[Top 10 Tuesday] Almost Happy Halloween!

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

This week's topic is Halloween-spirit-inducing (is that a word? probably not) books.

In Germany, we don't celebrate Halloween, so I didn't manage 10 books, however, I have for you - the two Halloween books I read plus the book that still (after years) makes me worry quite a bit...

1) Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party
Yes, I'm starting my list with a very British take on Halloween, but trust me, it's Dame Agatha Christie and she knows, what she's doing!

2) Leslie Meier's Trick or Treat Murder
This cozy mystery (with the biggest jerk of a husband among the characters) was one of the first cozy mysteries I read in English, so it holds a special place in my heart.

and the book that scared me so much I sometimes check under my bed is... 3) P.J. Tracy's Want to Play?, also known as Monkeewrench
This book is a mystery with blood and gore and psychopaths along the line, but also some pretty interesting computer stuff and naturally the detecting (my real pros, for a change). I can only recommend it, if you're not grossed out by some blood and creepy scenes!

Have you read any of those books? What did you think of them?

[Top 10 Tuesday] Author Love with a Touch of Fantasy/Sci-Fi

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

This week's topic is our favorite authors of a genre we can pick. I decided to go with authors whose books can be considered fantasy or sci-fi.

My Top 10 Authors are:

1) Meljean Brook - she completely won me over with her Iron Seas series. The woman knows how to work her characters and settings. When she adds some steampunk, I'll automatically love it! But even the others are good!

2) Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl is a bit like Harry Potter for adults, if you ask me. I love the characters with all their quirks!

3) Richelle Mead - Because, who doesn't love the Vampire Academy? Rose, Lissa, Dimitri, Adrian and all the characters are my favorite company.

4) Ann Aguirre - I love Sirantha Jax! The character is unique, it's definitely sci-fi and if you don't know them yet, please check out the first one. It is absolutely amazing and totally worth everybody's time.

5) Tanya Huff - If you love vampires and PI novels, you should check out Tanya Huff's Blood series. There's a reason this once was a TV show called Blood Ties. (A pity they cancelled the show!)

6) Meg Cabot - Her Missing series and the Mediator series both have paranormal elements and are great reads for young teens and everyone who enjoys a fun, quick read.

7) Alice Kimberly - Her Haunted Bookshop series is a wonderful cozy mystery series featuring a book store manager/owner and a dead PI from the 1950s.

8) Jennifer Estep - Elemental Assassin? Need I say more?

9) Rick Riordan - I just love his MG/YA series with ancient gods as sidekicks...

10) Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - I could not end this list without this power duo! They write awesome thrillers and at least the first two, Relic and Reliquary, have a sci-fi plot aspect to them. They are absolutely amazing authors!

Have you read any of those books? What did you think of them?

Dewey's Readathon - Update 3 with End of Event meme

So, the readathon is officially over. However, I am still reading. I'm not at roughly 20 hours and my plan is to finish my current book. I ditched the Fables books for now because we headed out to get the mister a mouse and some cupcakes (I mentioned them yesterday - they are delish!). Since I didn't want to take my paperbacks into the rain, I picked up my iTouch to read Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. I enjoy it a lot and already have Shadows (Ashes #2) on my Kindle app and my Kindle.

On to the actual end of event meme:
1) The most daunting hour for me was around 2:30am when I actually fell asleep. I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.
2) You definitely want to keep some lighter reading for the daunting hours. Pick a graphic novel (they come in all genres) or a manga series you want to catch up to. Maybe a short story collection? Anything that won't force you to pay attention for too long at a time. It will help, trust me!
3) As usual, I loved the readathon in its entirety. What's not to love??
4) I enjoy the mini-challenges, but they usually keep me from reading, so I didn't participate in a single one. I love my mini-challenges though, and usually browse through all the things people did the week after the readathon.
5) I so far read 3.5 books.
6) Bill Willingham's Fables #3-6, Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
7) I loved them all!
8) None
9) I was not a cheerleader, but would like to thank them for their wonderful work!
10) I try to participate in Dewey's Readathon whenever I can fit in in my schedule. As mentioned earlier, April usually is a bit inconvenient for me, because it's around my birthday *and* the beginning of the new semester, but I always try.

Dewey's Readathon - Update 2

Yeah, no updates here really. Can you blame me? I've been reading, still working on Fables... I even burned the pasta sauce because I was busy reading. #fail

Dewey's Readathon - Update 1 with Intro Questionnaire

So, I'm starting the readathon half an hour late, along with the Mister. We made lunch and it took longer than expected because we realized half way into him making BBQ burgers & fries that we don't have enough fries and no cheese. So off I ran to get the stuff while he finished the cooking.

On to the Introduction Questionnaire:

1) We're in Frankfurt, Germany.
2) There's no particular book I'm looking forward to because I picked them all based on my longing to read them. The mister would probably say he can't wait for me to read Jim Butcher's Grave Peril.
3) No snacks here, unless we run out to get the books I had a guy set aside for me at the antique book section at the Frankfurt bookfair - I'd stop by Jenny's Cupcakes then.
4) Can't, want to read! Argh! LOL I love books and this is the last weekend before university starts again (Monday -.-). Other than that, I love being a librarian & student and reader...
5) April readathons tend to be iffy for me because they're so close to my birthday and the semester usually already began. But just taking breaks in between helps, if you ask me. And drink a lot!

Book 1 for him: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (re-read #25857 :P )
Book 1 for me: Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham

[Top 10 Tuesday] Mix'n'Match for once

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

For this week you can pick any of the old topics you want to revisit, be it one you haven't participated in or one you would like to do again because you had more than 10 books in the first place.

Since this is only my 2nd or maybe 3rd Top Ten Tuesday post, I thought I'd change things up a bit and pick 10 topics I like and give you one to three books I would have picked for that. To make it a bit shorter, I will only give you a one sentence explanation.

1) October 12, 2010 brought you the Book(s) I'll never read.
For me, that would be Lord of the Rings. Not my cup of tea, and I just can't get into the story. Sorry, fans!

2) March 8, 2011 brought you the Dynamic Duos.
I'm going to be boring and say Harry & Ron, because really, without Ron, Harry wouldn't be as fun and without Harry, Ron wouldn't be well-known.

3) July 12, 2011 brought you the author I'd die to meet.
For me, this would be Dame Agatha Christie, because she was one awesome lady!

4) April 3, 2012 was all about books to read in one day.
Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why is a book that can, will and should be read in one day. This one fits the description to the dot on the i, so to speak.

5) April 24, 2012 gave you a look at all time favorite charaters.
That's a tough one, and I'l probably end up with a tie between Cammie Morgan (Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series) and Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles, the main characters in Tess Gerritsen's series.

6) Good beach reads were June 12, 2012's topic.
My all-time favorite beach reads are fluffy, but hilarious romance novels with good characters. Jill Shalvis' books exactly fit that bill!

7) On July 10, 2012, OCD Bookish Habits were searched - and widely found.
My biggest OCD bookish habit is probably, that I absolutely hate it when somebody mixes up my books. They're on different shelves, depending on whether I already read them or whether they're on my Mt TBR. Yes, I actually have TBR shelves!

8) Books for people who liked book X was the big topic for July 17, 2012.
My pick: If you enjoyed Divergent by Veronica Roth, I recommend you check out Lois Lowry's The Giver series.

9) August 21, 2012 brought you the best books read in the lifespan of the blog.
For me, some of the best books are Kim Harrington's Clarity, Sarwat Chadda's Devil's Kiss, and The Iron Seas by Meljean Brook.

10) July 24, 2012 brought you the Most Vivid Worlds/Settings in Books.
For me, that was without a doubt Divergent by Veronica Roth, because I could draw you pretty good pictures from that world even though I'm not good at drawing.

Have you read any of these books and did you like them (or not?)?

[Top 10 Tuesday] Old, but definitely not forgotten

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

This week's topic is all about older books, that may not be on the top of everyone's wish list, but definitely deserve to be spotlighted every once in a while.

Here are my old, but not forgotten books:

1 & 2) Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Other Way Around
British author Judith Kerr wrote these two autobiographical books (actually a trilogy, which is completed by A Small Person Far Away, which is not as good as the first two) telling of her life as a Jew in the early years of Nazi-Germany, along with her family's escape through Switzerland and France to Great Britain. These books give middle grade readers and young adults a close look at life during this horrible time, without appearing preachy or too horrific. Kerr manages to draw the reader into the happenings back in the 1930s and 1940s through her own eyes as a kid. I highly recommend these two books, as they are educational in a subdued way, so it is not very obvious to the reader that s/he is actually learning about World War II and Nazi-Germany.

3) Agatha Christie!!!
I recommend every single Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot mystery Dame Agatha Christie ever wrote. No matter which one you will pick up, you are in for a treat. I must have read my first Miss Marple novel when I was 10 or 11 and I never got enough. She is indeed the Queen of Crime, that label is so very apt.

4) J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter
Come on, they have to be on this list. I actually know some people who never read the books, so I will never give up promoting them. Also, any possible future kids of mine must read and love HP, if they don't they can't be mine & must have been switched at birth! o_O

5) Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird
This one should be a no-brainer, but it deserves so much love! I first read to Kill A Mockingbird back in school, when I was bored with our assigned reading (my teacher never said a word when I read other books).

6) Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy
I absolutely love Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir. I have been listening to the audio books for this series mostly, because the German narrator does a wonderful job giving Dimitri a Russian accent and it gives him so much more character and personality. Even when reading the books, I hear Dimitri's voice with the Russian accent, which is "added goodness" in my eyes. If you love vampires you most likely will love this!

7) Enid Bylton's Malory Towers series
This is a series I devoured as a middle grade reader. Darrell (it's still strange for me that they changed all the names in the German editions, but I guess that's what they did in the the 1950s and 60s?) attends a bording school which is also a castle and has many wonderful adventures. This is a very girly series, naturally, but I can only recommend it, even for reluctant readers.

8) Enid Blyton's St Clare's series
Another of Enid Blyton's bording school series, which is great for the exact same reasons as Malory Towers.

9) Lois Lowry's The Giver
Many, many years ago, this was my first dystopic novel ever. Lowry imagined a society where everyone is the same, there are no differences, no discord. If you love distopic novels, you have to read this!

10) K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series I will throw this series in here because I recently recommended it to my kid cousin (he's 13) who loves to read, reads a lot & fast at that. The series revolves around five kids who with the help of an alien try to save Earth from an alien infiltration. The name stems from them being able to morph into all kinds of animals, thanks to the friendly alien they meet at the beginning of the series.

What about you? What are your older books that you hope will never be forgotten? Post them in the comments, please.
Have you read any of my older books I don't want to be forgotten?