Top Ten: Books I’d Like to See on the Big Screen

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

Today I am sharing with you the top ten books that I would like to see adapted for tv or film. When done well, adaptations can be AWESOME and catapult a book into the forefront of the public’s minds.  

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan: I could have picked any of his novels that I’ve read. I chose BMB as the secondary characters were as good as the main ones, and I would make this into a tv series if I had the choice. 

The CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore: Again, an awesome idea for a TV series. Each episode or set of episodes a different mission. Done properly, this would make my LIFE. 

      

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: Such an emotional summer read, this would make an excellent movie. 

                The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud: The start of a new adventure packed series, I can already picture it on the big screen! 

                 

Geek Girl by Holly Smale: Funny yet brutally honest, I need more geeky films in my life! Especially when they involve Harriet and Toby. (And Harriet’s dad, of course). 

Dust Lands series by Moira Young: An amazing dystopian / postapocalyptic series. I love the unique style of this one, and am dying to read the third book! 

          

          

  Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer: This book is GORGEOUS and the illustrations really make it come to life (the irony, I know!). A film would be epic. 

The Timeriders series by Alex Scarrow: Similar to Muchamore’s CHERUB series, I can only imagine the endless adventures the Timeriders team could embark on. 

           

 

 

 

 

 

The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter: While I haven’t read all the books in this series, I have really enjoyed it so far and the boarding school feel would make for perfect movie material.      

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel: MONKEYS. No other explanation is needed.  

Series are definitely my favourite choice! Can you think of anything I’m missing? Leave me some recommendations! Do you agree/disagree with my choices? Link me to your TTT below!   

Letterbox Love #20

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

This is actualy a 4 week post. I didn’t have time before my holiday to post the haul, and I’ve been away for two weeks! Luckily I haven’t bought a lot of books. I did, however, have masses of books to pick up from my library. For such a small authority (only 16 libraries) they get really great teen books, and I am excited about lots of these. 

First up is You Don’t Know Me by Sophia Bennett. This sounds like a really fun book AND it has blue edges. Win! Kite Spirit by Sita Brahmachari also looks like a good summer read.

There are lots of YA action/thrillers this week, which is something I’m really pleased about. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is about the son of a serial killer, and Bodyguard: Hostage by Chris Bradford features a 14-year-old professional bodyguard. 

Two books that sound quite sad are Heroic by Phil Earle and Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid. Both these books have gotten good reviews from fellow bloggers, so I’m very excited to read these. 

Shadow Runners by Daniel Blythe looks very similar to Alex Scarrow’s Timeriders series, so it intrigued me as this is a series I love. A book that I’ve had on my ebook shelf for a while is Hysteria by Megan Miranda. I ordered the paperback from my library to push myself to read it! 

Lastly, two adult chick fic books, to lighten the mood from all that hard hitting YA. Both authors I have read before, Country Loving by Cathy Woodman and Happy Families by Janey Fraser are books I will save for when I need a laugh. 

  I also got some books of my own. Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby was a book I ordered way back in Jan/Feb when Bloomsbury had a sale. Unfortunately the publication got delayed and I’ve only just received it! I couldn’t resist a trip to The Works where I snapped up Blood Red Road by Moira Young. I love this series and can’t wait till the third book comes out, which isn’t till 2014, so I will probably need to reread this nearer the release date. Even though I haven’t read Veronica Rossi’s first book yet, I decided to buy the second one, Through the Ever Night, as it is so cheap I didn’t want to miss out and I can always give it away if I don’t enjoy the first. I also picked up The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda as it sounded really cool. Having just looked on Goodreads, I think I may actually already have a copy of it but with a different cover. Damn those cover changes! 

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for two signed Sarah Dessen books, What Happened to Goodbye and The Truth About Forever. I don’t think I have actually read any of her books, so this will be perfect in getting me started on her collection. Extra special thanks to Winterhaven Books for the giveaway, for signed books and for shipping it all this way for me! Thank you so much. 

 Now for those Ebooks:

I got an invitation to review Nowhere by Jon Robinson from Netgalley and Penguin. Described as a ‘fast-paced conspiracy thriller’ featuring teenagers locked inside a cube, I had to have it. Although the cover looks quite simple, I love the hands in the title! Its like the story is just seeping out the pages. Many thanks for the opportunity to read this 🙂

I love boarding school books, so The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani was a cert for me. Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this.

A book that I have been waiting to come out for ages is Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris. I loved Unravelling (review here), so will try and fit this in soon! And I love the UK cover much more than the US 🙂 Thanks Netgalley and Harper Collins once more.

I couldn’t resist requesting a couple when I got back from holiday (I have no willpower, sue me). I adore the cover of Acid by Emma Pass, and I love action YA so I am really looking forward to this. Thanks for the speedy approval Random House!

It seemed like the whole world was getting proofs of Malorie Blackman’s Noble Conflict and I was itching to see what it was like. So when it popped up on Netgalley there was no hesitation before requesting! Many thanks Random House.

Happy Birthday To Me by Brian Rowe sounds like a funny and intriguing book about a boy who ages a year every day. Thanks to Brian for the Netgalley approval!

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Film Friday #1

Welcome to my new feature, Film Friday. Here I will recap the films I have watched this week, and ones that I have either discovered or talked about. 

Watched: 

You’ve Got Mail 

My parents always raved about this film, but it’s not one I’ve ever seen, even though it was released in 1998! Starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as two owners of competing bookshops, they fall in love over the Internet. 

I thought this film was lovely (I can’t resist a film about bookshops!) and really cute. Even if I did want to shout ‘RUN FORREST’ everytime I saw Tom Hanks. 4 Sofas from me! 

Flight

Starring Denzel Washington as a pilot who saves a crashing plane, his life comes under the spotlight when it is discovered he was drunk and high on cocaine at the time of the flight. 

I saw this at the cinema list week. During the adverts before the film, I told my other half what the film was about. He said ‘I hope it’s better than it sounds then’. And it was! Although lacking in action after the first 15 minutes, this drama was really thought provoking. It also had some funny moments with John Goodman, and me and my other half were pleasantly surprised. We have a running joke that he picks terrible films (usually involving aliens or whatnot), so if he doesn’t particularly want to see it then it will be good! I’m a fan of Denzel anyway, but this added to his repertoire of great films. 4 sofas! 

Heard/Talked about:

Timeriders: the Movie (link to Timeriders website as no IMDB page)

I’m a huge fan of the Timeriders series of books by Alex Scarrow. I’ve read 4 of the (currently) 7 part series, and I have enjoyed them all. I have books 5 and 6 on by TBR shelf, and I think they are a great YA series. 

There is a petition here to get Hollywood to turn this series into a film (or set of films!). And I don’t know why it hasn’t already! The poster is amazing.

Jurassic Park 4

It has been confirmed with an expected release in Summer 2014. I love this trilogy, and can’t wait to find out more about the new one. Also rumoured to be released in 3D.

That’s my film wrap up for this week. What are your opinions/thoughts? Can you recommend any other good book-orientated film aside from You’ve Got Mail? 

Letterbox Love #11

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

An impressive haul this week 😀 It was my birthday yesterday, so a trip to Waterstones was a must! First the library love: 

‘The Sky Is Everywhere‘ by Jandy Nelson is on my to-read list. So if I physically hold the book, there’s more chance of me reading it….right? This is the only book I collected this week as I am trying very hard to get my library pile down!

Now for ebooks! I was extremely excited to get my first Edelweiss acceptance this week, and it seems HarperCollins must love me! I got accepted for ‘Period 8‘ by Chris Crutcher, ‘Mila 2.0‘ by Debra Driza, ‘Pivot Point‘ by Kasie West and ‘Pretty Girl-13‘ by Liz Coley. All four are books I have heard lots about and sound AMAZING so I am extremely grateful! I had to resist starting Mila 2.0 last night, as I have a couple of others that need to come first. Much much love for Harper Collins though, as this was a wonderful gift. *Swoons*

         

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin for ‘Speechless‘ by Hannah Harrington. It feels like this book has been on my to-read list FOREVER so I was really pleased to get this. It sounds very gripping, and I’m sure I will devour it! 

I was also quite shocked to get accepted for ‘Warm Bodies‘ by Isaac Marion. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House. I was a bit unsure about this one but there is a lot of hype so it made me intrigued. I never usually get accepted by Random House so it is much appreciated!

And now for the ones I bought! This is quite bad of me, but there are soooooo many new books out there that I want to read, and many that my local library doesn’t have. In my defence, I got some in the sale, and most of the others were buy one, get one half price. I had no choice! So here are the ones I bought yesterday:

Yay for John Green! I adored ‘A Fault in Their Stars’, so I grabbed the opportunity to read another of his novels. And the cover for ‘Looking For Alaska‘ is so pretty! I had a bit of a dilemma between this and ‘an Abundance of Katherines’, but I hope I made the right choice. I also picked up ‘City of Shadows‘ by Alex Scarrow (Time Riders 6) as I have some of the other Timeriders so this will go nicely with my collection.

I also took advantage of this trip to pick up ‘Love Virtually‘ by Daniel Glattauer. I am totally in love with this book, and its sequel ‘Every Seventh Wave, which I reviewed earlier this week here. I implore you to read it!

Two that I picked up that I haven’t read before are ‘From What I Remember‘ by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas and ‘Partials‘ by Dan Wells. The first just sounded really fun, a good beach read, and like it might have some laughs too! Conversely, I wanted ‘Partials’ as it sounded like a good dystopian novel. And I think you can never have too many of them in your life! 

Never ending books, hehe. ‘Second Chance Summer‘ by Morgan Matson was I book I was/am really looking forward to. I love reading books about illness and such things, especially YA, so this is really up my street. I chose ‘Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind‘ by Andy Robb firstly for its quirky cover, and because its always fun to read a boy’s perspective on girls. I think everyone should read books once in a while that make them smile, and this looks like that type of book!

Finally ‘Before I Die‘ by Jenny Downham (already read), ‘Perfect Chemistry‘ by Simone Elkeles and ‘Perfect Match‘ by Jodi Picoult because who can resist a bargain! Yay for sale books! And because of my book buying excellence, a £10 voucher from the lovely people at Waterstones for spending so much money. What an excuse to buy more books…. 

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile? I’d love to hear from you! 

Book Review: Eternal War (Timeriders #4)

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.

But all three have been given a second chance—to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history…

A time wave has struck that alters the entire history of the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln has followed Liam into the present from 1831 and now the world is in a dangerous state of limbo…Can Maddy persuade two colonels on either side of no man’s land to cease fire long enough to save the future?

‘Eternal War‘ by Alex Scarrow is the third in the TimeRider series. The basic storyline is three teenagers who have been saved from death are transported to a hub where time replays itself every 2/3 (i cant remember!) days, before and after 9/11.

A bit like the tv show ‘Primeval’, each book takes place in a different timeline. If something changes history, then a time wave occurs and changes the present. The three then have to figure out how to change it back, by going back in time.

I really enjoyed the first three books in the series; however I did read them all in one go so by the 3rd it was a bit too much. The books do jump around a lot; from the present to the past/future and sometimes different places too. I think it takes some time to be immersed in the book because of this. However, each chapter is clearly defined in time and place so it’s easy to double check you know where/when you are!

I think these books are great for YAs who like a bit of action, but aren’t afraid of the sci-fi aspect of the timechanging. There is great character development throughout the books, and I think these books are underrated.

The reason I’ve jumped back on the TimeRider ship is because I received the 5th book as a present, so had to read the fourth. And I can’t wait! But what do you think? Have you read any of the Timerider series? Should I keep reading? Please share your thoughts/comments below 🙂