Top Ten Tuesday | Fictional Places I Would NOT Want to Live In

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In', which I found to be a really fun topic! So often when I love a story, particularly a fantastical one, I can find myself thinking 'I wish I'd gone to Hogwarts' or 'I wish I lived in The Shire', but I've never given too much thought to the places I really wouldn't want to live in.

For my list this week I've decided to stick with fictional places. I thought of mentioning The Book Thief because I would have hated to live in Nazi Germany, but in the end I felt like, for me, it was a little disrespectful to mention real places because some people really have had to live through that. Anyway, on with my list!

Panem from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Let's just get this one out the way with because it's probably on most lists this week, right? Pretty much any dystopian novel has a setting I wouldn't want to live in, but Panem in particular I'd hate because if I'd been chosen to take part in the Games when I was younger I'd've been the first one to die.

Airstrip One from Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: Carrying on with that dystopian theme, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most depressing novels I've ever read and I would hate to live somewhere where the government was quite literally watching me all the time.

The town from The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: There's a reason why The Lottery is one of the most famous American short stories ever, and this story alone earns Jackson a place as one of the best horror writers in my opinion. I can't say much without giving anything away, although this story's so short I recommend you reading it asap, but trust me when I say I wouldn't want to live in that town and I guarantee you wouldn't want to live there either.

Neverland from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: Disney Neverland looks fun, but the Neverland in the book is just as creepy as everything else. I don't understand the whimsy around Peter Pan, it's so strange and unnerving, and even as a child I don't think Neverland would have appealed to me unless Robin Williams was there.

The Other World from Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Having everything I want in exchange for having buttons sewn into my eyes? Yeah, no, that's not happening.

Westeros from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin: Admittedly I haven't read the books but I watch Game of Thrones and no amount of money could convince me to live there. It's so brutal and I wouldn't last five minutes.

Wonderland from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Unlike Peter Pan, I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I've always been fascinated by it. Having said that, the world is just so bizarre that I think I'd go mad and, while I love stuff that's a bit weird, I think Wonderland would be just a bit too weird for me.

The Stillness from The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin: There's no way I'd want to live in a world where the earth decides it doesn't want you there every few years and has a little apocalypse to wipe a few million people off it.

Giant Country from The BFG by Roald Dahl: This is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm terrified of giants. I know they're not real but the idea of them scares the crap out of me so Giant Country is my idea of hell. I don't want to be anyone's dinner, thanks.

The Fifteen Realms from Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder: There's a plague spreading across this world killing thousands at a time and even the healers can't do anything about it. No thanks.

Which places made your list this week?

The Aussie Book Tag

G'day mates! And now it's time for me to apologise to literally everyone in Australia. Cass @ Words on Paper very kindly tagged me in the Aussie Book Tag and, as you know, I'm always up for  a tag. You can find Cass's answers here and the original, created by Ngoc @ Happy Comes First and Julia @ Picnic Reads, here!

I've never been to Australia but I'd love to go (the only thing that really puts me off are the spiders because I am severely arachnophobic) and the more I thought about it the more I realised I've read barely any Australian writers; Markus Zusak, Garth Nix, Geraldine Brooks and Hannah Kent are the only ones who immediately spring to mind. You don't have to talk about Australian books and authors for this tag, but doing this has definitely made me realise it's a country that I seem to neglect in my reading. That's something for me to rectify.

If anyone has any recommendations, particularly about/written by Australia's indigenous population, please let me know!

That has to be Maia from Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, not only is it one of my favourite novels of all time, but Maia is one of my favourite fictional characters, too. He's such a good egg and I adore him. You can check out my review of The Goblin Emperor here!

This is a tricky one because I'm usually the grumpy one who hates what everyone else loves, but for this I'm going to go with Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. I don't think everyone hates it by any means, but I do think Anne is forgotten next to her sisters and she shouldn't be. Of her two novels Agnes Grey is probably the lesser known, but I really enjoyed it when I read it and I'd love to see more people reading Anne's work.

I can't possible talk about a fictional squad without talking about Harry Potter. If I wanted to be part of any gang, it'd definitely be Dumbledore's Army because I am all for students standing up to bad teachers.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, which I reviewed here. I can't wait to read whatever Adébáyọ̀ brings out next and I highly, highly recommend this debut!

It'd be pretty easy to mention Harry Potter again here but I think Harry Potter gets enough love as it is, so instead I'm going to go with Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman which is one of my favourite books from my early teens. It's the first book I can remember crying over and it's still very special to me and so worth reading if you haven't already.

Isabel Greenberg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero (reviewed here) is a gorgeous graphic novel but it's so huge which means it can be quite difficult to read comfortably - it's worth it, though!

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is super depressing but it's such an iconic work of dystopian fiction and it's definitely worth checking out if it's on your radar. Is it the best piece of dystopian fiction out there? No, not necessarily, but it's a really interesting novel and I think it's worth a bit of your time.

I know I keep saying it, but no novel has surprised me more than Sarah Waters' Fingersmith (reviewed here). It's one of the twistiest, turniest novels I've ever read and it's so much fun - if you haven't read any of Waters' work, Fingersmith is a great place to start!

I adored Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (reviewed here), especially because I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, and Becky Albertalli has quickly become my favourite YA author following her equally excellent sophomore novel, The Upside of Unrequited (reviewed here). Yet again, I recommend reading her if you haven't already!

I'm a big mood reader so the books I reach out for when I'm feeling slumpy usually change depending what I'm in the mood to read - sometimes it's YA, sometimes it's a thriller, but it's usually something I don't tend to read a lot of - but this year I find myself turning more and more towards Fantasy of Manners books when I'm feeling slumpy, particularly Gail Carriger's work. It's so fun!

Thanks so much for tagging me, Cass! I'm going to go ahead and tag some people below, so:

Natalie @ Orchestrating a Sea Change

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews

Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books

Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Lynn @ Lynn's Film & Book Review

Catherine @ We'll Meet it When it Does

Vena @ Vena Isabella

consider yourselves tagged!

O is for Orwell | Blogging from A to Z

Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell

Though I didn't read it until I was around 20, I was first introduced to 1984, and to the dystopian genre, during my teens when the rest of my drama class and I ended up incorporating a lot of dystopian themes into our practical exam. Drama was the one subject in school where the exams were fun, because it was basically a performance!

In the end we did something completely different to the project we started - for various reasons our ideas fell through - but from that moment on I was hooked on this idea of dystopia. I've always loved stories which involve rebellions and people fighting against corrupt governments or monarchies; I grew up with films such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Braveheart, and with those kinds of stories under my belt from a young age my love for rebels and outlaws was firmly cemented.

Orwell is considered to be the godfather of modern dystopia. If you haven't read 1984 I highly recommend it, though maybe don't read it if you're in a really happy mood. It's bleak and hopeless and numbingly chilling, but it's also just fantastic. Read it!

Stories & Songs #4 | Sci-Fi Month 2014

Sci-Fi Month continues, and today I thought I'd post a sci-fi only edition of Stories & Songs. As always, you can find all the songs mentioned here in this playlist!

Nineteen Eighty-Four

by George Orwell

"Mad World"

Gary Jules

All around me are familiar faces

Worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for their daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, no expression

Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow

No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kinda funny

I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I'm dying

Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

I find it hard to take

When people run in circles

It's a very, very mad world, mad world

Obsidian

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

"E.T."

Katy Perry

You're so hypnotizing

Could you be the devil?

Could you be an angel?

Your touch magnetizing

Feels like I am floating

Leaves my body glowing

They say: be afraid,

You're not like the others

Futuristic lover

Different DNA

They don't understand you

You're from a whole 'nother world

A different dimension

You open my eyes

And I'm ready to go

Lead me into the light

Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me,

Infect me with your love and

Fill me with your poison

Take me, ta-ta-take me,

Wanna be a victim

Ready for abduction

Boy, you're an alien

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural

Extraterrestrial

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

"Make Me a Robot"

Tessa Violet

I don't want to be a human anymore,

I'm done

I don't want to make mistakes anymore,

He's won

I'm too old to change.

Take my heart and I'll restart; please just let me fall apart

You may say it's strange,

But I quit, guess that's it; for a human I'm unfit, so

Make me a robot.

Make me a robot.

Make, make me cold.

Make me a robot.

Make me a robot.

Take, take my soul.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

"If I Die Young"

The Band Perry

If I die young, bury me in satin

Lay me down on a bed of roses

Sink me in a river at dawn

Send me away with the words of a love song

Uh oh, uh oh

Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother

She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colours, oh,

And life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no,

Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby

The sharp knife of a short life, oh well

I've had just enough time

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer

"Children of the Universe"

Molly Smitten-Downes

Something's stirring in the silence

And it reeks of passive violence

Hold on tight this opportunity we'll take,

Put an end to all this suffering

Before it gets too late

Hope's on the horizon

I'm not giving in

We're children of the universe, don't you know?

Dancing on the edge of time and it's ours to own

Just children of the universe

We're shining like diamonds

With love in our hearts,

They said it's the end but I've a feeling

It might just be the start

As I am awakened with fire in my bones

Standing beside you I've a feeling

That I'll never walk alone

Top Ten Tuesday | Characters I'd Be For Halloween!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find out everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books/Movies To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit OR Top Ten Characters Who I Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween' which is far too fun to pass up! I don't really read much horror, something I need to change, so I decided to go with the latter - here are the top ten book characters I'd most like to dress up as for Halloween!

1) Georgia Mason from Feed by Mira Grant: To be honest most of the characters on this list aren't exactly spooky or scary, they're just characters I'd like an excuse to dress up as. Having said that, Georgia is the heroine of a zombie novel so she's pretty fitting for Halloween! She's also one of my favourite heroines of all time, so I'd love to dress up as her.

2) Helena Ravenclaw from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: What's not spooky about the ghost of a murdered witch? I knew someone from Harry Potter was going to be on this list - in fact even someone like Bellatrix would be a great character to be for Halloween - but I decided to go with Helena because I think she's one of the lesser loved Potter characters.

3) Johanna Mason from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: All you need is a wetsuit and a bloody axe. If that doesn't scream Halloween then frankly I don't know what does!

4) Carmilla from Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla is one of my all time favourite classics. It's a vampire novella, with a homosexual protagonist, that was written before Bram Stoker's Dracula and has one of the most haunting last lines of any book I've ever read. I think Carmilla woud be a fantastic character to dress up as for Halloween.

5) Victor(ia) Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Frankenstein's another favourite of mine. Genderbend the main character (or not if you're a guy!) and you have a brilliant character for Halloween!

6) Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: I feel like people who love experimenting with make up would have great fun dressing up as Levana. We don't actually know what she really looks like, so that would be a lot of fun to play around with, and I imagine a character like Levana would have some gorgeous dresses.

7) Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris: I think Clarice would be especially fun to dress up as if you could coerce one of your friends into dressing up as Hannibal Lecter!

8) The Other Mother from Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Surely everyone familiar with Coraline can agree that the Other Mother is absolutely terrifying? With some well placed face paint it shouldn't be too hard to put some buttons over your eyes!

9) The Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: It might be a children's book but I've always found something sinister about the Cheshire Cat, and I think he's another character that would be a lot of fun to dress up as - you could really go wild with a lot of bright make up and cool contacts!

10) Lirael from Lirael by Garth Nix: Lirael is the Abhorsen. She spends her days controlling the dead and righting the wrongs of Necromancers. Cool, right? Plus I imagine her costume would be pretty awesome. (Bonus points if you have a dog).

Who made your top ten?

Banned Books Week!

This week it's Banned Books Week, so, just like last year, let's celebrate our freadom!

Why not read one of these famous classics which are, or have been, banned:

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

When George Orwell completed Animal Farm in 1943 no publisher would print it because of its criticism of the USSR, Britain's ally during the war. When it was finally published it was banned there and in other communist countries. In 1991 a play adapted from the book was banned in Kenya because it criticised leaders, and in 2002 the book was banned in schools in the United Arab Emirates because it involved a talking, anthropomorphic pig which goes against Islamic values. Today Animal Farm is still banned in Cuba and North Korea, and is censored in China.

"Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear."

During the American Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was banned in the Confederate States because of its views on slavery. In 1852, it was banned in Russia during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I because of its ideas regarding equality and because it "undermined religious ideals."

"Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted."

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was banned in Ireland in 1932 and in Australia from 1932-1937 because of its references to sexual promiscuity.

"I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."

In 1955, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was banned in South Africa because it was believed to contain "obscene" and "indecent" material.

What have you been reading this week?

Meet the Blogger + Ten Books That Changed Me!

Hi!

I was hoping to have a review up for you today (where have you heard that before?) but on Saturday I spent my night at a Disney all-nighter from 8 o'clock in the evening until 9 o'clock the following morning. While it was totally worth it, it did leave me completely whacked. I'd planned on finishing off the review I'd started yesterday, but I was just too tired.

So instead I have something pointless and fun that I found over on tumblr that'll help you to learn a little more about me.

Before I get onto that, however, I have to talk to you about the 10 books that changed me. Now that there are 10 months left in the year, I've decided that for each month that's left I'm going to pick a book, from a list I'm about to show you, and talk to you about it! 

These aren't necessarily going to be my favourite books of all time, but the ones that changed me in some way or changed the way I think about the world.

I'm a big fan of watching booktubers over on YouTube, and I got the idea for this when I came across the Ten Influential Books Tag. But in that tag you just list your 10 books without going into any detail, and personally I'd much rather talk about how or why the 10 books I've chosen influenced me.

Here are my 10:

1. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
2. The Angry Aztecs by Terry Deary
3. Witch Child by Celia Rees
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
7. Sabriel by Garth Nix
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
9. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
10. The Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

So if finding out a little more about these books and how they influenced me interests you, be sure to keep checking back throughout the year!

Meet the Blogger:

• Name: Jess
• Nickname: Uh... Jess
• Height: 5'2" (and three quarters!)
• Relationship status: Single
• Birthday: 10th of October
• Favourite colour: Yellow; Lilac; Turquoise 
• Favourite singer/band: Imagine Dragons; Within Temptation; Adele; The Civil Wars; Lady Gaga; Florence + the Machine; Fun.; Celtic Woman; Enya; P!nk; Nightwish
• Last song listened: When You Were Young - The Killers
• Last movie watched: Toy Story
• Favourite book: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson; The Unlikely Ones by Mary Brown; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman; Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble; The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins; Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins; Sabriel by Garth Nix
• Last book read: The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín 
• Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness; Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks; The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion; Green Rider by Kristen Britain; Witches by Tracy Borman
• # of siblings: Two 
• # of pets: None
• Best school subject: English; Drama; History
• Mac or PC?: PC
• Current shirt colour: White. How boring.
• Gamer?: No, I'm absolutely rubbish. I once tried to play Grand Theft Auto and I just ended up making the little man walk in circles for about 20 minutes.
• Day or night?: Both?
• Summer or winter?: Winter. I don't like being hot.
• Most-visited website?: It must be either tumblr or YouTube
• Celebrity crushes: Johnny Depp and Mads Mikkelsen. I love them both.

So have we bonded yet? I think we just shared something special. I might answer the other questions on the list a little later in the year - perhaps on another Monday or Friday when I don't finish the post I want to finish on time!

Check back on Friday for that review!

Reading Wrap-Up | September 2013

I managed to get through two books in September which, given that one of them wasn't even a hundred pages long, is pretty pathetic. I do have my reasons though! Last weekend I moved back up to Lancaster to begin my MA, so I spent the majority of September packing up and getting all my finances sorted. So I'm not really that disappointed with my progress this past month, and I'm definitely not surprised.
     October looks like it's going to be even busier - especially with the challenge I've set myself - so I have no idea when I'll be able to get back into reading novels regularly, but I'm not going to let it worry me. I'm just three books away from completing my fifty books challenge; I'm pretty sure I'll have gotten through three books by December 31st.
     Anyway, on with the wrap-up!

Misery by Stephen King

My Rating: 

After a car crash, writer Paul Sheldon is saved by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. She brings him home, splints his mangled legs, and all he has to do in return is write a very special book, one all about her favourite character. Because if he doesn`t, if he is bad, she will be cross - very cross.

I'll be honest, I've never really been a fan of Stephen King. I've tried on multiple occasions to read one of his novels but each time I haven't been able to get into his writing style, which is particularly frustrating when he gives such good writing advice; I desperately want to like his work.

     I watched the film adaptation of Misery starring James Caan and Kathy Bates several months ago and really enjoyed it, so when I came across a little copy of the book for 50p I decided to pick it up - I had nothing to lose - and I'm so glad I did! For the first time ever I managed to get through a Stephen King novel; in fact I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was suspenseful, nerve-wracking and, at times, pretty horrifying too.

     Now that I've read Misery I'm hoping I might be able to read more of King's work in the future, but now that I've finally finished one of his novels I won't be too disappointed if I can't get through another.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

My Rating: 

Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." 

Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of my all-time favourite classics but, until just a couple of weeks ago, it was the only one of Orwell's books I'd read. Many friends of mine had the chance to study Animal Farm at school but it was never on my syllabus; we studied books like Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Golding's Lord of the Flies which, let's be honest, aren't any more cheerful than Animal Farm.

     I found a copy of Animal Farm in my parents' local library and was surprised upon discovering how short it was - I'd never realized it was less than a hundred pages long, so I decided to borrow it with the intention of reading it in one sitting. Instead it took me two days to finish, which just goes to show how busy this September was for me.

     In short, I loved it! It was so bizarre and there was a creepiness to it in that it felt as though I was reading a children's story, like one of Aesop's Fables or one of Kipling's Just So Stories, rather than a piece of political satire - but that's why it's so effective. I'm looking forward to reading more Orwell in future.

So this update is short and sweet. With any luck I'll have more books to talk about at the end of October!