Fireworks Book Tag!

As Clare from The Regal Critiques reminded me, it's Bonfire Night (or as many of us in Canada know it as, Guy Fawkes Day). So, I'm grabbing this tag from her, which she originally found here.

Screamers: A book that made you want to scream (in a good or bad way)

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I legitimately screamed when I read the ending, and proceeded to start back at the beginning instantly. This is one of those book where the beginning occurs after the end, and the whole thing is a memory. Anyway, if you haven't read this one, the ending is divine.

Bombers: A book that you read before it "exploded" in the book community

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I read this maybe two years after it came out? Regardless, it wasn't one I had really heard that much about at the time. But now there's a show, and everyone and their dog knows about it.

Banger: A banned book you've read

So many. I feel like a lot of my favourite books can be determined by looking at a banned book list. Let me see...The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I love the "banned" content of this book so much that when I realized that they had released the original, uncensored version, I instantly sought after a copy.

Haul-lelujah

A couple of months back I thought about doing a book haul post. I started making a list of all of the books I had bought over the past 6 months or so...and then promptly forgot about it. Stumbling back upon it last week, I decided now was the time! So, every year my city has a large booksale, during which I go on the best shopping spree of my life. By this point (it's nearing the next one), I don't remember everything that I got there and after, but here's at least some of my "recent" purchases, as well as a few gifts I've been given!

Crome Yellow - Aldous Huxley

The Hammer of God - Arthur C. Clarke

Sabriel - Garth Nix

Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

Jamaica Inn/Frenchman's Creek/Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Vampire Knight volumes 1-19

Claylord vol. 1

Clover (CLAMP)

Characters I Hated in Books I Loved

Happy April! Another week, another Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl. I'm reversing the topic for this week, so instead of "Characters I liked That Were In Non-Favorite/Disliked Books," I've gone with characters I highly disliked in books I really liked. Even in an otherwise perfect book, there can often be a character that you just can't stand, so here are some of the ones who I really didn't like in great books:

1. Dolores Umbridge - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
   I know, I know...she's going to be on an insane amount of lists this week (if other people flip the topic), but I couldn't not include her.
2. The Mechanicals - A Midsummer Night's Dream
   This is a bit of a cheat because there are not only several characters here, but this is also a play. In truth they all bother me so I couldn't pick just one. They are definitely my least favourite part of this beloved play.
3. Mrs. Norris - Mansfield Park
   No, not Mrs. Norris from Harry Potter! This Mrs. Norris is 100% human, 0% feline.
4. Amy March - Little Women
   I have never been able to stand Amy. I know that she "improves" by the end, and we are supposed to feel better about her...but I've never been particularly good at doing what I was supposed to.
5. Merlin - I Am Mordred
   Merlin is a terrifying and nasty sorcerer in this novel, and you don't really get why unless you have more familiarity with other Arthurian tales (more than just Mordred's fate), so he just seems to be nasty to Mordred for no good reason.

Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes

This week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes. I love quotes. I love to memorize them and I have a small book where I write down some of my favourites. Needless to say, I found this really difficult to narrow it down to just a few when I feel like I am swimming in favourite quotes. So, after struggling for an excessive amount of time over which ones to pick, here is a itsy bitsy sampling of my favourite book quotes:

1) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 

“I could fight with the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her anymore. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And she and I could not fight. She was too strong for me.”

2) The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
"'Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'”

3) The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
“I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places.”

4) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
"'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.'"

5) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"'There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.'"

6) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
"'When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd have no doubt. And I didn't. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself, 'Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weighs as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman.''"

Top Twelve Tortured Romances

This week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is a Love Freebie in honour of Valentine's Day tomorrow, so I decided to do a bit of a bummer spin on it for kicks. I am a huge sucker for angsty and tortured romances, so that's my choice for today. Although most of these are from books, I threw in a few that I have only watched the shows of.

Tortured/Angsty Romances

1) Jace and Clary (The Mortal Instruments - Cassandra Clare)

2) Heathcliff and Cathy (Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontё)

3) Will and Tessa (The Infernal Devices - Cassandra Clare)

4) Sookie and Eric (The Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood - Charlaine Harris)

5) Maxim and the second Mrs. de Winter (Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier)

6) Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontё)

7) Elide and Lorcan (Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas)

Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)

Need a Gothic novel that will keep you reading into the wee hours of the morning? Look no further than...

Hands-down one of the best books I've read in years, Rebecca is a Gothic novel written in 1938 by Daphne du Maurier. It is one of those novels that tells you everything and nothing in a single instant, and is a perfect study of jealousy, loyalty, and desperation. I went into this book knowing essentially nothing about it, just desperately needing to pick up a book that wasn't excessively long to get me through a few weeks.

What it's about:

A young woman, orphaned and unsure of herself is working as a companion to an American woman, Mrs. Van Hopper, for a living. Whilst on vacation in Monte Carlo, she meets the older widower, Maxim de Winter, the wealthy owner of the Manderley estate. The two form a friendship which quickly develops into more. When Maxim whisks her away from her mundane life back to his home at Manderley, she is haunted by the memory of his previous wife. Will she ever learn to escape the shadow of the beautiful, and beloved Rebecca?