Amy C. Shaw

The Top 10 (Or 11) Songs I Wish Were Books

February 16, 2016 • 12 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is books we’d give theme songs to or 10 songs I wish that were books. I decided to make book covers based off of ~~ten~~ eleven songs (I was going to do 10 but had one more I really wanted to add and didn’t want to cut anything…) that I thought would be interesting YA books. I will warn you that my taste in music is pretty limited and not very hip, though I tried to list a couple artists outside my usual go-to. I also initially didn’t want to repeat artists but ended up repeating a few anyway. I created a playlist on Spotify with these 11 songs if you want to listen through them; hope you enjoy!

Also, with the exception of the image for the Renegades cover, which comes from Unsplash, all photos are from the super talented Wyn Wiley Photography.

1. Silhouettes by Of Monsters and Men

It’s so hard letting go/I’m finally at peace, but it feels wrong

2. Tell Her You Love Her by Echosmith

When she says she needs you/Tell her you need her, too/You tell her clearly/Speak what your heart wants you to/Tell her she’s lovely/Always tell her the truth/When she says she loves you/Tell her you love her, too

3. A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

‘Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars/I’m gonna give you my heart/’Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars/’Cause you light up the path/I don’t care, go on and tear me apart/I don’t care if you do/’Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars/I think I saw you

4. Closer to Me by The Fray

Have you ever done something so wrong?/Won’t you come a little bit closer to me?/Come a little bit closer

5. Washed by the Water by Needtobreathe

Daddy was a preacher/She was his wife/Just trying to make the world a little better/You know, shine a light/People started talking/Just to hear their own voice/Those people tried to accuse my father/Said he made the wrong choice/Though it might be painful/You know that time will always tell/Those people have long since gone/My father never failed

6. Hazel by Phillip Phillips

But I know that they sun will shine for me/Even when the skies are gray/But I feel like I’m missing something/But the bridges built narrow ways

7. Souvenirs by Switchfoot

I close my eyes and go back in time/I can see you smiling, you’re so alive/We were so young, we had no fear/We were so young, we had no idea/That life was just happening

8. Renegades by X Ambassadors

Run away with me/Lost souls and reverie/Running wild and running free/Two kids, you and me/And I say/Hey, hey hey hey/Living like we’re renegades

9. Paradise by Coldplay

When she was just a girl she expected the world/But it flew away from her reach/So she ran away in her sleep and dreamed of/Para-para-paradise, para-para-paradise, para-para-paradise/Every time she closed her eyes

10. Haley by Needtobreathe

If you don’t know just how you feel/Don’t say those sweet things/That you know I’d wanna hear/If you don’t know just what to think/Then put your thoughts away/And keep them out of reach/Haley don’t hurt me, if you don’t know/I could of moved on a long time ago/You’re undecided, your eyes still show/Haley don’t hurt me if you don’t know

11. Up To You by Echosmith

Want you to come back to me/Oh ’cause you wanted to, not ’cause you needed to/You’re all that I need/Oh and I love you/Yes I love you/I wear my heart on my sleeve/It’s just what I do/But if there’s too much to leave/Won’t hold it against you/It’s all up to you

Which is your favorite song on this list? Which is your favorite cover?

3 Years of Blogging!

February 14, 2016 • 13 Comments

Holy cow, where has the time gone?! I’m writing this post the day of instead of earlier and scheduling it so it clearly sneaked up on me! Since I’m doing this last minute I don’t have anything elaborate planned, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has stuck with me… through my hiatus, my sporadic posts since then… the support of my readers is truly what keeps me chugging along. To all my loyal readers…

The Top 10 Swoon-Worthy Book Couples

February 9, 2016 • 28 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is a Valentine’s Day themed freebie! Two years ago I did the top 10 book romances that make me swoon, but I have several new favorites now so I wanted to do it again. In no particular order…

(Excuse me while I go cry my eyes out now.)

(Though Rachel Hartman proceeded to crush my heart in Shadow Scale.)

All photos that are not from movies are from Unsplash

Who do you feel are the most swoon-worthy book couples?

Star Trek Voyager Season One: My Top 5 Fave Episodes

February 6, 2016 • 2 Comments

As my husband and I are going through our second full watch of Star Trek as a couple, I thought it would be fun to report on the highlights along the way. So I decided to copy the same format as Charlene at Bookish Whimsy, who is going through her first-ever run of Star Trek and sharing her favorite episodes for each season. To compare, see her favorite episodes of Voyager season one.

The first season of Voyager is a short one, so I was going to do a top 3, but then I found it was actually pretty easy for me to come up with a top 5. After the huge significance of the pilot, not a lot happens in this season; the best is yet to come for Voyager.

5. Heroes and Demons

This is the Doctor’s first real episode and first time experiencing life beyond sick bay. It was good to see him wrestle with, and then embrace, this new experience.

4. Prime Factors

This hedonistic planet (that is not Risa) is interesting to me, but what gets me most in this episode is the end! I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say a character makes a surprising decision!

3. State of Flux

This is another plot twist episode where you find out someone isn’t all that he or she said they were. Dun dun DUN!

2. Caretaker

Now that I have rewatched every Star Trek pilot except Enterprise’s, which bored me to tears the first time, I think I can stand by my opinion that it is the best pilot in Star Trek. I don’t love everything about it, but it raises the stakes a ton and really sets the tone of the show from the get-go.

1. Eye of the Needle

I really like this episode and I don’t know how to pinpoint why. I mean, you know they’re not actually going to make it home, but there’s the angle of hope that maybe they’ll get to send out messages. I won’t go any further about the plot, but will also add that I really like the Romulan character in this one. Everything in Star Trek was often overblown with Klingons, or in DS9 Ferengi, but I always want more Romulans (thanks Enterprise for finally indulging me). They fascinate me.

If you’ve seen Voyager, what your favorite episodes of the first season?

Top 10 Tuesday: In Another Time…

February 2, 2016 • 6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/ Ten Historical Settings You’d Love To See or Top Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I’d Love To Read in Books. I wanted to do a mix of historical settings and futuristic ones, so I wasn’t sure how best to sum this up in a catchy title. But here are ten settings I’d like to see from other periods of time in books… be it past or present. And if you know of something in said settings, please feel free to recommend them to me!

1. The 1950’s

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Thanks to a fifties dress up day at school once upon a time, I fell in love with poodle skirts and become obsessed with the 1950’s for a while. While my love for it isn’t quite as strong now, I still find it an interesting time period and would love to read a YA novel set in 1950’s America!

2. Future a la Gattaca

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There are two things I love about the movie Gattaca in terms of its futuristic setting. One, it’s about a time in which society only views those who have been genetically engineered as capable of taking on the larger roles of society, while those who have not been engineered are doomed to a life of servitude. It’s a fascinating concept and Gattaca only scratches the surface with it. The second is that it has such a classic, timeless feel to it even though it’s set in the future. It’s a mix of, ironically, a 1950’s classic style with the sort of sleek/steel looks we often associate with the future. I don’t want to see a book completely rip off Gattaca and I’m not looking for a novelization of it either, but something that draws inspiration from it would be interesting to see.

(FYI, if genetic engineering and its consequences fascinate you I would recommend the YA duology For Darkness Shows the Stars and Across a Star-Swept Sea. It’s set in a different world and the consequences are surprising!)

3. French Revolution

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I never had an interest in the French Revolution until I watched the movie Les Miserables. Something about watching Marius and these other young men and boys risking their lives for their cause in such a ragamuffin way was really interesting to me. Now I would love to see a YA book where the French Revolution served as the backdrop of the story.

4. Space Station/Spaceship Living

I have read a couple of books with spaceship living, and my WIP actually has a space station setting for part of the book, but I want to see more YA books that feature families living in space.

5. World War II

There are already a lot of WWII books out there, but it’s period in time that fascinates me. And with these three books above, they explore three very different experiences and there’s so much more to be told.

6. Alternate History of any Time

The only alternate history I have read so far is the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld and it was interesting! It’s fun to explore “what if” scenarios when it comes to events in our past.

7. Spy Story 1960’s Style

I presume because of the Cold War, spy stories were big in the 1960’s. Last year I randomly wanted to see/read some spy stuff a la the 1960’s, though I never got around to seeking it out (I would have probably watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. but I wasn’t pleased with how it looked like the woman’s role was going to play out). I still would be intrigued to see something of this nature in YA format.

8. Clones

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I know there have been books with clones, but very few have actually appealed to me (though if you have any recs, please share). This is another interest I have had for a while in science fiction though and would love to see it well-done in the YA world, something probably akin to Orphan Black (though I haven’t actually watched the show so I can’t say for sure, but the idea seems right)!

9. American Revolutionary War

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Any other American Girl fans out there who remember Felicity? She lived during the Revolutionary War, and I think it would be interesting to see a YA novel set during the time period. There would also definitely be a forbidden romance between a Loyalist and a Patriot.

10. A Future of Technology Dependence

This is a theme that has been explored before, and in this day and age I think it’s worth continued exploration. We live in a time where toddlers can operate smart phones. How will this affect them as they grow up? What will future generations glued to their screens mean? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-technology (clearly since I have a blog), but it’s important to consider the ramification of technology with moderation. Free to Fall did a pretty good job of this, and I’d be interested in more YA fiction with similar themes.

What time settings, past or future, would you like to read about?

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