Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Fall TBR

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

I'm a little bit late this week but here I am with my Top Ten Tuesday. Today the topic is "Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR". I have a lot of books on my TBR and some of them I really want to read ASAP. Here they are:

“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern

“In the Dark of the Night” by John Saul

“Twilight Eyes” by Dean Koontz

“Lumière” by Jacqueline Garlick

“Howl's Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones

“The Silkworm” by Robert Galbraith

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak

“Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon

“The Princess Bride” by William Goldman

“The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

So, those were my top ten fall TBR books. Tell me what you think about my picks in the comments and if you have a blog post about this topic share a link and I'll be happy to read it :)

Book Traveling Thursdays: Book With Your O.T.P.

The Book Traveling Thursdays meme is created by Danielle at Danielle’s Book Blog and Catia at TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch. Every week you choose a book for your blog post that fits the weekly theme (which you can find in the Goodreads group), you share why you chose that book and finally post picture of the original cover, the covers from your country, your favorite cover, and your least favorite cover.

This week’s topic is “It's getting a little chilly outside. Better cuddle up *wink wink*!” and for this one you have to choose a book that your O.T.P. is in. For this week's theme I chose "A Dance of Death/A Dance of Mirrors" ("Shadowdance" #3) by David Dalglish. I feel a really strong need for Haern and Zusa to be a couple...

Original Cover:

I think this is the original cover for the book as well as the original title for it, but I'm not completely sure. I do like this cover, but it's not my favorite.

Bulgarian Cover:

I don't really associate this cover with the story, but I like it.

Favorite Cover:

I love this cover. The only thing that can be changed is the font of the lettering.

There are just a few editions of this book in Goodreads so I couldn't find a least favorite cover.

If you have a Book Traveling Thursdays blog post, share it in the comments. I would love to check it out :)

Top 5 Wednesday: Books with Mental Health/Illness

Top 5 Wednesdays was created by gingerreadsLainey and there is a Goodreads group where you can find a list of participants as well as Top 5 Wednesday topics.

I'm a day late this time, but I didn't have a chance to post my Top 5 Wednesday yesterday. So here you have it today. This week's topic is "Books with Mental Health/Illness" and I really wanted to write about this since it's a topic I like reading about.

"Still Alice" by Lisa Genova

This is one of my favorite books about any kind of disease. It's a really powerful, emotional and heart-breaking read. The book deals with the Alzheimer's disease and what I probably liked the most about it is that it's told from the POV of the woman who is ill so the reader can see what's she's going through and feel for her.

If you haven't read this book yet, definitely give it a go.

"House Rules" by  Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is a wonderful author. Her books are really well written and really informative. This is one of my favorite works by her and it's dealing with the Asperger syndrome. Not as heart-breaking as my previous pick, but for me a really thought-provoking read.

"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

I love Lennie's character in this book. He cant't really be blamed for his actions and at least I can't hate him for them. John Steinbeck did a really great job making people feel compassion for his "bad" character.

"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami

Murakami's books are not for everybody. I like his writing, but I can't say I love all of his works because most of them are really bizarre - like a lot of Japanese works actually. This book is one of my favorites and it's really sad that I can't say anything more about it...because there is no way for me to describe any of his works.

"Angelhead: My Brother's Descent into Madness" by Greg Bottoms

If you follow me you definitely saw this coming. It's one of my all time favorite non-fiction books. I guess it won't be loved by everyone, but if you are interested in reading a non-fiction book about mental illness, this is definitely a great one to choose.

Those were my top 5 books with mental illness. Leave a comment if you have any recommendations about books dealing with this topic and also, if you have Top 5 Wednesday blog post I would love to check it out :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Classics Edition

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

Today was a free topic so I decided to talk about my favorite classics. I have not read a lot of those and I don't have many posts with this topic so here it goes...

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

I can't write about classics without mentioning this book because it's one of my favorites. And the movie and TV series adaptations are really good and so accurate to the book.

“East of Eden” by John Steinbeck

I absolutely love this book. It was my first John Steinbeck read and it's my favorite one of his works.

“The Phantom of the Opera” by Gaston Leroux

One of my favorite book to movie adaptations of all time. The movie is not absolutely true to the story in the actual book and some may like the Phantom in the movies while hating him in the book, but it's one of my favorite characters.

“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror” by Robert Louis Stevenson

I loved all of the stories in this book, but my favorites are "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "The Body Snatcher". I don't classify these works as horrors, but I really like them.

“Dracula” by Bram Stoker

Dracula is one of the few vampires in books that I like. He is scary but you can love him in a twisted way...like I do.

“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

I really hate all of the characters in this book, but I loved reading it. Does anybody feel the same way?

“A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My favorite classic for children. I've read it multiple times when I was younger and I'm planning on rereading it soon.

“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë

This is another classic that I enjoyed reading, but I hated the characters.

“Nights with the White Horse” by Pavel Vezhinov

This is a really good Bulgarian classic that I have only read last year. I absolutely loved it. I don't know if any of you can find it somewhere, but I recommend it if you have a chance to read it.

“Under the Yoke” by Ivan Vazov

This was my favorite required reading in high school. The subject is really heavy and a lot of Bulgarians don't read this book because of that, but I think it's a great read about our history and we should not avoid it.

These were my top ten classics. Tell me what you think about my picks in the comments and if you have a blog post about this topic share a link and I'll be happy to read it :)

Book Traveling Thursdays: A Monster of a Book

The Book Traveling Thursdays meme is created by Danielle at Danielle’s Book Blog and Catia at TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch. Every week you choose a book for your blog post that fits the weekly theme (which you can find in the Goodreads group), you share why you chose that book and finally post picture of the original cover, the covers from your country, your favorite cover, and your least favorite cover.

This week’s topic is “While reading huge books may be intimidating, nothing beats a story that takes you more than a day to get through” and for this one you have to choose a book that has 500+ pages. For this week's theme I chose "The Daylight War" ("The Demon Cycle" #3) by  Peter V. Brett. I love this series so far - the world building is great, there is a huge character development - and I'm not talking only about the main characters, but the others as well.

Original Cover:

I love this cover. It fits the story perfectly.

Bulgarian Cover:

It's not as gorgeous as the original cover, but it's still good.

Favorite Cover:

This is the cover of the French edition and it's to die for. I like the colors and the font and the woman and her clothes...It's just such a beautiful cover

Least Favorite Cover:

It was hard to find a really ugly edition of this book, but I don't like this cover of the Serbian edition. It's not really bad or anything like that, but I just don't like it.

This is one of my favorite high fantasy series so if you have a chance - read it. If you want to wait for the series to be completed - this will probably happen in 2018.

If you have a Book Traveling Thursdays blog post, share it in the comments. I would love to check it out :)

Musings Mondays: Spend the rest of my life in a library

Musings Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm. In your post you have to answer one of the following prompts as well as the random question of the week:

I am currently reading...

Up next I think I'll read…

I bought the following book(s) in the past week...

I'm super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…

I'm really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…

I can't wait to get a copy of…

I wish I could read ____, but…

I blogged about ____ this past week….

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: If you were forced to spend the rest of your life in a library, a museum, or a zoo, which would you choose — and why?

I am currently reading "Middlemarch" by George Eliot and it seems that I'll be reading it forever...it's really slow...

As for the random question...

Because books are love!!!

Leave me a comment with your Musing Mondays blog post and I'll be more than happy to read it :)

Book Review: “Beastly” by Alex Flinn

☆☆☆☆
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library

"I am a beast.

A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever—ruined—unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly." - Goodreads

This book is a definite guilty pleasure for me. I know a lot of people hate and trash this book, but I quite enjoyed it. Let me share with you some of the pros and cons of this book.

Pros:

The plot took a lot from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” which is one of my favorite animations – for example: Bell’s passion for books, the awesome library of the Beast, roses and magical mirror and a couple of others.

Despite taking a lot from the classic, the author added a contemporary feel to the book – hate in high school, social groups and cast offs, etc.

The protagonist of the story had a nice development throughout the book – he went from being a sexy asshole to a nice and lovable beast.

I really loved the way in which the author presented both Kyle’s and Linda’s fathers. They were not really nice people – Kyle’s father treated him with such a disregard, while Linda’s father was an alcoholic drug addict. Those were really nice touches that added a little bit of something to the story.

As far as the others characters – I really loved the witch and the private teacher. They had awesome personalities, were really smart and they were not left out from the story – you are provided not only with a brief backstory for them, but also with a little bit of after story.

Cons:

As much as I like the original story, I don’t believe that in the society that we live in someone will actually fall for a really hairy guy. So I much prefer the movie take on Kyle’s new looks – scars and all that jazz.

Another thing I did not like was the chat between all these other fairytale characters such as the Little Mermaid and the Frog Prince. I just don’t think it added anything to the story.

That sums up my experience with this book. If it sounds like your cup of tea – read it and share your thoughts with me in the comments :)

Book Traveling Thursdays: Favorite Childhood Book

The Book Traveling Thursdays meme is created by Danielle at Danielle’s Book Blog and Catia at TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch. Every week you choose a book for your blog post that fits the weekly theme (which you can find in the Goodreads group), you share why you chose that book and finally post picture of the original cover, the covers from your country, your favorite cover, and your least favorite cover.

This week’s topic is “No matter their age, everyone remembers their favorite childhood book” and for this one you have to choose a book that you loved when you were a little reader. I don’t remember reading as much as I would have wanted as a child, but I did have my reading moments. One of my all-time favorite childhood books is “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Original Cover:

I don't really like this cover but it's not horrible to look at.

Bulgarian Cover:

I like our cover. It speaks "childhood" to me.

Favorite Covers:

                          1) UK                                          2) US                                             3) Russian

These are three really beautiful covers. I really love the color schemes and the fonts and the art.

Least Favorite Fovers:

                     1) US                                                2) US                                             3) UK

These are some horrible covers. The first one just doesn't speak "book for children", but more "really boring non-fiction book". The second cover is really creepy. And in the third one the girl has a really strange look on her face.

Wow, I have a lot of editions in English this week. I did not do that on purpose. I just really did not mind the covers of all of the other editions.

What do you think about my covers? If you have a Book Traveling Thursdays blog post, share it in the comments. I would love to check it out :)

Top 5 Wednesday: Fictional Cities

Top 5 Wednesdays was created by gingerreadsLainey and there is a Goodreads group where you can find a list of participants as well as Top 5 Wednesday topics.

This week's topic is "Fictional Cities" and I don’t have a lot of those, so I will expand this topic a little bit and share with you my top 5 fictional places – places I might enjoy living in or at least visit.

The Nine Kingdoms universe - “The 10th Kingdom” by Kathryn Wesley

I absolutely love this world. It’s magical, there are a lot of amazing places that I would enjoy visiting – especially Kissing Town.

The Barsburg Church in 7th District - “07-Ghost” manga series by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara

This is one of the most peaceful and beautiful places that I have ever read about. And some of the bishops are sexy as hell…just saying.

Dorne - “A Song of Ice and Fire” series by George R.R. Martin
There might not be a lot of things happening there, but this place is to die for.

Neverland - “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie

I did not enjoy the book, but I did like Neverland as a place and I would have loved to visit it. It’s one of the most interesting places in the fictional world.

Krasia – “The Demon Cycle” series by Peter V. Brett

This is not necessary a place I want to live in, but I definitely want to visit it.

There are a lot of places left but those are some of my favorites. If you are interested to find out about some other places I want to live in/visit you can leave me a comment and I will gladly make another blog post with all of them.

Links to your Top 5 Wednesday blog posts are also appreciated.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters You Just Didn't Click With

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

Today the topic is "Characters You Just Didn't Click With". I seem to have a problem with a lot of well-loved characters, so don't kill me for my picks, please...

Lucinda Price from “Fallen” series by Lauren Kate

She is the only reason I did not like the first book and I still haven't read the rest of the series. She is one of the most irritating protagonists ever, a complete idiot and a stalker…

Peter Pan from “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie

I’m sorry. I just think that he is the most spoiled brat I have ever read about.

Clary Fray and Jace Wayland from “The Mortal Instruments” series by Cassandra Clare

I really tried to like them…but it just didn’t happen…They were pissing me off all the time with their irrational behavior and their lack of communication…

Margaret Beaufort from “The Cousins' War” series by Philippa Gregory

Not a fan of this one. Not only was she a really bad person, but she was also crazy. This is the only book in the series in which I did not like the protagonist of the story.

Beatrice Prior and Tobias Eaton from “Divergent” trilogy by Veronica Roth

While they were OK in the first book, I just can’t comprehend what happened with their characters in the next books. I was so disappointed by their behavior that I ended up not caring about them at all.

Anita Blake from “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series by Laurell K. Hamilton

I don’t appreciate her character. She alternated between insufferable bitch and whiny adolescent and both of these behaviors are not tolerable.

Anna Oliphant and Étienne St. Clair from “Anna and the French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins

I’m really, really sorry. I know a lot of people love this book and these characters, but I just couldn’t click with them. I did not appreciate their behavior and I couldn’t relate to them…sorry…please, don’t kill me.

Bonus character: Edward Rochester from “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

I don’t see why Jane loved this person so much…His behavior was so intolerable and so unforgivable…I’m not one of his fans.

So, those were my top eleven not very lovable characters. Tell me what you think about my picks in the comments and if you have a blog post about this topic share a link and I'll be happy to read it :)