Top Ten: Books That Need a Sequel

On March 12, 2019March 12, 2019 By Rachel @ thewasofshallIn top ten tuesday5 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme was standalone books that need a sequel.

I had a really hard time with this week’s topic, y’all. The books I thought of first were either already part of a series or were so terrible that, even if I didn’t like the ending, I didn’t particularly care to read more. 😂 So, do the following books need a sequel? No, not really—but I also wouldn’t complain if they got one!

♥ I Went to Vassar for This? by Naomi Neale
♥ If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
♥ Miss You by Kate Eberlen
♥ My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren
♥ Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

♥ On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
♥ The Regional Office is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales
♥ Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
♥ What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine
♥ The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

BONUS! The following books were standalone, but now they all have sequels!!

♥ Geekerella by Ashley Poston
♥ The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
♥ The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Top Ten: Characters I’d Switch Places With

On March 5, 2019 By Rachel @ thewasofshallIn top ten tuesday5 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme was characters I’d switch places with – which, just so you know, was really hard! I mostly ended up deciding that these characters had a not-so-difficult arc, existed in a world I found tolerable, and whose end justified the means. Onward!

Beth from Attachments // Diana from A Discovery of Witches // Elle from Geekerella // Susan from Giant Days // Cameron from If I’m Being Honest

Cathy from I Went to Vassar for This? // Molly from Lip Lock // Millie from My Favorite Half-Night Stand // Lizzie from Queen of Babble // Jessica from Sloppy Firsts

Top Ten: Romantic Couples

On February 12, 2019February 26, 2019 By Rachel @ thewasofshallIn top ten tuesday4 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme was my favorite (romantic) couples in books.😍

Diana & Matthew from A Discovery of Witches // Elle & Darien from Geekerella // Emerson & Michael from Hourglass // Cathy & Hank from I Went to Vassar for This? // Rey & Ben from The Last Jedi

Molly & Kyle from Lip Lock // Tess & Gus from Miss You // Nik & Carlos from The Proposal // Bex & Nick from The Royal We // Lydia & John from The Witch of Willow Hall

Top Ten: Hidden Gems

On September 11, 2018February 27, 2019 By Rachel @ thewasofshallIn top ten tuesday1 Comment

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme was hidden gems (dealer’s choice). Below are ten three- and four-star reads that have under 1,000 ratings on Goodreads. (For perspective, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has 5 million!)

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain by Abby Norman // Before and After by Rosellen Brown // I Went to Vassar for This? by Naomi Neale // Leaper: The Misadventures of a Not-Necessarily-Super Hero by Geoffrey Wood // Love Will Tear Us Apart by Sarah Rainone

Remind Me Again Why I Need a Man by Claudia Carroll // Sh*t Girls Say by Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard // Smart Girls Like Me by Diana Vadino // Still Thinking of You by Adele Parks // Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture, 1875-1945 by Jon Savage

Five Favorite: TV I Want to Be Books

On September 10, 2016April 24, 2019 By Rachel @ thewasofshallIn five favoriteLeave a comment

“Five Favorite” is a feature on thewasofshall where I lay out my five favorite “x”. Sometimes they’re relevant to a season or holiday, mostly they’re not. It’s an all-around fun excuse to give my 100% amazingly awesome opinion. To see previous topics, click here.

I already did a top ten Tuesday post on books I want to see as a TV series or film, but there are sooo many shows I watch (and with which I am OBSESSED) that would work really well as a stand-alone or multi-book series. Here are my five favorite!

12 Monkeys: This series has quickly become one of my favorite shows, and it makes me think of a trilogy filled with time travel and romance and time travel and a high-stakes end-of-the-world plot and, oh yeah, TIME TRAVEL.
(Inspiration: The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin)

Agent Cater: I know that Peggy Carter is part of the MCU, but even ignoring her connection to Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D., I envision a visually muted series of comic issues highlighting her intelligence amid the sexism and misogyny of post-World War II New York.
(Inspiration: Lady Killer by Joëlle Jones)

Caitlin Fitzgerald as Libby Masters, Michael Sheen as Dr. William Masters and Lizzy Caplan as Virginia Johnson in Masters of Sex (season 3, Key Art) - Photo: Liz Von Hoene/SHOWTIME - Photo ID: MastersofSex_S3_KeyArt_300

Masters of Sex: The life of William Masters and Virginia Johnson was technically adapted from their biography of the same name, but I want a lush work of literary fiction filled to the brim with both criticism of and nostalgia for the mid twentieth century.
(Inspiration: I Went to Vassar for This? by Naomi Neale & The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides )

Mr. Robot: This show just begs for a stand-alone atmospheric thriller filled with tech jargon, an unreliable narrator, and the Hack Of The Century – which only happens half way through so you read into the middle of the night because WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PAGES LEFT???
(Inspiration: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk)

Orphan Black: Even good things have to end, so this would be a well-plotted, multi-arc series with kick-ass lady protagonists; multiple, intersecting plots; and an ever-widening conspiracy you just HAVE to figure out.
(Inspiration: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown)

Have your own five favorite TV shows you want as books? Let me know!