Top Ten Characters That I'd Name My Children After

hosted by The Broke and Bookish

Apparently, all my future children will be girls.

I tried to think of characters I both admire and whose names I adore. Like, I had to leave my beloved Hermione off it, because although I would love to honor my bookish bestie by naming my hypothetical kid after her... you just know the other kids will call her Herman/Hermananoid/Hermononucleosis (Starkid reference!).

1. Alanna of Trebond from the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce



Alanna is the original kick butt, take-no-prisoners, "I forge my own path" lady warrior. Not only do I love the name Alanna, but I love the lessons that girl teaches: to not be ashamed of who you really are, and never be afraid to go after you really want. Also that knowing how to wield a sword is freaking awesome.

2. Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte/ Jane Austen



I adore the name Jane, and Jane Eyre is a supremely worthy heroine. She was so self-reliant in a time when woman were hardly ever self-reliant. Jane's like a honey badger. She don't care that you got a big house and lots of money and you super, duper love her. You're a bigamist, so Jane don't give a shit.

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”

Also, the name Jane would honor my fave author ever, Jane Austen. I also really like the name Charlotte. It's official, I'll be having at least seventeen children, because I like too many names.

3. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen



Fun Gillian fact: My middle name is Elizabeth, named after one Elizabeth Bennet. By far the most appealing of all of Austen's very appealing heroines, she's witty, bright, sociable, and though it's often difficult to get her to change her mind, she always does. Plus she can rock an Empire waist like nobody's business.

4. Cassandra Mortmain from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

GET IT GURLL

First of all, I think the name Cassandra is gorgeous, and secondly, Cassandra is the awesomest. If you haven't read I Capture the Castle, you totally should. It's basically about a teenage girl in 1930's Britain who lives in a crumbling castle with her impoverished and eccentric family, deals with the hot local rich boys, and learns how to be even more awesome. READ IT. Cassandra is my spirit animal.

5. Lyra Belacqua from His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman




Lyra is not only one half of the MOST TRAGIC LOVE STORY EVARR, but is one of the favorite heroines of my childhood. Hopefully, if I name my daughter Lyra, she will also have a daemon, because that would be the coolest.


6. Anna Oliphant from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Obviously, I like the name, but Anna is also one of the funniest, friendliest YA narrators I've ever had the pleasure to meet. If my daughter were named Anna, I would totally call her in a British accent just at random moments: Ah-na.

7. Alina Starkov from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

I really like those A names, don't I? But Alina is a gorgeous name. Russian, feminine, and full of whatever the Russian equivalent of je ne sais quoi is.

8. Arya Stark from A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin



Arya is basically the literary descendant of Alanna. They both do the gender-bending thing; they're both tough girls living in a crappy man's world; they're both smaller than the people around them; and they both have a lot to prove. I love me some Arya Stark something fierce. And yes, I realize Alina Starkov and Arya Stark are pretty darn similar, but sue me.


9. Emma Woodhouse from Emma by Jane Austen

 

A lot of people don't like bossy, controlling, and confident Emma. I mean, there's not a lot to sympathize with in someone who is introduced to us as handsome, clever, and rich, but I always got her. I just figured she was super bored, since there wasn't much to do for rich young ladies in Regency England, and that was why she chose to micro-manage the love lives of the people around her. She basically INVENTED reality TV, you guys. How could you not love her?

10. Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll



The last of the A names is probably my favorite. Everybody loves Alice, that curious little girl who's finding out little by little that the world she's in doesn't make a lick of sense. Also I like her headband. See, I always have good reasons for choosing things.


Bonus 11. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling



Luna is seriously one of the bravest characters in all of Harry Potter, and that is saying something. She's always exactly the oddball person she is and never pretends she isn't. She's incredibly loyal to Harry and the DA. How can you not love the girl who introduced us to Nargles and the Crumple-Horned Snorkack?

ETA Bonus 12. Sara Crewe from A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett



HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN SARA??? I actually used to pretend this was my name when I was six. I was that in love with the inventive, resilient, magical Sara Crewe. She could turn an empty table into a feast all through the power of her imagination. Love this girl to pieces.

Honorable Mentions: Ella of Frell from Ella Enchanted, Lily Potter from Harry Potter, Clary from The Mortal Instruments, Tessa from The Infernal Devices, Lucy Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pevensie from the same, Harry Potter from duh, Fred Weasley from Harry Potter, Nick from The Great Gatsby, Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings, Felicity Merriman from the American Girl books (nostalgia alert), Briony from Atonement, Finny from A Separate Peace, Teddy (aka Jo's nickname for) Laurie from Little Women, Katniss (Kat) from The Hunger Games, andddd many more.

Top Ten Favorite Sidekick Best Friends

hosted by The Broke and Bookish

Technically, this week's Top Ten Tuesday is meant to be Top Ten Favorite Characters in X Genre, but I honestly stared at that topic for like five solid minutes, and not one thing came into my dense little brain. I have so many favorite characters and so many favorite genres. I'll read anything. I'm a genre hopper. A genre slut, if you will. And I had a feeling if I FORCED myself to choose just one genre, I'd end up saying all the same characters I've been blabbing about for weeks. And there are only so many times I can drool over Warner before you have me committed.

So this week, I'm bending the rules. Instead of favorite characters in X genre, I'm doing favorite X type of characters. And the x stands for... sidekicks! Slash best friends! Otherwise known as the awesome supporting players who deserve a moment in the spotlight for being so awesome.

Of course, I'm sure I've forgotten about a million of them, because these are just the ones coming off the top of my aforementioned dense head, but let's get to it.

1. Ron Weasley from Harry Potter



The ultimate sidekick with the ultimate hero best friend. Seriously, this guy is best friends with HARRY FREAKING POTTER (all the coolest people reading this just got AVPM earworms): Quidditch sensation, Defense Against the Dark Arts prodigy, and oh, yeah, casually that dude who defeated Voldemort before he could walk. Despite the fact that Ron sometimes feels overshadowed by his glorious best friend (and makes hideous decisions like that whole sulky chapter of his in GoF and DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED on what he did in DH), Ron is truly, deeply loyal. He's risked his life countless times for his best bud, and he'd do it countless more times. He's afraid a good ninety percent of the time, but in the end his sense of friendship always sparks his bravery, and then he's willing to do anything for the people he loves.

This is arguably my FAVORITE RON WEASLEY LINE. All the feels.

Shout outs to Hedwig, Crookshanks, and Fawkes for being awesome beastly besties.

2. Kenji from Shatter Me/Unravel Me

I will keep this short, as I have raved about him at length on this blog countless times. He's brave, loyal, and dedicated to his cause. But best of all, he's hilarious, honest, and always willing to pull both Adam and Juliette out of the depths of their emo doldrums (which is no small task, I assure you. Those two are like the emo king and queen). Yes, Kenji, you are completely right. There are MANY girls who want to see you naked, you handsome, devilish thing, you.

3. Angela from Unspoken

Unspoken was hands down one of my favorite reads of 2012. In the hands of someone other than Sarah Rees Brennan, Angela would be the main character and Kami, the actual protagonist, would be the sidekick. Kami is plucky, plump, and always prepared to thrust herself into certain peril in search of the truth. Angela is darkly beautiful and much admired by the opposite sex. She disdains all of humanity (except for Kami... and Holly, naturally) and hates people almost as much as she loves a good nap. She is openly rude to basically everybody, and oh, do I love her for it.

Despite her complete laziness, she's fiercely protective of Kami, which means she's willing to do all sorts of things she loathes in order to help her friend. She will also definitely physically accost anybody who messes with her or her girls. Rusty has trained her well, after all.

4. Iko from Cinder and Scarlet

Iko is the best sidekick in history who is not actually technically alive, nor has she ever been. She's an android who somehow ended up with the most distinct personality in all of New Asia. She's bright, bubbly and girly. She loves to swoon over hot princes and worries that temporarily being a spaceship makes her look fat. She and the levelheaded Cinder are a wonderful pair, and for the first fifty pages of Scarlet, I spent a lot of time going, "Yes, yes, interesting stuff, BUT WHERE IS IKO, EXACTLY?" I missed that little glitchy android.

5. Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings



OH, SAM. I already talked about how often Frodo done you wrong. It's safe to say, if they'd just given you the dang ring in the first place, those books would have been significantly shorter. Sam is the ultimate sidekick of unwavering loyalty, willing to sacrifice life, limb, happiness, and dignity to help his Mister Frodo.

 

6. Bess Marvin and George Fayne from Nancy Drew

These guys are like the quintessential sidekicks. They're brave-ish, and they're loyal, but they're not supposed to be nearly as awesome as Nancy Drew. But who even is, really? She's Nancy Drew. She, like, routinely saves herself and random heiresses from kidnapping, foils jewelry heists, and catches murders, all before jaunting off to have a romantic picnic with boyfriend, Ned, with not one strawberry blonde hair out of place. (Undoubtedly, though, something nefarious will occur at said picnic, requiring her to leave poor Ned in the lurch for the millionth time. Ned is long-suffering.) Bess and George are total opposites, with Bess being flirty, flighty, and blonde, and George being tough, tomboyish, and dark haired. Bess also, strangely, wants ice cream one hundred percent of the time. They balance out practically perfect Nancy really well, I feel.

7. Zero from Holes



ZERO. I love him. He was so underrated by everybody except for Stanley because he couldn't read, but he was absolutely brilliant. He was the one who seemed to figure out nearly every secret in this magnificently secret-laden book. He'd been through a lot, but he was willing to go through a lot more for his best bud Stanley Yelnats. You just can't help but love this kid.




8. Kitten from The Immortals

I talked about Tamora Pierce's glorious series last week, focusing on Daine and Numair's swoony romance, but this week I'm going to talk about Kitten, otherwise known as Skysong, who happens to be Daine's dragon ward. Yup, she's a tiny baby dragon who doesn't know how to talk or fly yet, but she's got a fearsome temper and scales that change color with her mood. That is basically the best kind of animal sidekick you could ask for, really. Except for possibly...

9. Saphira from Eragon



Full confession: I haven't read the last book in this series, and I'm not sure if I will. I totally loved Eragon, liked Eldest, and enjoyed Brisingr, but the books burnt me out, to be honest. They're a lot of work. BUT my absolute FAVORITE PART of the series was Saphira and Eragon's unique relationship. She's a dragon, and he's her rider, but they're equals who love and rely on each other so fiercely that you can barely even call Saphira a sidekick. She's brilliant and definitely can be very scary and they can communicate WITH THEIR MINDS. I would trade my dopey dog in for a Saphira in a heartbeat, who can barely understand me when I communicate the word sit.

Okay, I'm wrapping up here. Do you have any favorite sidekicks I forgot (and I forgot a lot... oh crap, I'm just remembering Hana from Delirium and Kim from If I Stay and so many others and oops. But I must stop here. Can't include them all)? Did you actually do the Top Ten Tuesday question that was posed to you? Leave me your links so I can come visit, please!

Top Ten Literary Characters I Want to Marry

  

This isn’t the same as literary crushes. There are some fictional guys who are so swoon-worthy that just reading their dialogue makes me all tingly. Like Mr. Darcy, the ultimate literary dreamboat, or Sidney Carton, my personal childhood hero, or Mr. Rochester. But let’s face it. It would SUCK to be married to Mr. Rochester. Especially because he’d probably put you in the attic. Mr. Darcy warms up a whole lot by the end of Pride and Prejudice, but he’s hardly a barrel of laughs.

Here are the bookish boys that not only make my heart flutter, but that I could conceivable tie the knot with (were they real. Obviously).

Don't forget about The Single Greatest Giveaway tn the History of Mankind (slight exaggeration). Time is running out to win ANY BOOK YOU WANT!

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1.      Harry Potter from duh, Harry Potter

Quidditch star, savior of all wizard-kind, messy dark hair and the heart of a lion. Slight hero complex, but hey. If you were kidnapped, you know he’d come save you.

Hubba hubba.

2.      Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter also

Yes, I’m allowed two from one series. The ultimate nerd-turned-hero, millions of teenage girls realized upon reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Neville was a closet hottie. He’s sweet, humble, and can handle the sword of Godric Gryffindor like nobody’s business.

Doesn't hurt that he was played by Christian Bale.

3.      Laurie from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

How Jo turned down the high-spirited boy next door for the crotchety old German guy who hates her writing is beyond me. Laurie is passionate, enthusiastic, culture, and, yes, perhaps a little immature, but he’s so much fun.

I love a man in a neckerchief.

4.      Mr. Knightley from Emma by Jane Austen

I love a sensible, good-natured guy who loves a girl for her flaws. He’s probably the best of all the Jane Austen heroes. He’s stalwart, wry, slightly jaded, and capable of very strong feelings.