top ten tuesday – as told by zaheerah

Books

Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

December 1, 2020by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature once hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten (or your own amount) accordingly. This week’s topic is Book You Want to Read Again, so I decided to adapt it slightly to books you wish you could read again for the first time. Because there of them, way more than ten, and if you’ve been following me long enough, half of this list should not be a surprise.

The Poppy War by R.F Kuang
This is one of many books that really go without saying many words. To quote me back in 2018, “Believe the hype. It is truly worth it.” Two years later and this story STILL lives in my mind rent-free. I would happily erase my mind to see Rin, Kitay and Nezha meet again for the first time.
Jade City by Fonda Lee
I first read Jade City last year, and I have already re-read it three times. I’m currently in the middle of a read-along to re-read Jade City and Jade War again. I think it’s safe to say that I don’t wish I could reread this for the first time, I just want to re-read this series all the time.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
Listen, the way I would do anything to experience the same form of happiness I felt when I discovered Khalila Seif for the first time is unreal. Rachel Caine was always more known for her Morganville series and her adult fictions, but I will never shut up about this series. I feel like this series is way underappreciated in YA. A definite re-read is in order.
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johhnson
My sister bought me a copy of this because my favourite youtuber at the time, charlieissocoollike, had talked about it. And I never would have expected to have liked it so much. I remember spending one summer just re-reading it because I loved it so much. The later books in the series were decent, but I would have been satisfied if this was just a standalone as well. I really loved the concept, and the way Maureen Johnson used Jack the Ripper was so interesting.
Thief by Malorie Blackman
I had read this book way before I discovered any sort of book community online. I think I mentioned it before that I picked it up by accident. I think this might have been my first ever dystopian book and Malorie Blackman book. I vaguely remember being really scared of this book, like a lot.
Angelfall by Susan Ee
I associate Angelfall with a particular moment in my life, the first year of college to be exact. Which is when I started my site and one of the few years of education where I wasn’t stressed out, and I was actually quite happy with my life. A friend of mine from my gaming class had recommended it to me, and we were so obsessed with talking about it all the time. I think one of my first reviews was Angelfall. The sequels didn’t live up to my expectations but getting to experience Angelfall at the time I did was so memorable.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
I think this one doesn’t need any explaining. I know, you know, we know. Let’s move on.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I’ve mentioned this before, but I was the girl obsessed with THG in secondary school. Like seriously obsessed. Somewhere in the attic are all my old Hunger Games memorabilia collecting dust. This is another book/series where I associated it to a specific timeframe in my life: secondary school before the fear of GCSEs really settled in and life was probably the least stressed I had ever been. Consider this another apology if you knew me during my Hunger Games phase, even I die a little bit inside thinking about it.
The Foxhole Court series by Nora Sakavic
Some questionable stuff happens in this series, but nothing remains as iconic as Kevin saying “Did you know I’ve never been skiing? I’d like to try it one day, though.” to a bunch of reporters.
The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily X.R. Pan

This is one of those books that was so dream-like to read. It’s very low conflict and very character-driven. I’m not someone who get emotional that easily but the ending to this book had me sobbing like a brand new person.

What’s on your TTT this week? Leave me a link or let me know in the comments!

Monthly Rewind: April 2023May 2, 2023
Monthly Rewind: March 2023April 4, 2023
Review: BLINKMarch 21, 2023
Review: The Moonlight Blade (Blog Tour)March 17, 2023
Monthly Rewind: February 2023February 28, 2023

top ten tuesday

Changes In My Reading Habits

November 19, 2019by Zaheerah2 Comments

Last month, I was notified by WordPress that is was my six year anniversary for registering with them. Which makes the upcoming December, my fifth year since creating my own internet corner. Unless you happen to be the five spam users who followed me in the first year before Reading and Reviews (I was a very original content creator at age sixteen as you can tell) came to life, you’d know this site was meant to be my writing bin. 😂 As an avid user and writer of Wattpad, I was left with a lot of stories that didn’t fit well with me anymore. And this space was meant to keep them, in a private site, away from anyone’s eyes. (You didn’t miss much, fifteen-year-old Zaheerah was basic and unoriginal)

Since it has been almost five years since I created my blog, and I really wanted to use this week’s TTT to reflect on how my reading habits have changed during these almost five years. I came to the conclusion that I have obviously changed quite a bit over the last six years. Since then, I’ve gone through secondary school, college and on my way to having a degree. Education has taken up a lot of the last six years and I’m interested to see how my reading habit will change again once I’ve graduated. I remember, during a shift at work, an old college teacher came by and was telling me how university will be the greatest part of my life. I laughed along in the conversation but it really made me think about myself and how education has always been something of a traumatic experience for me.

I won’t lie and say university was a breeze because it wasn’t. These past three years have made me the most anxious and tired. To be honest, I still wonder if it was ever worth it for me. And when I look back at my blog, I can see where it got too much for because my activity was either busy or completely absent. I even deserted this site for practically a year because I was struggling too much. University took a lot out of me and made coming here on this site less exciting and made blogging a chore rather than something I love. Now that I approach the middle of my final year, my dissertation is almost set in stone, I feel like I’m getting better. I know a career in publishing will difficult to embark on but the past year made me realize how much I truly love the process of making a book. I used to dream of becoming an author, and I still write in my free time, mainly for my own entertainment. (Hey, if no one’s publishing a story about a Muslim teen surviving a zombie apocalypse, then I have to make do with my own shoddy imagination 😂) But having experienced helping other authors with sensitivity reading and editing made me realize the making someone else’s story come to life is just as satisfying. I have no idea what I’m going to do once I have a degree in hand, but I’m happy to be where I am in this moment

I have gotten a bit off track here, but let’s get back on with it: how have my reading habits changed?

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Books, Other

Book Titles with Numbers

October 1, 2019by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

I’m actually surprised that this week was actually a lot more difficult than I had expected. Apparently, I don’t often read titles with numbers in them and if I do, I’m not a fan. 😂 Apart from Check, Please!, I love that series a lot. If you have a book you love with a number in the title, drop a title, apparently I need some more options!

Check, Please!: Year One

Eric Bittle—former figure skater, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier—is starting his freshman year playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University. And it’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia. For one? There’s checking.

It’s a story about hockey and friendship and bros and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.

Fire Colour One

Sixteen-year-old Iris itches constantly for the strike of a match. But when she’s caught setting one too many fires, she’s whisked away to London before she can get arrested—at least that’s the story her mother tells. Mounting debt actually drove them out of LA, and it’s greed that brings them to a home Iris doesn’t recognize, where her millionaire father—a man she’s never met—lives. Though not for much longer. Iris’s father is dying, and her mother is determined to claim his life’s fortune, including his priceless art collection. Forced to live with him as part of an exploitive scheme, Iris soon realizes her father is far different than the man she’s been schooled to hate, and everything she thought she knew—about her father and herself—is suddenly unclear. There may be hidden beauty in Iris’s uncertain past, and future, if only she can see beyond the flames.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

A teenage misfit named Hawthorn Creely inserts herself in the investigation of missing person Lizzie Lovett, who disappeared mysteriously while camping with her boyfriend. Hawthorn doesn’t mean to interfere, but she has a pretty crazy theory about what happened to Lizzie. In order to prove it, she decides to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life. That includes taking her job… and her boyfriend. It’s a huge risk — but it’s just what Hawthorn needs to find her own place in the world.

The Million Pieces of Neena Gill

Neena’s always been a good girl – great grades, parent-approved friends and absolutely no boyfriends. But ever since her brother Akash left her, she’s been slowly falling apart – and uncovering a new version of herself who is freer, but altogether more dangerous.As her wild behaviour spirals more and more out of control, Neena’s grip on her sanity begins to weaken too. And when her parents announce not one but two life-changing bombshells, she finally reaches breaking point.But as Neena is about to discover, when your life falls apart, only love can piece you back together.

13 Minutes

Natasha is the most popular girl in school. So why was she pulled out of a freezing river after being dead for thirteen minutes? She doesn’t remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this—it wasn’t an accident, and she wasn’t suicidal.Now Natasha’s two closest friends, who are usually her loyal sidekicks, are acting strangely. Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before, to help her figure out the mystery.At first Becca isn’t sure that she even wants to help Natasha. But as she is drawn back into Natasha’s orbit, Becca starts putting the pieces together. As an outsider, Becca believes she may be the only one who can uncover the truth…which is far more twisted than she ever imagined.

27 Hours

Rumor Mora fears two things: hellhounds too strong for him to kill, and failure. Jude Welton has two dreams: for humans to stop killing monsters, and for his strange abilities to vanish.But in no reality should a boy raised to love monsters fall for a boy raised to kill them.Nyx Llorca keeps two secrets: the moon speaks to her, and she’s in love with Dahlia, her best friend. Braeden Tennant wants two things: to get out from his mother’s shadow, and to unlearn Epsilon’s darkest secret.They’ll both have to commit treason to find the truth.During one twenty-seven-hour night, if they can’t stop the war between the colonies and the monsters from becoming a war of extinction, the things they wish for will never come true, and the things they fear will be all that’s left.

The Fifth Wave

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother-or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Monthly Rewind: April 2023May 2, 2023
Monthly Rewind: March 2023April 4, 2023
Review: BLINKMarch 21, 2023
Review: The Moonlight Blade (Blog Tour)March 17, 2023
Monthly Rewind: February 2023February 28, 2023

Books, top ten tuesday

Page to Screen (YA Edition)

July 30, 2019by Zaheerah4 Comments

This week’s topic is free week on Top Ten Tuesday so I decided to do Page to Screen. This was a recent topic but I had sadly missed out on it so when free week came back, I knew I had to do it!

I decided to do a YA edition because I can think of more films/TV. But, making this list made me realise how many YA adaptation actually existed. I can name a couple off the top of my head but when I checked this article by BookRiot, there are a lot more than I expected. Sometimes I don’t realise that certain movies are based off YA novel!

This list is rather random, and I’m not ranking anything best or worst but rather what do I think of if you had to ask me: What YA books have been adapted to TV/Movie? (Only including ones that I have read and watched, and not the ones I’m aware of)

Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy is one of those adaptions where whoever was in charge of the movie seriously messed up. I’ve only read the first two books (I was very upset with a certain character death in book two and never managed to pick up the rest of the series 😂) This series had a lot of potential and I feel like a movie series could’ve really improved upon the work.

For me, I hated the way the film was marketed and the decision to focus on the comedy aspect. Making it an over the top teen comedy that wasn’t really funny dampened any kind of success it could’ve gotten. Which was a shame because I loved Zoey Deutch, Dominic Sherwood and Cameron Monaghan at the time.

The soundtrack was the best though, I discovered CHVRCHES through it and they’re one of my favourite artists now. (Maybe I’ll do a post about my favourite YA adaptation soundtracks 😂)

Darren Shan Saga

Image result for cirque du freak screencap

No movie adaptation will upset me more than Cirque Du Freak (Darren Shan Sage). I absolutely loved this book series to pieces. Even my childhood love for Josh Hutcherson couldn’t save this series. And replacing Debbie with a random ass monkey girl called Rebecca had twelve-year -old me fuming. I will cry internally at the failure of this series forever.

The Hunger Games

Along with Twilight, The Hunger Games franchise is one of the most defining series in YA adaptions. I don’t think need to explain its influence.

But I was definitely on THG train. I was mega obsessed with the series, and while it’s not a current favourite (since mine changes a lot) this series took up a lot of my life. And seeing Josh Hutcherson in another series I love had me jumping over the moon! I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this already but yeah, it’s a little embarrassing looking back, but I don’t regret it.

THG is a good example of adapting a book well than its satisfying as a fan of the book and interesting enough to newcomers.

Divergent

Oh, man. I loved Divergent (book) and the film was pretty satisfying. I think it did well to capitalise on the YA hype that THG built. The marketing for it was so cool and interactive. Unfortunately, I hated the rest of the series and it seems like the films didn’t do well after. I don’t remember seeing the second movie but I do remember being issues with the rest.

The Maze Runner

Along with Divergent, TMR is another one that kicked off well but slowly lost its strength towards the end. I saw the first and second movie but I don’t remember anything about the rest of the franchise. I did love this series a lot and I was so excited to see it be adapted. But it didn’t work out and that will be a shame.

Morganville Vampires

Image result for morganville vampire web series screencap

This was actually a web series. At the time, I thought this was the greatest thing ever. But then I realised I was seeing this through serious rose tinted glasses. I love the Morganville Vampires but the story was something that needed a better budget. While it isn’t terrible, but it is incredibly cheesy at some points. I like to rewatch it on prime sometimes because it gives me a chuckle and brings back some great memories. Also, I was a teen with no job when you were able to purchase the ID bracelet from the book. Still upset they don’t sell them anymore. 😭😭😭

The Mortal Instruments

I’m not going to lie: I preferred the movie. Shocker, I know. I did enjoy the netflix series but I lost interest really easily. If the movie had a better script, maybe things could’ve been a little different. But I feel like it had a lot of potential because the casting was near perfect. (I wasn’t huge on Izzy but Lily Collins as Clary? Perfect.)

I don’t even like this series that much or even read books by Clare anymore but even I was disappointed. The hype for this was quite big I remember and the soundtrack was really good.

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green books in generally really aren’t my cup of tea. As a teen, I forced myself to like them because all my friends loved his books and I was a desperate teenage who struggled to make friends so books were often my way in to friendship groups.

I have to say the film wasn’t bad. I think because it’s contemporary and doesn’t require FX like most YA adaptations, it was more faithful to the book because it didn’t have much restrictions.

Twilight

I actually got into Twilight almost. I discovered the books at the same time as Morganville but I drifted to MV instead. (Never really liked the publishers constantly using that ONE quote on all the MV covers telling you to drop Twilight – it was quite rude, in my opinion) I think the films were alright, can’t say much because I wasn’t a super fan, but it was decent and enjoyable. If the script didn’t feel so cringey in the first one, I feel like it would’ve been received better.

Can say that “You named my daughter after the Loch Ness monster?!” is still one of the best scenes yet. 😂😂😂

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Cameron Post was left for dead by the YA community, and I wasn’t surprised. I feel like F/F novels get forgotten all the time. I know people kept putting this film up against Love, Simon which wasn’t fair because LS had bigger money behind it. I’m not saying one is more important than the other but I wish Cameron Post got a bigger buzz from people online. I was quite neutral about the book but the film was quiet but powerful.

What your favourite YA adaption? What’s on your TTT this week? Leave me a link or let me know in the comments!

top ten tuesday

Auto-buy Authors

July 16, 2019by Zaheerah2 Comments

I’m not a big on having an “auto-buy author”, since a lot of the time, I end up not liking other books by the same author. Which is why this list is only eight because I had to think for a long and hard time on which authors would I consider immediately buying a new or perhaps one that I missed book.

Rachel Caine
I basically grew up with the Morganville Vampires and The Great Library series is one of my all-time favourite YA series. Of course, Rachel will forever be an auto-buy. I prefer her YA stuff but I have purchased her adult fiction, I just haven’t got round to reading them yet.

S.K. Ali
Saints & Misfits and Love From A to Z are some of my favourite Muslim YA novels.

Madeline Miller
When you’ve written something as iconic as The Song of Achilles, you deserve to be everyone’s auto-buy author. 😂

Tahereh Mafi
I’m not a huge fan of the Shatter Me series but everything she’s written outside of it has me hooked!

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Books, top ten tuesday

Childhood Favourites

July 2, 2019by Zaheerah2 Comments

The books I read as a kid primarily came from whatever my sister read and whatever little books my primary school had. Our city library had been remodelled and had a reopening when I was younger. I vaguely remember going to the opening and getting a new library card. But my dad was rarely able to take us to and from the library because he was so busy with work.

Nowadays, I just read eBooks from my library because my physical card ran out, and I’m too awkward to go back to the library to renew it. I’m not sure when I considered childhood to end, and considering, I’m only twenty-one at the time of writing, it seems too early to have this list include books I read up to until turning eighteen.

For me, there’s a blur between childhood/teenage years. So, this list will mainly consist of books that I read before the age of thirteen because it seemed like the easiest way to categorise this list. But it also makes it the shortest and hardest list to make because I have no idea what I read as a kid. I have a pretty terrible memory, so unless something is documented, I will struggle to remember it. And I didn’t start using Goodreads until I was like fourteen. Anyway, I’m rambling, but here are some books I’ve read in my childhood.

Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson, for me, was the quintessential British children’s author. I didn’t read Harry Potter until I was like thirteen since I used to see it as a book for Older Kids because my older sister really liked them. And because of the international success of HP, I often forget that it is a children’s series. I’m not too familiar with Wilson’s international success, but here, in the UK, her books dominated the children’s section. Even if I could never find a book I wanted, there was always a Jacqueline Wilson. Weirdly, I’ve actually only read one Tracy Beaker book, but I did watch the show a lot. My favourite was always My Sister Jodie, The Illustrated Mum or Candyfloss. My Sister Jodie was actually the last one I remember reading, which was like eleven years ago. I don’t think I’ve read anything past that.

The Morganville Vampires

I’m sort of toeing the age line at this point because I think I was around eleven when I read this series. But these books are THAT series for me that got me into becoming an avid reader and pushed me into reading beyond what was in front of me. My sister used to buy the books each year they came out, and I just read them because I didn’t have any other option because we never really had space nor money to spend on books. But I’ve already mentioned how much this series has changed me. I later discovered The Great Library series, also by Rachel Caine, which is now and forever will be one of my all-time favourite book series. I also had the pleasure of working with Rachel for the last three books as a beta reader. And I honestly cannot tell you how thrilling it was to work on those books and to have the opportunity to make it the greatest it can possibly be. My notes were pretty shitty the first time, but it gave me a lot of experience.

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