Top Ten ALL-TIME FAVORITE YA Books

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

This week's prompt: Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Books Of X Genre.

HA. What a joke. I don't have ten "all-time favorite" books. Ten is an impossible number. There's, like, 30 books on my favorites list. And then I have to subcategorize from there: is it a forever favorite, a nostalgic favorite, or a favorite-because-it-was-perfect-for-my-life-when-I-read-it? If I read it again today, would I still love that book? Did I only love that book because it defined my life at a specific time? Does it matter?

It's complicated. And I realize that perhaps I give way too much thought to these Top Ten Tuesday prompts, but... such is life. I CAN'T CHANGE WHO I AM. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I did my best to narrow it down to my top ten all-time favorite young adult novels. And even that got a little squishy. (What about the books that were never reeeaallly classified as YA, because YA didn't exist when they were published? What about ________?! That's definitely not YA but it's absolutely one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITES!!!! etc.)

Soooo... okay. I fudged it a little. But rules are meant to be broken, right? Right.

1. Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty

I'm pretty sure most of the Jessica Darling lovers hate this book. Charmed Thirds is my favorite. It's soul-crushing and heart-breaking and has countless moments and lines that I'll never, ever be able to get out of my head. (Just a reminder that Marcus Flutie is probably the fictional love of my life.)

2. This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Not surprisingly, Dexter Jones is also on my list of boy crushes. I feel like I've touched on this before, but Remy Starr is ME. I mean, she's the exact opposite of me (ESTJ? vs. INFP), but emotionally, SHE'S ME. And this book changed the way I look at relationships and vulnerability.

3. Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta (goddess of everything!)

I can't even think about this book without wanting to cry. The whole Lumatere Chronicles series is gorgeous and intense – if you haven't read Finnikin of the Rock, then drop everything and do so NOW – but Quintana is perhaps my favorite, favorite, favorite Marchetta character ever. And that's really saying something, because MM writes so many wonderful characters with magnificent stories. So many passages that still punch me in the gut.

4. Missing Angel Juan by Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block was a HUGE deal to me when I was sixteen years old. When I read Witch Baby, the second in her Dangerous Angels "series," it was like I had a moment of awakening – of yes, finally!, someone who sees me for who I am. Missing Angel Juan was kind of revolutionary for me because it made me realize that I could be loved – even with my weird, messy, wild thing, snarl ball ways – but that I could also be okay on my own, and that it was important to know how to be alone and to have healthy relationships.

5. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler & illustrated by Maira Kalman

I read this in college and re-read it and cried for days. Min's writing style reminded me of my own. Her experiences felt like ones that I had had. When I read this book, I would totally have written sincere, guileless letters to a former love. Why We Broke Up was the perfect mix of quirky romance and startling honesty, and it just hit me unexpectedly in all the right ways.

6. Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

I don't know if I'll ever really be able to articulate what makes this book so important to me. Instead I'll toot my own horn and link you what what I think is the PERFECT playlist for it. I'll also include what I wrote in a previous Top Ten Tuesday post:

Hilary T. Smith is amazing for writing this book about people living with mental health issues. It doesn't tiptoe around anything but neither is it your standard clinical categorization of "so-and-so suffers from this and that." It's a barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world, in more ways than one – yes, it's about mental illness, but it's also about life and how we choose to exist in and interact with the world. Unexpectedly, Kiri and Skunk have become one of my absolute favorite literary couples. They're both so imperfect and screwed up and uncontainable and dealing with their own traumatic memories, yet they help one another become healthier and happier without forcing each other to be different.

7. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

I guess this is what people would consider a window book – I must have read this when I was twelve or thirteen years old. It opened my eyes to the idea of nonconformity. It made me realize it was okay to be different. I know the world is different now, and probably every kid grows up today being told that it's okay to be different (the perks of being raised by Gen X/Gen Y, I guess), but for me it was a life-changer.

8. Wild Things by Clay Carmichael

Not strictly YA, but it's an incredibly underrated comfort read. It's whimsical and so human. So many elements still linger with me, from the description of Uncle Henry's incredible sculptures, to the detached chapters written from the perspective of a feral cat, to the colorful characters and their relationships. It's really, really great.

9. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I know. This one is probably a weird pick, but I swear to god it changed me. In Siege and Storm, everything was shades of gray. You didn't know who was really bad, or who was really good, and it messed with your head (and your heart, ouch, ouch), and it's just such a perfect reflection of life. (Click here for my short review for Siege and Storm.)

10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Finally. The Little Prince. Again, LIFE-CHANGING. I finally watched the film adaptation on Netflix a few weeks ago – it was all wrong, ALL WRONG – I knew it would be, but I still bawled watching it. The Little Prince is a classic. Relevant from childhood to adulthood. It means the world to me.

Bonus! (because I really wanted my picture rows to be nice and even)

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill is very much settled in the land of adult/literary fiction, but I died reading this book. It made me angry and incredibly depressed and blew me away and I underlined basically the entire book.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is perhaps my favorite Neil Gaiman book. Eerie and quaint and sad and sweet... The perfect comfort read for a self-proclaimed weirdo. If you haven't read this before, add it to your fall reading list. With a cup of tea or hot chocolate, it'll feel 100% spot-on.

So, those are my favorite young adult(-ish) books. I feel pretty good about the accuracy of this list. Do you feel like you know me better now?! (Probably not because I already talk about these books all the time anyway.) Have you read any of these books I mentioned? Did you like them?? What are your all-time favorite YA books & why?

Seven "Educational" TV Shows I Love

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

I went through a long phase of not watching television. It's quite possible that I didn't regularly watch television from high school through college.

If you're thinking it's because I have great willpower, I'll tell you right now that you're wrong.

My problem with TV is that I get sucked in. I'm a little too empathetic and characters feel a little too real, and I just need to know that they end up okay. (If you're a book lover, I'm sure you can relate.) So I end up on Netflix, which just enables me to binge watch every single episode from every single season of so many great, compelling shows until my eyes glaze over and my brain melts.

My avoidance of television is purely out of self-preservation.

To this day, I still try to avoid going down the rabbit hole of TV obsession. Sometimes I'm successful. Usually I'm not. Sometimes I fudge it by watching pseudo-educational shows – at least I'm learning things, right?! It could come in handy in case I ever write a novel about lumberjacks in space. I'm very good at rationalizing to myself.

These are some of my favorite semi-educational TV shows:

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

My favorite episode might be "Sisters of the Sun," which pays homage to two female astronomers – Cecilia Payne and Annie Jump Cannon – and their underrated, undercelebrated contributions to astronomy. It has a great introduction as well, with Neil deGrasse Tyson sharing the mythology behind the Pleiades, otherwise known as the Seven Sisters, and now I always think of that story whenever I see that constellation in the sky.

Switched At Birth

Remember when I said I had been taking an American Sign Language class? The show itself is basically a young person's soap opera, but I love that it casts real deaf actors. I watch this show all the time to help me practice my ASL. It's made me more socially aware, as well.

Friday Night Lights

I totally binge watched all five seasons of Friday Night Lights. It's one of my all-time favorite TV shows. (The first season is absolutely the best.) (Matt Saracen!) The only reason I'm including it in this list of "semi-educational" television is because it taught me SO MUCH about football. For someone who grew up in the football-loving South but never had any interest whatsoever in the game, it was also something of a sociocultural education & exploration of stereotypical American high school culture. (I told you I was good at lying rationalizing to myself.)

Barnwood Builders

I discovered this last Christmas when I was home with my family. (My parents get all the good channels, including DIY Network.) Barnwood Builders is about a team of guys around the West Virginia area who salvage centuries-old barnwood and build new structures with it. I realize it sounds lame, but it's not, I promise! The guys have such a great camaraderie – they come from different walks of life, some are old, some are young – and you also learn so much about woodworking and American pioneer history. It's great. 10/10, do recommend!

Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet

This show on Animal Planet is such a comfort to me. Dr. Jeff is so passionate about what he does. He believes in accessibility, so he runs a low-cost veterinary clinic in Denver and travels with his amazing team across North America with his free mobile clinic, which allows them to help so many animals (and, by extension, people).

Since watching the show, I think I've become a little more compassionate towards people, more okay with the circle of life (and death), and definitely more comfortable with medical stuff – I can watch vets perform basically any kind of surgery without cringing. (Except for eye surgery. I'm not quite there yet.)

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown

Watch the episodes of countries you have no interest in or have never even heard of. Those are the most fascinating. You'll likely never make it to Gaza or the Congo. You may never eat at Noma in Copenhagen – you almost definitely won't ever go foraging with René Redzepi.

And hey, maybe you've never wanted to. Maybe you've never even thought about any of these things before. But when you explore all of these places, cultures, histories, and people through his eyes, you might feel a twinge of longing. You might be in awe at how overwhelmingly large the world is – and at the same time, how small.

Rebelde Way

No one has ever heard of this show from the early 2000s. But I bet some of you (any one? any one?) know of its much more famous remake, Rebelde, which spawned the Mexican pop sensation RBD.

Rebelde Way is an Argentinean telenovela that follows four characters – Marizza, Mía, Pablo, and Miguel – as they attend a prestigious private boarding school and deal with all kinds of challenges. It also helps you pick up (Argentine) Spanish pretty quickly.

I started watching this show in high school, but I've never actually seen all of the episodes because there are like ten bajillion of them (telenovelas generally air every weeknight... so 5 episodes a week, and the show ran for a year and half). But I love it so much. It's one of my favorites still.

Do you like any of these shows? Have you heard of any of them? Do you watch educational television/documentary series at all? What are your favorites, and is there anything else on TV that you're excited for this fall?

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Songs That Would Make Great Stories

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

Music is one of those things that's hard for me to talk about with other people – not because I don't want to – it's more that I sometimes just don't have the words and then I just end up fumbling for the right thing to say and it turns into a novel.

Sometimes a song, like a book, is nothing to you until and unless it reaches you at exactly the right moment, and then it transforms into this bigger thing that's just intangible – it becomes bigger than the moment alone, which is why when you listen to it three years later, you still get transported back to the memories you had and the feelings you felt and maybe even the life stage you were in. (It's also why – for me, at least – songs can sometimes feel tainted when you hear them in a car commercial or at the mall… It's like, how can this sacred thing be tossed around in such an ordinary, casual way??)

So that's part of the reason why this week's Top Ten Tuesday list is challenging for me… 10 songs I wish were books? Are we talking about songs that are the foundation for a scene in a book? Or for a character? Or for a complete story or vibe? Because some songs are for the smaller moments, and others really are enough to launch a thousand ships that could carry the threads of a story in a hundred different directions. You see my dilemma. We'll see how this goes.

1. Salted Wound by Sia
Okay, (another) one of my problems is that maybe 80% of the time, the songs I love are already associated with a book or character – either in my head, or officially. Like Salted Wound. This one is from the Fifty Shades of Grey film soundtrack. I've never read that book, but I watched two-thirds of the movie and… kind of liked it? And I love this song because I love, love, love Sia, who seems to understand the human condition so acutely. And because Salted Wound is so clearly about a character who pretends to be one thing but is really another. And I will never say no to books with complex characters!


2. Broken Piano by Frank Turner
I love Frank Turner. Love. Him. One of England's great singer-songwriters. Broken Piano is a great, raw, powerful song with a savage beat. (So great that I'm including it twice. The album version and a live version.) I feel like it would be kindred spirits with books like Wolf by Wolf or Wild Awake – books that have their own savage beat poetry.




3. Wanderlust by Frank Turner
When this album came out, I must have listened to Wanderlust a couple hundred times at least. It really shook me to the bones because I kept imagining some kind of cowboy-esque figure, a boy who doesn't stay, a boy who lives for adventure, for independence, for freedom – who somehow finds himself in love but unable (or unwilling) to stay. I'M ALREADY SAD JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.


4. Handcuffs by Brand New
This song is 1000% for the complex villains. I feel like a lot of Brand New's music (and Jesse Lacey's lyrics) lean that way in general. Dark, with a pinch of self-loathing. The words sometimes feel stark and crude, but the melodies have a strange haunting beauty of their own. See also: Jesus Christ.


5. Runaway by Matt Corby
Matt Corby is one of the great musical loves of my life. He represents a really interesting and emotionally important time in my life, and this song is equally interesting and emotionally charged. I imagine it to be about a girl who plays games, who says all the right things without meaning them, who is something between a masterpiece – wild and beautiful and reckless and free – and a real piece of work. (Look at that wordplay! Maybe I should be the one to write this book.) If you look at the lyrics objectively, it almost feels a little like a guy suffering from Nice Guy™ syndrome – how dare you put me in the Friend Zone, how dare you not want to be with me, etc. etc. – but the music is so pretty and so layered and complex that it feels less petty and more… I don't know. Sad and wistful, maybe. I could see this song being the basis for an epic love story about two people who are total trainwrecks, who fall madly in love and it doesn't end well. (Or maybe it does. Because as much as I love angst, I'm a sucker for the happy ending, too.)


6. Do What You Have to Do by Sarah McLachlan
This is one of my weirder musical obsessions, but I went through a solid 2 year period where I listened to this song on repeat for HOURS. I don't even know. It was just so filled with yearning and sadness and regret, and I think those things make for interesting characters and stories – I mean, just imagine a story about a man who wants to be with someone but has been burned one too many times and knows that he should move on but can't and instead just settles for getting through the day intact while being steeped in self-loathing. RIGHT?! Or maybe he's separated from what he really wants due to circumstance – like duty and responsibility, or societal expectations, and he's struggling with what his heart wants and what his head tells him is right. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES.


7. You Are the Moon by The Hush Sound
Literally the only song I've EVER liked by the Hush Sound. It feels like a dark love song, and I feel like that concept could be applied to a story – a dark love story, whatever that looks like…


8. We Walk by The Ting Tings
Trying to change up the pace here because I'm realizing that I have morose, depressing taste in music. Does anyone remember this band?! I like that the melody feels a little bit off-kilter and the beat is so full of energy. I could see this song transposed into a character's thought process as they're coming to grips with a realization that turns their world upside down.


9. Wedding Song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
It took me a long time to get around to listening to and loving the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. My sister recommended them to me for AGES before I caved – I just never thought I'd be a fan – they were always a little too edgy, too post-punk for my tastes. (I still sort of feel that way, although I have consistently LOVED all of their acoustic stuff.) Anyway, Wedding Song feels like great music for a turning point, like the perfect backdrop to a crush that develops into something else. It's the song that plays on late night aimless drives, when you start to see someone in a new light.


10. Signal Fire by Snow Patrol
One of my favorite, favorite songs. What I really love about this song, as far as storytelling is concerned, is that it sounds like a story, with the way it ebbs and flows – and it doesn't feel time- or genre-bound. It could be a story that takes place in ancient history, and it could just as easily happen in outer space a hundred years in the future. To me, it's a song and a story about love and safety and two people who depend on each other and how they keep it together in the face of external factors that threaten to tear them apart.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Killed It (And Me) In 2015

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

10 days to Christmas! 2 weeks to 2016! Where has the time gone?!? Looking back, I read SO many incredible books this year. I didn't get to all the books I wanted to read (Queen of Shadows and Six of Crows for starters... although I blame my reluctance and general slowpoke-ness on The Hype™), but I did manage a good amount of new releases, a handful of debuts, and plenty of backlist titles. (Urgh, does anyone else hate the word "backlist" as much as I do?) Out of all the books I read, these are the ones that stood out the most.

Best Fantasy: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

This book destroyed my life. I know people have mixed feelings about the middle child of a series, but Siege and Storm was everything I think the second book in a trilogy should be. Here's why I loved it...

Best Science Fiction: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

I should have a label just for my Illuminae posts. Here's my fake review of Illuminae. Here's my Illuminae playlist. Here are some pictures I took of the interior. Here's my recap of the book panel and signing with Amie and Jay.

Best Historical Fiction: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

If Hitler and Nazi Germany hadn't lost the war... I said it once, and I will say it again: HOLY SCHEISSE! Powerful writing, fascinating characters, and an unimaginable story imagined. Get ready for your mind to be blown. AND the second and final book comes out in 2016 – in March, I think!

Best Contemporary: Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

I read this book way back in June and I still find myself thinking back on those little moments between Mac and Sydney. The Kwackers, the pizza deliveries to the middle school gym, the first time Mac laid eyes on Sydney... Here's thirteen other reasons why Saint Anything is my favorite contemporary from this year.

Best Literary Fiction: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

A+ for diversity, representation, and complex family dynamics. This is actually Celeste Ng's debut novel and it is beautiful. Read more of my thoughts on Everything I Never Told you here.

Best Debut: This Raging Light by Estelle Laure

Ha. Ha. Ha. This debut from Estelle Laure killed me. I'M DEAD. I can't even talk about it. Just read my sort-of-review and you'll understand why.

Best New Adult: Ricochet by Krista and Becca Ritchie

I like to consider 2015 my breakthrough year in terms of NA reads. Krista and Becca Ritchie's Addicted series is one that has really stuck with me (for good and bad reasons, which I talk about in this post). I'm slowly making my way through the rest of the books, but I loved this companion novel they published from Lily's POV. It made me cry in a public space. It also made me realize that I love Lily Calloway like she's my own child.

I WOULD GO TO WAR FOR LILY CALLOWAY JS

— TIFFANY (@codenametiffany) November 5, 2015

Best Standalone: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Oh, look! Another book that I loved. LOVED. Looooooved. The story is a delight – so magical, such an escape – and the relationships! The slow burn! Excuse me as I internally combust from all the feelings! Siiiigh. If you missed it, here's my complete review of Uprooted.

Best Novella: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

This was such a treat to read. In fact, I would like to read it again, but I'm scared of the feels. Here's my review (with Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight spoilers!).

Best Series: The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

I feel like I talk about the Grisha Trilogy/Leigh Bardugo/Nikolai Lantsov ALL. THE DAMN. TIME. Did I reeeeally read Shadow and Bone for the first time just SIX months ago? Leigh has become one of my all-time favorite authors, and my goal is to get progressively cooler and less awkward every time we meet.

Storytime! I always forget (or erase from my memory) the little fact that I didn't love Shadow and Bone. Fortunately, there was one little moment, one line, that really struck a chord. The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.

THANK THE LITERARY GODS FOR THAT LINE because it pulled me through the Shadow and Bone and compelled me to check out Siege and Storm (and that book was the ultimate gamechanger for me – I wrote a mini-review of it here and shook in withdrawal for DAYS), followed by Ruin and Rising (which I loved so much that I wrote about it twice: non-spoilery version here and uncontrollable, spoilery outbursts & general flailing here).

Oh, and I put together a playlist for the series here, too. It's pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Best Female Protagonist: The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

If you haven't read this book already, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR. Here. You need this list of 7 things I loved about The Wrath and The Dawn. And then you need to get yourself a copy of this book. And then we can rejoice over the amazing, sassy female protagonist that is Shahrzad. We will bond over her expensive jewelry! We will laugh about tiny cucumbers! It will be a grand time!

Best Male Protagonist: The Queen of Attolia by Meghan Whalen Turner

Yes. Eugenides from The Queen's Thief series. Not Nikolai Lantsov, the love of my life from the Grisha trilogy. It's Gen. Gen! I'm surprising even myself with this choice.

I mean, did I highly dislike The Thief? Yes. I really hated it SO much. And while I did not love The Queen of Attolia either, there were little bits of dialogue that made me think, "Hmmmm. There is something here."

So I haven't totally, completely written off this series. Plus, Gen just gives me distant Froi* vibes and let me tell you, FROI VIBES ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY.

*Froi from Melina Marchetta's Lumatere Chronicles (speaking of which, I've just realized I DON'T HAVE A MELINA MARCHETTA TAG ON MY BLOG. WHAT IN THE WHAT!!!).

Best Friendship (TIE): A Sense of the Infinite by Hilary T. Smith / Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I have SO MANY FEELS about Annabeth and Steven's friendship in Hilary T. Smith's A Sense of the Infinite. (Also, come to think of it, Annabeth and Ava are amazing too?!??) Friendships that last through the thick and the thin (snotty tears withstanding!) are A+ in my book. Read more about my thoughts on A Sense of the Infinite here!

And for a best friend-ship that most of you are probably already familiar with, given the rave reviews this book has received all year... Agnieszka and Kasia from Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Hooooly crap, you guys. Their friendship is powerful and magical and just #FRIENDSHIPGOALS. Here's my review on Uprooted. I go on and on about their friendship and I call it a force to behold. Because it is. BEHOLD.

So, that's my list for this year! I can't wait for 2016 – so many exciting books coming out (Truthwitch! Strange the Dreamer from Laini Taylor!), and so many great books still to read.

Have you read any of the books on my list? Do you agree/disagree? What other books would you recommend for each of these categories? I especially need more dashing male protagonists in my life!

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Halloween Costumes

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

I went on a bit of a Halloween costume rampage yesterday, but I seem to be on a bit of a roll, so what's a few more?! Here are my picks for fun & unexpected bookish costumes.

Rainbow Fish. Confession: I was Rainbow Fish for Halloween last year! But clearly I need to be hanging around more book people because nobody got it. I found this amazing rainbow sequin vest that sort of looks like fish scales – it was so perfect that I had to buy it. A sparkly blue-green shirt, a purple cardigan, a fluffy purple skirt, and blue tights made up the rest of my ensemble. I wore electric orange lipstick (fish lips!) and tied metallic blue ribbons in my hair and painted my nails glittery gold. I plan to improve on my costume every year moving forward until I am #RainbowFishGoals.

The Little Prince. I admit I am not totally sure how to accomplish this. I suspect a floor-length robe (or cape), a gold scarf, and a flower are good starting points. Maybe some bird- or star- shaped balloons, too. Speak in riddles and when people ask you questions, change the subject to something else entirely.

The Secret Garden. Decorate your clothes with fake flowers & vines & twigs and branches. Throw on an oversized trench coat. When people ask what you're supposed to be, look around surreptitiously, then flash open your coat and say, "I'm the secret garden."

Harriet the Spy. Who else pretended to be Harriet the Spy as a kid?! I think by now I have her outfit down pat: a striped shirt, flare jeans, Converse sneakers. A tool belt that holds a flashlight, pen, mirror, and some rope. A red hoodie – or, if you're going for film accuracy, a yellow raincoat. A composition notebook with the words PRIVATE on top. Maybe bring a tomato sandwich to snack on.

Dorian Gray. Put on a suit or an evening gown – just look as swanky as possible. Take a hideous picture of yourself, print it out, and put it in a frame. Carry it with you all night and get twitchy when people ask you about the portrait you're holding.

Baby-Sitters Club. This would be a group costume, but I've ALWAYS wanted to get my friends to dress up as the whole gang. Okay, so Kristy Thomas would obviously wear a turtleneck, mom jeans, and a baseball cap. Maybe she could carry a clipboard too. Mary Anne Spier would wear a jumper and Mary Janes or saddle shoes with bobby socks, with her hair braided in pigtails. And carry a box of tissues everywhere. Stacey McGill would have her hair permed out huge, and she'd probably be wearing a black off-the-shoulder sweater with, like, green leggings, with her nails painted a sophisticated pink. Claudia Kishi would have 3 different earrings in each ear, an ugly sweater, a windbreaker from the 80s, zebra print mom jeans – I mean, basically just pick one thing from your mom's closet, one thing from your dad's closet, and 5 different pieces of jewelry, and you're good to go. And for Dawn Schafer, you could probably just go with ripped jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt that says SAVE THE WHALES. Maybe carry around kale juice for bonus points?

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookplates for Brunch University

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

I AM SO PUMPED ABOUT THIS WEEK'S TOP TEN TUESDAY. When I was a kid, I loved to play teacher. I was really big on lesson plans and writing my own syllabi and grading my stuffed animals' homework assignments. Someday when I open up Bookplates for Brunch University, these are the classes and books I will teach. Excuse me as I take this way too far.

A Thousand Words: The Art of Picture Books

In this course, you will explore the impact of art and multimedia as a vehicle for sensory immersion. Students will (1) consider the paradox of imagery as it both obscures and reveals new information, (2) analyze the impact of illustration upon the reader's perception of character and story, and (3) examine the question of which speaks louder – image or text – and whether it matters. By the end of the course, students will have a sense and appreciation for the charm of the mundane and storytelling as the universal element that binds us all.

Required reading:
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Asians in America: Depictions in Literature

Throughout this course, students will compare and contrast two contemporary novels that represent Asians in America during the 1970s and 1980s. In the first unit, students will critically examine the problematic aspects of Rainbow Rowell's work. Students will come away with an understanding of the dangers of depicting the POC experience based solely on the lived experiences and perspectives of a non-POC writer. Other topics to be discussed: casual racism, the infantilization and objectification of Asian women in Western society, conscious othering, exoticism and fetishization.

In the second unit, students will examine Celeste Ng's depiction of a mixed race family in the Midwest. Students will consider the self-prescribed identity of each character and analyze the impact of racial and cultural identity on relational dynamics. Other topics will include: internalized racism, the significance of community, and the paradox of assimilation.

Required reading:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

 

   

What It Means to Be Human: An Introductory Survey of the Human Experience

In this course, students will examine the human condition through the lens of contemporary fiction. Key areas of discussion will include: (1) depression, anxiety, and the role of mental health in negotiating relationships and identity; (2) the aftermath of sickness and death, and the impact of shared grief; (3) faith and disillusionment – the desire of humanity to understand God, and the limitations in so doing; and (4) infidelity, marriage, and the tension between the multiple selves that compose a person. Students will leave the course with an enhanced comprehension of human nature based in the tradition of social psychology.

Required reading:
Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson