Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Really Want to Meet (Besides Kevin Hearne)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Books That I Would Really Like to Meet



1. Kevin Hearne
Author of The Iron Druid Chornicles
I fangirl for him so hard, that I'm surprised that he hasn't put a restraining order against me. Well, maybe if I COULD ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO A DAMNED SIGNING (!!!) he would. *sigh* The closest he's came to me is Dallas, but something always comes up. One day, I'll make it, and I'm sure there will be millions of people in line because he's so awesome.

Sad Kayla is sad.





2. Neil Gaiman
Author of Coraline, Neverwhere, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, American Gods, Sandman and many more terrific books
I loved Good Omens first out of all of his books, but I think The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the only one that I've read that I didn't love. I also love love love The Doctor's Wife, the episode of Doctor Who that he wrote. (I didn't care for Nightmare in Silver as much, but it's probably because I hate Clara.) Anywho, he's a handsome man who writes good stuff.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Spoilers)

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
#1 New York Times Bestseller in hardcover.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.

You can read Kayla's review of the book HERE.

My Review (Spoilers Below)

An unnamed narrator visits his childhood home and is flooded with magical memories his adult mind can no longer rationalize. Like Mary Poppins or Nanny McPhee, the Hempstock women take the narrator under their wing and open his mind to mysterious possibilities. Mrs. Hempstock reads minds. Old Mrs. Hempstock vanquishes evil forces. Eleven-year-old Lettie Hempstock believes the pond in her farm’s backyard is an ocean.

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors That Would Be Sitting at My Lunch Table

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Five Authors That Would Be Sitting at My Lunch Table
I am going to change this one up a little bit this week since I already did a favorite characters Top Ten a few months. This will be the authors that I would be best friends with in an alternate reality.



1. Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is probably my favorite author. Not only is he a fantastic fantasy writer, but he's also a really awesome person. After I read my first Gaiman novel, The Graveyard Book, I stumbled upon Gaiman's blog. Hours and tears and laughter later, I decided I wanted to read anything and everything Gaiman had ever thought about writing. He's also friends with insanely cool people too, like George R. R. Martin (he challenged Martin to the Ice Bucket Challenge and both are really funny to watch).



2. Ilona Andrews
Husband and wife writing duo, Ilona and Gordon, are my next favorite authors. The Kate Daniels series is hands-down my favorite urban fantasy series ever. Kate is one of the most hysterically sarcastic characters. And the writing really carries over into their blog.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
#1 New York Times Bestseller in hardcover.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.

My Review

It would be easy for me to say that I love Neil Gaiman's writing, but it would not be enough. Nor would it be enough to say that I admire him as a writer. No, I think only a wordsmith such as Neil Gaiman himself could put such emotions as he makes me feel to words, and, sadly, I am not one. Unless you have read his books, you cannot truly understand the power in his words.

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors Read In 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2013



1. Harper Lee
Author of To Kill a Mockingbird
I can’t believe I waited until after I graduated from law school and became a lawyer before I ever read this book. This really is a book that everyone should read as it displays the best and worst of humans in general and Americans in particular – bravery and honesty and racism and hatred.