Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Topics

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten list is posted for us bloggers to share the books we love and discuss anything book related! To see more details about Top Ten Tuesday click HERE. 

I am so behind on all of my posts, and I apologize guys! I had my last final this morning, and have been celebrating that its summer ever since. So now I have come in for the night, and am ready to bang out some new posts, prepare yourselves :)

This week's TTT is top ten books dealing with tough topics. As mentioned by The Broke and the Bookish, this can be anything from abuse, suicide, grief, to whatever speaks to you personally. This week is the opposite of last week's light and fluffy books we discussed (You can find mine HERE). Here is my line-up:

1) Still Alice by Lisa Genova: This book deals with a family member who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease. The main character in Still Alice tells her story of her life with Alzheimers.

2) Fifty Shades Series by E.L. James: Alright guys, don't laugh at me. If you usually read my posts, you probably noticed that this pops up in almost all of my top ten Tuesdays. I really do love this book. In this book the characters are dealing with a rough childhood. I do not want to go into detail for those who have not read it, but those of you that have should know what I am talking about. 

3) The Help by Kathryn Stockett: I am sure most of you know what this book is about, even if you have not read it or seen the movie. Just in case you do not or you want a refresher, this is a book about life as a black maid in 1962. I absolutely love this book, if you have not read it I highly recommend it. 

4) Wait for You by J. Lynn: I actually just did a review on this book! You can see it HERE. In this book, the main character is trying to run away from her past where she was raped. This book was an amazing story. The rape is hinted at a lot in the first part of the book so we, as readers, are able to figure out the basic story of what happened to our leading lady, Avery, pretty quickly but as the story develops it tells you more about what happend to her in her past and what made her run.

5) Slammed by Colleen Hoover: I am actually still reading this book, but I can tell you that it has already made its way up to an all time favorite. I started this book just wanting to read about a love story but got so much more. This book has me going on a crazy emotional roller coaster. I am not sure about everything, even if I was I would not want to ruin it for you, but the main characters in this book have had and are going through a lot of loss in their lives. Their stories are heartbreaking. I can't wait to finish this book and give you a review :)

6) The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks: Really any of his books are devastating, bu this one is my favorite. I always end up crying like a baby with his books, in this one especially. This is a story about a girl and her little brother who go to live with their Dad for a summer. At the end of the summer... Eh, that is too much of a spoiler. Just be prepared to cry if you have not read this one yet. 

7) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult: This is a book about a young girl who has been conceived and raised to donate blood (and whatever else is needed) for her sister with cancer. In this book the young girl is fighting her parents for the rights to her own body so her parents can no longer force her to donate for her sister. This book had me crying constantly. It is such a touching, yet heartbreaking story about this young girl. If you have not read this, I highly recommend it. 

8) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: This book is the story of a boy who lost his dad in the 9/11 attacks in New York. The main character is on a journey to find lock a key fits into, with the belief that it will help him accept his father's death.

9) Broken by William Cope Moyers: This book is a true story about Cope's drug addiction and recovery. It has been so long since I have read it, that I cannot remember much else unfortunately. I had to read this book for an addictions class I took my freshman year of college, and it was definitely an intense read. 

10) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling: The main character in this book is 11 years old. Both of his parents were murdered when he was a baby. Now he is stuck living with his horrible Aunt and Uncle and their bratty, spoiled son. Every day his life is miserable, the poor kid even has to sleep in a closet under the stairs. Then he gets his Hogwarts letter :) 

Sorry guys, but I had to put that last one on there. I was getting really depressed by my list and thought some Harry Potter would make it better :) Anyway I hope you enjoyed this and it didn't make you too sad. There is a lot of death and loss mentioned here. This was actually a pretty hard topic for me. As much as I love the books with tough topics, I usually go for the light, fluffy reads because they make a good happy escape. 

What books are on your list this week??

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Things to Read When You Need Something Light & Fun

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten list is posted for us bloggers to share the books we love and discuss anything book related! To see more details about Top Ten Tuesday click HERE. 

This week's topic is Top Ten Things to Read When You Need Something Light & Fun. I am so excited for this topic! This list could not come at a better time, today was my last day of classes. I have a few exams over the next week, but I am picking out a lot of light summery reads. I plan to explore a bunch of new blogs and read about yalls books so I can add new ones to my TBR list :)

Often when I read, I like to read easy, breezy books that I do not have to think to hard in and can just enjoy! So for me this is almost like making a top ten list. I don't know how I'm only going to pick ten, but I am really going to enjoy this topic! 

Don't forget to comment and let me know what your favorites are, I love to find new blogs to follow and new books :)

Without further ado, my list:

-The Cinderella Rules by Donna Kauffman
-One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
-Love Undercover by Jo Edwards
-The Girl's Guide to (Man) Hunting by Jessica Clare
-Bass Ackwards and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft
-The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter 
-Avalon High by Meg Cabot
-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
-Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas 

Yes, I know this is only nine books. It looked better with 9 than 10 so, yeahhh...

What books are on your top ten list of things to read when you need something light and fun?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten list is posted for us bloggers to share the books we love and discuss anything book related! To see more details about Top Ten Tuesday click HERE. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book. This was actually a pretty hard topic for me but here is what I came up with:

1) ROMANCE. I love anything with romance. It's my weakness, I am a stereotypical girly girl when it comes to this. I get all fan-girly and gush over it. It's just so great :)

Some examples:

-Walking Disaster by Jaime McGuire

-Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

-The Selection by Kiera Cass

2) Mystery. I'm not really into the dark scary mysteries, although I'm sure they are great, but the goofy comedies or pretty much anything with romance (get used to it, it will probably be mentioned in every topic).


Some examples:
-The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich  
-The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter know, I know, not actually a mystery but the whole book I was trying to figure out who was killing everyone!)



3) Angels. This seems so cheesy when I write it down, I don't know why. Maybe I am still coming to terms with how much I like certain paranormal topics, but this is one of them. I don't have a whole lot of books on this subject yet, but I am always on the look out for a good series about angels.

Some examples:
-Hush, Hush Series by Becca Fitzpatrick
- Fallen Series by Lauren Kate





4) Princesses. Seriously guys, I really want to be a princess. Not an actual princess, with responsibilities and junk but a real life version of a Disney Princess. Like Jasmine or Mia from The Princess Diaries. How cool would that be?

Some Examples:
-The Selection by Kiera Cass (this one might pop up a few times, because its my current series and I'M LOVING IT!)
-The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot - I actually only read the first 5 of these but they were great, as was the movie!



5) Dystopian. The Hunger Games was probably my first dystopian book and I loved it! Great way to get introduced into the genre :) I love the futuristic, anything can happen feeling you get from them.

Some examples:
-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - obviously
-The Selection by Kiera Cass - lets see how many times I can mention this book in this post ;)
-Divergent by Veronica Roth



6) Magic. I have not read too many books that just have straight up magic in them, but the ones I have read I always love. This is another topic (like Angels) that I am always looking for another good book from.

Some examples:
-HARRY POTTER by J.K. Rowling- am I the only one who reads this is an accent? ...maybe some of you naturally talk with this accent?? Consider yourselves luck, I'm from Texas. I don't have a heavy country accent, but its nothing to be excited about
-The Gemma Doyle Series by Libba Bray (A Great & Terrible Beauty, etc.) - I read these a while back, but I LOVED them!

7) Bad Boys/Forbidden Love. Yes, I get that this falls under the romance category.. but I had to get more specific. I really enjoy reading about a bad boy. I don't know what it is, it just gets me. Probably half the books I read these days have a bad boy or forbidden love in them. Ugh... so good.

Some examples:
-Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
-Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
-Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James




8) College. Since I am a college student I find I am able to relate to characters in college and really enjoy those books. I feel like these books are rather few and far between, or maybe I just have not found them yet, so I always get crazy excited when I find one.

Some examples:
 -Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James- Yes this book is on here a ton. It's one of my favorites. When I first read about this book, I honestly just thought it would be a slightly steamy romance about a girl graduating college. I had already convinced myself I had to read it before I knew what it was about. And boy am I glad
-A Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

9) Comedies.  The other topic that is right up there with romance is comedy. I love a good laugh. And reading a book and busting out laughing? The best.

Some examples:
-Wallbanger by Alice Clayton- Even though the end of this book really let me down, the first half of this book had me laughing so loudly at completely inappropriate times. Like in class... I should probably rethink reading in class.
-The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich


10) Vampires. Im pretty picky about vampire books, but there are so many to chose from that you can always find a great one out there!

Some examples:-House of Night Series
-Twilight *not series, only the first book... the rest were crap*
-The Morganville Vampire Series - I have not actually read these, so I probably shouldn't even mention them. But they are on my list and I am soooo looking forward to reading them, I just had to include them!

What are some topics or words that make you pick up a book??

Top Ten Tuesday (#2): Books I Thought I Would Like More/Less Than I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten list is posted for us bloggers to share the books we love and discuss anything book related! To see more details about Top Ten Tuesday click HERE.

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday is books that I thought I would like more or less than I did. I decided (like many others) to split my list into top 5 I thought I would like more and top 5 I thought I would like less. Here are my top books:

Top 5 books I thought I would like less than I did. AKA books that pleasantly surprised me:

1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - When I first heard of these books Twilight and New Moon were the only ones out. I had heard so much about these books but I was still unsure about them. At this age I was primarily reading YA contemporaries. I had a few darker mystery/ suspense books I had read and maybe one paranormal, but for the most part I was not interested in anything that had to do with vampires, werewolves, ore anything else of the sort. My sister had been reading the series and told my mom how good it was. So, my mom read it. And then she tried to get me to read it. By this time my mom and sister had ganged up on me and every time I wanted to read a book they told me to read Twilight. But I really wasn't all that excited about the book. It got to the point, to where one night I wanted to go hang out with my friends and my mom told me I was not allowed to do ANYTHING until I read the first two chapters of Twilight. Seriously guys, I wasn't allowed to read Harry Potter growing up but I was grounded until I read Twilight. My family is weird. Anyway, turnes out my family knows me well.. I didn't leave my room until I had to ask my sister for her copy of New Moon.

2. Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire - This was actually the first book I reviewed on my blog! If you have read my review, you guys know I was iffy on this when I first found out it was the same story from Travis's point of view. I really wanted more story when I finished Beautiful Disaster and when I found out I would be retreading what I just did I was disappointed to say the least. But once I started the book, I knew it would be my favorite of the two. It was so great, it exceeded all expectations I had for it. If you want to read my review click HERE!

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - I had been hearing about this book for YEARS. I was so stuck in my own ways, I really just wasn't interested in this book. I didn't want to read a coming of age book from a boy's point of view. I wanted to read a good ole YA romance with a girl narrating. But when they turned the book into a movie, I knew it was time to read it. And boy am I glad!! This is now one of my top favorites :)

4. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling - I know, I know.. You guys are all thinking to yourselves.. "Amber, how did you ever not want to read Harry Potter!? The problem was, since I was not allowed to read it as a kid, I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy them as much as everyone else did. I knew how important these books are to my generation and I didn't want to not like them. I was 21 years old reading about a 12 year old boy. I was terrified it would not live up to my expectations. Thankfully it did, I can honestly say I am a true Harry Potter fan now. If you have not read these, please do. NOW.

5. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins - This book had just started getting popular when I got it as a gift. I never picked it up on my own because I was not interested in action packed books, and that's what I thought this was. And I was not wrong, but I didn't expect myself to fall in love with all the characters and the relationships they formed with eachother. I got so emotionally invested in these books that I carried the EVERYWHERE. I went to a hockey game with my boyfriends family, we had awesome seats.. And what did I do?? I read Catching Fire. LOVED. THESE. BOOKS.




Top 5 books I thought I would like more than I did. AKA books that disappointed me:

1. Bared to You by Sylvia Day - As much as I wanted to like this book, I just didn't. I loved Fifty Shades (E.L. James) and I expected these to be the a rather predictable but still enjoyable series of books that followed the same storyline as Fifty Shades. This book just did not do it for me. I have to admit, I didn't finish it. I just couldn't. To me, there was not plot. It was just, "I want to fuck your cunt." I have a really hard time reading books where the guy says they just want to "fuck" the girl. I don't like it, but if its not constant I can overlook it. But when the word cunt is used, I lose ALL interest. I just can't stand that word. I don't generally have a problem with curse words in books, I use most curse words on my own. They do not offend me, but I like to read about character I would connect with. And if some guy came up to me and said "I want to fuck your cunt" I would not react well. I just want a little respect guys, come on. So when the main character doesn't punch the guy and then walk away without a second thought, I just can't make a connection with that character.

2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien - I really wanted to LOVE these books. I think when I tried to read them I was just too young. I believe I was 12 years old and these books were significantly bigger and at a higher reading level than I was used to. But I saw the movies and couldn't get enough of them.  I would watch the movies at least once or twice a week. I had them memorized, and that could have been part of the problem. But I just couldn't get into the books like I did the movies. Maybe one day I'll try again but for now, these books were just meh.

3. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia - I got this book, read about 100 pages and then put it down. Later when I heard they were making it into a movie I tried again. It was good, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't great. This book just took me a while to read. I wasn't into it as much as I have been with other books. I carried it everywhere mainly because I just wanted to finish it, but even then it took me a few weeks to read. One day I'll read the rest of the series, but that day is not today.

4. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer - For as much as I LOVED the first book, hated this one about the same. She took a good story, and turned it to crap. Total dog crap. I wish Stephanie Meyer would have just put an ending on Eclipse and called it a day. This book was unnecessary and a waste of time. I was so excited to read this book, I waited in the bookstore at midnight for its release, and as much fun as the experience was, the book was NOT worth it.

5. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard - I really wish I read these BEFORE the TV show. I loved the show and I knew the books were different so I picked up the first one and started reading. I just couldn't get into it. I was too impatient and I just wanted to get to parts I didn't already know, but that would have taken FOREVER. So I gave up after the first book.

Have you read these books? What did you think of them? Let me know!