#1: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows
of Ava Lavender
of Ava Lavender
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| Author: Leslye Walton Published: 01/04/2014 by Candlewick Press Date Read: 07/13/2015 |
This was a beautifully breathtaking book. I love it when a book grabs ahold of my heart and squeezes the way this one did. The writing style is truly unique, yet manages to be reminiscent of two of my favorites--Laini Taylor and the one and only Alice Hoffman. I'm a total fool for magical realism and lyrical prose and The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender nailed it.
This story spans across multiple generations of a family that is cursed when it comes to love and I was haunted by their loves, losses, pain, and triumphs. I could live inside this book's words forever.
“Fate. As a child, that word was often my only companion. It whispered to me from dark corners during lonely nights. It was the song of the birds in spring and the call of the wind through bare branches on a cold winter afternoon. Fate. Both my anguish and my solace. My escort and my cage.”
“To many, I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale. Some considered me a monster, a mutation. To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel. To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost. But I knew the truth—deep down, I always did.
I was just a girl.”
“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.”
This book is a gem that I recommend to all readers, whether they're Stephen King fans or not. After 11/22/63, I promise they will be.
I was just a girl.”
#2: Outlander
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Author: Diana Gabaldon
Published: 07/26/2005 by Dell Publishing Co
Date Read: 05/18/2015 |
Ohh my, what an experience this book was! Featuring a World War II combat nurse who travels back in time to 18th century Scotland, Outlander is an epic historical romance with a touch of magic and lots of beautiful imagery, sensuality, and humor. It will make you want to promptly board a plane to Scotland and spend weeks wandering around the Scottish countryside, picking wildflowers and daydreaming about Jamie Fraser. As an added bonus, you will have fun using a Scottish accent while reading this (I know I did!). As Jamie would say, I loved this book "verra much" and in 2016, I will be finishing the series!
“I was crying for joy, my Sassenach,' he said softly. He reached out slowly and took my face between his hands. "And thanking God that I have two hands. That I have two hands to hold you with. To serve you with, to love you with. Thanking God that I am a whole man still, because of you.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
― Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
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| Author: Christina Baker Kline Published: 04/02/2013 by William Morrow Date Read: 11/05/2015 |
#3: Orphan Train
Orphan Train was one of those books that devastated and uplifted me at the same time. I found myself pleading and whispering "No, no, please no" (as if pleading could change words already written) because I couldn't bear to see the main character endure another loss... And somehow, I finished this book with a fair share of tears rolling down my face, but also with a sense of peace and faith that everything happens for a reason. This book had my attention and my emotions from the moment I read the powerful prologue. I knew this would be a story I would not easily forget...
Vivian's story fascinated, devastated, and invigorated me. The losses she experienced on the journey that took her from a starving child in Ireland, to an orphaned immigrant in New York, and across the midwest on an orphan train are unimaginable, but for thousands of children in our history, very real. Reading a book like Orphan Train teaches important lessons about the past and serves as a reminder to be grateful for our present and mindful of our futures.
"I believe in ghosts. They are the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind."
“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.”
#4: White Oleander
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| Author: Janet Fitch Published: 9/1/2001 by Little, Brown and Company Date Read: 03/25/2015 |
White Oleander has some of the most beautiful language I've ever encountered in a novel. It was like reading a 446 page tragic, emotional, and powerful piece of poetry and I loved every single line, even when it was painful to experience so much loss and suffering through the eyes of a teenage girl. Ingrid Magnussen, a poet in the wired cage of a prison cell, locked away for poisoning her boyfriend, is one of the most compelling characters I've ever encountered. Beautiful, intelligent, cruel, and calculating, she was so engrossing with the artistry of her every word and action. As fascinated as I was with Ingrid, my heart was with her daughter Astrid, whose voice told this tragic story.
This is one of the most painful, gripping coming-of-age stories I've ever read, but it is absolutely gorgeously written.
"The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves... "Oleander time," she said. "Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind."
“Beauty was deceptive. I would rather wear my pain, my ugliness. I was torn and stitched. I was a strip mine, and they would just have to look. I hoped I made them sick. I hoped they saw me in their dreams.”
#5: Miss Peregrine's Home
for Peculiar Children
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| Author: Ransom Riggs Published: 06/07/2011 by Quirk Date Read: 01/25/2015 |
I was just completely mesmerized by this beautifully eerie book! The vintage photos featured throughout really added to the overall mysterious, somewhat creepy feel of the story. The peculiarity of the photos had a haunting quality and I was pleasantly surprised to read that the photographs were real and came from collectors who typically found them in antique shops.
Photography aside, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is one of the most imaginative stories I've ever encountered. I love books that invoke a sense of becoming a part of another world and this one was dark and stormy. Due to the descriptive writing style of Ransom Riggs, I didn't just read about Jacob's adventure, I felt as if I experienced it with him. I was also very intrigued by the book's setting on Cairnholm Island in Wales and how it went back in time to 1940, when the island was facing the threat of German soldiers in World War II. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an active imagination and a desire to discover new worlds. For maximum enjoyment, read in the dark while a thunderstorm rages outside your window!
Photography aside, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is one of the most imaginative stories I've ever encountered. I love books that invoke a sense of becoming a part of another world and this one was dark and stormy. Due to the descriptive writing style of Ransom Riggs, I didn't just read about Jacob's adventure, I felt as if I experienced it with him. I was also very intrigued by the book's setting on Cairnholm Island in Wales and how it went back in time to 1940, when the island was facing the threat of German soldiers in World War II. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an active imagination and a desire to discover new worlds. For maximum enjoyment, read in the dark while a thunderstorm rages outside your window!
“Because we weren’t like other people. We were peculiar.”
“Peculiar how?”
“Oh, all sorts of ways,” he said. “There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
“Peculiar how?”
“Oh, all sorts of ways,” he said. “There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
#6: Throne of Glass series
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| Author: Sarah J. Maas Published: Bloomsbury USA Childrens Date Read: November-December 2015 |
Okay, so I'm totally cheating here. If I were to consider this series as individual books, I would be wanting to cram all five into my top ten reads of 2015... So I'm going to lump them all together instead. There's no way I could just list one!
As I described to my friend, in hopes of convincing her to read this, this series reminds me a little of the CW show Reign and/or Kiera Cast's The Selection series... Except that the main character is a skilled assassin who could kill the toughest man out there with a hairpin before he had time to know which way was up. She also loves books and has a heart of gold, so I loved her beyond her badassery.
The series is awesome from the very first page, but as it progresses from the first book, the plot thickens deliciously and had me all sorts of crazy... Not sleeping much.. Talking to myself... Doing random fist pumping... And generally feeling like an absolute Throne of Glass junkie. The dreamlike world-building, action-packed plot, character development, moving relationships, intensity of every single battle or conflict, and just every other single detail about this series is completely on-point and somehow improves with every book. How did Sarah Maas write something so incredibly epic? How!? This is the ultimate combination of young adult romance and fantasy, guaranteed to take over your life! You've been warned. :)
“She looked at them, at the three males who meant everything—more than everything. Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. “Let’s go rattle the stars.”
― Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
― Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
#7: Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy
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| Author: Laini Taylor Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Date Read: January 5-11, 2015 |
Apocalypse, angels, resurrection, magic, forbidden love, undying friendship, gods, & monsters...
I guess you don't get much more "star-crossed" than an angel loving a demon, but Karou and Akiva's love storywill leave you hoping for a cease-fire between light and darkness. I've read several great paranormal romance/fantasy series about angels, but this one is in a league of its own as it weaves its own new set of folklore.
From the cobblestone streets of Prague (always one of my favorite settings), through a portal to a mystical land full of beasts and angels, Karou's world was so fun to discover and filled my mind with beautiful images. The writing is lyrical and the world-building, phenomenal. This is another trilogy that took over my life and put major stars in my eyes. I wish I could describe to you just how gorgeous it really is... I literally wanted to add about a thousand quotes from the series just now. Laini Taylor sure does have a way with words.
“Once upon a time, an angel lay dying in the mist.
And a devil knelt over him and smiled.”
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And its snap split the world in two.”
“Once upon a time,an angel and a devil pressed their hands to their hearts
and started the apocalypse.”
― Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters
and started the apocalypse.”
― Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters
#8: The Storyteller
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| Author: Jodi Picoult Published: 02/26/13 by Atria Date Read: 05/04/2015 |
In The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult produced some of the most brutal, heart-wrenching, and eloquently written literary scenes I've ever read, period. I sobbed through probably 75% of this book. The language painted each scene so vividly that it was like I was seeing the atrocities firsthand.
I've always loved reading books about World War II and the Holocaust and despite how devastated they make me feel, I've read a lot of them. Each one has touched my heart and left imprints on me in some way, but every now and then a book about this time period comes a long that presents the tragedy that was World War II Europe in a way that sheds an entirely differently light on what it was like to live during that horrific time. In the The Storyteller, accounts of the Holocaust are told from the point-of-view of not only an Auschwitz survivor, but also a former SS soldier and concentration camp supervisor. This book focused more on the anti-semitic brainwashing of the Hitler Youth and the internal struggles of the Nazi soldiers than other books I've read, but it's still so hard to imagine being able to commit the acts described in the book. As is mentioned in the story, it's essential that we do not forget what happened during one of the darkest times in history, so that it may never repeat itself.
Read this book with tissues... Lots of tissues.
"Nobody who looks at a shard of flint lying beneath a rock ledge, or who finds a splintered log by the side of the road would ever find magic in their solitude. But in the right circumstances, if you bring them together, you can start a fire that consumes the whole world."
― Jodi Picoult, The Storyteller
― Jodi Picoult, The Storyteller
#9: Rose Under Fire
This book is actually a companion novel to Code Name Verity and although you could definitely read this book without reading CNV first, I highly recommend that you don't. This book will mean so much more to you if you've read Code Name Verity. While there are a few recurring characters from the first book, the main character and focus of Rose Under Fire is Rose Justice, a female American ATA pilot and aspiring poet. While transporting a plane for the Royal Airforce, Rose is captured by the Nazis and placed in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp where 150,000 women were starved, tortured, and in many cases executed during World War II. During her fight for survival, she forms remarkable friendships and discovers that she will need these friendships and every bit of strength she has, if she wants to make it out alive.
I love Wein's writing style, as Rose's story is told through journal entries, letters, poetry, and magazine articles. It is graphic and painful at times, but only because she made the atrocities of war come to life so vividly. The poetry is also beautifully written and really added to my emotional bond with the book and characters. Like Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire etched permanent marks on my heart.
“Hope is treacherous, but how can you live without it?”
― Elizabeth Wein, Rose Under Fire
― Elizabeth Wein, Rose Under Fire
#10: 11/22/63
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| Author: Stephen King Published: 11/08/11 by Scrivner Date Read: 03/19/2015 |
Stephen King's 11/22/63 is not a book you sit and read, it's a book you experience. Although he's known as "the master of horror" (something I wholeheartedly agree with), Stephen King proves time and time again that he can do so much more than give you nightmares. In fact, in the six days I spent reading this book, I thought about it constantly and even obsessed over it in my dreams. Despite obviously being sci-fi/fantasy/alternate history, it will make you think about life and the history of the world in an entirely new (and complex) light.
The book is essentially about time travel and the main character's ultimate goal is to stop the asassination of JFK. The storyline involving Oswald and the JFK assassination is absolutely fascinating and full of suspenseful, intense moments, but the real magic of this book, to me, lies elsewhere. As Jake steps through the portal, he experiences the late '50s/early '60s (a time my grandma often refers to as "the good ol' days) through the eyes of someone from my generation of technology and impersonality. How I could feel such a sense of nostalgia for a time I was never able to experience myself, I'm not sure, but it was lovely. There's also a really beautiful love story here that brought tears to my eyes more than once.
“But I believe in love, you know; love is a uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart.”
― Stephen King, 11/22/63
― Stephen King, 11/22/63
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So there you have it... My favorite books of 2015! Again, I would also have to include Code Name Verity, The Nightingale (probably my absolute favorite of the year), and Unbroken, but I'll let you refer to prior posts for my ramblings about those. FYI: I didn't list these ten books in any particular order and I don't think I could do so if my life depended on it. I hope you'll check all them out.
I can't wait to see what books 2016 has in store for me!
Happy reading!
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