Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Settings in Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, a state that you don't have to worry about being deprived of more books as long as you're near a library. ;) This week's Top Ten is:

Top Ten Settings in Books

1. Mercy Falls from Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Linger, and Forever - Truthfully, I want to go to Minnesota not just to find such a city as Mercy Falls but because it has one of the largest populations of wolves.

2. Isla Huesos from Meg Cabot's Abandon - The Caribbean is the last place one would think of for the setting of a revamped Greek myth, but Cabot really makes it work.

3. Seattle, Vancouver, and Paris from R.A. McDonald's Ada Legend of a Healer - Readers get to see a different side of these famous cities, particularly Paris, through Ada's travels.  Plus, one of the most perfect cities for parkour is Paris.

4. Dust City from Robert Paul Weston's Dust City - It's not the most gorgeous or really the most livable of settings, but it does provide excellent atmosphere that sets up Henry's story.  I imagined it as being something like Tim Burton's Gotham from Batman (1989). 

5. Burden Hill from Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's Beasts of Burden Animal Rites - Burden Hill appears to be everything you expect in small-town America, namely quaint, cozy, and wholesome.  You'd never expect it was a nexus for paranormal activity.

6. Aesop Elementary from Candace Fleming's The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary - This elementary school would probably be fairly normal if it weren't for Mr. Jupiter's class of fourth graders.  Actually, Mr. Jupiter himself was what made this collection of stories an excellent read and a rival to the Wayside School books. 

7. Tortall from Tamora Pierce's Lioness Quartet - This was one of the first fantasy realms I was really drawn into as a preteen, and I loved the world that Pierce created for all of my favorite characters.

8. Chewandswallow from Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - First off, I really love the town's name because you can't help but giggle.  Really, it's the idea of a town that has it's menu rained down on it that is so whimsical and fantastic.

9. Seattle from Michael A. Stackpole's Wolf and Raven - Let's face it, Seattle's an awesome setting no matter what time period.  Futuristic Seattle has both it's pristine and less savory sides, and with Wolfgang Kies, readers get to see both sides.

10. Hundred Provinces from Heather Tomlinson's Toads and Diamonds - The villages and the city of Fanjandibad are described in such wonderful and beautiful detail.  Tomlinson did an excellent job of creating an exotic fantasy world.