Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Stockholm and Gothenburg, probably 2 hours late, or 3, so why not have a go at this week’s TTT

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

top books on my fall tbr

My to-be-read piles seams to get higher and higher and I really need to do something about them and soon.
Yes, plural, they are in some strange way multiplying, the piles are starting more and more to resemble great towers than just ordinary tbr piles, towers that could bring doom and death-by-books if I’m not careful. But you know what, there are still a couple of fall releases that I just have to buy. Promise, I just have to.

Recently read The book of the unnamed midwife and The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter and got inspired to put some more award winning/ nominated books a bit higher up on my TBR. (Which of course was only an excuse to buy some more books) oh well that’s me in a nutshell, get an idea to have a summer/ fall or whatever-theme.
There you have it, this falls reading plan, theme, tbr-ish.

Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett
An post-apocalyptic story that got both an Locus Award Nominee and the Philip K. Dick Award, well what am I waiting for!?

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Got some great review and is from a Kickstarter projekt, apparently a great Space Opera and as Space Operas goes, there aren’t many that offers something new and different so I think I’ll have to give this one a try.

Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta
Another dystopian story set in the (near) future, It’s speculative fiction, about klimat changes, water, tea and us as humans, looks beautiful and this was an must to ad to this falls tbr.

Speaking of award nominees/ winners, there are some follow-up books that are waiting in my tbr piles.

Chapelwood (The Borden Dispatches #2) by Cherie Priest
Been waiting far to long for the second (and last I think) book in the Borden Dispatches series, first book, Maplecroft was one of my favorite from last year and finally Chapelwood is here!

Unseemly Science (The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire #2) by Rod Duncan
Read the first book The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter just a couple of weeks ago (need to write down a review soon), such a surprise and a brilliant steampunk/ alterative history novel! Great fun!

Crux (Nexus #2) by Ramez Naam
When I picked up the first book, Nexus last year it’s been ages since I read a cyberpunk story, this story was smart, thought provoking and the author presented a plausibly future, just as it should be. The follow up book, Crux been on my tbr far too long, about time to do something about it!

Don’t know if all of the books will be read this fall, but at least I have a plan, right?
What are you planning to read this fall?

1st of September?! Already ?
The summer came and went and now it’s all rain, wind and work, but hopefully also more writing from me.
Oh, almost forgot, it’s also Tuesday,

 
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

We always remember the character we like and connect with, they can stay with us for years and years, then there is the villains, the one that torment our heroes and heroines, the really nasty ones that you just love to hate. But how about that certain character that you (maybe) should like, you should connect with, understand and so on… sometime its the small things, sometimes the big ones, that just make you feel meh, or hell no!
Plain and simple:

Characters You Just Didn’t Click With

Bella Swan, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
You know what, I won’t even try to get into the problems I have with Bella as a character (or the whole Twilight Saga for that matter) I could write a complete essay, no scratch that, probable write a full novel.
So here it is, short and to the point: I.can’t.stand.her!
Not now, not then, not ever! Not in the books, not in the movies. She’s just a big no, no in my world!

Jeb Holt, Splintered, Unhinged by A.G. Howard
He whines and whines, he’s patronizing and a control freak.
Over and over, every time he doesn’t agree with Alyssa he grabs her, holds her down, well let’s just say I have a big problem with that. There are so many red flags going up for me about Alyssa and Jebs relationship that I almost stop reading these books. I don’t get the character of Jeb at all or that Alyssa is so into him, of course a love interest don’t have to be all nice and good, some naughtiness could work just fine, but when you are a total douchebag, thanks, but NO thank you!

Alyssa Gardner, Unhinged by A.G. Howard
I loved Alyssa in the first book Splintered, her courage, her strength and her whimsical and rebellious soul that made her such a perfect heroine and was part of what made that first book so amazing. Then in the second book Unhinged, she seemed most of the time to forgotten all of that and became something entirely different, besides letting Jeb walk all over her, she’s all of a sudden insecure, jealous, petty and ignorant. What happened! How could a character that went through so much end up like this?

Rector Sherman, The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest
Rector is the main character in the fourth installation of the clockwork century and to be honest he’s not made up to be likable, well not at first anyway. But the thing is, I got so annoyed of his choices, the way he acted, his personality, even when he is evolving as a character it just got in the way of the story, I loved the first 3 books in this series, but this one I almost didn’t finish thanks to just one character. Love the world and all the others in it but I’m sorry, Rector not so much.

Harry Dresden, Storm Front, Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
I tried!
I tried over and over, made an effort to read the second novel, twice, I tried with the audiobook version (with the lovely James Marsters narrating), but I just can’t get past that second book. Everyone keeps telling me the Dresden books are awesome and I will love them, but Harry he just rub me the wrong way. From always doing stupid things (especially around Karrin Murphy) to the way he is treating all the women, every single one of the female character in these books are either seen for sexual purposes, or needs Harry to take care of her, or she is just involved in thing that are way over her head – Harry to the rescue!
Well sorry, but it all feels a bit too stale, to old and well to chauvinist for my taste.

Lori Grimes, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
In my review of the second volume, Miles Behind Us, I ended it with the following words:
.. please, please let the zombies eat Lori, I just can’t stand her, what an annoying and irritating character.
I know, not a very nice thing to wish upon someone, to be eaten by zombies, but me and Lori didn’t get along at all, all that whining, all the complaining, all the nagging, nope, there is no connection there.

(To be perfectly honest most of Kirkmans women in the walking dead series are quite boring and one-dimensional, they are at best stereotypical helpless, doing the laundry and taking care of the children and so on. Not one of them feels real and when they gets eaten one by one, you realize that you just doesn’t care.)

Marcus, Partials, Fragments by Dan Wells
There is nothing wrong with Marcus, he is actually the opposite to many of the names I mentioned above, he is trustworthy, likable and just a good guy in a not so nice post-apocalyptic world. But he is soooo boring, sooo mellow, plain and we just didn’t click. Marcus as a character did nothing for me.
(But its ok, because these are awesome books, I need pick down the last in the series, Ruin from my TBR list, I really need to finish this kick-ass scifi/ ya series!)

There probably are more character out there that I didn’t click with at the time of reading, but these are the one that stands out or that I remember today. To be frank some of the name above maybe is more than just not-clicking, some I really, really can’t stand…
Anyone agrees with me, disagree, fell free to write a word or two.
🙂