Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where book bloggers are invited to share their top ten lists centered on a certain theme.

This week’s theme was mash-ups: books that you’d combine to make an epic novel. This was such a fun theme, especially since I love vibrant, larger-than-life characters; I loved imagining which characters would click together.

Here’s my mash-up picks:

 

1. From Twinkle With Love by Sandhya Menon + My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma

 

 

I read From Twinkle, With Love shortly after My So-Called Bollywood Life and couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I wanted Twinkle and Winnie to meet! They both have such a passion for film and were so hilarious. I would so love to see a mash-up where Twinkle enters her film in Winnie’s film festival and have Winnie critique it.

 

2. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy by Jenny Han +  Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

 

 

Lara Jean and Alice are both so incredibly awkward yet adorable. They both stumble through dating and love, and I wish they were friends so we could see them help each other through it all. I really can picture Alice and Lara Jean baking cookies together while lamenting over something embarassing that they’ve done.

 

3. Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy + Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman

 

 

Ramona and Anise both come from such different backgrounds—Ramona from the South, and Anise from Santa Cruz—but their shared love of water and their fierce independence makes me think they’d get along great; they also both have such complex relationships with their mothers. I imagine a mash-up where Anise goes to Ramona’s hometown for the summer instead of Nebraska, and the two bond together over the water while helping each other process their feeling about their respective mothers. Also, though Anise is (at least on the page) straight, I could totally see her and Ramona falling for each other. Sigh.

 

4. Sparrow by Sarah Moon + Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

 

 

Sparrow and Jade are such different characters, but both of these coming-of-age novels are about finding your voice and learning to express yourself. Sparrow expresses herself through music, and Jade through her beautiful collages, which totally made me imagine them creating some sort of multimedia art together. I also love that both of these books feature mentorship and show the importance for young women (especially women of color) to have other women as mentors. I’d love to see Sparrow & Jade in the same mentorship program and watch them grow and create together.

 

5. A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor + Your One & Only by Adrienne Finlay

 

 

This may sound like a weird combo, but hear me out! Instead of a deserted island, Henri and Emma wash up on the island full of clones that Your One & Only takes place on. Creepy Lost-esque happenings ensure. Henri and Emma try to survive and repair their sisterly relationship while living among the colony of clones. Am I the only one who thinks this would be cool?

 

6. Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding + Things Jolie Needs to do Before She Bites it by Kerry Winfrey

 

 

Imagine if Jolie lived in LA and one of the things on her bucket list was finding the best burger! She could team up with Abby and Jax on their hunt. Also, I think Abby would get along so well with Jolie’s BFF Evelyn, and they could totally put on an epic plus-sized fashion show together. 

 

7. The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo + The Education of Margot Sánchez by Lilliam Rivera 

 

 

Margot is struggling to be herself, while Clara is always unapologetically herself. It’d be such a perfect mash-up if Margot was sent to work on the KoBra food truck with Clara & Rose instead of at her dad’s supermarket. I think Clara would teach Margot how to be true to herself and Rose’s maturity would help Margot grow so much. Margot is also such a creative character, so I love the idea of her learning to express herself through food.

 

8. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu + The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

 

 

Both of these novels involve teenage girls starting movements at their schools to solve serious issues: in Moxie, Viv tries to fight against sexism and sexual abuse against the girls at her school, and in The Latte Rebellion, Asha fights for acceptance for multiracial teens. I would so love to see these two combined to create a story all about fighting for intersectional feminism.

 

9. As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti + The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

 

 

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life is very much about the power of chosen family, and the main character Sal spends much of the novel trying to decide if he wants to know who his biological father is. I’d love to see this story set in the magic-wishing-well town in As You Wish, and have Sal chose whether to wish to know his bio dad, or wish that his mom hadn’t died, or a multitude of other what-ifs. Sal is a character whose life has been shaped by the mistakes and decisions of others, so it’d be super interesting to see what he would change if he had the power to.

 

10. The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk + The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody

 

 

For some reason, I love books about grief. The Beauty That Remains is more of a long story of grief over time (from three different perspectives), whereas The Chaos of Standing Still takes place in one night at an airport on the anniversary of the protagonist’s best friend’s death. Each character in these novels has experienced a very different kind of loss and is grieving in a different way. I’d love to see a multi-narrative mash up that alternates between each character’s grieving experience and all four of them being stuck in the airport together on the anniversary of their losses. It would be super sad, I know, but whatever, SAD BOOKS ARE THE BEST BOOKS.

 

Which of these mash-ups would you read? And what books do you want to see mashed up?