When I went on a TV fast in June of last year, I started reading more. I read a lot of good books from June to December, and most of what I read came from recommendations from friends' blogs, so I thought I would pass on my own recommendations. I didn't hate any of the books I read, so I included them all here with some short reviews. Please excuse any crazy formatting- sometimes I just can't get Blogger to work with me. Happy reading!
Joel Ben Izzy, The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness: Biography, lots of fun stories, but not super memorable.
Hester Brown, The Little Lady Agency: I know a lot of people love these books, but I wasn't crazy about it. I just didn't identify with the main character.
Kristin Cashore, Graceling: I really liked this one. Medieval fantasy-type book. Compelling and creative, and likeable/admirable characters.
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games; Catching Fire: This series is awesome. Amazing plot, hard to put down. A little violent, but not hard to read- might be hard to watch if it was a movie.
Paulo Cohelo, The Alchemist: Interesting parable, lots of symbolism. Lots to think about, one I will re-read.
Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon; Dreamland; Lock and Key; The Truth About Forever; That Summer; Just Listen; Along for the Ride; Someone Like You: I really like Sarah Dessen's writing because the main character always learns something about herself and/or grows in some way, and she always involves family and not just friends, like most YA novelists. Not entirely clean- all of her books have a little language, and Just Listen and Dreamland deal with some rough issues, but they all have good morals. My favorites were The Truth About Forever and Lock and Key.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters; North and South: Great Jane Austen/Bronte Sisters-style writer. Be warned: she died while writing Wives and Daughters so it is unfinished. I liked North and South best, but maybe it's because I was mad about the lack of ending to Wives and Daughters (it would have been nice to know ahead of time). Hefty books, a little long, but great stories.
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: Non-fiction, lots of interesting statistics about successful people.
Anna Godbersen, The Luxe; Envy; Rumors; Splendor: These four make up a series. Hard to put down, but actually rather depressing sometimes. None of the characters are very good, so harder to sympathize with, but very compelling story. Technically the books are clean since the author never describes in detail when the characters do something unsavory (which is rather often).
Shannon Hale, Austenland; Book of a Thousand Days: I love Shannon Hale. These are two of my favorites.
Eva Ibbotson, A Countess Below Stairs; A Company of Swans; A Song for Summer: Great writing. I truly love her style: in addition to creative plots, the way she writes is so tangible and witty. I especially loved A Countess Below Stairs.
Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon: A classic. Very thought-provoking. For mature readers- some adult moments.
Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic: Cute story, frustrating main character. Not totally clean.
Gail Carson Levine, Fairest: Very creative take on Snow White.
Stephenie Meyer, The Host: Way better than Twilight. Better writing, I think, and super-interesting plot.
Janette Rallison, All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School; Revenge of the Cheerleaders; My Fair Godmother; Dakota’s Revenge; Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To-Do List; How to Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend; It’s a Mall World After All: Cute and totally clean YA novels. Not thought-provoking, but fun reads. My Fair Godmother was my favorite: Rallison takes a break from teen high-school drama and mixes in some fairy-tales.
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Great historical fiction, well written, one of my favorite books overall.
Sherri L. Smith, Lucy the Giant; Sparrow: Pretty good coming-of-age novels. Lucy the Giant had a much more interesting plot.
Sherwood Smith, Crown Duel/Court Duel: These are published separately and together. So good. The first book is more action-packed and the second has more intrigue and social tension. I loved the story.
Cynthia Voigt, Izzy, Willy Nilly: Interesting to think about although not an attention-grabber.
Sara Zarr, Sweethearts; Story of a Girl: Pretty good YA novels that go deeper than silly romances. Both books deal with some rough material.
4 comments:
Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you had read a lot. I've only read one on that whole list so obviously I've got some good things coming to me :)
I LOVE North and South and wives and daughters. Have you seen the movies? I loved them both. The movie of Wives and Daughters gives a little more closure. You should check them out. They are great!
-Mary (not Aaron) Ludwig
I'm going to have to check some of these out. We will be a tv-free zone starting on the 14th.
Thanks for the recommendations. I love a good book. I'm picking up "Catching Fire" this week from the library. I loved the Guernsey Society too! I love even more how I'm not watching TV as much either; now I just need to pay attention to my kids.
(The tiara is so much cuter than party hats!) Miss you.
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