Tag: books | Amy C. Shaw

My Top 11 Favorite Classic Books

July 1, 2014 • 19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Favorite Classic Books. I decided to do my Top 11 because I honestly didn’t think I would be able to come up with 10 classics I really liked, and then when I did that plus one, I didn’t have the heart to cut anything. So here they are, in no particular order… (BTW, I’m defining “classic” as those typical high school reads.)

1. The Scarlet Pimpernel

This is my most recently read classic, and while I found the beginning a little slow and the ending a little too quick, I enjoyed the in-between, and might have to read one of The Scarlet Pimpernel sequels sometime!

2. Pride & Prejudice

I don’t love Jane Austen’s writing, but I love her stories. Out of the three books I’ve read by her so far, Pride and Prejudice, my first Austen read, is still my favorite. Even though there are some slow and/or moments (OMG SHUT UP LYDIA), it has also some very notable swoon-worthy moments!

3. Little Women

Obviously I love Little Women, since part of my blog name is dedicated to Jo March. I think this book will forever be the quintessential coming of age tale. And Jo and Laurie are still my OTP, no matter how much Louisa May Alcott broke my heart with the two of them.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird

I have to admit I don’t remember a lot about this one from my high school days, except the basic premise, the main characters, and that I really did like it. Harper Lee made her one book writing career count.

5. Crime and Punishment

I know, some of you are probably thinking, seriously?! Believe me, when I had to read this over the summer before my senior year for AP English I was not looking forward to it, but it surprised me! It’s really a psychological thriller of sorts! So the book is a little bloated with a dumb subplot about Raskolinkov’s sister, but I forgive it. This book impacted me so much I made a short film based on the book for my Honors College thesis project four years after reading it.

6. The Giver

I didn’t read The Giver until almost two years ago and I wish I had been required to read it in school! It’s simple enough for older children to understand, and yet still completely thought-provoking.

7. The Picture of Dorian Gray

I read this one the same summer as Crime and Punishment and I quickly became an Oscar Wilde fan. We read one of his other stories for my English class that year, and I even read another for fun since it was in the same book. All of his stories are witty, but this one also makes you think.

8. The Hobbit

I was determined to hate this one when I was required to read it in 8th grade, but caught up in my first-ever true fantasy read.

9. The Crucible

This is another one that really made me think and has continued to impact me over the years. This play actually serves an important purpose in the first novel I ever wrote.

10. Rebecca

Oh, the suspense! My sophomore year English teacher recommended this to me when we had to pick a classic to read for a film project, and I’m so glad she did!

11. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I don’t have this one linked because it’s too confusing to choose among the variations of Sherlock Holmes on Goodreads. I’m not even sure if I have actually read the complete adventures or just some of the short stories, but I absolutely love what I have read. I even “re-read” some of Sherlock’s adventures earlier this year via audiobook and I loved them just as much as I did in high school.

What are your favorite classics? Any from my list you plan to read?

Bookish Wedding Inspiration: Tiger Lily

June 30, 2014 • 28 Comments

A while back, Asti @ Oh, The Books! did a post about doing blog features. I had never really considered doing my own unique blog feature before, but she mentioned how all you have to do to create a feature is follow this simple formula: books + _________. For some reason, books + weddings popped into my mind. I enjoyed doing a lot of research while planning my own wedding (though the actual execution of the planning was not as fun, especially when you had to worry about budget, boo!) and honestly the bug never entirely left my system. Now, I consider myself more of an idea person than an executioner, which is why you won’t see me going into event planning any time soon. But I absolutely love collecting pictures and ideas that fit a theme, and I thought it might be fun to try creating themed wedding ideas based off of books, and how the main character’s wedding might look. My first thought was definitely The Hunger Games, and I’ve collected a lot for it, but I’ve decided to save that one for another day. Today I wanted to share wedding inspiration for a more recent read for me, Tiger Lily.

I will be mentioning themes in the book but will do my best to avoid any real spoilers!

Bridal Look

The Dress

The people of Neverland pretty much only have natural resources to work with, so while this Vera Wang dress may be made of much finer material than their corner of the world has to offer, I thought the more beige color and the pieced together look was appropriate and might be at least somewhat similar to something Tiger Lily would wear on her big day.

The Hair

Tiger Lily wears crow feathers in her hair, and why should it be any different on her wedding day? To dress it up a bit, she might want to pair her usual style with a veil-like headpiece like this one available on Etsy.

The Accessories

I imagine that for her bouquet, Tiger Lily would choose lilies from the island of Neverland, including, of course, tiger lilies. There is a mention of wedding bangles in the book, so I looked for some bangles made from leather but also had a nice, dressy touch to them. And around her neck, Tiger Lily could wear a clock necklace. I won’t say anything else about the significance of the clock due to spoilers, but those who read the book will understand why Tiger Lily would want such a piece of jewelry.

The Groom

I figured a laid back look for the groom would make the most sense, and this picture was closest thing I could find to what I had in mind.

The Portraits

I felt these couple portraits were quite appropriate for a wedding in Neverland, and particularly for Tiger Lily.

The Location

Obviously the location of the wedding would be outdoors in Neverland. For the ceremony, I pictured something underneath a lit tree, much like the above picture. For the reception, a laid-back affair in a woodsy area.

The Cake

Of course, we can’t forget about the yummiest part of the wedding. I’m not sure what flavors Tiger Lily would favor, but as far as the look of the cake, this one features the themes of both feathers and clocks once again.

Let me know what you thought of this first installment of my Bookish Weddings Inspiration feature! What would you expect to see at Tiger Lily’s wedding or at one inspired by her and her story?

Review: Seraphina

June 26, 2014 • 10 Comments

Seraphina is like a YA sleeper hit. You don’t see a lot of blog buzz and hype about it, probably mostly because it was published in 2012. But if you look on Goodreads, you’re going to see that your friends who have read it most likely love it.

When I was looking for a new read, I decided on a whim to download the e-book version of Seraphina from my library, and the fact that right after I finished I wished that I owned a copy and that I could re-read it right then means it was pretty special.

But I do have a couple of small complaints, so I want to get those out of the way…

What’s My Motivation?

Actually, the real question is: what was Seraphina’s motivation? About 100 pages in I realized I had no idea what Seraphina’s goal for the story was, thus I had no idea where the story needed to go. She was trying to blend in and not stick out too much, and then Orma was trying to find out about his father/her grandfather, but it wasn’t real clear-cut to me exactly what the plot was. That made it just a little off for me and made the beginning seem slowish (not too much so because I was engaged the whole time, but I felt like I was waiting to find out what the book was about).

So Many People, Places, Terms…

So I realized once I finished the book (which again, was an e-book) that there was a cast of characters and a glossary in the back. That would have been useful to use throughout since I ended up confused many times about who a minor character was exactly again (they don’t have the easiest names) or what a certain term meant. I did read it after the fact and that helped some, but if I read it again (and in paperback!) I will definitely utilize these tools to help me appreciate the story even more!

But here’s what I loved…

You Get Thrown Right Into the World

Wait, dragons can become people? Uh, okay, awesome! For the most part, you can figure things out as the story unfolds and there is really only added backstory/narrative occasionally, which I really appreciated.

Seraphina and Kiggs!

I loved them individually! I loved their friendship! I loved their *wanting more*!

The Ending

It felt right, and it left me wanting more without leaving me at a cliffhanger. And good news, another Seraphina book is expected to come out next year so I’ll get the more that I want! Yay!

Basically, I don’t know what to say. The story is interesting and I just fell in love with the world and the people, and I especially loved Seraphina and Kiggs, and want more of them. This are no adequate words for this review. I had a couple issues (one that could easily have been resolved, so really just one) but overall, it was just great. Just read it.

Content advisory: Some mild language, most of which was the correct usage of the word b-stard.

Have you read Seraphina? What are your thoughts? If not, what are you waiting for?!

Top 10 Covers That Feature an Awesome Picture + Awesome Font

June 24, 2014 • 14 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Book Cover Trends (or just elements of covers) I Like/Dislike. My favorite covers are pretty similar at least in terms of design elements, and that is that most of them feature a great picture (photograph or realistic illustration) that takes up the entire cover, and there’s awesome font over it. That may sound like a lot of book covers, but I’m very particular about what pictures I like, what fonts I like, and some include other elements like weird graphics that I don’t really love. Here are some that really stand out to me (in no particular order)…

1. These Broken Stars

Just a gorgeous picture with perfectly minimalist font.

2. The Winner’s Curse

I love just how dramatic the font and the picture feel together, especially with her holding onto the R and with the font being sideways.

3. For Darkness Shows the Stars/Across a Star-Swept Sea

Stars + dresses + scrolling script = beautiful!

4. The Grisha Trilogy

I tend to prefer photographs or realistic pictures of people over illustrations, but The Grisha trilogy art is just beautiful!

5. The Selection Trilogy

The font is nice, but the real stars of these covers are the dresses!

6. Splintered

The bugs and the plants being so close to her face bothers me some, but overall still a gorgeous cover!

7. The Promise of Amazing

This cover is so stinking cute!

8. Once Upon a Prince

This is a bit of cheat because the picture if overlaid by a graphic that the font is on, but still, it’s too pretty not to include!

9. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

So much font cuteness!

10. The Noble Groom

I almost bought this book for its cover, but I learned that I could get it from the library so I refrained. The swirls on the font though! Love it!

What are some of your favorite covers with the great picture + great font combo?

P.S. For anyone who’s interested, I did decide to start a Tumblr! *nervous* Check it out if you so desire!

The Top Ten Books On My Summer 2014 TBR list

June 17, 2014 • 37 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books On My Summer TBR List. As I looked back on my spring TBR list, I actually read five of the books! Considering my usual track record with these TTT TBR posts, that isn’t too bad! Going on vacation really helped hone in my focus on my TBR list since I only brought particular books with me, didn’t take my Nook, and managed to only buy one book while on vacation. Whether or not my track record will continue into summer, well, we’ll see. This list is no particular order except the first three are probably what I will read first. As usual though, there will be distractions and moods will sway me elsewhere. Also, I decided not to include The Partials or The Screwtape Letters as carry-over, though they are also still very much on my TBR.

1. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

This absolutely will be my next read since I have to have it read by early July for book club. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it so I’m looking forward to it!

2. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

3. Rise and Ruin by Leigh Bardugo

I bought Shadow and Bone on a whim this spring, read it, and loved it! Now I’m looking forward to reading the next two installments back to back!

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I have this on hold at the library, and it’s a long list, so I honestly have no idea when I’ll read this. I’m sure it will become available at an extremely inconvenient time, as it did once before so I ended up not checking it out then. And clearly I’m the last YA book blogger to read this.

5. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Talk of this novel is seriously rousing my curiosity, so after seeing that I could get it through my library’s e-book system, I placed a hold it on it as well.

6. Write Your Novel from The Middle by James Scott Bell

I’m about to get serious about some writing revisions, and Bell’s book Plot and Structure really helped me before, so I bought this back a while book in anticipation of gleaning from his wisdom yet again.

7. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

Lizzie Bennet in book form! Yay! I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up putting this off, but I do want to read it now!

8. SOMETHING by Kasie West

This is vague, ha. I’ve been wanting to read Split Second since it came out, but it keeps not being on sale ever, so if that keeps up, I might end up reading The Distance Between Us or On the Fence sooner, since the former I can get from the library and either for cheap on paperback.

9. Tandem by Anna Jarzab

10. Relativity by Cristin Bishara

Because I want to read more parallel universe stories and Kelley enjoyed both of these.

Bonus!

The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types by Don Richard Riso is something I will be looking through once it arrives on my doorstep (I ordered it along with the Grisha books). I learned about it from Shauna Niequist on the Revelant podcast and it sounds like a really interesting way to learn more about your personality and how you relate with others. I’ll keep you guys updated for sure, even if I don’t read the book from cover to cover right away.

What’s on your summer TBR list?

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