and I would be very sure of who I was inviting before doing this kind of thing. But this is one of the events I feel should be talked about but no one does (until just after one of these tragedies). As a society we are slowly starting to talk about mental illness and its effects this is one of the worst outcomes of young people with mental illness and having this staged almost like a murder mystery could be a educational and thought provoking event. 

May 17th: Summer Reads

I struggled a little bit with this question, I first tried to list books that were about summer or set in summer specifically, but I didn't like the list so it vanished, and I decided to do this list. Which is more of a type of read : lighthearted, comedies, easy to read, some YA. Which is my "go to type" around this season. 

1. Mary Janice Davidsons Novels (any of them), they are lighthearted steamy romance novels with quirky characters and lots of comedy.  
2. Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss OR/AND Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser : lots of people think about losing a little weight for the beach for summer. These books take a look into fast food, pre-prepared foods the sales and science behind it all. I have never had to worry about my weight thankfully, but from an educational standpoint these two books did more to discourage fast food in my diet than any self help/weightloss tip  book could have done. 
3. Chrestomanci - Diana Wynn Jones : Harry Potter is the magic lovers go to winter read? well this is the other side of the looking glass. She is also the Author of Howl's Moving Castle (the first novel in the trilogy set within that magical universe).
4. Heartless, Marissa Meyer - I am obsessed with this book and it might become a yearly summer read for a while. 
5. The Hatching and The Skittering by Ezekiel Boone, horror novels about spiders. Which might seem a little bit random as a "summer" read. But these few months are the only times of the year when it is NOT snowing in Canada (ie. spiders can survive in this wonderful weather) and this is the only time of the year when I see any bugs at all so... yea bugs = summer time around here. 

May 24th: Favorite Minor Characters 
 What does this mean?? Ex.  Ron and Hermione side characters, while Lavender Brown, Oliver Wood, and Dean Thomas are minor characters. 

1. The Badger's, Brian Jacques -- I have recently been rereading the Redwall novels, which I was obsessed with as a kid. And while the Badger characters in a couple of books are main or side characters the majority of the time they are minor characters. But they are always interesting and beautiful souls. 
2. Charlotte, The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Claire. -- It really annoyed me that the characters kept referring to Charlotte characteristics in a negative kind of "look down upon" way. There was an emphasis on how her "motherliness" made her seem older than her 23/24 years (can't remember her age exactly) but if you took away the tone she was given. You ended up with a very brave, upstanding citizen who was responsible and clearheaded. Really what women should aspire to be (in my opinion) by that time in their lives (regardless of time period) .
3. The Dark Tower, Stephen King -- This whole series was filled with awesome characters, but a lot of the quick mentions thrown in, where side or main characters from other King novels (I have to have at least on SK rant in each post pretty much I know, but honestly its just so mind blowing) 

I am so much more about the setting, plot, the main characters. Pretty much anything but the side characters (who I find are only really around in YA novels) I am giving this up at 3 because I really don't have anyone coming to mind and only 1/3 so far is a single character. 

May 30th: Fandoms You Are No Longer In 

I am changing this question up a little by listing the 5 reasons I leave any fandom no matter now much I love the book(s)

1. Insane Fans : If people start to lose touch with the fact that the story is fiction, the characters are not real, that every reader is entitled to their opinion, its time to jump ship.
2. Series That Dragged On...  
1. Authors that published slowly; for a while I was out growing the books faster than they could be written, losing interest in the conclusion or start reading other things and just never getting around to the final book(s). 
2. Series that have been extended from a trilogy into more later-on often never had those final books looked at.  
3. Series that just got too long,  3, 4 , 5 books into a series only to realize there were 22 more to go. Often I gave up. Example : Outlander by Diana Gabledon, I liked the first bit of the book that I read, but I not enough for a 10000 page commitment
3. Overly Popular Fandoms -- Hand in Hand with #1 and #2  on this list--  This is when you get crazy people, I am about the book fandoms not the movie fandoms and the two tend to get horribly tangled with these situations and finally this is when those "surprise" extra books start cropping up (written only because of the cash sometimes not because there is more story)
4. Outgrowing  the Fandom : while people of all ages like all kinds of books, there is normally an age range with a majority in any fan base. With "adult" targeted novels this is less of an issue. But as any former YA fangirl can relate too... at 22 I just don't relate so well to 12 year olds anymore.
5. Disagreeing with the Author as a person : Authors have become another kind of celebrity, brought into the media spotlight and sometimes I think this really takes away from the writing. If I disagree with personal opinions expressed, even if they are not present at all in your fiction, it reflects in my experience of the novel (past or present) and has caused me to turn away from a book or series in varying degrees.   

June 7th: Books For Your Hogwarts House

Slytherin

1. Necronomicon, HP Lovecraft
2. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
3. Rage, Richard Bachman
4. American Psycho, Brett Eason Ellis
5. The Martian, Andy Weir 

June 14th: Side Relationships + June 28th: Hate to Love Relationships 

Looking at these two questions only a week apart... I am not going to bother trying to answer these. While I have read tons of books with amazing relationships, I don't have any side ones that really come to mind, and I don't really have hate to love either, I am pretty black and white with this kind of thing, I love two characters as a couple or I don't.

I kind of feel these are YA-ish topics, that makes less of an appearance in my type of adult novels, thrillers and horrors which don't really focus on relationships, love is a fact, often a tragedy in these, and hard to think of in this context. Plus the glimpse we are given into extra characters is often more about memories, or internal character, a lot less to do with who they really are or what their lives are about. 

June 21st: Favorite "Unlikeable" Protagonists

1. Gemma Doyle, A Great and Terrible Beauty + Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray *I don't think Gemma is really supposed to be so unlikable, but she is. Selfish, shallow, childish, immature, irresponsible, whiney, need I go on? but despite all she still touched a special place in my heart as did the books (despite many flaws). 
2. Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, Brett Eason Ellis *A murderous fiend, the epitome of protagonists you just love to hate
3. Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, Twilight, Stephanie Meyer *Need I say more?
4. Jamie Lannister + Various Others, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin *Particularly as I get farther into the series, there are so many narrators that are wonderfully terrible people. 
5. Clary and Jace, Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare *Its hard to distinguish angsty teen from "unlikable" these two seem to take turns flip flopping between who is being the bad guy / annoying/ whiney / selfish / ect. ect. ect. again maybe not supposed to be unlikable, but I don't like them very much and yet I liked the books and read the City of Bones at least 6 times + the rest of the series. 

July 5th: Books Without Romance !!!

***A few (very, very few) people complained about the "shipping" topics lately, so I thought it would be good to talk about books that don't have a romantic subplot! This is a really hard one, so if you can't find any, you can talk about some where the romance is super super minor. Like barely mentioned... at all...*** 

Guess who laughed at the above statement? I normally delete that bit of the T5W posts but figured I would leave it here with this one...

1. Pressure, Brian Keene
2. The Colony, AJ Colucci
3. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
4. Red, Jack Ketchum
5. Rage, Richard Bachman
6. Snowblind, Michael Mcbride
7. Feed, Mira Grant
8. The Martian Andy Wier

I want to be clear that some of these books mention a relationship(s).  So there are relationships and there is love, but those things are present without the romance side / focus on two people and there interactions etc. 

July 12th: Children's Books / Authors

1. Dr Seuss
2. Robert Munch
3. Laura Numeroff (If You Give  Mouse A Cookie) 
4. Eric Carle (Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear Brown Bear) 
5. Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit)
6. AA Milne (Winnie the Pooh)

July 19th: Books That Aren't Set In/Inspired By The Western World

Outside of North America and Western Europe) including fantasy novels (try to avoid medieval settings)

1. Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini *Middle East
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini *Middle East
3. Memoires of a Geisha, Arthur Golden *Asia
4. The Pearl, John Steinbeck *Latin America 
5. World War Z, Max Brooks *Asia + Middle East + Others (World Wide Travel and Narration)

July 26th: Series That Got Better

1. The Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
2. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
3. Redwall, Brian Jaques
4. Tortall, Tamora Pierce

The above books all started off strong, they were good reads (and some great reads), and they just kept building the characters, relationships, atmospheres and settings though-out the series. The more you read the more invested you are in the whole world. This is very much my cup of tea!

      5. Lunar Chronicles, Marrisa Meyers

These books were connected (same as the above books) but what I noticed most was the skill and style of Meyers writing which progress along with the series. Not only did our characters grow, and intertwine but the narration improved - and being able to see that improvement added something to these novels. 

 *

Top 5 Wednesday l April

April 5th: Top SFF Books on Your TBR *Booktube SFF Awards Babble Crossover Topic!*

1. The Martian, Andy Weir *I am waiting on the audiobook
2. The Host, Stephanie Meyer
3. Dragonriders of Pern, Anne McCaffery *this is a reread but I was 9? when I read it the first time and it was way above my comprehension level still.
4. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
5. The Diabloic SJ Kincaid

April 12th: Books That Would Make Good Video Games

I am not really going to answer this question because I just can't think of anything and I'm not going to force it. My favourite video games recently that I think would make good books are.

1. Layers of Fear
2. Fabel (and I have been reading lots of novels that would fit in this mold)
3. Resident Evil
4. Evil Within
5. Silent Hill *would love to see books

April 19th: Favorite LGBTQ+ Reads

I only have two series for this list 1. The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare (which has Alec and Magnus) and 2. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray (which has Felicity and Pippa).

I tend to shy away from some of the books that are very very focused on this topic, while I think everyone should have a right to do whatever they want to in their private life I have found the movement has gotten pushy. I find the books can be "gimmicky" trying to ride the trend wave.
Personally, I don't think attention seeking surrounding these issues is healthy because we have people being dishonest for that attention. I don't think it should really be an opinionated topic because its something so internal, since this has been a "thing" i personally have had people question my own choices and have watched them question other peoples choices, with me that isn't a problem because I am very sure of where I stand; but I have this feeling that those kinds of words have swayed people and we have yet to know if that has a positive or negative effect.

April 26th: Authors You Want to Read More From

1. Marissa Meyer
2. Libba Bray
3. Tamora Piece *always always always 
4. Jeffery Deaver
5. Robert Ludlum 

These last two are like perpetual TBR books because there are So many and because I have to be in the right mood for this kind of book, I almost always get them on audiobook so theres that as well I need time to listen. 

Top 5 Wednesday l March

March 1st - Fictional Jobs You'd Want to Have 

1. Housewife from a Jane Austen, this one might shock some people but I would be perfectly happy in that setting (yes that means giving up my right to vote and own my own land , my ability to work I am ok with that) 
2. Charms, Spells and Potions maker, Harry Potter, JK Rowling *yes I know this is totally cliche and will be on everyones list 
3. Worker in Willy Wonka's Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Road Dahl
4. Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum *obviously the training and everything else would have to come with the job but to be an expert in 13 languages, every weapon and any hand to hand combat? just such a badass

I hate these questions so much because I read lots of period fiction (but I don't want to be a knight or a lady or a servant) or I read a lot of mystery crime novels that are placed in the real world so no fictional job. and then the YA that I read which fits this category I don't often love the books or the "jobs" enough to chose.  

March 8th - Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy Books *BooktubeSFF Awards Crossover Topic!* 

1. Cress, Marissa Meyer *my only nominated read from 2015 & 2016 Booktube SSF Awards
2. Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan Mcguire *again this is my only read from the proposed nominations of 2017 Booktube SSF Awards, put forward thus far. 
3. The Stand, Stephen King *the idea of a global pandemic created by man in a well intentioned or weaponized sense is a topic that I can't get enough of.
4. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins *only the first book not the series
5. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

March 15th- Books You Felt Betrayed By
I am a big mystery, thriller horror reader and I am always impressed by authors that can do this to me, because thats the point of the book so I am NOT including those kinds of novels in this list.

1. Thom, The Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce *it will spoil everything to explain
2. The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman *so much betrayal in my faith in these novels. 
3. The Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snickett *I felt betrayed by the end of this series, the lack of answers
4. 
   

March 22nd- Favorite Angsty Romances 
Twilight, Stephanie Meyer

I am not doing this questions because I normally don't like these couples or I find they take away from the story...the odd angsty relationship that I have really enjoyed is often a series and by book 3 or 4 I hate the characters relationship because it goes no where more often than not. 

March 29th- Future Classics 


I am hating the topics this month so I am just ending this here with 1 out of the 5 topics answered because I just... I don't care

Top 5 Wednesday - February

February 1st: Current Favorites that Aren't Books
 TV shows , makeup, foods etc.?? 

1. Starbucks White Chocolate Mochas
2. Shop Heroes App
3. Dim Sum, Silver Dragon Calgary
4. Country Music *I tend to like Rock, Metal, Country but in cycles not all at once. 
5. Bath Bombs

February 8th: Book Trends You're Tired Of 
There are obviously exceptions to each one of these as well so don't loose your mind

1. Extending a series or adding to what was supposed to be a stand alone. Occasionally you get something good normally you get something that drags and feels forced. 
2. Retellings that aren't even retellings its just a publicity push 
3. Character flaws that are again just a publicity push. LGTBQ ect. is awesome, racial problem are real some books portray this well others are just using real issues and buzz words to sell copies. 
4. Adding in an extra point of view when you don't have to (this doubles when its only for one book in a series)
5. Changing the original art covers for pictures of "real people' 

February 15th: Favorite Non-Written Novels
Im pretty much stuck on graphic novels with this I can't think of any other formats really (I mean an audiobook is just a spoken written novel right?)

1. Overwatch, various authors
2. Garfield, Jim Davis 
3. Boris Karloff : Tales of Mystery
4. Tales from the Crypt, Al Fieldstien 
5. DC Comics (couldn't pick just one) 

February 22nd: Books to Get You Out of a Reading Slump 
Younger YA reads in general, light fluff you don't really have to focus on or my go to fav's :

1. Redwall, Brian Jaques 
2. Beast House Novel, Richard Laymon
3. Jane Austen or another semi funny classic.
4. A non-fiction audiobook : Fast Food Nation, 
5. Comics

Top 5 Wednesday - January

January 4th: 2017 Goals 

1. My goodreads challenge is only 52 books so 1 book a week which I know is feasible, but my personal goal is 3 books a week for a total of 163
2. Finish getting my back tattooed
3. Keep up with my blog and get a youtube channel started again
4. Go to the gym 3/4 days a week minimum (I was really good last year until December, I am getting back into it now and hope I continue through the year again)
5. Get my dairy allergy in check, which will help everything, acne, health, gym performance.

January 11th: 2017 Debuts You Are Excited For 

I only have two for this one, I kind of just pick things up as I go. I don't plan super far in advance and the books I am really waiting for in 2017 are the final novels in a few series.

1. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
2. The Best is an Animal, Peternelle van Arsdale

January 18th: Favorite Polarizing Books 

1. Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien. Obviously very very popular and with the newish movies I know lots of people who picked these up for the first time and hated them because of how much they drag on. The writing is not for everyone and I struggled as well until I got the audiobook which are amazing. It still did take me almost two years too read the full series and the hobbit. 
2. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer. If you don't know about this where have you been?
3. Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare. I hated the moral instruments which are boring and drag on and on, but I loved this and i'm not the only one, but people who really loved the contemporariness of TMI were really against these companion novels 
4. Stephen King's works & The Dark Tower which are two categories within themselves. 
5. 
   

January 25th: Favorite Underrated Books 

I struggled with this topic way more than I thought I would, turns out most of the things I've read lately have been really popular or books that would have been on this list 12 or even 6 months ago have recently been put in the spotlight. 

1. The Pellinor Series, Allison Croggon
2. Tamora Pierce *She must have a huge fanbase because of how many books she's published in multiple languages but her novels aren't really talked about.