Top 10 Tuesday #4 - September 21

Hi booklovers

This week's top 10 Tuesday (posted on Wednesday :-$) is 'All About Audio freebie'.

Created by The Broke and the Bookish

Since this is a freebie I wanted to share my top 10 favourite Sabaton songs.

Sabaton is a Swedish powermetal band I absolutely love.

I've seen them perform live a couple of times already and it's always been great fun. One of the things I really like about Sabaton (and other metal bands) is that there songs more often than not tell a story. Sabaton's songs usually tell the story of a war or an epic battle. Living in Belgium, a country that's been affected by both world wars, this is something that appeals to me very much.

So without further ado, I present to you my top 10 favourite Sabaton songs:

(Click on the title of the song to go to YouTube, click on the name of the album to go to the Sabaton website and read some of the historic background of the song.)

I'm going to give these songs a number, but these are all equally my favourite songs. (To be honest, I love almost all of their songs, but I had to choose, right?)

#1 Primo Victoria - Primo Victoria

#2 Attero Dominatus - Attero Dominatus

#3 A light in the black - Attero Dominatus

#4 The price of a mile - The Art of War

#5 Uprising - Coat of Arms

#6 Resist and Bite - Heroes

#7 Night Witches - Heroes

#8 Soldier of 3 armies - Heroes

#9 Blood of Bannockburn - The Last Stand

#10 The Lost Battalion - The Last Stand

I know this is not everybody's cup of tea, but I really love listening to their music and I hope to attend many more of their live shows in the (near) future!

Bye for now

Annelies

Top 10 Tuesday #3 - August 30.

Hi booklovers

This week's Top 10 Tuesday's topic was a 'Back to school freebie'.

Created by The Broke and the Bookish

Being a language teacher and an avid reader I really try to encourage my pupils to read. So, I picked 'Books I would put in our high school library to learn pupils that reading can be fun'.

I divided this list up according to the 'appropriate' age-groups:

1st and 2nd year (12 - 13/14 year olds)

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

This is a wonderful story about a boy with a deformed face who goes to school for the very first time. This story is so beautiful and it deals with bullying in a very good and realistic way.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

No explenation needed.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The wonderful world of Narnia is so fantastically created, everyone should go through the cupboard at least once in their lives.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This was the first dystopian story I read and I really liked it. I know it's also a series that has gotten a lot of young people into reading, so that's why I would add it to the school library.

The Origami Yoda series

by Tom Angleberger

This combines Star Wars, easy stories and funny drawings. I believe this would be ideal to get those pupils who don't really like reading to at least give it a try.

3rd and 4th year (14 - 15/16 year olds)

Illuminae
by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

This is such a different format, I think it might appeal to those pupils who don't really like to read because they get bored easily.

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

In the 4th year Dutch lessons pupils learn about 'fairy tales', so these fairy tale-retellings would be a nice addition to the library.

The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

I think this wonderful fantasy trilogy is a good starting point to venture into this genre.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

I read this trilogy for my dissertation when I was studying at teacher-training college and I absolutely loved it. This has so many aspects woven into these amazing stories, highly recommend.

5th and 6th year (16 - 18 year olds)

The His Fair Assassin trilogy

I absolutely adore these kick-ass female protagonists. This would also help get rid of the trope that only boys like reading fantasy stories!

The Saga graphic novels

by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Since this is a very graphic graphic novel series I would only recommend it to the 6th years, but the story is so great, I think they should really give it a try.

The Fables graphic novels

by Bill Willingham.

Again, I think these fairy tale 'retellings' are a great way to get pupils to read.

When I first started thinking about this topic I thought I wouldn't get to ten books and now I even have twelve :-)

Which books would you add to the school library? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Top 10 Tuesday #3 - August 16.

Hi booklovers

This week's Top 10 Tuesday topic is 'Top 10 books set in X setting'.

Created by The Broke and the Bookish

I didn't really know which setting I should pick until I took a good look at my bookshelves and saw that I have quite a few books that feature dragons. So, I decided to look for my top 10 books set in a world where dragons roam the earth.

These books are in no particular order, but I am going to divide them into 'books I've read' and 'books I own but haven't read'.

*Books I've read:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I don't think Smaug needs any introduction :-)

The Dragonvarld trilogy by Margaret Weis

Mistress of Dragons, The Dragon's Son and Master of Dragons. (I read these in Dutch)

Talon by Julie Kagawa

The Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini

I've only read books 1 and 2 but I want to continue with the series.

Drakenkoningin by An Janssens

This is a book by a Flemish author. I own the second book, but I haven't read it yet.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Although dragons aren't the main focus of these books, they do sometimes play important roles.

*Books I own but haven't read:

The Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning.

The Dragonlance Legends trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins.

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Dawn of a Dark Age by Jane Welch

This is my latest book purchase.

Do you like books about dragons? If so, tell me some of your favourite books where dragons roam the world.

Bye for now

Annelies

Top 10 Tuesday #2 - August 9.

Hi booklovers

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is 'rewind'.

The creators of the meme The Broke and the Bookish compiled a list with almost all the topics of the last six years that we could pick from.

I decided to go with 'Top 10 Auto-buy Authors'. I did a post about this last year, but since then I've discovered a whole bunch of new auto-buy authors.

The two authors that were already on my auto-buy list are:

Katie McGarry

She writes ya contemporary stories and is the author of The Pushing the Limits and the Thunder Road series. Her PTL series were some of the first YA contemporary stories I read and they made me enjoy the genre very much.

Cora Carmack

Another (mostly) contemporary writer but this time in the NA genre. I've read all of the books in the Losing it and the Rusk University series and the first (and currently only) book of the Muse series. I'm eagerly awaiting the next books in the RU and the Muse series :-)

These are my other auto-buy authors:

Morgan Matson

I only need to read the Unexpected Everything and then I will have caught up with her books.

Krista and Becca Ritchie

Although I still need to catch up with some of their books, I plan on buying and reading everything these twin sister ever release. The Addicted series is one of my favourite NA contemporary series ever!

Leigh Bardugo

Moving on to the fantasy genre. I have read and adored the Grisha trilogy and I plan on reading Six of Crows before Crooked Kingdom comes out.

Sara Raasch

I really enjoyed the two Snow Like Ashes books that are currently out, so I'm definitely going to read the final installment in the trilogy. And it's safe to say I'll be buying every other books Sara Raasch releases :-)

Victoria Aveyard

The same goes for Victoria Aveyard. I really enjoyed Red Queen and Glass Sword. Even though I didn't enjoy Cruel Crown all that much I'm still going to continue with the series and buy every other book she'll release.

Bre Faucheux

Bre is a self-published author and I really enjoy her books. I might be a bit biased, because Bre is a good friend of mine, but she is a good writer and I will always read anything she releases!

Marissa Meyer

And lastly, even though I haven't read Winter or Stars Above yet, I am going to (pre-)order Heartless :-)

Robert Jordan

Even though I know this is an author I can't buy any new books from since he passed away a couple of years ago, I still own every book in his The Wheel of Time series and I would have bought every other book written by him.

Of course I hope I will add more auto-buy authors to this list.

Who are some of your auto-buy authors? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Top 10 Tuesday #1 - Augst 2

Hi booklovers

I wanted to try out something new and I decided to take part in Top 10 Tuesday. This item was created by The Broke and the Bookish.

The topic for this week is: 10 Books You'd Buy Right This Second If Someone Handed You A Fully Loaded Gift Card.

I took a look at my wishlist and chose 10 books I want to buy right away. These are in no particular order, btw.

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

2. Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes.

3. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson.

4. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard.

5. The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye.

6. Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake.

7. The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine.

8. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken.

9. Locke and Key (all the volumes starting with the second one).

10. Fables (again, all the volumes but starting with the third one).

Books 4 'till 8 are some of my anticipated 2016 releases.

Which books would you buy if someone handed you a fully loaded gift card? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies