Leila Sales Top Ten Favorites x 3

I am excited to have the awesome and funny Leila Sales' stopping by for the latest stop on her blog tour. She is sharing three lists of her favorites, many of which I agree with! Also, be sure to stop by next week for my glowing review of Past Perfect!

Top Ten Favorite Historical Figures

I’m not exactly sure who counts as a “historical figure.” I guess anyone who is dead and is famous enough to have a Wikipedia entry. That’s a lot of options.

1. Buddy Holly. My favorite musician ever, who died tragically young.

2. Audrey Hepburn. She’s so stylish!

3. Robert Catesby. I’ve been fascinated by Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot for years. I wrote my high school thesis on the Gunpowder plot, and now I throw a Guy Fawkes Day party every other year.

4. Norman Rockwell. He was a very talented and funny painter. The Norman Rockwell Museum is close to my mother’s summer home in the Berkshires, so I’ve been there many times to look at his work.

5. Isabel Briggs Myers. I was really into by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator when I was in high school. Isabel Briggs Myers was a game-changing social psychologist at a time when not many women were working in the field.

6. Oscar Wilde. He was an enormously a talented writer and humorist, yet he faced such difficulties in his personal life.

7. Eleanor Roosevelt. A strong, influential woman in politics.

8. William Shakespeare. With so many conflicting stories about his identity and so many movies and books that have re-imagined his character, and with his impact on literature being so expansive, it’s hard not to be a little fascinated by Shakespeare, or at least the idea of him.

9. John Lennon. One of the greatest songwriters of all time.

10. Dorothy Parker. One of my writing role models.

Top Ten Favorite YA Characters

In the interest of space, I’m going to have to leave out some characters whom I love. I hope they don’t mind…

1. Michael Moscovitz from The Princess Diaries, by Meg Cabot. Michael Moscovitz is my boyfriend.

2. Prince Charmont, from Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine. Char is my other boyfriend.

3. Briony from Chime, by Frannie Billingsley. Briony is so complex. I wish more YA characters had her depth.

4. Billy Bloom from Freak Show, by James St. James. Billy’s very funny, and he is unabashedly and inimitably himself.

5. Lyra from Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy. I mean, obviously. Lyra is badass.

6. Colin Singleton from An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green. I have a soft spot for precocious children.

7. Charles Wallace from A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. See previous note regarding precocious children.

8. Liam Geller from King of the Screwups, by K. L. Going. How could you not love someone so cool, so well-intentioned, and yet so misunderstood?

9. Liv Weiss-Longo from For Keeps, by Natasha Friend. She is a true original, and a loyal friend.

10. Frankie Landau-Banks, from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart. This girl is a modern-day YA feminist.

Top Ten Favorite Films

I should preface this list by mentioning that I have terrible, trashy taste in movies, and also that I haven’t updated my “favorite movies” list since roughly 2001. Basically I like any movies about teenagers falling in love and/or listening to music.

1. Clueless

2. Bring It On!

3. Wet Hot American Summer

4. Waking Life

5. 10 Things I Hate About You

6. Empire Records

7. Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion

8. American Graffiti

9. Bottle Rocket

10. Cruel Intentions