This week's Top Ten topic, from the brilliant bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish, is Top Ten Minor Characters.  It's interesting that this topic came up this week, as I am finally reading The Eyre Affair, which is full of talk about minor characters and how taking them out of books is a crime.  I'm going to try not to let this list devolve into Top Ten Sidekicks Redux, but I admit to having trouble thinking of enough minor characters to fill a whole list...besides, there are no small parts, only small actors, or something like that...

10.  Octavia, Venia, and Falvius from The Hunger Games-These three were Katniss's prep team for the Hunger Games, and along with her stylist Cinna were in charge of getting her support from wealthy capitol residents.  I'm not sure why I found them so charming-they are completely shallow and not that bright, but something about them just struck me as endearing.

9.  Robin Castagna, from Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series-Robin is Alex's love interest, a musician who makes and restore guitars and other stringed instruments.  She provides the perfect compliment to Delaware's rather driven nature.  I was so upset when they split for a couple of books, but they are back together and all is right with the world.

8.  Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter-Poor Neville!  He just couldn't seem to catch a break, could he?  And I only loved him more after I found out what happened to his parents.  Such a sad story!

7.  Fletch, from Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster-OK, so he's a real person, and therefore not minor in the least, but I love reading about him as Jen writes about him.  He appears rather saintly, putting up with her snarkiness.  I admit to being convinced that Jen and I are destined to meet on the streets of Chicago and become besties, and then I would get to meet the sainted Fletch in person!

6.  The Town of Niniltna and The Park, from Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series-I realize that choosing the whole town is a bit of a cop out, but there are so many interesting, quirky characters in this series that choosing one is almost impossible.  This series makes me want to lace up my mukluks, grab my parka, jump on my snowmobile, and ride down a frozen river.

5.  Miss Celia from The Help-Poor trashy Celia!  She is so out of her depth in the world of privileged Southern women, and her poor, stupid husband just doesn't seem to get it.

4.  Windsor Horne Lockwood III from Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series-Win, as he is known, is a rich and powerful child of privilege who is completely amoral but fiercely loyal to the few people he calls friend.  What's not to love?

3.  Moira, from The Handmaid's Tale-I'm not sure if it is the fact that she was a lesbian, or the fact that she refused to accept her fate as a Handmaid and ran away, but whatever the reason I always felt close to Moira when reading this book.  What happens to her is tragic, but I would not have felt it so strongly if I didn't also feel a strong connection to her.

2.  Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh-I know that he is all sad and stuff, but he makes me happy.  Perverse, I realize, but there it is.

1.  Lucy Farinelli, from the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell-She's slowly become a more major than minor character, but I loved her from her precocious, 10 year old start.  Kay's neice, only daughter of her flighty, many-times married sister, Kay has always taken care of Lucy as best she could.  Lucy is brilliant, a millionaire by 25, but emotionally stunted, especially after she is sucked in by the manipulative Carrie Grethen, who uses her love to try and kill Scarpetta.  She might be my current favorite character from this series.

Top Ten Tuesday: Mean Girls

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish for all of us that love lists.  This week's topic is Top Ten Mean Girls.  I had to really give it some thought, since I would probably choose a slightly more, ummm, colorful word to describe most of these women (rhymes with "stitch, if you know what I mean).  I only got up to eight before I ran out of time, but they are pretty representative of the type, I think!

1. Miss Hilly from The Help-I don't know if it was her shocking-by-today's-standards racism, or just her general mean-spiritedness, but she was a character I loved to hate.

2.  Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmations-A fur coat from puppies, do I really need to explain more than that?

3. The Trunchbull, from Matilda-She was the headmistress from Hell, until Matilda gave her her comeuppance!

4.  Lady MacBeth, from, well, you know where-I don't care how bad she felt about it later (out, damned spot!), she started that whole miserable mess.

5. Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest-What a horrible, nasty, cruel person she was!

6.  Mrs. John Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility-Her greed and general snootiness make her a perfect Vistorian mean girl!

7.  Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter-Again with the racism!  Muggles unite!

8.  The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-The movie version of her was exactly as I envisioned her when I read the books back in the early 1980s.  Haughty and cruel.

Top Ten Tuesday-Characters I'd Name My Children After

Thank you, lovely bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish, for hosting this weekly meme that allows me to indulge in my love of all things listy!

This week's prompt is a chance to give some character love.  When my daughter was born in 1994, my then husband and I had a deal.  If the baby was a girl, could name her, but if it was a boy, he could name him.  We each, however, reserved veto power over the other's choices.  And that is the reason my daughter Briana does not have a literary name-I was overruled on Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice), Morgaine (Mists of Avalon) or Guinevere (also Mists-I was a bit obsessed at the time).  It's probably a good thing in the last two cases that I was vetoed, but I was only 24, so I plead youth.  Now, at the more "mature" age of 41, I've read a lot more, and have many more character to choose from!

1.  Claire-This comes from both The Time Traveler's Wife and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.  Both women are  loyal, strong, and loving, which I think are good qualities to hope for in a child.

2.  Henry-From the Time Traveler's Wife.  Again, smart, loving, loyal...and we'll just leave the ultimately doomed thing behind.

3.  Hermione-Ah, if only I lived in Britain or was British myself, I could get away with this one.  Hermione is definitely the best of all of the Harry Potter characters.  Ron is sweet and Harry is noble, but Hermione was the one who ensured that things got done so Harry would still be around to fight Voldemort.

4. Lisbeth-Ok, this is mostly because I thought the name was pretty long before I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But let's face it, Lisbeth can kick some serious butt, which is not a bad trait to have, at least metaphorically speaking.

5.  Peter-The oldest brother of the Pevensie children from the Narnia series,  Peter was brave and steadfast, unlike Edmund, the moody younger brother.

6.  Lucy-Also from Narnia.  Small but mighty, Lucy was all heart and loyalty.  Susan may have been older, but I don't think she was wiser than little Lucy.

7.  Alex-The Alex Delaware novels was one of the first mystery/thriller series I read, and I have always loved Alex's intelligence and compassion.  Plus he was completely accepting of his gay friend and police officer Milo way back before most authors were comfortable having gay characters in their books.

8.  August-I loved August Boatwright's character from The Secret Life of Bees.  Comfort-everything about her brings comfort and strength.

9.  Sam-After Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings books.  Best.Friend.Ever.

10.  Stargirl-OK, I probably would never actually have the nerve to do such a thing, but the main character of Stargirl and Love, Stargirl is everything I want my daughter to be.  Loving, idealistic, quirky, and completely comfortable with herself.

Top Ten Tuesday: Children's Books I DID Read

Thanks to the women at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting Top Ten Tuesdays.  Being a list-lover as I am, I am always excited for a new topic.

Excited, that is, until this week.  This week's topic is "books I wish I had read as a child", and the happy fact is that I can't think of one.  I've read most of the children's classics, and plenty more besides.  I even tried looking at other people's list to see if maybe I was just blocking out titles that I felt ashamed to say I'd never read, but nope...I'm actually thrilled as can be with my childhood reading selections.

But I love lists!  What's a list-loving book blogger to do? Why, chan...er....modify the topic slightly, of course.  So here, rather than book I wish I had read as a kid, I will revisit a past topic I did not get to participate in-my favorite childhood books.  There were so many I'm going to have a hard time narrowing it down to just ten. 

Bridge to Terebithia, Katherine Paterson-I love this story of Jess and Leslie and their unlikely friendship.  This is also the first time I understood that children can die.  I can't read this aloud to my classes today because I sill cry every time.

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret, Judy Blume-I'm pretty sure that there are women about my age all over the country who would choose this coming of age story as one of their favorites.  I was so disappointed to read Blume's adult works later in life.  They just didn't hold a candle to her young adult books.

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell-This was my introduction to strong female characters.  I so admires Karana and her ability to keep herself alive, and never to lose hope.  Plus, I've sort of always wanted to live on an island, though preferably not alone in a hut.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr-This may have been the first book I read about the Holocaust, and it started a life-long interest in the subject.  The thought that your whole life could be stolen away from you in the blink of an eye was frightening, and as I got older I appreciated how Kerr used Anna's story to introduce young readers to the idea of oppression.

Jacob, Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson-I so identified with Louise in this book.  As a quiet kid who was pretty shy, I often felt misunderstood by my peers and I understood her jealousy of the ease with which her sister lived in the world.. Louise was another strong female character that I adored.

The Narnia series, C.S. Lewis-My first fantasy series, but certainly not my last.  I had the rare and intense pleasure of watching the first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe turned into the story into a movie that was EXACTLY like I had imagined reading it all those years ago.

Across Five Aprils, Irene Hunt-I've always been a fan of historical fiction, and this is probably one of the first ones I read.  It was unusual for me to find strong connections with male characters when I was a girl, but I did with this one.

The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett-Oh, how I cried when Colin stood up and walked to his father for the first time.  And as hateful as Mary can be, you can't help but feel sorry for the poor orphan living in that cold, looming house.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betsy Smith-Francie was one of my favorite characters growing up, and I still reread this one every few years.  Historical fiction meets coming of age story-two of my favorite things all rolled into one.

Rutabaga Stories, Carl Sandburg-I checked this book out of the school library so many times the librarian offered to get me my own copy.  A collection of humorous short stories, Sandberg's gift for language and down-home sort of humor was a hit with me.

 

The Cay, Theodore Taylor-When my teacher read this aloud to us in fifth grade, I was captivated.  Living in an all white suburb of Chicago in the 70s, I had never really had any exposure to issues of race or racism.  This book opened my eyes to the absurdity of separating ourselves from each other on the basis of the melanin content of our skin.

A Summer to Die, Lois Lowry-Like many a pre-teen, I was a bit of a tragedy junkie.  This book by Lois Lowry fit the bill.  The story of a young girl whose sister gets cancer and dies is still a tearjerker.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,  Mildred Taylor-Taylor's writing is a masterpiece of historical fiction and character development.  While The Cay may have been my first exposure to racism, Taylor's works certainly helped me put what I learned into a historical perspective.

Top Ten

This is a meme hosted by Random Ramblings.  Since I love all things listy, thought I'd give it a shot.  This week's theme is Top Ten Fictional Characters...While it's open to any media, I'm going to stick on the literary end.  These are in no particular order, since I can't really rank them.  They are all so different, it would be like trying to rank my kids...

1.  Jo March,Little Women:  For any woman over the age of 30 I probably don't have to explain this choice at all.  Younger readers, if you think that early American fiction isn't for you, think again and read this book!

2.  Alex Delaware, from Jonathan Kellerman's series:  I read many, many mysteries and love most of the main characters, but there is something about Alex that is comforting, and I really care about what happens to him as though he was a real person out there somewhere.

3.  Harry Potter,Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:  I realize that he is the main character in seven books, but this is the one where I liked him the best.  Young, uncomplicated, before he got all dark and twisty, as Meredith Gray would say.  Plus, let's face it, he may have been realistically surly in a teenage sense in Order of the Phoenix, but sometimes I wanted to tell him to man up and quit his cryin'!

4.  Francie Nolan, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn:  I think I like her for the same reason I like Jo March.  She was a girl struggling to find her way through the social and cultural rules of her time.  Whereas Jo was trying to find life and love on her own terms, Francie was trying to find a way to help her family survive in New York City around the turn of the century.

5.  Lisbeth Salandar,The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:  I always like complicated female characters, and Lisbeth certainly fits the bill.  There's something cathartic about reading a revenge fantasy like the scene with her "guardian" in this novel, even if you would never condone it in real life.

6.August Boatwright, The Secret Life of Bees:  I almost wished I too had to run away from home so I could go to Tiburon, South Carolina and be taken care of by August and her sisters.  I loved her movie self as well, played admirably by Queen Latifah.

7.  Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:  Yes, even Edmund, who comes through in the end.  Oh how I cried when Peter and Susan got too old to go back to Narnia!

8.  Hannibal Lechter, Silence of the Lambs:  Was there ever a so deliciously evil character written before or since.  Frankly he was the only reason I read Hannibal.  It certainly wasn't for the barely plausible plot.

9.  Myron Bolitar and Win Locke-Horn, Harlan Coben's Bolitar series:  Maybe it's the basketball, maybe it's the completely strange relationship these two have, maybe it's just that these are top-notch mysteries that are formulaic without being predictable, but I love reading about Myron and Win!

10.  Marietta Cook, Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots:  If you haven't read this book by Susan Straight you are really missing out on a truly insightful look into what a small town southern girl has to do to make it in the big city.