My Favorite Books

I've had the idea for this blog post for a few months now, and only now getting around to it.  Its a bit overwhelming.  In the last year I became an avid reader.  To the point where my roommates thought I was depressed cause I spent all my time in bed...reading.  Most of you know this all started when I read Twilight in August of last year.  I started reading the book in order to prove to my friends that they were silly for being so obsessed with a high school book.  It took about 50 pages before I was hooked.  h-o-o-k-e-d.  I read it in 3 days, then immediately read it a second time in 3 days.  The following books in the series had me just as hooked.  It was a revolution in my life.  Since then, I have found a number of books that I not only like, but am head over heels, irrationally obsessed with.  Twilight was only the beginning.  Here are my favorite books:

Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games on the surface seems to be for a younger audience.  Don't let that dissuade you.  The writing is great, the characters and amazing and complex, and the underlying messages of the book make me want to use it as a teaching tool.  It is set in a futuristic post apocalyptic America from the point of view of a 17 year old girl, Catniss, from the poorest area of the country.

Hunger Games reminded me of my favorite "make you think about the way you think about things" like The Giver, Handmaids Tale, and Oryx and Crake.
  

When I read Hunger Games, I didn't know that it was series.  I was so upset when it ended I literally threw the book across the room.  Then impatiently waited a year for the second book, Catching Fire.  Catching Fire lived up to the first, and now I impatiently wait another year for the third and final book in the series.

Shiver 
by Maggie Stiefvater

I picked this book up serendipitously.  Just browsing around Borders killing time, liked the cover, read the back, bought it.  Whoever told us not to judge a book by its cover was feeding us crap!  The cover is awesome, even cooler once you read the story and study it some more.  Once I started reading, I read it in 1 night.  ONE  night, after work, 6pm to 1am. Done. Love.

The book switches point of view between the two main characters, which I really enjoyed.  Personally, I hate reading in the third person, so this was right up my alley.  The writing is good and much attention was paid to the details.  My only complaint was that it was too short.  The last quarter of the book seemed a little rushed, but the fast pace did make it easier to whiz through it.

Even better....they just released the cover of the sequel!  I didn't even know there was a sequel when I read it. Shiver could have stood alone, but the sequel makes it even better.  The catch is...doesn't come out til next year.

Oh the waiting.....

Vampire Academy Saga

by Richelle Mead

I held off reading this for a long time even though I had read good reviews.  It was the first vampire book I read after Twilight, and I was not a vampire person, and didn't want to become a vampire person.  But I eventually read it, and it just kept getting better and better.  There are 5 Vampire Academy books out now.  And each book is better than the one before it.  The 5th book came out this fall, and I was still thinking about it for a week after I read it. 

The series starts out following two best friends.  Kinda nice for the main character to actually have a life.  Most the books I've read have been about loner girls who don't have many 'normal' relationships before something supernatural happens. 

House of Night series
by PC Cast and Kristin Cast

Warning: this series is addictive.  The books are short and breezy.  I love the story.  It gets complicated and completely evolves from innocent high school students to a group of kids trying to save the world.  The length of the books and the plot make me think it would be a good TV series, Buffy-like.  And I loved me some Buffy.  House of Night ups it a notch or two because instead of one brooding hot vamp, there's multiple brooding hot vamps (and a human) who having me changing teams a few times in each book, hah!





More to come...