Top Ten Tuesday: My Summer TBR

I am doing this as my weekly link-up with the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish who host this little get together.

This week the topic is what books do I have on my summer TBR list? I have so many books that I want to get to sooner rather than later that I decided to categorize them by unfinished series, series I have yet to start and some standalones that have been begging for my attention. Here it goes!

Series that I would like to finish:

1) Uglies series by Scott Westerfield

I have read Uglies and Pretties and I need to read Specials and Extras

2) Ruby Red trilogy by Kristen Gier

I have read Ruby Red and I need to read Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green

3) The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

I have read Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm and I need to read Ruin and Rising

4) The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson

I have read Girl of Fire and Thorns and I need to read Crown of Embers and Bitter Kingdom

5) Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

I have read Throne of Glass and I need to read Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire

6) The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I have read City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls and I need to read City of Heavenly Fire

7) The Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken

I have read The Darkest Minds and I need to read Never Fade and In the Afterlight

8) The Selection series by Kierra Cass

I have read The Selection and The Elite and I need to read The One and The Heir

9) The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I have read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and I need to read The Evolution of Mara Dyer and the Retribution of Mara Dyer

10) Stephanie Perkins companion novels (not technically a series but I just lacked one more having ten)

I have Anna and the French Kiss and I need to read Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After

Series that I would like to start:

1) Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare

I own all the books.

2) Legend trilogy by Marie Lu

I own Legend and Prodigy and I need to get Champion

3) Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

I own The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen and I need to get The Iron Knight

4) The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

I own The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear

5) A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin

I own A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and I need to get A Dance with Dragons

6) Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I only own Shatter Me

7) Gemma Doyle by Libba Bray

I own all the books

8) Maus I and II by Art Spiegleman

I don't own either of these graphic novels

9) Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black

I own all the books

10) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I own Outlander and Voyager and I need to get Dragonfly in Amber, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, and Written in my Own Heart's Blood

Standalones that I would like to read:

1) The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

2) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

3) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5) The Help by Katherine Stockett

6) Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

7) Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

8) To The Lighthouse by Virginia Wolf

9) Anything by Amy Tan or Anne Tyler

10) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 


I would mainly like to focus on the series that I need to finish so that I don't have a bunch of unfinished storylines taunting me. These are by no means all of my unread books and I more than likely will not get to all of them by the end of summer. Though it never hurts to have goals!

What books are you itching to get your hands on?

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Books That I Want to be Seen Made Into Movies/TV Shows

I am doing this as my weekly link-up with the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish who host this little get together.

This week the topic is what books do we want to be seen made into TV shows or movies. Personally I do not think that books really make great movies/TV shows and here is why. I feel that a movie does not always have the ability to capture all of the awesomeness that is in the book and a TV show will often embellish just a little bit too much. So my list is going to be books that I believe should be movies because I would rather lose a few things than have so much added that it completely changes the storyline (I am looking at you Vampire Diaries!).

1) Catherine by April Lindner
Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad’s famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?

Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn’t die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her—starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.

Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.

2) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

3) Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

4) The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

5) Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
In 1965, the happy Bedloe family is living an ideal, apple-pie existence in Baltimore.  Then, in the blink of an eye, a single tragic event occurs that will transform their lives forever--particularly that of seventeen-year-old Ian Bedloe, the youngest son, who blames himself for the sudden "accidental" death of his older brother.

Depressed and depleted, Ian is almost crushed under the weight of an unbearable, secret guilt.  Then one crisp January evening, he catches sight of a window with glowing yellow neon, the CHURCH OF THE SECOND CHANCE.  He enters and soon discovers that forgiveness must be earned, through a bit of sacrifice and a lot of love...


6) Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
Pearl Tull is nearing the end of her life but not of her memory. It was a Sunday night in 1944 when her husband left the little row house on Baltimore’s Calvert Street, abandoning Pearl to raise their three children alone: Jenny, high-spirited and determined, nurturing to strangers but distant to those she loves; the older son, Cody, a wild and incorrigible youth possessed by the lure of power and money; and sweet, clumsy Ezra, Pearl’s favorite, who never stops yearning for the perfect family that could never be his own.

Now Pearl and her three grown children have gathered together again–with anger, hope, and a beautiful, harsh, and dazzling story to tell.


7) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

8) 1984 by George Orwell
While 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's narrative is more timely than ever. 1984 presents a "negative utopia", that is at once a startling and haunting vision of the world — so powerful that it's completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of entire generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions — a legacy that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.






9) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

10) Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.


Do you guys agree about not really being down with movie/TV adaptations of books or am I alone on this train? Let me know down in the comments.

Happy Reading!

May Wrap-up

This is just a post where I share all of the books that I have read over the course of the month because some do not make it to the blog to be reviewed:

3 stars:
1) The Magicians by Lev Grossman

4 stars:
2) The Selection by Kierra Cass
3) The Elite by Kierra Cass
4) Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

4.5 stars:
5) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
6) Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
7) Emma by Jane Austen

5 stars
8) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (read the full review here)
9) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon
10) Cress by Marissa Meyer
11) The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
12) Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
13) Things Fall Apart by Chinau Achebe (read the full review here)

I will be reviewing the books that are part of a series as a whole because I just feel that is the best way to do things. I feel that I will more to say on the subject matter of whether I liked the book if I can compare it to how the story progresses and whether or not the character development is up to my standards.

In June I will try to finish some series that I currently own but I do not like to make a TBR for the month because I just read what and when I feel like it.

Happy Reading!