Top Ten Tuesday – Books Linked to Specific Memories

Happy Tuesday! It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly feature run by That Artsy Reader Girl where you choose ten books to fit a weekly prompt. This week’s prompt is to redo a prior prompt or do a prompt you haven’t done previously. I started TTT not that long ago so I scrolled back through the prompt list and books linked to specific memories jumped out as a fun one.

• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – I’ve read this book several times. The first was in high school, my parents were away and I was staying with my pseudo grandparents. I was holed up in their guestroom with homemade cookies and cried my eyes out.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by you-know-who – This book was released the summer after my freshman year in college. I went to the mall with my friends at midnight to get our pre-ordered copies. There sooo many people there, the line wrapped around the mall. People were giving out buttons so you could label yourself as Snape is a Friend or Snape is a Foe. There will never be anything quite like that, I remember cheering as they rolled the books of books past the line. Somehow my parents were away for this one too and they got back after 2 weeks away when I was only a few chapters from the end and I told them I’d greet them when I was done.
• A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray– I read this one during COVID. I hadn’t read much in lockdown but this one totally sucked me in. I read the entire trilogy in a couple of days. It was a great escape.
• Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson – I love this book and have read it 3 times. The first time was on a cruise to the South Pacific. Not only do I love it every time, it always reminds me of sitting on a beautiful beach in Bora Bora.
• A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab – I read this book right after Christmas of 2018. My sister had given it to me and it was the first adult fantasy I read. I loved it and it got me back into reading.
• Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer – I read this book last summer, just me and my pup Bonnie hanging out on the deck with a book and a beer. It was a glorious day and made even better by loving this one.
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid– I read this at the beach in September. So did my mom and my family friend who came with us. I love reading on the beach and getting to talk about it with them was really fun.
• Warcross by Marie Lu – I read this at Christmas 2020. I didn’t think much of it until my 10 year old nephew started laughing at me. He was listening to the audiobook of the same book, we all had a nice chuckle.
• A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks – Like most girls my age when I in middle school, I read a lot of Nicholas Sparks. This was the first one and I felt so grown up when I read it. I also cried so hard at the end that when I came out of my room, my sister thought I had been in some kind of accident.
• But for the Mountains by Erin Riha – I was reading this on vacation to Disney World. My aunt ended up falling and we went to the emergency room. It was during COVID restrictions and only my mom could go with her. So I spent about 2 hours in the car in the parking lot reading this on my phone. Maybe not a good memory but a strong memory nonetheless.