Thursday, March 3, 2011

Weekend Hops

It's time for the weekly book blogger hops again! A great opportunity to meet new bloggers and say hi to old.

Crazy For Books' Book Blogger Hop

Book Blogger Hop

Parajunkee's Follow My Book Blog Friday.






I'm Alison. I've been blogging for nine months. I review mainly YA with a few MG books and a weekly manga feature.

On the blog this week - 

Reviews

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Manga Mondays

Fruits Basket vol. 16 by Natsuki Takaya

Discussion Post

Are You A Genre-Ist?

Questions of the Week:

Blog Hop: Who is your all-time favorite book villain?

This is a really tough one, since villains don't typically stand out strongly in my memory like protagonists. Harry Potter is the main set of books that come to mind. There are lots of villains in HP, like the Dursleys, Snape, Malfoy, etc. But the three big ones are Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix LeStrange, and Delores Umbridge.

In some ways Umbridge is the most interesting villain of the three. As we learn in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and subsequent books, there are few lines she is not willing to cross. And the most interesting thing is that she is on the right side! I love how JK Rowling showed that people can do horrible things in the name of evil and in the name of good.

Follow Friday:

61 comments:

  1. Hi Alison,
    Hoppy Friday - I had a really hard time with this question too!
    Have a great weekend
    Brenda

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  2. Happy Friday, Alison! I think my all-time favourite villain would have to be Voldemort, but President Snow is in the running, too now ;)

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  3. Alison, I'm just floating through to say Howdy & Happy Friday.

    The most evil villain I can think of is Bella from Twilight. Poor Renesmee. All she ever wanted was a normal name.

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  4. All are good choice picks for villians. How can you really just pick one? Happy Hop weekend!

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  5. Happy Friday Alison! I completely agree on Umbridge, I wanted to smack that woman, throw things at her, and just dye everything in her wardrobe black to see what happened:)

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  6. Of all the HP villains, Umbridge had the greatest effect on my blood pressure. I hated that evil woman. I'm getting worked up just thinking about her...

    Have a great weekend!

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  7. Umbridge was a creepily evil villain. I forgot about her, I don't know how since she was the villain of book 5. Great choice with her!

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  8. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!! I like Melissa's villain...President Snow! But HP has fantastic villains.

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  9. Just hopping by. Harry Potter did have some good villains throughout the series. Umbridge is definitely interesting.

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  10. My favorite book villain is, hands down, is the Napoleon of crime -
    Professor James Moriarty.

    It took me less than ten seconds to come up with my answer. But you'll
    never guess why.

    Hop on over to my blog and find out -- http://www.howardsherman.net

    Howard Sherman
    http://www.howardsherman.net

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  11. Returning the hop! :) I see that you recently reviewed Last Sacrifice - I LOVED the Vampire Academy series, I just finished it myself.

    You are definitely right that Rowling did a great job with the villains! Umbridge is definitely one of the worse - she's ALMOST up there with Voldemort, in my opinion. I even forgot she was on the "right" side!

    Nice to "meet" you, I look forward to becoming a frequent visitor :)

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  12. Dolores Umbridge is such a good answer. I hated her so much and I wanted to strangle her more than any other character in that series.

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  13. Voldemort is definitely the face that comes to mind when you think villain! Thanks for stopping by :]
    Have a great weekend!

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  14. I agree about Voldemort and Bellatrix they are really evil.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    Happy Weekend!

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  15. Happy Friday!
    I think I'm the only person on Earth that hasn't read HP. Oh well... I think I should gather my courage and dive into it already!:))

    Have a fab weekend!
    xoxo

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  16. I totally agree with you about all the HP villains. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    Somer @ A Bird's Eye Review

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  17. You're right - the villains don't stick in your mind like the heroes do. But I think the HP villains are def good ones to pick.

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  18. Thanks for visiting my blog. The villains that aren't entirely bad are definitely very interesting.

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  19. Great minds think alike! I chose Voldemort. Your answer really interests me since I hate Umbridge with a fiery passion. That makes her an awesome villain though.

    Thanks for visiting,

    -P.E.

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  20. Ack! Umbridge! Of course. I can't believe that I forgot her. That woman irritated me to my very core. I hated her more than I've ever hated a fictional character ever before or since.

    Thanks for coming by today. Your blog so very pretty! I adore cherry blossoms.

    Rachel- Endless Reading

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  21. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm following you also.

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  22. Hi, Alison, I am here from the Hop.
    Good answer to the question. It sounds like you are a real HP fan! :)

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  23. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I have to admit I am probably the only person left on the planet who hasn't read the HP books. Sad I know :)

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  24. Hi
    Just hopping by. HP villians seem to be a popular choice

    Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out
    www.bookdout.wordpress.com

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  25. Hiya! Stopping by for Crazy for Books' FF :-) Great choices! I've always found the Harry Potter villains equally interesting because Rowling did a great job of layering them as 3-d characters and giving them unique motivations. Have a great weekend!

    D

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  26. Oh I never thought of Harry Potter books - good choice. There are loads of villains to chose from.
    Just wanted to pop by and follow you back and say hi.x



    shah from wordsinsync.blogspot.com

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  27. I had trouble with this weeks answer.
    I dont tend to like villains.

    carol

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  28. hi Alison, thanks for hopping by! good coice on the answers... xoxo

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  29. Thanks for commenting (:

    I agree, HP is the perfect choice xp

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  30. THanks for the comment on my blog--I couldn't agree with you more that Umbridge is the worst villain in the Harry Potter series. She gives me chills every time!

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  31. Oh I couldn't stand Umbridge from Harry Potter. I just wanted to yell at her or slap her silly LOL.

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  32. Hi Alison, just hopping through. I'm an old follower. Hope you have a great weekend. :)

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  33. Happy Friday! Hope you have a great week full of reading.

    Barb at Sugarbeat's Books

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  34. Hopping back to say hi! Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Welcome to the blogosphere! I follow you now!

    Jessica
    a GREAT read

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  35. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

    I never even thought of Umbridge! What a great choice ... she is a different kind of villian from Voldemort and Snape, but still a villian. Great pick! Now, I kind of want to change my favorite villian ... haha.

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  36. Great answer. J.K. Rowling is such a genius! All her characters, villain or not, are wonderful!

    iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books

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  37. Thanks for coming over to my blog. The H.P. villains seem to be topping a lot of people's choices. I lived through Potter when my son read the books (more than once) but I haven't read them myself yet. I really do have to get to them. As far as Dorothy Dunnett, my favorite is the Lymond Chronicles, starting with Game of Kings.

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  38. THanks for visiting my blog yesterday. I was thinking about Harry Potter while answering this question but having read just the first book I don't know if anyone flips to a 'good guy'.

    Great post

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  39. Hi Alison - Voldemort is one of the best answers I've heard so far. He is pure evil. I love it.

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  40. Hopping by....although, I said this morning my answer would be Assef from The Kite Runner. I forgot about Old Nick from ROOM. Ew!!

    http://www.ieatbookforbreakfast.blogspot.com

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  41. Its awesome that so many people have Voldemort as their answer! He really is the ultimate villain!

    Thanks for stopping by! :)

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  42. Great picks. Umbridge really creeped me out when I read about her.

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  43. Voldemort has to be high on everyone's list! He was my pick!

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  44. I wouldn't say Umbridge was on the "right" side, and she didn't really do anything in the name of "good", she just was always on the side of the Ministry, which, under Fudge, was horribly misguided, and under Voldemort, was just plain evil. I think she showed the dangers of blindly following your government.

    Great post! I picked Umbridge, too!

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  45. There were lots of people selecting characters from Harry Potter. Rowling knows how to write bad guys (or good guys that SEEM like bad guys; or bad guys that seem like good guys, come to think of it)!

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  46. After thinking I found that most of my favorite villains are groups of people, like Zombies or a group of bad girls.

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  47. Ohh, Umbridge is such a great villain. I hated her so much throughout the books.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'm following yours now too!

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  48. Umbridge terrified me. Hoenestly, Voldemort scared me less than she did. Her nice little schoolteacher act was downright disturbing.

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  49. I had a hard time choosing a villain so I picked one from a movie. Have a great weekend!

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  50. Thanks for the follow - am now following back!

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  51. Umbridge is very evil isn't she ... especially when she hands out punishments while pretending to be all sweet and girly.

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  52. I agree, Umbridge is definitely in the top three villains of Harry Potter. With her manner, you would almost think she's on Voldemort's side. Great choice of villains and happy reading!

    DJL

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  53. Nice choice of a villain. New follower by the way

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  54. Umbridge was definitely evil! Something about being all pink and into kittens, but then having the boys carve words into their own skin....can you say creepy?

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  55. Thanks for stopping by my blog for the hop. I have to agree that Umbridge is one of the most interesting villains.

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  56. Umbridge is interesting and very scary, though the kittens on her wall make me laugh out loud every time I see the movie. I picked Snape.

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  57. ...Stopping by from the Blog Hop.

    Good answer...stop by my blog for my answer and also a book giveaway.

    Stop by my blog for a book giveaway:

    LITTLE PRINCES BY CONOR GRENNAN
    http://silversolara.blogspot.com/

    Chelsey Emmelhainz of HARPER COLLINS is graciously providing FIVE copies for five lucky winners.

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  58. Thanks for visiting and following my blog. I love the desgin of yours, it's so pretty and spring-like.

    http://workadayreads.blogspot.com/

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  59. Hi Alison,

    I'm here from The Romance Reviews, visiting you due to the blog hop last week. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to visit sooner. TOo busy, but now that I'm here, your blog's awesome! Love the design and the colors!

    Anyway, just to let you know too that we have a contest going on just for bloggers, and also The Grand Opening over at http://www.theromancereviews.com/go.php

    We've got over 200 prizes to be won. Hope you can drop by sometime. :)

    Carole
    The Romance Reviews
    http://theromancereviews.blogspot.com

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I love comments. I appreciate every one! Thank you in advance.

This blog is now an award free zone. I just don't have time to pass on the awards as they deserve.