Favorite Books - Blog Posts

As much as I LOVE TRC, this series might be my favorite. And normally I hate spinoffs, but Sinner was probably my favorite of the set. Cole St. Clair is one of my favorite characters ever. He reminds me so much of the person I love. 

Anyway, if you love werewolves but hate cliches and want to escape the twilight apocalypse of ruined monster fiction...this is for you.

The Shiver series Maggie Stiefvater 9/10

This series is about werewolves, which sounds pretty lame, but these werewolves change from human to wolf depending on the temperature, in winter they’re wolves and in summer they’re human. This series was actually recommended to me by my girlfriend and I really really enjoyed it. There are some really cool plot lines and all of the genetics that you find out about to do with the wolves are really cool. I definitely recommend this series to anyone into fantasy.

I gave the series a 9/10 because it is one of the best fantasy series’ I’ve read. It was interesting and had new catches in probably every chapter.

Favourite quote: “You’re like a song I heard when I was a little kid, but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”

Ari and Dante but they're doggos 🐾

“Stories have power. Gleemen’s tales, and bards’ epics, and rumors in the street alike. They stir passions, and change the way men see the world.”

~ Robert Jordan, Winter’s Heart

“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia... You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”

~ John Green, Looking for Alaska

I just finished reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and

OH.

My.

GOD.

It was literally the most amazing book!! And possibly my new favorite?? It combined some of my favorite things, like words, language, feminism, historical fiction, and a beautiful story. The writing was different from a lot of what I've typically read before, and it almost felt like a classic book. It was about the life of a girl named Esme who grew up observing and then helping the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. She starts collecting 'lost' words that aren't included, and that are typically used by and about women. It is kind of depressing at times, but I love it all the same. If you like words, historical fiction, and feminism, I highly recommend this book. Like, go read it right now. I love it so much!!

The only time I've ever spent a full day scrounging the internet to collect all 15 books was for Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series. I cannot recommend these enough. I still have yet to read the first of the spinoff Artillerymen series, but if you need a SciFi/twisted history series to get lost in--this guy's books are it.

The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing

I got this book at a thrift store–which is a great practice on its own, just got a school textbook for less than $5.00—I didn’t get it thinking it was about Hunting and Fishing, but as I believed that it would be about raising strong women; but that it wasn’t either and I’m not going to lie, the reviews are right, this book is a bit of a mess but overall it reminds me a bit of Freaks and Geeks where it’s messy and authentic.

First on the mess, it doesn’t help and is unnecessary, the majority of the story is believed to be from one person’s point of view, but two chapters (one told from a character connected to the “main character”, and one not) are told from different people’s points of view. As the “main character” who actually isn’t depicted as the main character or is always portrayed the same but has memories from the earlier chapters—it’s the best you can go. This is confusing, and when I read this book the second time it was early in the second chapter that I remembered—oh right, this is why this book was annoying and confusing. But while poorly formatted and executed, that’s not really all that important, overall the story is snippets of most girls struggles with her personal romantic relationships, navigating different adult relationship as she gets older and changes, figuring out what she wants with her relationships and her changing relationship with her family.

What’s also crucial, and does make it a good story for young adult women and older, is that the love stories aren’t fairy-tale, they’re realistic. Loving someone you broke up with, how much pain can one handle or one should handle in a relationship, the weirdness of not wanting what you know is probably best for you, breaking up with your best friend; it’s not some dramatics of other books: woman finds herself after divorce, found her fiancé cheating, just got a makeover and became the ‘hot girl’ in school. It’s all the other parts of love, the common and more dramatic, heartbreaking and confusing stuff that there is no right answer for.

I’ve read this story a few times—and I still don’t get the title (really, it does not come up in the book, I’ve checked) but what’s great about it is that it’s accurate, and how you do feel the mess you’re in, isn’t unique to you—you’re not alone in feeling alone, even if no situation matches yours.

1st book: HP

If I ever had to choose a favorite book, it would be Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Bought by my mother because of it’s rampant success in England, it was and still is a very important book for me. The series was the first new-generations understanding of youth activism, feminism, equality and kindness. But the first book was, for lack of a better word as this word doesn’t seem to do it justice, home. I, like all great books, was taken out of my world to another place where I found friends and a family, and security. It gave me confidence, hope and connection while pushing me and allowing me to feel safe, all at the same time.

But Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is not my favorite books because of the story, a particular character or author, time period or residual feeling of inspiration. While it is one that continues to connect to me, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is my favorite book just because it is my home, my base and my beginning of reading. While I read before Harry Potter and surely would’ve read without it, the first chapter can always make me smile and bring me back to really beginning to love reading and experiencing that other world and how much books can bring joy, compassion and comfort. This book, that will always be my favorite book, represents more than even the world of Harry Potter represents to me with the characters and connections; it does in fact just represents me and my child hood and my love of reading and excitement to learn. 

All of the Harry Potter books will always have a place with me, but Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first and the strongest and the one that can always bring me back to the places I love. Happy National Book Month