Top 5 Wednesday: bromances

Top 5 Wednesday is GoodReads group where people discuss different bookish topic each week. Yesterday the topic was bromances.

Bromance = platonic relationship between two characters who identify as male.

1, Miles Vorkosigan and Ivan Vorpatril by Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles and Ivan are cousins. They often get into adventures together. Miles is the irresistible force for forward momentum while Ivan is the innocent bystander (at least he claims so).

2, Legolas and Gimli by J. R. R. Tolkien
They start off as enemies but end up being the best of friends. LotR is just full of male friendships.

3, Cutter and Skywise from ElfQuest by Wendy and Richard Pini
The two elves who are brothers is all but blood.

4, Robin Hood and Little John
The legendary outlaw and his best friend.

5, Data and Geordi LaForge
This might be cheating a little, but lots of books have been written about Star Trek: TNG. 😊 I’ve always thought their friendship one of best things on the show.

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Top 5 Wednesday: series that got better

Top 5 Wednesday is GoodReads group where people discuss different bookish topic each week. Today the topic is: series that got better

I read a lot of series. I love to immerse myself in a world and characters. Thankfully quite a few of the series I’ve read in recent years either start good and continue to be good, or even get better so it was actually hard to choose just five.

1, October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
I didn’t actually fall in love with this series until the third book “An Artificial Night”. The two first ones “Rosemary and Rue” and “A Local Habitation” were interesting enough to keep me reading, though, and pretty soon the characters and the world really grew on me. Toby is a half-human, half-faerie woman. She’s a knight in the faery world and a private detective in San Francisco.

2, Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
The first couple of books is the Vorkosigan saga: “Shards of Honor”, “Warrior’s Apprentice”, and “Falling Free” are the first books Bujold wrote. Naturally, she got better. Great, character centric science fiction.

3, Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust
I actually really enjoyed the first book, “Jhereg”, where we met the sarcastic human assassin/sorcerer Vlad Taltos and his equally sarcastic familiar Loiosh. They live in a world dominated by Dragaerans, or elves. But the series grows more complex with every book and Brust also experiments with structures.

4, Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters
Amelia and her husband are a family of intrepid archeologists and amateur detectives. They are very humorous historical mysteries. The first two books “Crocodile on the Sandbank” and “the Curse of the Pharaoh” aren’t nearly as good as the rest.

5, Discworld by Terry Pratchett
I personally don’t really care for the first Discworld books “Color of Magic and “the Light Fantastic”. Luckily, I started with the witches book “Wyrd Sisters” which is the 6th book in the series and centers on the wonderful three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. The Discworld books can be read in any order.

 

Movies I’d like to see 2014, part II

Today, the topic of Top 5 Sundays at Larissa’s Bookish Life is Movies I’m Dying to see in 2014, part II.

Two of the three movies I’m most looking forward to this year have already come out. Luckily, both X-Men and Captain America were great and I really enjoyed them. Hobbit is still a long way off. I already mentioned Maleficent and Guardians of the Galaxy in my previous post so the rest of my top 5:

1, Jupiter Ascending
This looks like very cool super effects CGI movie. Sadly, the plot doesn’t seem so cool but I’ll likely see it anyway.

2, Interstellar
Nolan’s SF movie seems interesting, too.

3, How to Train Your Dragon 2
The first one was surprisingly entertaining so I’m willing to give the sequel a chance, too.

4, Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2
I enjoyed the first two.

5, Maze Runner
Another SF movie which could be interesting.

 

Favorite Couples in TV and movies

Yesterday, the topic of Top 5 Sundays at Larissa’s Bookish Life was Favorite Couples in TV and movies.

This was surprising hard but I managed to narrow them down to five.

1, Olivia and Peter
From Fringe.

2, Angela and Hodgins
From Bones.

3, Maid Marian and Robin Hood
From the 1980s Robin of Sherwood.

4, Tessa and Duncan
From Highlander TV-series. And it only lasted for the first season. Sob.

5, Zoey and Wash
From Firefly

 

Movies I’m Dying for in 2014

Today, the topic of Top 5 Sundays at Larissa’s Bookish Life is Movies I’m Dying for in 2014.

I love superhero comics and I’ve been really impressed with Marvel’s movie line so:

1, X-Men: Days of the Future Past
I’m really, really hoping that this will live up to my expectations.

2, Captain America: Winter Soldier
The first Cap movie was a pleasant surprise so my expectations are pretty high with this one.

3, Guardians of the Galaxy
I have more mixed feeling about this one. Hopefully it will be as good as the other Marvel movies, though.

4, Hobbit: There and Back Again
More Smaug and Legolas? Yes, please!

5, Maleficent
A movie about Snow White’s evil step-mother? Could be fun.

 

Favorite Re-Told Fairytales

Yesterday, the topic of Top 5 Sundays at Larissa’s Bookish Life was Favorite Re-Told Fairytales.

1, Robin McKinley’s Spindle End
This is the retelling of Sleeping Beauty

2, Jim C. Hines’ Princess series.
The main character in the first book “The Stepsister Scheme” is Cinderella along with Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Other tales are explored in the next books.

3, Once Upon a Time TV-show

4, The comic book Fables by Bill Willingham
Fables transports a lot of fairy tales and myths to the current day.

5, Deerskin by Robin McKinley
The most haunting book I’ve read from McKinley.

 

My Favorite Science Fiction movies

Rinn Reads is hosting Science Fiction month which has all sorts of awesome posts! Yesterday she listed Favorite Science Fiction Films.

Here’s my list:

1, Avengers
I allowed myself just one comic book movie on this list, so naturally its the Mighty Avengers. It’s got pretty much everything I want from a movie with an ensemble cast (although I would have wanted the team to be half women).

2, The Incredibles
So, okay, there’s one animation and one live-action superhero movie on the list. 🙂 It was an agonizing choice between the Incredibles and Megamind, but the animated superhero family wins this time.

3, Terminator 2 – Judgment day
Yup, I’m a fan of the Terminator franchise, despite the existence of movies 3 and 4.

4, Star Wars IV, V, and VI
I can’t really separate these. Each of them have stuff I love and stuff I really don’t care for. Classics.

5, Gravity
I’ve seen it just once but it’s such a gorgeous movie.

6, Gattaca
Not an action film but far more realistic one and the premise might even come true: that people are assigned work and life based on their genes.

7, Alien
Another classic.

8, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
A small and underrated movie which is a lot of fun.

9, Back to the Future
Another film series which I enjoy rewatching. My favorites are the first and the third movie.

10, Star Trek: First Contact
Of course, I have to give a nod to one of my favorite franchises. I don’t think any of the Trek movies are as good as the best episodes, but First Contact is the best of the bunch for me.