Top Ten Tuesday Archives - Page 20 of 23

This is my eighth Top Ten Tuesday post. Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.I love finding my favourite quotes on Goodreads and liking them, and I often remind myself of my favourite quotes whilst going about my life, so this is a fantastic one for me! Great quotes can remind me of great books, and inspire me or remind me of basic facts about life and other people.

Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes

1. “It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can’t see who you are. It is better to lead than to follow. It is better to speak up than stay silent. It is better to open doors than to shut them on people. She will not be simple and sweet. She will not be what people tell her to be. That Bunny Rabbit is dead.”
― E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Sometimes I pick up my copy, or I should say, one of my copies, of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and read this section and it makes me feel better about everything.

2. “A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his pen.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando

In other words, people can want your attention even when they don’t respect you or really care about you at all.

3. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

This is such a perfect description.

4. “Believe it or not, Dimple–and I would believe it–I am just a regular person who has decided to be who I am in life. That’s all. That’s how you make your life magical–you take yourself into your own hands and rub a little. You activate your identity. And that’s the only way to make, as they say, the world a better place; after all, what good are you to anyone without yourself?”
― Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused

I actually added this one to Goodreads myself, because I loved it so much.

5. “Meghan: Get over it, Roo. If you have friends who actually like you, you’re popular enough.”
― E. Lockhart, Real Live Boyfriends

I love how Meghan is the voice of loving reality and reason in Real Live Boyfriends and this is so true. As long as you have a few people who actually genuinely like you, I think you’re doing okay. You don’t need hundreds of Facebook friends or to get invited to cool parties.

6. “Noel: Maybe a friend is someone who wants your updates. Even if they’re boring. Or sad. Or annoyingly cutesy. A friend says “Sign me up for your boring crap, yes indeed”–because he likes you anyway. He’ll tolerate your junk.”
― E. Lockhart, Real Live Boyfriends

Oh, Noel *sigh*. Real Live Boyfriends is full of such wisdom. Review in seven books time.

7. “14th September
What kind of stupid name is Veronique anyway? No one’s called Veronique! No one except Dylan’s new girlfriend! Yeah, that’s how much he was missing me! He was so busy pining over me that he managed to cop off with some stupid posh girl from Cheshire. I mean, whatever.
And she so dyes her hair.”
― Sarra Manning, Kiss and Make Up

Odd, but I love this bit! The first time I read it I burst out laughing at Edie’s reaction to meeting Veronique, and every time I re-read it I remember my initial laughter and laugh again. The whole Veronique/Carter thing is so ridiculously over the top and yet real in its drama.

8. “Little lies that make people feel better are not bad, like thanking someone for a meal they made even if you hated it, or telling a sick person they look better when they don’t, or someone with a hideous new hat that it’s lovely. Remember that writing is to put love in the world, not to use against your friends. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy From Ole Golly’s letter.

9. “Her room felt wonderful to her, as usual. She looked around with satisfaction… She imagined to herself that she would always live this way, even after she had grown up and moved away from her family. She planned to have exactly the same room wherever she was, because this room was her. No matter what happened out there in the rest of the world, she felt totally comfortable once she got into this room and closed the door.”
― Louise Fitzhugh, Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change

Top Ten Books I Loved But Never Wrote A Review For

24th January 2012 By Julianne 2 Comments

This is my seventh Top Ten Tuesday post. Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week there is no topic, in order to give people a chance to make up their own, or to use one from before they started joining in. I chose, from week 62:

Top Ten Books I Loved But Never Wrote A Review For

This is a pretty easy one for me because for the first couple of years I was a very slow poster and only reviewed a few of the books I read. Most of these I would have to read again in order to write a properly considered review, so this is a great chance to write about them without having to wait until I have the time to re-read.

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

I remember I got this from my university library as a 7-day-loan. The woman who checked it out for me said “You’ll never read this in seven days”. Hello, challenge! I did indeed read this in seven days, and it wasn’t hard, because it was so enjoyable. Unfortunately all I remember at this point is that there were lots of people with the same or really similar names, and one girl went off into the sky and was never seen again. Not enough info for a proper review.

2. Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

This was my favourite out of all of the books by Angela Carter that I’ve read. Again, I barely remember it, just how brilliant I thought it was. It’s about Fevvers, a blonde, Cockney woman with wings, who is the centerpiece of a travelling circus. So much fun!

3. The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

This is a famous retelling of the Arthurian legends from the point of view of the women involved. I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would but I still loved it, mostly because of the ending, which really spoke to me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d read it in my mid-teens, when I was more into long fantasy novels and pagan stories, rather than when I was twenty and mostly over that phase.

4. Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Dracula is brilliant, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a bit goth (okay, more than a bit). I had no idea what to expect before I read it, but it certainly wasn’t a hilariously camp adventure in which a woman saves the day with her knowledge of (at the time) modern technology. The bit where they bribe a group of working-class men with beer? I laughed so hard. Plus there’s a vampire and all that.

5. Wise Children, by Angela Carter

I feel like I should add at this point that I pretty much love everything by Angela Carter unless I don’t understand it (and sometimes even then). Wise Children has been described as the most accessible of her novels, and I would agree, although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Nights at the Circus or The Magic Toyshop. It’s about the lives of twins Dora and Nora Chance, and their weird and wonderful family, who are all involved in showbusiness in one way or another.

6. A Round-Heeled Woman, by Jane Juska

This is a memoir about a woman in her fifties who decides, basically, to start having more sex. But it’s also about literature, and how much she loves it. It was really different and really interesting to read.

7. Lucia, Lucia, by Adriana Trigiani

Lucia is a young seamstress working in a New York department store in the 1950s, who breaks off her engagement to her childhood sweetheart for a stranger who promises her all the glamour her own life appears to be lacking. I loved the period setting and the details about sewing and food.

8. The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters

I don’t know why I have yet to read any other books by Sarah Waters! This is a story about four people, after and during the Second World War, told backwards. I really, really enjoyed it and remember that it made me want to eat lots of soup. It just seemed like an appropriate accompaniment for some reason.

9. The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold, by Francesca Lia Block

I had a phase of reading quite a lot of Francesca Lia Block books and most of them I don’t remember much about because they’re all so short and similar, but I really liked this one. I love fairy tale retellings in general and Block’s writing style really suits them. Her retelling of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’, ‘Snow’, really stuck with me.

10. Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger

I would like to review this properly, but it was such a pain getting this from the library the first time (had to get an inter-library loan) that I’m not going to do it again. It’s about two zine makers, John and Marisol, who become friends and how their friendship and lives progress. A spanner is thrown in the works when John develops feelings for Marisol, who is a lesbian.

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