Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Smile

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This is a challenging one for me! The prompt isn't books that made me laugh (which I would also probably struggle with to be honest), but books that make me smile, which to me means heartwarming. Books that tend to get described as "heartwarming" are books I really do not tend to respond to. But even my cold dead heart responds to some books, so here are ten that did actually make me smile.

Persuasion: If you don't break out into a big grin when the couple gets together at the end (this is not a spoiler in any Jane Austen novel), you probably don't like happiness.

The Red Tent: I really find the depictions of relationships between women in this book so realistic and touching.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn: Francie's life is hard in so many ways, which makes her victories that much sweeter when they do happen.

The Giver: The love Jonas grows to feel for the baby his family takes in, and the bravery he shows in taking the steps he needs to for the baby's protection, gets me in the feelings.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Seeing the wizarding world through Harry's eyes, and reading along as he makes his first friends, is honestly magical.

Ella Enchanted: The sweetness of the first love in this book is quite lovely.

The Wind in the Door: The purity of Meg's love for her little brother Charles Wallace and the measures she's willing to take for him are so moving.

About A Boy: I know, liking books about overgrown white man-children finally maturing makes me part of the problem, but this book has the kind of soft Hornby humor that makes me smile.

Eat Pray Love: It's not really the journey Elizabeth Gilbert takes after her marriage ends that gets me, its her strong, insightful prose.

My Antonia: Antonia is just such a winning character.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Smile

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Retellings/Folklore-Inspired Tales

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week is a freebie, so I decided to highlight one of my favorite subgenres...retellings! There is so much potential in taking a look at stories we already know and changing the perspective on them.

Wicked: Gregory Maguire has made a career of retellings, but his first was this take on the Wicked Witch that is so much deeper and richer than the musical (which is also fantastic in its own way). 

The Bear and the Nightingale: There's a kind of vague Cinderella aspect to this, but the real treat is the Russian folklore, alongside an incredible heroine and a wonderful story that continues over two sequels.

Polite Society: I just recently read this take on Emma, transported to modern day India, and found it really enjoyable, striking a great balance between the broad strokes of the original while still telling its own story.

Ella Enchanted: Teenage me loved this YA spin on Cinderella where she's cursed to always be obedient.

The Song of Achilles: I did not especially enjoy reading The Iliad. But I did enjoy reading this take on it that posits Achilles and Patroclus as a long-term, committed couple.

Boy, Snow, Bird: I did not love one of the concluding "twists" of this book, inspired by Snow White, but until then had found it complicated and rich and interesting.

The Red Tent: Dinah, only daughter of the biblical Jacob, is barely a footnote in the Bible, but this book takes her portrayal there and fleshes it out with life and love and sorrow and joy.

Lamb: This is another retelling of a Bible story, but takes on a much more prominent character...Jesus himself, given a dumbass best friend called Biff, who narrates the "real" story of the Son of God. 

Bridget Jones's Diary: It's a pretty loose take on Pride and Prejudice, but I love this book. So few "funny" books actually work for me and it's hilarious.

The King Must Die: I super loved Greek mythology growing up, and the religious aspects of this retelling of the story of Theseus made for a fascinating read.

American Gods: Neil Gaiman's vivid imagination brings together the spirits of mythological tradition from all over the world to face off with "the new gods" to which society has dedicated itself (media, technology, etc).

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Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Retellings/Folklore-Inspired Tales

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we're talking about books that we really liked but will never re-read. I figure for a lot of people this will include the gigantic books like War and Peace and such but I am crazy enough to think that one day I might actually get back around to them.

The Divine Comedy: It's just too much theology and Italian history to wade back into. Glad I read it once, but it's hard to imagine I'll read it again.

My Sister's Keeper: Just tooooo many feelings here. Tear-jerkers are a category I'm generally not particularly into re-reading.

The Hobbit: I really enjoyed this book, but I prefer the LOTR trilogy and when I want to revisit Middle Earth, I turn to them rather than the prequel.

Number The Stars: This is a very good book, and I re-read it several times as a kid, but I think it would lose some of the magic now as an adult reader. Middle grade is hard to get back into now when I want so much more from my reading.

Eat Pray Love: I quite liked this book when I first read it, but with the strong criticism of it I've absorbed over the years, I'm hesitant to go back to it and have it fall apart for me.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: This book meant so much to me in high school and I'd happily recommend it to high schoolers, I just feel like I'm past the point in my life where it's going to have that kind of impact on me and I want to keep it as it is in my memory.

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: I loved this book as a teenager, but now that I've actually lived in the South, I think the stereotypes of southern womanhood would bother me.

Ella Enchanted: Charming, delightful middle grade that I just don't think would hold 32 year-old me's attention anymore.

The Pianist: A harrowing, powerful story that's good to read once but I can't think about reading again.

The Chaneysville Incident: This book packs a punch, but it's pretty bleak. I'm glad I experienced it but don't feel any need to do so again.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Autumnal Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! Early October is like peak fall, for me...the leaves are changing and colorful, the weather is usually crispy but not yet cold. It's my favorite time of year, and I'm celebrating it with this week's topic, which is books with fall-seeming covers. These books all have the purples and oranges and yellows and reds and browns that fit in with the loveliness outside! I usually have an explanation for my picks, but this week I'm going to let the visuals do the talking and just list my selections below.

Jane Eyre

To Kill A Mockingbird

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Where The Heart Is

The Help

The Cider House Rules

Ella Enchanted

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Catching Fire

Chocolat

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Autumnal Covers

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Childhood Characters You'd Love To Revisit As Adults

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week's topic: ten characters from childhood that you'd love to revisit as adults. This was a trip down memory lane, as I spent time thinking about the books I loved growing up, which was a lot of them. Here are the characters I'd most like to connect with:

The Babysitters Club: I read what feels like it was probably close to 100 of these books as a kid. Of course I desperately wanted to start a club of my own, and of course I didn't, but I lived vicariously though the girls' adventures. I wanted to think I was a Claudia, but I was totally a Mary Ann. I'd love to see an adult novel that followed up on their lives...maybe a mystery set at their 10 year reunion? 

Meg Murry (A Wrinkle In Time): After being the main character of the first two novels of the Time Quartet, the focus shifts off of Meg and onto her brothers. We see a little bit of her, but we don't really get to focus on her and her life. We know that she ends up married to Calvin and the mother of a large family, but I want to see a follow up with Meg from her own perspective. It looks like such a novel was in the works when Madeline L'Engle had a stroke and stopped writing, which bums me out. 

Georgia Nicholson (Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging): I loved this silly series and in my head, Georgia grows up to be more-or-less Bridget Jones, but I have a feeling she'd even put Bridget to shame sometimes in terms of getting herself into messes. I'm going to have to keep on with my own ideas, though, because Louise Rennison sadly passed away earlier this year. 

Harry Potter: And the rest of the Potter gang, obviously. We've gotten little glimpses through Rowling's ending of the final book and updates on Pottermore, and I'm hoping Harry Potter and the Cursed Child shows us even more of who Harry, Hermione, and Ron have become as adults. 

Ella (Ella Enchanted): Cinderella may be a classic, but the Disney movie was never a favorite of mine because Cinderella is so boring (I quite liked Drew Barrymore's Ever After, though). This retelling makes our girl a much stronger and more interesting character, and I'd love to see what happens in her happily ever after...I have a feeling it's much more complicated than that. 

Matilda Wormwood (Matilda): I loved this book so much as a kid...probably because I identified hard with its smart, book-loving heroine. I have a whole rant about the movie and how much I hated it, but that's neither here nor there. After a childhood full of abusive parenting and magical powers, I really want to know what a grown-up Matilda is like after her telekinesis vanishes and she gets to live with Miss Honey. You have to think those early experiences would leave some pretty significant scars...

Jess Aarons (Bridge to Terabithia): This book made me ugly-cry as a kid, and after the death of his best friend, I wonder what happened to Jess. Thinking back on it as an adult, imaginative and artistic Jess seems to be written as potentially quietly gay, and I want to read about him going back home to visit small-town Virginia after moving to New York or Chicago or LA and becoming an artist.

Karana (Island of the Blue Dolphins): I'm pretty sure everyone read this in elementary or middle school, right? What we don't think about is what happens when a young woman who has lived alone on an island for years not only re-encounters humanity, but finds herself in a completely different culture. What does she do? How does she live her life? I'd love to read about Karana's post-Island life. 

Miyax (Julie of the Wolves): I remember reading the sequel, which presents Miyax/Julie's life when she leaves her wolf pack and struggles to readjust to a world that's changed in her absence. But she's still just a teenager in Julie, and I'd love to see her continue to learn and grow and see what she decides to make of her life and continue to deal with culture clash 

April and Melanie (The Egypt Game): I know, there are other characters, but these two unlikely friends were my favorite. After a childhood of imagination games, I picture the girls going to college and growing apart, but reuniting in a chance encounter and slowly reconnecting. Anyone else want to read that or just me? 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Childhood Characters You'd Love To Revisit As Adults