Couples of Christmas Countdown!

Alexa from Not Enough Bookshelves has a countdown of her favourite couples from books she's read this year. she is also running a great contest, click here to find out more.
so i get to post about my favourite book couple this year, which is quite fun, but very hard. i thought I'd split it into 3 categories, siblings, friends and romantic relationships. there's 4 books in each category .

Romance
1 Jarvis and Electra in Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen.
there connection was just so strong and powerful, i was honestly in awe of it.
2 Elly and Will in I Left my Mobile at the Mall by Wendy Harmer
they were so sweet with each other and it was very realistic and Australian teenagery. i was honestly jealous of Elly at points.
these 2 aren't new realises. but i only read them this year.
3 Rosie and Asher in Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry.
they just had so much fun together, and Asher was so cool.
4 Juice and Val in Juice by Katy Watson.
they both helped each other and needed each other in that moment, yet it was very believable. i liked that.

friendships
1 Alice and Valery in Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman.
they weren't very close friends, but Alice learnt so much from just from the fact that they weren't friends, that it was favourite friendships this year.
2 Bruno and Shamuel in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.
so sad, but incredible
3 Todd and Viola in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

Siblings
1 Lia and Emma in Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Emma saved her without even knowing it.
2 Annabel, Whitney and Kristen in Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.
the way they connect sometimes, yet sometimes barley know their sisters was quite like me and my brothers.

there is my very long post, but i can never make desisions. ask me what my favourite book is an expect me to talk for half an hour. anyway, 10 great books, read them.

Top 100 YA Books - Persnickety Snark

this year 735 voted for their top 10 YA novels. Persnickety Snark ran this Pole over here.
but i most admit i got it of nomes on the ever awesome incrush.

here's the list. i'm putting all the books i've read in bold and all the one's i know i'll be reading (for school or that i have waiting on my shelf) in italics.

1. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
4. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
6. The Truth About Forever, Sarah Dessen
7. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak Go Aussie! :)
8. The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
9. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
10. This Lullaby, Sarah Dessen

11. Looking for Alaska, John Green
12. Just Listen, Sarah Dessen
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
14. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
15. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
16. On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta (yay!)
1 7. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
19. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
20. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen

21. Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
22. Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead
23. Graceling, Kristin Cashore
24. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
25. Sloppy Firsts, Megan McCafferty
26. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
27. Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce
28. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
29. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
30. Uglies, Scott Westerfeld

31. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray
32. Tomorrow, When the War Began, John Marsden
33. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
34. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
35. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
36. Paper Towns, John Green
37. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
38. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
39. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
40. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie


41. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
42. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
43. Evernight, Claudia Gray
44. Sabriel, Garth Nix
45. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
46. Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
47. Forever, Judy Blume
48. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
49. Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
50. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

51. Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
52. Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
53. The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
54. Hush, Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick
55. Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta (yeah!)
56. Second Helpings, Megan McCafferty
57. Dreamland, Sarah Dessen
58. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
59. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
60. Fire, Kristin Cashore

61. The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
62. Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block
63. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
64. Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta
65. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
66. City of Glass, Cassandra Clare
67. Keeping the Moon, Sarah Dessen
68. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
69. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
70. If I Stay, Gayle Forman

71. The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner
72. Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
73. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, Robin McKinley
74. The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
75. Feed, M.T. Anderson
76. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Ann Brashares
77. Go Ask Alice, Anonymous
78. Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
79. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
80. Someone Like You, Sarah Dessen

81. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan
82. Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson
83. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
84. Poison Study, Maria V. Snyder
85. Shadow Kiss, Richelle Mead
86. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi
87. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
88. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
89. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L’Engle
90. Glass Houses, Rachel Caine

91. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I:The Pox Party, M.T. Anderson
92. Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech
93. Whale Talk, Chris Crutcher
94. Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles
95. Going Too Far, Jennifer Echols
96. The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
97. Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver
98. Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
99. The Pigman, Paul Zindel
100. The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley

so i've read about 30 of these books, but many of them are on my 'summer reading' list. to name a few hunger games, saving francesca, the book thief, before i fall and whale talk.
so it's a great list.
which ones have you read?

Tagged

I've been tagged by the lovely Naomi from Inkcrush. thank you.

so i have to tell you 10 things you don't know about me. i haven't been tagged in months so I'm really excited!!!

1. i plan to buy a book on every continent. obviously not including Antarctica, anyone who knows me knows that i don't mix well with cold temperatures. for this reason and the fact that i don't think there is a book shop there, Antarctica has been replaced by England. it sounds simple enough, but I'm a perfectionist so i will have to buy the perfect book, with the perfect cover and will have to be hardback of course. :)

2. i have multiple different journal type books each for a slightly different thing.
i have one for creative writing, one for list writing, one that i still things i love in, one for recipes and one that i just journal in.

3. my ipod is loaded with music none of my friends really like, though s few do humour me. my brother is into Ska/party punk/punk music and mainly loads my ipod for me. i love it. to give you an idea as i walked home today i was listening to Beatles, NOFX, mxpx, Chris duke and the royals and the Decline (his band).

4. a church choir practices in my lounge room on Sunday mornings and my brother holds practice for his other band in his room on Sunday afternoons. we're quite a musical household. one of my favourite things is to be lying in my bed late a night while my brother plays his guitar and sings old songs like i will survive, here's to you Mrs Robinson and ones from grease.

5. my favourite definition of love is the one from Deadline by Chris Crutcher. as 14 yr ODs we often make fun of each other and make jokes about who likes who which annoys me no end. this definition helps me to understand that i can love all my friends without it being like that.

"we can say we love each other if my life is better because you're in it and your life is better because I'm in it. The intensity of the love is weighted by how much better."

6. i get really excited over strange things. i sort of have epiphanies when i realise something, some kind of deep thought and i just bubbling about it. just yesterday my baby cousin was born and realised how much of an identity he was from the second he was separated from his mother. how much there already was to know about him.

7. I'm kinda paranoid. not in a crazy, people are out to kill me way, but i always worry people are being nice to me because they're polite. i also worry that my friends are going to make new friends and forget about me.

8. i can clearly remember getting my library card and the first time i reserved a library book. i got my library card at 4 and i remember reserving the Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr when i was 3 and getting terribly excited when my dad got the letter saying i could go get it.

9. i am the biggest harry potter nerd. honestly, i know almost everything about it. i have read all the books at least 3 times each.

10. when i was 4 I told my pediatrician that real girls don't look like barbies. he was trying to distract me as he took the cast of my broken arm so he asked if i had lots of barbies. mum says he was slightly shocked.