Getting To Know You... (2)

...Through Favorite Books
Most of us have a little common ground to stand on. Pretty much every single blog I follower or who follows me blogs about books. It's odd to me that I visit sites everyday, read reviews and posts and don't really know too much about anyone. That's why I started these posts. So on to that common ground. Here's a list of my top 5 favorite books (in no particular order)!

1) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer- Some people love it, others hate but there's no doubt about it, this book sparks some pretty powerful feelings. I understand both sides and I get the flaws of this book. But all of those terrible things people say don't change one thing and that's the way I felt when I was reading this book. Going back to 9th grade, I can remember wanting someone so bad it hurt. I can remember my whole day being ruined because He didn't wave to me in the hall. Bringing that back today, most of my days are ruined when my husband says something rude to me or ignores me. So I get that crazy, do-anything-for-the-other person love Meyer's was striving to create. I traveled up to Seattle to see her on her Breaking Dawn Concert Tour and walked through the woods she describes in the novel. The thing I've always loved about walking through the woods is that feeling that anything can happen right beyond that tree. She brought that feeling back for me and whispered into my ear "yes, all those daydreams are true". By God, I want to believe her. Love them or hate them, this is one of my top favorite novels. Even now her characters stay with me and after the last page was turned I was still thinking about them.

2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- (A.K.A. The Lottery and Most Dangerous Game tied into one amazing bow.) I still sit up at night thinking about the horror Cato (and Katniss and Peeta) went through at the end of this first novel. I hate novels with little to no dialog, The Hunger Games was paragraph after paragraph, page after page of nothing but Katniss's thoughts. This novel told me what I liked and what I didn't like and by the time it was over, I believed it. Everything about the story, the characters and the writing pulled me. The moment I'm sure things can't get any worse, they deteriorate even further. It only took me one chapter to care about Katniss and her cause. The best thing about these books is they are all on the same par as the first one. Catching Fire is just as powerful, just as mind numbingly horrifying as the first installment and Mockingjay has already made me almost break down a few times. I worry about these characters not as fiction printed on a page but as real friends.

3) Rampant by Diana Peterfruend- So it's this book about killer unicorns. That's the part where I lose most people. But let me say, this novel is incredible. I loved being whisked off to Rome with Astrid and seeing the hidden beauties just under the citizen's noses. It was also great to watch this girl grow into a kickass heroine. In the beginning of the novel, you can tell it's there and by the end, she screaming it at the top of her lungs while cutting off your head. Yeah, she's that good. The writing is what really impressed me with this one. Everything felt so effortless, and page after page, this book kept getting better. I love when author's aren't afraid to ask the hard questions and this author doesn't shy away from the dicer subjects!

4) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater- I'd heard a lot of things by the time I got around to buying this novel. I was not expecting to be blown away by the icy, fast paced mood of this novel. Everything about it felt cold and desperate which really fit the story well. Stiefvater has such an amazing way with the written word and I loved being in both perspectives. I have to admit, Sam was more fun for me. I loved all the characters, and they also stuck with me. Another awesome thing about this novel is how Stiefvater turned the werewolf legends on their head a bit and made them her own. Instead of sticking safe and playing by the rules, we get this really imaginative reinvention. I was also impressed that she allowed the wolves to actually be wolfish in that form. They did some bad things and while they are wort of sorry about it, they own up to it. Stiefvater did an amazing job of letting the reader for their own opinion from there. It gave me that sense of danger without out right stating "I'm dangerous".

5) If I Stay by Gayle Forman- I can't say enough about this book. I knew going into to expect something horrible to happen but I had no idea how heartbreaking this novel was going t be. It gave me moments of pure joy, watching her evolve, but they was always this underlying urgency pulsing through them. I loved spending time with all of the characters, My favorites were Adam, Grandpa and the parents. But the lovely thing about this novel is all the characters feel three dimensional and I was interested in hearing their stories. The writing was so smooth with some of the most beautiful lines I've ever read. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, I wanted to yank Mia out of the novel to make sure she makes the right choice. This novel stuck with me long after I was finished reading and I can't wait for the sequel!


Honorable Mentions: Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray, Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey, The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi, and Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

So what about you? What are your favorite books? If you decide to use this to write a post of your own, link it in the comments so I can read it! Happy reading!