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Oh, this week’s prompt is a fun one. Obviously, I don’t expect every book to fulfill all of these wishes, but they more they can hit the better.

Here are the things that will make me pick up a book instantly if I know they’re included somewhere in the plot:

1.  Is Told from the Third-Person Perspective.

I’ve been a reviewer for Long and Short Reviews for seven years now. While I have occasionally bent this rule, I generally prefer to read stories that use pronouns like he or she instead of you or I. When I read something like “she rode a horse down Main Street at high noon,” it feels like an old friend is telling this story to me. I want to lean in and absorb every last word of what happened on Main Street and how the horse reacted to any cars that might have also been there.

2. Has a Clever Title

If a title makes me laugh, I become much more likely to pick it up. In fact, I’m kind of infamous among the LASR staff and volunteers for requesting silly titles. Books also get bonus points from me if they have a humorous pun.

3. Discusses the Lighthearted Side of Illness

One of my parents works in the medical field, so I grew up hearing all sorts of interesting stories about illnesses, injuries, and surgeries when I was growing up.

We obviously never heard any identifying information about the patients, just funny anecdotes about how hospitals actually work behind the scenes, things that go wrong with the human body, and stuff like that.

4. Talks About World War I

There are approximately five billion stories out there about World War II and only three about World War I. (Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little there). I’m always interested in learning more about this time in history. It was the first modern war, after all.

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If I’m reading a story set in a world where magic exists, I always appreciate it when the author comes up with a coherent set of rules about how magic works, what it’s capable of, and what no spell will ever able to do in that universe. It’s a lot easier to suspend disbelief when you know exactly where the boundaries are for wizards and witches.

6. Has an “Unlikely” Protagonist 

Give me protagonists who are 70-year-old grandmothers, or who have a disability, or who are also single parents raising a couple of small children on their own. I’m hungry for far more stories about people who break the traditional mold when it comes to who and what audiences expect heroes to be.

7. Includes an Open-Ended Final Scene

As long as my most important questions about the plot and characters are answered, I really like it when books leave a few dangling strings. It’s cool to have a few minor plot points left up to the reader’s imagination so us fans have something to discuss and debate for years to come.

8. Makes the Food Sound Delicious

I’ve read quite a few fantasy novels over the years.  One of the things they all seem to have in common are their descriptions of glorious feasts.

Reading about the delicious meals that hobbits, elves, and other creatures eat has taught me to expect other genres to put just as much effort into describing what humans eat when they’re celebrating.

9. Has a Happy Ending

Occasionally I’ve been known to flip ahead to the final page of a book before starting it just to make sure it ends in a cheerful place. I can handle a lot of dark material, but I do need to be reassured that the characters will survive those scenes and go on to get whatever it is they were hoping for.

10. Fights Stereotypes in General

I love it when characters are written as well-rounded individuals whose hobbies, interests, or personality traits might not necessarily fit what society assumes someone of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other label is actually supposed to be like.

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My list for this week is an eclectic one. I tried to pick characters who would show me things that I’ve never seen before if I could live their lives for a day.

1. Polly from C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. 

Many people have read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, but not everyone has read the later books in this series that have never been made into films. One of the coolest things about The Magician’s Nephew was the magical place Polly visited where you could visit countless worlds by stepping into and out of various pools of water. I sure would have wanted to visit more of those pools if I could step into her shoes for a day.

2. Tom Bombadil from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

Tom was the only character in this series I can recall who wasn’t affected by the evil power of the One Ring in any way. He wasn’t a king or warrior, and yet he his presence commanded respect from everyone who crossed his path. The narrator was never totally clear about who or what Tom actually was, but I’d sure like to find out.

3. Sookie from Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries series

If you haven’t read this series or watched True Blood yet, know that Sookie is a woman who lives in a small, southern town in a version of the United States where vampires exist and are well-known to the general public. This series mixed romance, horror, fantasy, and adventure together in some pretty exciting ways. I’d pick a day when Sookie was planning to cross paths with as few vampires as possible, but I would want to see the world through her eyes.

4. Sir Lancelot from the Legends of King Arthur

I’ve been a fan of the many various versions of the King Arthur and Camelot legends since I was a kid.

Lancelot has long been a favorite character of mine in these stories because of how brave he was.

5. Winnie-the-Pooh
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Winnie was one of my favorite characters when I was in preschool. I’d trade places with him for a day in a heartbeat.

6. James Bond

Being a spy sounds so exciting to me.

7. Scout Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

I’d want to skip ahead to Scout’s adulthood and see what sort of person she became then. Maybe she would have become a lawyer like her dad?

8. The Cat in the Hat

This was another one of those stories I loved hearing growing up. There is something a little appealing to me about getting into a whole bunch of mischief for a single day.

9. Alice from Alice in Wonderland

It would be so cool to see Wonderland for myself, so I’d have to pick the time in Alice’s life when this was something she did.

10. Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz

Speaking of going to faraway magical lands, I’d also love to see Oz from Dorothy’s perspective.

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For this week’s prompt, I stuck to places that really do exist somewhere in our world. I love the thought of being able to visit a place that inspired a writer so much he or she decided to make the setting for their story.

1. Conservatory Water in Central Park, New York from E.B. White’s “Stuart Little.”

This was the pond in “Stuart Little” where Stuart participated in the sailboat race. As you’re about to see, I love visiting nature. Nearly all of my answers today are going to involve it in some way.

2. Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden.”

The only parts of this book I remember are the ones that talked about the animals and plants that Thoreau noticed at Walden Pond. Obviously, that landscape has no doubt changed a lot since he lived there, but I’d still like to see it.

3. Anne Frank’s House, Amsterdam from “The Diary of Anne Frank”

“The Diary of Anne Frank” was my favourite piece of non-fiction when I was a kid. Someday, I’d love to go to Amsterdam and see the place that she and her family hid in during the last few years of her life.

4. Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.”

Seoni in 2019 is no doubt quite different from the way this town was when Kipling wrote his story. It would be interesting to see how it’s changed and what people who live there think of that tale.

5. Kyoto, Japan from Arthur Golden’s “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

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6. San Nicolas Island, California from Scott O’Dell’s “The Island of the Blue Dolphins.”

While I wouldn’t want to live alone on this island like the main character in this book did, I would love to live on one if there were at least a few other people around for company. Imagine being surrounded by the ocean no matter which way you looked! That sounds so soothing.

7. Great Maytham Hall in Kent, England, from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden”

It was originally described as such a dark and joyless mansion. While Mary changed that throughout the course of the plot, I’d be curious to see if the building itself was as foreboding as my childhood imagination always made it out to be.

8. Mark Twain Cave in Missouri from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I love exploring caves, but I’ve never made it to this one. Someday that will have to change.

9. Maienfield, Switzerland from Johanna Spyri’s Heidi.

There’s nothing like sitting next to a rushing mountain spring. The water in them is generally too cold to bathe in, but the combination of mountains and fresh, sparkling water is something that will always make me smile.

10. The Yorkshire Moors, England from Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.“

This seems like an excellent place to take a long walk without any interruptions. I have no idea if that would still be true in 2019, but it would be fun to find out.

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I love the young adult genre. It’s one of the genres I read the most often, and I’m always on the lookout for the newest titles and authors from it. There are some YA books I’m still deciding whether or not to read this year for reasons I’ll explain below.

1. Prom Kings by Tony Correia

Expected Publication Date: February 5

I wasn’t interested in going to the prom when I was in high school, so I’m wondering if this book will have enough else happening in it to keep me reading.

2. Nick and June Were Here by Shalanda Stanley

Expected Publication Date: February 12

Schizophrenia isn’t a topic that a lot of YA books cover, and I definitely want to support the ones that do. I’m just not entirely sure if I’m in the mood for something that could potentially be a very tough read.

3. The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason

Expected Publication Date: February 19

As with Nick and June Were Here, I’m wondering if this one is going to be too much of a tearjerker for me. The main character’s boyfriend cheated on her with her sister very early on in the plot. The sister was then in a terrible car accident that left the sister with amnesia. I want to read it, but I also don’t know if I can handle a sad ending.

4. Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve

I love the diversity and basic storyline mentioned in this blurb, but I’m not too keen on the zombies. Lately, reading and watching zombie stuff has been giving me horrible nightmares, so I have to be careful about how often I indulge in it. Maybe I should read this at the same time as I read one of the romances on today’s list so my mind remembers to give me pleasant dreams? Ha!

Expected Publication Date: March 12

5. This Is Not a Love Scene by S.C. Megale

I’ve never read a YA book about a character with muscular dystrophy before! I’d like to change that, but I’m so particular about the types of romance novels I read that I wonder if there will be enough non-romance conflict in this one to keep me interested.

Expected Publication Date: May 7

6. We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra

As someone who is part of the LGBT+ community, I’m thrilled to see so much more representation of us in this genre than there was when I was a teenager. As I said earlier, I don’t read very much romance, soI wonder if this one will have subplots on other topics that will complement the main storyline.

Expected Publication Day: May 14

7. In the Silences by Rachel Gold

There is so much going on in the blurb for this one: serious racial tensions, a first love, an interracial relationship, two characters coming out of the closet, and a character exploring her genderqueer identity. It is definitely something I want to read eventually, I just think I’ll need to be in the right frame of mind to think about so many potentially heavy storylines at once.

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8. The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg

As interested as I am in stories about human-android hybrids, the comparisons to West World in the blurb did make me pause. I liked that show, but I also found it pretty disturbing at times. I wonder if I should give this tale a try anyway?

Expected Publication Date: May 28

9. If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

Expected Publication Date: June 4

To be very honest, I never connected with the main character in this author’s last book, Let’s Talk About Love even though I liked the writing itself quite a bit. I do want to read If It Makes You Happy, but I’m a bit nervous about this happening again.

10. The Arrival of Someday by Jen Malone

This tale is about a teenage girl waiting for an organ transplant. If she doesn’t get a new liver soon, she will die. Reading about medical stuff in vivid detail makes me feel lightheaded, so I’m wondering how graphic this book’s descriptions of liver disease and transplants will be and if I should risk it.

Expected Publication Day: July 23

Will you be reading any of these books later on this year? Which ones do you think I should read?

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I don’t know about you, but I’m an ambitious reader. There are so many more enticing books out there than there are hours in the day to read them.

Here are 10 titles published last year I honestly did mean to read in 2018. Maybe I’ll have more luck getting around to them this year? Since I strictly avoid spoilers for fiction and non-fiction works alike, I won’t be saying anything about them like I normally do in my Top Ten Tuesday posts. All I know is that their blurbs sound interesting and I really do want to read them soon.

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama.

2. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza.

3. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver.

4. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.

5. The Outsider by Stephen King.
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6. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari.

7. The Reckoning by John Grisham.

8. The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani

9. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

10. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult.

Have you read any of these titles? What books did you intend to read last year but never actually got around to picking them up?