Top Ten Tuesday (68)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Tuesday's theme is...

Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist

My friend and blogger Shae of Shae Has Left the Room started #RBWL, the Reader/Blogger Wishlist. Today's Top Ten Tuesday is just like that, and I am super excited! I HAVE A WISHLIST, PEOPLE, AND I WANT MY WISHES TO COME TRUE (where are you, fairy bookmother?). So. Here are tenish things Rachel (that's me) wants to see as/in/part of a book.

Retellings.
I never, ever tire of retellings. In fact, when a book is a retelling, my interest is immediately piqued. And I'd love to see retellings of all sorts of stories.

For instance, Tarzan. Give me the person in the jungle, give me the animals, give me the romance. Oh, and it could be gender-bent and rock both ways. (I'm excited for Wild by Alex Mallory, releasing later this year!)

LIES!

A retelling of Pocahontas would be totally badass (I don't see a whole of Native American's in books, or this setting), but SHE ENDS UP WITH JOHN SMITH. (Be historically inaccurate. I DO NOT CARE.)

How awesome would Anastasia be? Not only would we get Dimitri (he's mine, so you can back off now), but we also get the story of a lost princess and a murdered royal family! And Rasputin could be so totally epic.

I know it's done somewhat often, but thanks to Tiger Lily, I can't get enough of Peter Pan. I WANT ALL THE THINGS AND RETELLINGS. And I know it would kill me, buuuuut...what if Peter left Neverland, and we saw him living outside of it? (Oh gosh, that would be brutal. My heart!) It'd be cool to learn more about the lost boys, too. But really, I just care about Peter Pan (I love him).

And last but not least, I need need neeeeed a Braveheart retelling. The movie and soundtrack are so epic, and I would just drool over this in YA form. DROOL. William Wallace would be such a heartthrob. Ugh, it'd be so freaking good.

Also, I would totally read a book told from the POVs of dogs, like Lady and the Tramp. Heck, they could even be humans. (Admit it: Tramp is swoony.)

So, basically, ALL THE RETELLINGS.

Location, location, location.

Setting is huge. Sometimes I'm drawn to a book just because of where it takes place. And I'd love to see more YA in Africa, Australia, jungles, swamps, and wild places. And space! I'd love to see more books in space, and I want to fall head-over-heels in love with a book set there. It'd also be fantastic and amazing to read a book set completely underwater. Can you imagine the worldbuilding? It has the potential to be epic. So amazingly epic.

Animals tell stories, too.

I love animals. Love love love them. So much so that I've considered a degree in zoology. But there aren't enough of them books. And I want more books like Endangered, where the animal is a main character. And I'm not talking dogs and cats--I'm talking exotic animals, like lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! Oh, and the animals aren't allowed to die.

I'm a sick person.

I want more books with things like kidnappings. And I don't want it to be like oh, hey, this person is kidnapped, now three seconds later they're back and it's over, bye. No. I want the gory details. And if a boyfriend and girlfriend are kidnapped (or even one), I want to see how each reacts, how they try to save one another, etc. (Yes, like some kind of sick love story. I don't know how else to put this, except that I am sick person. And admit it, when the guy swoops in to save the damsel in the distress in some swoony way in those movies, your heart pitter patters.) Also, I don't like scary things, but give me more scary, gory, thrilling, horror YA. I want to read it! I don't know how else to explain this without sounding like a sicko psycho.

DINOSAURS!

WTF, universe? Why aren't dinosaurs dominating pop culture? (I'm still super pissed Terra Nova was cancelled.) DINOSAURS USED TO RULE THE EARTH. They are totally worthy of being everywhere, but for some reason I cannot fathom, they are not. Out of all the things on this list, I probably want this the most. I LOVE DINOSAURS. WHY CAN'T I FIND THEM? Please, write a book with dinosaurs, and make it good. And no erotica. None. THAT IS NOT WHAT DINOSAURS ARE FOR. I just want all things dinosaur related.