Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

It's about that time where we say goodbye to one year and start the next! To say the least, this year has been an amazing one for me. Last year at this time I was a legal secretary who had just been asked to help moderate the book of the month club over on Twilight Moms. I had no idea what to expect, and I never imagined where this one little decision would take me. It was easily one of the best decisions I've ever made! A short year later I have worked with dozens of my favorite authors between TM's and Eve's Fan Garden and here and have had the chance to meet many of them! I quit my job (YAY!!) and went back to school to be a school librarian and while being back in school is no walk in the park, at least I feel like I've finally found the right job for me!

One big book realted thing I did this year was the 100 books in 2010 Challenge through Twilight Mom's. As of today I've read 120 books with 12 more hours to go I suppose I could get one more in, but 120 in 2010 seems like a good place to stop. Check out all 120 books here. There are some big duds on that list- but also some really amazing books- so without further ado here are my year end book ranking.

Top Five:

Before I Fall- Lauren Oliver
This is an amazing book. It's rare that you find a book that takes you through such a range of emotions as this one does- from hatred to compassion, happiness to sadness, laughing to crying- Oliver manages to expertly weave it all in.

Delirium- Lauren Oliver
Another amazing book by Oliver. I got into dystopian alot this year and Delirium is the best of the bunch as far as I'm concerned. I can not wait for the sequel to come out, which isn't for over a year, so I'm in for a long wait!

Stolen- Lucy Christopher
This is one of those books that was given to me that I had never heard of, but something about it's simple cover and title that grabbed my attention, so to the top of the pile it went. Thank goodness- this is an amazing book. It's terrifying and heartbreaking and hopeful all in one. By the end of the book not only may Gemma have Stockholm syndroms, but as the reader, you just might have it too. It's remarkable and it sticks with you long after you close the last page.

Clockwork Angel- Cassandra Clare
Always late to the game, before I picked CA up I had not read any of Clare's books. Within a week after finishing CA I had read them all. The world that Clare creates is fun and full of adventure and history and mythology and awesomeness. I was hooked from the first page and I can not wait for more books to come out!

Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
The fifth book for a top 5 is always hard to pick. Out of 120 books, which one gets that last spot. There was never a doubt that Hunger Games would be on the list- but there are alot of other phenomenal books that are left off. Still- how can you not include HG. This book is another great dystopian that is terrifying in the parallels to our world. the whole series is. I'm nervous and excited to see how this book comes to life on the big screen!

3 worst

Can you say five worst? Obviously, if there are some at the top, there will be some at the bottom, but that doesn't neccessarily mean they are bad. For the record- IMO every book out there has it's reader- so the bottom 3 on this list are just the ones that weren't my cup of tea, even if they might have been great books.

Speak- Laurie Halse Anderson
Go ahead, gasp in shock at my worst book of the year. I deserve it. I hated this book, but I have a good reason, I promise. Here it is: I grew up in Syracuse, I spent my whole life here. Even when I was off at College, the Syracuse area was home. This book, set in my hometown, seemed like a foreign place to me. Nothing was recognizable. She messed up my town. I couldn't get past it. I missed out on the whole story because things like the bakery and the mall were wrong. The descriptions of her neighborhood were wrong. Ruined the entire book for me. Which is too bad, since by all accounts it was an amazing book. Just not for me.

The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold
Another shocker. This book just was a dud for me. I think it moved to slow for my liking, and with an already hard to read topic filling the pages, I needed more to keep me invested. Again, not a bad book, just not my cup of tea.

My Sould to Save- Rachel Vincent
This book has a great concept, but for some reason I jsut couldn't get into it. It's rare that I start a series and don't finish it all, but I had no inclination to even pick up more of this series. In a stuffed genre, this one just didn't catch my attention.

Book that Surprised me the most:

Stork - Wendy Delsol
This book is about a girl who finds out that she is an honest to god Stork, as in the deliverer of babies to those who deserve them. My first thought was that this book was going to be a cheesefest, but I was surprized to find that it was really wonderful.

Book that dissapointed me the most:

Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins
This is a hard one because I genuinely loved this book, but you can love a book and still be dissapointed in it- especially when you are measuring it against the two preceding books Hunger Games and Catching Fire. My biggest complaint was that I felt I missed too much while Katniss was out of it. I felt like I didn't have the full picture of what had happened and therefore I felt like the series was incomplete. Loved it, but just wanted more.

3 comments:

  1. I'm just reading Delirium now and loving it! I agree with you about The Lovely Bones... I just really didn't like the ending.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just read the Hunger games and Stolen. I totally agree with you on those too.
    Happy New Year!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree with your top 5. Great picks, Kate!

    ReplyDelete
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