Top Ten of 2016

So 2016 wasn't the greatest year in general, but book-wise it was pretty good!  I started out reading excellent book after excellent book.  The first 7 on this list are from the first half of the year.  My second half wasn't so hot.  Now it wasn't that I read a bunch of duds, I just didn't find as many that I LOVED.  In fact, finding a tenth book was somewhat difficult.  

So, in no particular order (except for the order in which I entered them into Goodreads):

LOVED this book about a ballerina whose world is going out of her control.  She signs up for an internship in Antartica before her family can do anything to stop it and she's stuck up there, trying to pretend she knows what she's doing and that she isn't really running from life.

Heartbreaking and beautiful.  Suzy tries to come to terms with her best friend's death from a jellyfish sting.  At the same time, she's trying to understand how their friendship slowly diminished.

AHHH!  I could not get over this book.  And it seemed like I waited forever to get through a few months before the sequel came out!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Jane Austen.  Loved it. The sequel comes out early 2017.  Already pre ordered!

Didn't expect to love this book so much.  It's about friendship and finding out who you are when it's just you.

Ahhhh!  The sequel was amazing and now I'm desperate for the next one.  Terrifying.  Really it is.  Should I read the first two over again beforehand?  May have to make that happen.

Middle School Friendship.  Positive friendship.  Making good choices.  Standing up to and for your friends when needed.  I loved this book and its positive messages.

A sequel with lots of adventure and a strong female character.  Serafina has to solve another mystery, save herself and her friends, and figure out where she belongs in the world.

Yes!  I was temped to put An Ember in the Ashes on this list too since I re-read it before this one came in, but I decided that wasn't fair.  I loved this sequel, but once again, I need the conclusion.  I need to know what happens next.  Please tell me soon Sabaa Tahir!

This may be a cheat on multiple levels.  First, it's really three books.  Second, it was a re-read.  However enough time passed that I felt satisfied including it in here. :)  

Have you read any of these?  What are your favorites?

Celebrating Valentine's Day with Books That I Love

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a little book love.  Most are newer books, but two are old favorites.

                    

You may already know that I love Anne Shirley with all my heart and that I fell in love Anne of Green Gables as a child.  I've written about it a few times.  Instead of rehashing it all, here it is for you to peruse at your own leisure.
Character Spotlight: Anne Shirley
Character Spotlight: Gilbert Blythe
Six of my Favorite Literary Figures from Childhood
Mother Figures in Literature

What you may not know is that I fell in love with Carole Maso's AVA when I was in college.  I mean fell in love.  It was my first grown up love story with a book.  AVA is about a woman who is dying and during her last days of life she offers us snippets of what she remembers. These little short bursts of images were so beautiful I remember not knowing what to do with myself.  I remember sitting with my friend who was in the same class as we were both reading and we were just incredibly enthralled.  It was silent in the room, but there so much energy as we each poured through the pages and then went back through moments later to mark something we loved.  I choreographed a dance based on this book, with the words as our music, and I still remember the gingko trees.  The pages of that book are filled with notes and post its and a few gingko leaves.  :)

                      

Station Eleven is a newer book.  I read it about a year ago and it was just so beautifully written that I keep thinking about it, wondering when I should return to it.  A year sounds like enough time, but is it?  Should I wait a little longer?  Here's my review of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

I love, love, love, love, love The Wrath and the Dawn.  I can't stop thinking about how awesome it is!  I definitely will be reading this one again before The Rose and the Dagger comes out in May.  Guess who already pre-ordered it!!!
Here are a few things I've written about The Wrath and the Dawn (as you can see, I've been a bit obsessed with it as of late):
Not-Too-Romantic Reads
Book Rave: The Wrath and the Dawn
Book Review: The Wrath and the Dawn
Best Literary Villains
Best Book Covers

Finally, is Wonder.  I fell in love with Wonder one day when I happened to randomly find it in my mailbox at school.  I loved August's story and have built it into my sixth grade curriculum.  I start out with this book each year now and we study it--not only for it's literary merit, but for it's character building.  Students participate in kindness projects and we refer back to August and all his friends throughout the school year. It is the perfect start to our year together.

What books do you love? 

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My Top Reads This Year -- 2015

As 2015 draws to an end I'm looking back at my year of reading. I have not made my goal of 60 books, (as I'm writing this I have 57--I believe 58 will happen by the time it published, alas!  Not 60). I did come very close and also found some really great books this year.

Without further ado, my top ten eleven books of 2015--in no particular order (in the end I couldn't cut one of these out).

1. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
I devoured this book and can't wait until the next one comes out!  It was amazing.

2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel
I'm not sure what I had been expecting when I sat down to read this, but I was amazed.  It was really beautifully written, terrifying, and wonderful at the same time.  Great choice in a dystopian book.

3. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

I was blown away by this one.  It was just a random buy at Target one day.  It completely sucked me in and had me worried about characters and rooting for them within pages.  

4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Just beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful.  I listened to this one, but I'm planning on reading it over the summer so I can experience it again holding the book in my hand.

5. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Not only is this hilarious, but I really loved some of the "advice" she has.  I'm looking forward to reading Why Not Me? soon.

6. The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins
You'll be drawn into Rachel's world as she travels every day into the city and watches for that one house, that one window, that one couple.  She's created a life for that couple, but when it's discovered the wife is missing, Rachel starts to piece together the puzzle.

7. Cress by Marissa Meyer
This may or may not be my favorite in the series.  Please note that Winter also made the list below.  I just can't tell yet.  I do know that she is my favorite.  (No review of this one.  When I read it I was in the midst of a class that took up all of my time and I never was able to review it.)

8. Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley

A really quite wonderful and magical story about the power of believing in magic.  If you like Harry Potter, you'll probably be drawn to the Harry Potter-esque feel it has.

9. These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Victorian.  Murder.  Mystery.  Romance.  This was really great!  And what I loved the most was that although the romance was somewhat central to the plot, it wasn't the most important by any means.  It was just an element.  What was important was the mystery and our main character Jo was awesome!

10. Winter by Marissa Meyer
I tore through this book.  It arrived at school (I had it delivered there so I could begin reading it ASAP) and then I carried it around me whenever I left my room that day.  To make copies, to speak with my vice principal about an issue, to show off to my colleagues at lunch.  It was a bit much, but totally worth it!

11. A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
I fell in love with this book.  It's creepy and dark and yet not at all scary.  It's just what a middle grade novel should be.  

12.  Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty

This one was a late one and I squeezed it onto my list just in time!  It was really beautiful and I enjoyed the strong female character and the magic and the themes of friendship.

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9 Best of 2015 Lists to Peruse

If you're like me, you're not always on top of the new books that come out every year.  Maybe it just slipped by you and you're wondering how you could have missed that book in the first place.  Or maybe you almost started reading it, but something else came up instead.  Whatever it is, take a look at some of these "Best of 2015" posts that I've compiled.  I love reading lists of good books.  Peruse at your own pleasure!


NPR Concierge -- Great place to actually see all the covers.  I love being able to see the cover of a book and NPR Concierge lets you either view their list by the cover or in list form.  In addition, you can narrow it down by genres, and they've given you a good selection of genres too!

Goodreads Choice Awards-- Who doesn't love the Goodreads Choice Awards?  I love voting for my favorite books that made the cut and waiting to see how well they did in the end.  The best part about this list is that they don't just give you the winners of each genre, but you can see all the books that were in each category.  So you can discover more books!

Buzz Feed Beautiful Covers-- Looking for some beautiful covers of 2015?  Here are 34.  So if you love to look at book covers, or purchase your books based on the cover (we all do this sometimes, just admit it!) then this is a quick look at those.

Huffington Post-- Their list of 18 best fiction books of 2015.  This also includes links to more information, reviews, and interviews.  So you could definitely get lost for days in this one!

NYTimes-- A list of the 10 best of 2015.

Wall Street Journal--Their best of the best books of 2015.  They split it up into four different categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery/Thriller, and YA.

Young Adult Library Services Association--You want a book?  Ask a librarian.  Chances are they have read every book there is!  YALSA has a super long list here.  The only downside is you don't get to see the covers.  This could also be a good thing, but with only the little one or two sentence snippet, it's hard to get a good hold.

A List Devoted to Picture Books-- Another from Huffington Post with 21 different books for you to discover.  Read them for yourself or share them with a child.

Best Children's Books of 2015-- The Guardian has their list of 8 children's books.  The only thing I'm not too happy about is that it includes both picture books and one YA.  I prefer to have them separated.

My top 10 for 2015 will be coming soon, but I have books in my list that weren't published in 2015.  Check out that list on New Year's Eve.  I am trying to give myself as much time as possible to read as many books as possible.

Happy Book Searching!!

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Top Ten YA Ever Update!

If you haven't checked out my top ten YA novels before, you should do so soon because it's been updated.

The last time I updated was in May and there have been some amazing books that pushed some other really really good books off the list.  It's always hard to narrow things down, so I did my best!

Take the time to check it out here.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Fall

Who doesn't love fall?  When I was younger I always imagined that I would get married in the fall and walk down an aisle of red, yellow. and orange leaves that crunched as I lightly tread towards my beloved.  Then I became a teacher and although I briefly thought of getting married in the fall, I scratched that idea off my list because there was no way I was going to plan a wedding while I had to grade and plan for classes.  Nonetheless, Fall is still my favorite time of year!  Here are some reasons why.

1) The colors

In the spring you get flowers and green green grass, but in the fall you get beautiful combinations of yellow and orange and red.  Plus, during the good part of fall (the warmer months) there is still a lot of green to throw into that combination of colors.


2) The leaves

So raking them isn't really a lot of fun (especially when you have as many trees as we do in our neighborhood) but I love the way a yard looks with a layer of leaves covering it.  My husband disagrees and as soon as the leaves really start to fall, he'll be out there raking them up every weekend until it freezes over.

3) The crunch 

I love the sound of leaves crunching underfoot.  You kick your feet through them and stomp on them.  My two year old loves to do this too and it makes me so happy to watch her seek out paths with a large pile of leaves.

4) Apples 

I love apple pie and apple crisp and apple cider and apple cake and anything else you can make with apples.

5) Pumpkins 

Now, I don't like eating pumpkin.  What I do like is decorating them.

6) Halloween

 I love Halloween and love dressing my daughter up in whatever she wants to be.  I wish we had more trick-or-treaters, but even if we didn't, we'll go out to some random events and I'll get to see all the different costumes and it'll be a grand time!

7) Fires.

It's been a few years since we used our fire pit because our daughter never stops moving and I can just see her jumping around and toppling into it...so we'll wait a few years to try that out again.  I miss it thought.  Sitting outside with the flames throwing heat out at you, sizzling the cold away. Perfect!

8) Thanksgiving

The food.  Family.  That's all I have to say.

9) Reading inside 

I love being inside when I know it's cold outside--especially if I have a good book to read.  I'm warm and it's cool outside and I can see the leaves falling to the ground like magic carpets floating down to earth.

10) Cozying up with a good book

This would actually be the best part of any season, so it might be cheating, but we all know the best part of any day is the time you get to read!

Top 13 Books for October: Middle Grades, YA, and Adult

Okay, so this is more like the top  13 Reads for October from someone who isn't into scary/horror/mystery very much.  So there is no Stephen King in this list and maybe nothing you're really expecting to see.  Mostly these are fun to read.  That's why I picked them!

Middle Grade

  

Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Beautiful tale of a young girl who can communicate with spirits.  I just loved how this was eerie and a little scary, but really about a girl who wants to know her mother. Review here.

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage
Mo LeBeau is on the case again!  This time she's solving the mystery of the ghosts haunting Tupelo Landing.  And her grade depends on it! Review here.

Doll Bones by Holly Black
Three friends must ban together when one of them claims to be haunted by a mysterious china doll.  The doll has revealed that she was made up of the ground-up bones of a murdered child and must be buried.   Creepy, sad, and hopeful at the same time.  Review here.

 

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Love this book.  Not super creepy, but a little bit as Georgie follows the pigeoneers her sister supposedly ran off.  The sheriff found her dress, but not her body and Georgie just knows that her sister couldn't bed dead.  Review here.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
I am creeped out by this book and The Other Mother.  Ugh.  It's been awhile, but I'm still creeped out by her.

Gargoyle Hall by Angie Sage
A fun read about Araminta who is shipped off to boarding school, only to find out that a mysterious beast has scared all the other students away.  She's determined to help the school recover. Review here.


YA

 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The peculiar children in Ransom Rigg's book are inspired by old pictures of children in interesting poses.  Those pictures are used throughout the book.

Beautiful Creatures/Beautiful Darkness Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Supernatural powers and a girl who could choose the dark or the light. Review here.

The Enemy by Charlie Higsin
ZOMBIES!  And the only non-zombies left are kids.  Lord of the Flies meets The Walking Dead?  We all love a great Zombie story--right?

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
A power that is so great it must be kep out of the wrong hands.  Gemma Doyle has to learn and understand the powers that she has. Review here.


Adult

   

Under the Skin by Michael Faber
Super weird and super creepy.  I'm creeped out thinking about it still.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
So much fun to read!  To imagine Abraham Lincoln as a secret vampire hunter was awesome.  Grahame-Smith does such a great job of weaving the vampires into history that sometimes I had to stop and remind myself that Abraham Lincoln wasn't really a vampire hunter.  Or was he?  (Don't watch the movie.  It was awful!)

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

This was a great read.  Another Zombie book, but with a lovely young zombie as the protagonist.

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