Top Ten Tuesday: Trading places with characters.

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

 I would most definitely trade places with characters!  Here's a few.

Princess Buttercup (The Princess Bride by William Goldman):  I just love the idea of being in a world with Wesley the farm boy. "Aaaass Youuu Wishhhh"

Hermione Granger or Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter by JK Rowling)  This would be a dream come true!  Honestly, both of these women have unique and genuine views on their world.  I would love to see how they view their world.  It would be a whirlwind to be friends with the chosen one for a day. 

Turtle Wexler (The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin)  The idea of being in the midst of a real life strategy game is utterly alluring to me. 

Prosper (The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke)  Although, he is homeless and deadset on protecting his brother from his awful aunt and uncle, it would be most interesting to spend a day in his shoes.  I've heard Venice is a beautiful place and what I wouldn't give for some adventure there.

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)  Really, I'm a sucker.  I want a Darcy.  So yeah.

Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)  I want to be a detective, that would be cool.  That minus the cocaine habbit.

Sam (Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chobsky)  Perhaps I would like living her wild, fearless lifestyle, perhaps not.  I am not completely sold on it, but I do know that I would have absolute fun with Charlie and Patrick. 

Boo Radley (To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee) This would be really interesting, observing the world from inside the comfort of my own home.  I would be very curious.

Alice (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol)  I WANT!  This would be the greatest day of exploration and mind-boggling wonderment for me.  I want to have tea with the Mad Hatter and enjoy the oddities of Lewis Carol's glorious world!

Lily Owens (The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd) Despite her father, I think it would be really interesting living with the crazy, wonderful Boatwright sisters.  I could tend to the bees all day long and listen to their stories. 

Side note: This was harder than I expected.  I read too many depressing books.  Good books, but no way would I want to be a part of those worlds.

Rory Gilmore Challenge

So I found a full list of the books read by Rory Gilmore and I was very curious to see how many of them I have read.  I love Gilmore Girls and always thought Rory read a lot, turns out read did read a lot.  Let's see how similar our book choices are, shall we? 

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon -TBR
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan - TBR
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - TBR
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - TBR
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - TBR
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père - TBR
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson TBR
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - TBR
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen 

Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - TBR
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - TBR
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger - TBR
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 

Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III - TBR

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo -TBR
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inferno by Dante
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -TBR
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - TBR
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - TBR
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult 

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – TBR

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - TBR
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - TBR
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Hotels of Europe
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - TBR
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King - TBR
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut -TBR
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - TBR
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White - TBR
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - TBR
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum - TBR
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - TBR
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Books I've Read: 63

To Be Read soon: 27

This was fun.  And wow Rory is well versed. :D  

Top Ten Tuesday: Vivid Worlds/Settings in Books

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Vivid settings are something that I love about books, it's fun to remember the ones that caught my imagination the most.

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the arena in this book is just utterly fascinating.  The water and trees are just so intense.

2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, the entire wizarding world to the most vivid setting that I have ever read.  There is so much detail to this world that I often imagined myself in this world.  Specifically, Hogwarts is just so wonderful and spectacular with its hidden passage ways and moving staircases.

3.The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - something about this neighborhood just stands out to me.  I can imagine the houses that lined the cornfield with the underground shelter.  All of this is rather haunting but incredibly vivid in my memory.

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. - Gatsby's elegant house is picturesque in my mind.  Also, when reading this book I cannot get the doctor's eye out of my mind.  That billboard outside of the car shop is one of the most memorable settings.

5. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - Lothlorien is one of the most magical places my mind has ever journeyed to.  With the buildings winding around the trees in the elflike fashion it is stunning, incredibly beautiful.

6. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - this one is a little weird because this sticks out in my mind because of the darkness.  The absolute darkness of the dungeon that Despereaux must enter.  It's almost like there is no setting here but the darkness is so encompassing, you feel as though you're in that nothingness with him.


7. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - specifically the Magician's Nephew.  It is one of the coolest things I've ever read, reading the creation of Narnia as we know it is extraordinary.  A lamppost grows out of the ground!  I mean, really!

I guess I've only got 7 today, sorry friends. One would think this would be easier.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Recommendations

 hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

 It's time to do some book recommendations!  This weeks topic is: Top Ten Books For People Who Like X Book (Pick a book and pick 10 readalikes)

Let's do a throw-back shall we?
If you liked The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.

First I would say check out All American Girl, Avalon High, and anything else Meg Cabot might have written.

Then you might like Dairy Queen, The Off Season, and Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.  Cute Contemporary fiction about a girl who wants to play football and love.

After that you could try The Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin and possibly one of her other books Elsewhere.  (I like Elsewhere better but it's a little different than Princess Diaries type.)

Quite possibly you'll like An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.  (You might as well read everything else John Green wrote too.  It's excellent.)



Okay now pick up If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince? by Melissa Kantor.  This book is really cute and writing about makes me want to reread it.

Try The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  It really isn't comparable at all to The Princess Diaries, but I think everyone should read this book so there. SNEAK ATTACK.

The Alchemyst

by Michael Scott
Published: Random House, 2007
Pages: 375


Book One in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.


For hundreds of years, Nicholas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, have kept the most powerful book in the world safe.  It has been stolen, with the exception of the last couple pages, by Dr. John Dee.  Now, the fate of the world rests in the hands of twins, Sophie and Josh.  With the help of Nicholas Flamel, they must find Perenelle, and retrieve the book before Dr. Dee destroys the world.


I just kept waiting for Nicholas Flamel to reference his good friend from England, Albus Dumbledore.  Alas, earwax.  Not even once did his name grace the pages of this book.  It's okay, his absence did not ruin this book for me.  It was actually very interesting to see a version of the world of Nicholas Flamel, a man that I had read briefly about in the Harry Potter books. 


It was really interesting to see some of my favorite ancient myths come alive. The idea that there are elders and immortals living among us as mortals is so cool. It makes it just believable that something like this could be possible. There really could be unexplainable things living in the world is particularly entertaining.


Most of the characters are very enjoyable. Nicholas Flamel and Scathoch are incredibly believable character despite the fact that they are immortal and in one case part elder.  They are perhaps some of the most compelling characters in this book.  Even though Perenell is not the focus of this book, what little we see of her makes the book that much better. She is feisty and resourceful as any 700 year old woman should be. Her wisdom seems like it will be more prevalent in the books to come. I look forward to reading more about her and discovering exactly how powerful she is.


Michael Scott's take on the age old myth of Nicholas Flamel is enchanting and entertaining.  This middle grade book series has writing that captures the imagination of its readers and keeps them eager to read more.  Luck has it that this is the first in a series that is just beginning.  I cannot wait to read the following books in the series.


Stars: 4/5

Praises:


“The juxtaposition of our reality with magic and myth is riveting.”
          —Kirkus Reviews


“[A] riveting fantasy. While there is plenty here to send readers rushing to their encyclopedias . . . those who read the book at face value will simply be caught up in the enthralling story. A fabulous read.”
           —School Library Journal

Top Ten Tuesday: Author Recommendations

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

If you like these authors, you might like these other books.

If you like the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, you might also like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

If you like Suzanne Collins, Ender's Game by Orsen Scott Card might also satisfy you're need government defiance and a strong independent lead characters.

If you like Sarah Dessen, The Fault In Our Stars by John Green and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult might be a nice balance between love and loss.

If you like the middle grade fantasy like Inkheart and The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, The Sisters' Grimm Fairy Tale Detectives series by Michael Buckley would be a great addition to your reading list.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes may be a classic detective, but Hercule Poirot is quite a detective himself.  Agatha Christie's novels are great supplements to Conan Doyle's mysteries.  Try The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, you might just find you enjoy it.

If you like Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon are great books that also enter the might of the teenage psyche.

If you like J.K. Rowling, you might want to try A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle or The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.