Show and Tell: Part Deux

The first one was a huge success so I knew I had to do this again. Show and Tell is an original feature here on this blog where we get the chance to showcase some of our favorite books. This time around, there's even a lot more fantastic choices from awesome book bloggers, so read on and see what they picked!

For me, since you've probably seen the 'official' list of my all-time favorite books just this week on Top Ten Picks, I thought I should just choose one that didn't make that list. So I picked I Am An Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler.

I feel very, very strongly about femininity and female empowerment, and one issue I am most concerned about is the violence against us women. I Am An Emotional Creature is a non-fiction book by Eve Ensler, who is the founder of V-day -- which is the global movement to end violence against women and girls. Eve Ensler showcases strong, smart, capable, and beautiful women and their real life stories. At the same time, she addresses the fact that women are indeed as powerful as we are so-called "emotional." The stories in the book prove that we deserve to be treated and viewed the right way, and that our voices deserve to be heard as well. I Am An Emotional Creature is an important eye-opening and thought-provoking book, written to call for awareness. Ultimately, this book makes me proud and appreciate being a woman in this world today.


1. Morgan @ Smitten With Books
Pick: Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles
- When I think of a book that I look forward to reading every time-Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles comes to mind. The characters are so well written and the book is overall very dramatic as well as funny. When I think about a "bad boy" character that I wish I could have in real life, Caleb is perfect. And I love bad boys a lot which is why I really enjoy reading this book. Also, the situations that Simone puts her characters through is at times very embarrassing but perfectly laid out which is why she is one of my favorite authors and all her books will hold a special place in my heart.

2. Jamie @ Perpetual Page-Turner & The Broke and Bookish
Pick: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Books always find me when I need them. This was one that found me when I was going through a really hard time. It is a long story to explain but this book will always be one of my favorites. Plath is a genius and her writing is so beautiful and raw. There came so much beauty from someone who was in such great pain. There is such a message of hope and it is tragic that Plath couldn't find that within herself.

3. Eleni @ La Femme Readers
Pick: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
- I will always love Twilight. Through the good and the bad, like a marriage pretty much. I fell in love with Edward and Bella's story while I was going through a rough patch. Ever since then its had a special place in my heart. Plus, I never dreamed about a fictional character until Edward.

4. Emily @ Emily's Reading Room
Pick: Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
- Shannon Hale's Goose Girl is one of my most beloved stories. I picked it up after many years of not reading fiction. (Reading stupid textbooks for 3 years straight makes all reading not fun for awhile). The characters and story is so wonderfully crafted that you will think you are in the world and friends with these wonderful characters. I am not a fan of the original fairy tale, but I love where Shannon Hale takes the story. This particular book is special to me because it was signed to me by the author at an event I attended. Shannon Hale is a wonderful person, and it was so fun to meet her. If you haven't read this book, you must!

5. Melina @ Reading Vacation
Pick: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
- At first, Princess Academy feels like a typical fairy-tale about a poor girl becoming a princess. In reality, it is anything BUT a typical fairy-tale. Miri grows into a strong and confident young lady who helps others. She is someone I would love to be like as I grow up. Thank you to Shannon Hale for this sweet story that puts a twist on the usual fairy-tale.

6. Raila @ Books Out of the Bookshelves
Pick: Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
- I've said this a hundred of times, but I don't tire saying again and again: Whisper was love at first sight. I completely fell in love first with its cover, then with its premise and, finally, with the whole story behind it. Lately, if anybody asks me to recommend them a book, I unwittingly recommend this one. There's not only one reason why I feel so identified with Whisper... Actually, I think there's a lot. While reading, I felt just like Joy, as if I could hear those people's desires and feel like I needed to help them to get what they want; as if I was right there talking to Jamie; as if I really felt bothered by her friends and Icka. This book is simply the lookout of a real and normal world only mixed with familiar paranormal powers. One of the coolest – and principal – parts of Whisper is the relationship between the two sisters, Joy and Icka, and the two brothers, Jamie and Ben, which I loved better. I can’t say anything but that it’s definitely a must-read, which I’ll always be glad to re-read.

7. Kelly @ Book Sanctuary
Pick: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- This has been my favourite book since I first read it in 2005, and I love it because it has a perfect blend of science, romance and drama. I really enjoy the way it flicks around in time, because you get a real sense of how it must be so disorientating for Henry to randomly be shoved into a place in time and not know why he's there. I love the interaction with an older Henry and a young Clare, throughout the whole book you see so many different facets of their relationship and how it evolves over the years that Clare is growing up. I adore the writing in the book and the humourous little comments scattered throughout. I just think Audrey describes things so fantastically, and when I'm reading it, I feel like I'm in Henry and Clare's world. I've recommended this book to so many of my friends and most have loved it too, so that always makes me happy! This is just the ultimate 'life me up' book when I'm feeling down, and just has everything I love in a story, so for me it's perfection! :)

8. Stephanie @ Paper Cut Reviews
Picks: Windfall by Rachel Caine, Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine, and Stray by Rachel Vincent
- Well I have three favorite books. I couldn't just pick one because it was too hard to choose, lol! Windfall by Rachel Caine, Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine and Stray by Rachel Vincent. Well I'm a big Weather Warden and Morganville Vampire fan so of course these two books would be in the favorite book category:) What can I say Windfall is my fav in the Weather Warden series. I definitely can reread this book again and again because I think it shows a different side of Joanne *main character* and how much she struggles to keep her life together when everything seems to fall apart;) I also love the bond her and David have it's heart wrenching at times*sigh*.My Favorite in the Morganville Vampire series is Feast of Fools. This was the best book in the series for me because so much happens! It's a lot of what...how...why!! I loved the anticipation of what will happen next and this book definitely delivers that special something that only Rachel Caine can do.Finally my other favorite Rachel book *lol* is Stray by Rachel Vincent. This book for me brought out so many different emotions that I have to say it's my favorite out of the Shifters series. I love how strong but stubborn Faythe is therefore bringing alot of conflict to the story and of course this is the book where the love triangle between Marc-Faythe-Jace started! Thanks for listening:)

9. Adriana @ ~*Loves to Read*~
Pick: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- My favorite book is Wuthering Heights. It's one of the few books I've reread over and over since I first read it when I was 10. We get to know the characters from childhood to adulthood and through marriages, births, and even deaths. Many people dislike Catherine and Heathcliff because they're selfish, deceitful, and filled with pride, but that's why I love them. They aren't these picture perfect characters. They have flaws that ultimately hurt themselves and everyone else around them. In my opinion Heathcliff is the original brooding and misunderstood romantic lead who I'm sure would have grown up to be a wonderful man had he been raised under different circumstances. Wuthering Heights is a tragic and haunting love story and shows how the decisions we make could ultimately haunt us throughout the rest of our life.

10. Darlyn @ Darlyn and Books
Pick: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
- This is actually the best book read in 2010 so far. I would choose Harry Potter series as my all time favorite but I've got new favorite (still love HP!). Well, to think of it, honestly, it was utterly engaging and I was deeply moved, absorbed and tantalized of how it gotten all over me. Yes, it is. I love of how it was written, the sentences keep me reading it, as it's unputtable and I just couldn’t get myself to hold on for a second to stop.The book is so much worth reading. Move over Twilight, Beautiful Creatures rules! You will never like Twilight like you love Beautiful Creatures. If you have not read this, put it on your TBR list now. You have to. I still wonder how both authors wrote this wonderfully.

11. Laura @ Life After Jane
Pick: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
- Cassandra Mortmain lives with her eccentric little family in the crumbling ruins of an old castle, supported only by the ever dwindling residuals earned from a rather odd book written by her father years prior. Cassandra begins a journal to practice her newly acquired speed writing and through it perhaps to teach herself how to write a novel. Her daily entries concerning the random, silly things that happen around the castle and her peculiar little family make for a charming, witty memoir that chronicles her own clever scheme to jolt her father back into writing and her first foray into love. I fell instantly in love with this book and by the end , I found I had a new best friend.

12. Greg @ The New Dork of Reviews
Pick: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- Infinite Jest is the most beguiling, hilarious, beautiful, complex, thought-provoking and just downright incredible book I’ve ever read. It truly is a work of genius. Several different storylines - a halfway house full of drug addicts, a tennis academy, a group of Quebecois terrorists trying to secure providential independence - converge and diverge constantly in a carefully orchestrated pattern that is just an absolute blast to read. At more than 1,000 pages, including 388 footnotes – many of which actually are crucial to the story – the book is not for the faint of heart. But spending a few months slowly enjoying this ride may be one of the more rewarding reading experiences you’ll ever have. That was certainly the case for me!

13. Enbrethiliel @ Shredded Cheddar
Pick: The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
- Every time I try to describe The Man Who Was Thursday, I remember that nearly every chapter contains a surprising twist that every reader should discover for himself, and so I stop talking. Which means that in all my years of loving this book, I don't think I've ever persuaded anyone else to read it. But Jillian wants a blurb and I can't say no to her, so here it is . . . The Man Who Was Thursday is equal parts novel, myth, allegory, and fit of madness that probably should have never been published. (But of course I'm glad it was!) G.K. Chesterton himself said that a good novel tells the truth about its hero, while a bad novel tells the truth about its author--and by that standard, this novel of his is terrible. Yet it redeems itself by also managing to tell story of the whole world. In the words of its most mysterious character: "I seem to remember only centuries of heroic war, in which you were always heroes--epic on epic, iliad on iliad, and you always brothers in arms. Whether it was recently (for time is nothing) or at the beginning of the world, I sent you out to war. I sat in the darkness . . . and to you I was only a voice commanding valour and unnatural virtue. You heard the voice in the dark and you never heard it again . . .

14. Donna @ Bites
Pick: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
- I came across The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien in a college class called 'How to Tell a True War Story and I've been hooked ever since. Aside from the fact that I'm attracted to war stories for some odd reason, the heinously realistic voice of the fictitious Tim speaks to me in a way that few other books do. It's not about interpreting an event accurately but accurately for how your eyes viewed it. In those interprettions lie such amazing imagery that no literary masturbation could ever compare. It's the simplicity of O'Brien's work, the unadulterated honesty, that really strikes me. Despite the spine saying 'fiction,' the stories are told with such conviction that they could be real. They could have happened to someone and who's to say they didn't? I recommend this book to anyone and everyone I come across because it's one of those titles that you must read before you die. If you don't, it's your loss.

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Thank you to those who submitted entries; it is so much fun reading your blurbs and getting to know some of you and your favorite books! If you would like to be a part of our next Show and Tell, just email me at randomramblings2010@gmail.com and then I'll let you know how we'll go about it. Looking forward to hearing from you :)