#TopTenTuesday: My Favorite Moments in Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’s topic is: Top Ten Favorite “Awwe” Moments In Books (Share those sweet/cute moments in books that give you warm fuzzies.) I’m changing it up a bit to just reflect some of my favorite moments in books. Not all of them are happy moments, but they are all memorable.

There will be spoilers, but all these books are over six months old, so I’m including them.

Book 1 of the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series has a moment when Max, having been sacked and thrown out of St. Mary’s by Isabella Barclay for trying to save her coworkers, who Barclay swore were dead, marches back in, rescued coworkers in tow, to throw Barclay out.

Book 8 of The Chronicles of St. Mary’s has many painful moments. In fact, many call it “The Book That Should Not Be Named.” My favorite character was killed off, for one thing. But a very memorable moment came for me when Max was reunited with Matthew. It is not a sweet moment, but one to remember.

My favorite moment is when Harry finds out he is a wizard and can get some escape from the awful Dursleys.

One of my favorite moments in this book is when Hermione tells Ron that if he doesn’t like her going with Krum to the ball, then next time he should ask her before someone else does. I just thought it was a cute reaction by Ron, who still didn’t get it.

Two moments from this book stood out for me: The first is when Aravis gets clawed by a lion, and Aslan tells her it was stripe for stripe the wounds that were received by the servant girl she left behind when she escaped, and who faced a lashing because of it. She asked if the girl was going to be okay, and Aslan said that was not her story to know. I always found that pretty powerful.

My second favorite moment was when Shasta found out who he truly was.

There are so many great moments in this book it’s hard to pick a favorite, but one that really made me laugh is this one: After Elner Shimfissle falls out of her fig tree and has a near-death experience, she meets her dead sister Ida. Ida apparently is still quite miffed that Elner let Tot Wooten do her hair after she died. The whole scene is hilarious.

I’ve mentioned this before, but this is my “snowstorm” read when I’m snowed in or on a snow day. My favorite moments are when Pa finds Alamanzo’s secret wheat storage spot, and all the ways Caroline finds to keep them fed and alive when food is scarce. When the trains finally get through, Pa’s very short prayer before eating a late Christmas dinner (in the Spring) is sweet too.

Andy Weir is a genius because he managed to use math and physics in a work of fiction and still keep me not just interested, but riveted. My favorite moments are in the beginning when Ryland Grace slowly figures out who he is, where he is, and why he’s on a spaceship millions of miles from home. Weir slowly peels the onion to bring Ryland back to awareness, and it is brilliant.

My favorite moment is when Neville stands up to Voldemort, breaks free of his curse, and kills Nagini. I like the scene in the book much better than the one in the movie.