TTT: Authors I Fell In Love With in 2016

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

When I read that this week's TTT topic was going to be 'Authors you discovered this year' I got super excited! I have read so many amazing books this year, and got to know so many amazing authors, and I desperately wanted to share my love for those authors with you guys 💖 So here are a few of the authors I fell in love with in 2016!

I fell in love with Heidi Heilig, not only for her amazingly descriptive writing and amazing characters, but also for being vocal about the things she believes in on social media. 
I fell in love with Rachel Caine because her book, Ink and Bone, was one of my favorite reads of 2016.
I fell in love with Nina LaCour because the romance in Everything Leads to You had me smiling for days.
I fell in love with Mary E. Pearson because I'm still blown away by the world she crafted in The Remnant Chronicles.
I fell in love with Virginia Woolf because of her voice, and because she made me fall in love with classics, even though I never thought I would. 

I fell in love with Amanda Lovelace because her poetry collection made me feel a lot, even when I didn't want it to.
I fell in love with Nicola Yoon because of her amazing writing, her beautiful characters, and because she's an incredibly kind person.
I fell in love with Tara Sim because I finished Timekeeper in 2 days, despite the fact that I was in a reading slump.
I fell in love with Roshani Chokshi because her writing is magical, and because she's a beautiful person.
I fell in love with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because she's an incredibly strong, intelligent en beautiful person, inside and out. I could watch interviews with her all day. She inspires me.

What authors did you fall in love with in 2016?

TTT: Book Characters I'd Name My Child After

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

When I read what this week's TTT topic was going to be, I got really excited. You wouldn't think that a single 19-year-old girl who doesn't plan on having kids for the next 10 years would be thinking about what to name her children, but I DO. I have no idea why, but whenever I read about an awesome character with a great name, my automatic reaction is 'I should definitely call my future child that'. So here are a few of those characters:

I think basically everyone has a Harry Potter character they'd want to name their child after, and mine is Luna Lovegood. I love her character, and I've been obsessed with her since I first read about her. She's such a unique, smart and lovely character, and I just love the name Luna. My other favorite HP characters are Neville, Lupin and Tonks, but I didn't want to give my child names like that. I don't want them to hate me.

If I had a boy, I'd definitely want to name him after Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings series. I grew up watching the LotR movies, and my dad reads the books every summer, so the story means a lot to me. Sam has always been my favorite character, because he's so brave and such a loyal friend. And he's adorable. 

The next one is kind of a weird one, because I don't love the character, but I'd still love to name my child after Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Her character annoyed me very much, but I adore the overall story and I love watching the Disney movie. I also think Alice is just a wonderful name.

Up next is Lia from the Kiss of Deception. She's such a strong female character with an amazing personality, and if I had a daughter I'd want her to be like her. But maybe without the assassin chasing after her, because that'd complicate life a bit. 

I only recently fell in love with Pride and Prejudice, and I would love to name my child after one of the characters. There's just one problem: almost all the names in this book remind me of old English people. Naming my child Elizabeth or Fitzwilliam would just feel very wrong. And I kind of hate the name Fitzwilliam. So if I got to change the names just a bit, I would love to name my son Charlie, after Mr. Bingley who is just the cutest little puppy ever, and I'd name my daughter Eliza, after Elizabeth Bennet. And after Eliza from the musical Hamilton, because, how could I not?

The next character I'd name my child after is a bit like Luna Lovegood: Winter from The Lunar Chronicles. They're both a bit odd and different, but they're both just as amazing. Winter is my favorite character from TLC, because she's so incredibly lovely and selfless. I also really like seasonal names, so that's a plus.

And how can I get through a post that's basically about all of my favorite characters, without mentioning one of my favorite series: The Heroes of Olympus? I would definitely want to name a character after Percy or Annabeth, or basically anyone from this series. Maybe except for Piper. Not because she's not a great character, because I LOVE HER, but I just don't really like her name.

So, those are some of the book characters I'd name my child after! Now tell me, what book character would you name your child after?

TTT: Books I Want To Read This Fall

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & The Bookish, and this week's theme is 'Books On My Fall TBR'. 

This week's theme was a very exciting one for me. There are so many amazing books releasing this fall, and I have quite a few books that I'm excited to get to the next few months. I was so excited that I wasn't even able to make a list of only 10 books, but that happens almost every time I do a Top Ten Tuesday. Oh well, the more the merrier, right?

I am very happy with my list of books! There are a lot of books on there, like Frost Like Night, Furthermore and the newest Magnus Chase book, that I have been anticipating for a long time, and can't wait to actually read.

Then there are some books, like The Forbidden Wish, Shadow and Bone and Bad Feminist, that have been sitting on my shelf for some time, but I'll finally be able to get to.  

The thing I'm most happy with is that almost all of the books on this list are diverse! The #DiverseAThon really made me aware of the lack of diverse books I was reading, and as you can see, I really wanted to change that.

I don't think I've ever been this happy about a TBR, and I'm sure fall is going to be an amazing reading month!

What books to you want to read this fall?

TTT: My Favorite Contemporaries

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is 'Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Books Of X Genre', and I went with my 10 favorite contemporaries.

The first English contemporary I've ever read, and the first English book I've ever bought, is Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I fell in love with the characters and the plot, but the thing I loved most was the setting. The 80's music, the old-schol feel to it, I adored it. This book has been my favorite contemporary for quite some time, until I discovered Morgan Matson.

Since You've Been Gone and Amy and Roger's Epic Detour are the only two books I've ever re-read as a young adult, because I cannot get enough of these two. I'm not sure what it is about them, maybe the way the romance develops? Maybe it's the little mysteries hidden in the plot? Maybe it's the friendships, or the family aspect? Either way, these two are definitely my top favorite contemporaries at the moment.
And how can one make a favorite contemporaries list without mentioning Fangirl, Anna and the French Kiss and To All The Boys I've Loved Before? Well, one simply can't! These three all left me dreaming of very cute boys, and having my own perfect romance. And that's exactly what I want a contemporary to do. TATBILB has a special little place in my heart, because it made me want to learn how to bake snicker doodles, and I fell in love with them. Speaking of, I should make them again soon!
I've also been reading more contemporaries with LGBT+ themes, and Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, You Know Me Well and Everything Leads to You are absolutely amazing! I actually just finished Everything Leads to You this morning, and I just can't stop thinking about it. Nina LaCour might just become one of my favorite authors. 

What are your favorite contemporaries?

TTT: Books I'd Put On My Classroom Shelf If I Were a Teacher

A few years ago, I very briefly wanted to be a teacher. I thought being able to teach kids valuable things and being an important person in their lives would be so so rewarding and amazing, and I had all these ideas about how I could make classes more fun. Then, I realized that I can't even speak in front of a classroom, and whenever I tried to explain a certain math-problem to a classmate (which honestly rarely happened, because I sucked at math) I would only confuse the person I wanted to explain it to. So yeah, teaching? Not for me.

But now let's pretend that I am a teacher, what books would I have on the classroom shelf? (Also, let's pretend that I teach various different age groups in this classroom, just to make it a bit easier for me to find books.) These are some of the books that would definitely be on there:

I picked all these books, because 1) they're all excellent, and would definitely make someone fall in love with reading, and I'd love to 'raise' a class full of bookworms. And because 2) while being excellent, they all deal with important issues, like bullying, friendships, mental health and diversity. 

I really think all of these books speak for itself, and I don't need to write something about every single one of them to make you understand why I picked them, so this TTT is going to be a short one.

I hope all of you are having an amazing tuesday! And tell me, what books would you have picked?