With 2015 at an end and a new year under way, I thought I'd share a recap of the books I read in the past year! These are books I read in 2015, they did not necessarily
come out this year.
Favorite Books Overall:
These were the two standouts for me this year. They are very different from
each other, but
they both have things that I adore in fiction. City of Stairs is set in a very
well developed High Fantasy world with an intricate government system and sense
of magic. I loved that the main character in this book, Shara, was a woman who
used her brains to save the day, but every character was distinctive and
interesting in this story from her Viking Prince henchman to the to the rugged
general who is reluctantly dragged into the plot while pining to retire to some
place tropical. It was adventurous and fast-paced, but was well balanced with
relationships and a complicated plot. I highly recommend it for your 2016 TBR
list.
I’ll Give
You the Sun has a lot of the things I love about YA. A brother and a sister
grow up and struggle to deal with romance, family relationships, and tragedy,
but at the end it is intensely hopeful. I also adore interweaving storylines
(think Love Actually) and this book had it in spades. It was brutal, honest,
yet lovely and beautifully told. I will gladly read anything this author puts
out because of this book.
Least Favorite:
I had a lot of problems with this book, but to sum it up in
one word: depressing! I don’t have a 
vendetta against sad books, I love a good
tragedy, but I do have a problem with books that are unnecessarily depressing.
For me, for a sad story to have an impact, there should be an inevitability to
it or at least a good reason for it. This book had neither. Not to spoil too
much, but essentially it is revealed at the end that the main character could
have logged onto Facebook at any time and saved herself a lot of suffering. She
wouldn’t have been able to save herself from losing her parents, but just about
everything else could have been averted. This left me with a feeling of “then
why did I read this?” I probably wouldn’t have finished it except that it was a
review book. Oh well.
vendetta against sad books, I love a good
tragedy, but I do have a problem with books that are unnecessarily depressing.
For me, for a sad story to have an impact, there should be an inevitability to
it or at least a good reason for it. This book had neither. Not to spoil too
much, but essentially it is revealed at the end that the main character could
have logged onto Facebook at any time and saved herself a lot of suffering. She
wouldn’t have been able to save herself from losing her parents, but just about
everything else could have been averted. This left me with a feeling of “then
why did I read this?” I probably wouldn’t have finished it except that it was a
review book. Oh well.
Favorite Heroes:
I mentioned Shara earlier, but I’ll
just reinstate briefly: She is a kick butt character. She’s always the smartest
person in the room, but she’s also incredibly brave and does a lot of her own
legwork as well. She is one of the things that makes City of Stairs great.
St. Clair. How do you not love St.
Clair? He’s just a fantastic YA male romantic lead. Kind, funny, and vulnerable
at times. He and Anna are one of the cutest couples I’ve read about in a long
time, and part of that has to do with his character. He’s not dark and brooding
or some sort of romanticized knight in shining armor. He’s charming and
charismatic, but has his own problems. Little birdies tell me St. Clair and
Anna make reappearances in Stephanie Perkins’ companion books, so I’ll have to
get started on those
Most despicable Villain:
Assef is so
despicable at times I wonder if Hosseini was even a bit heavy-handed in his
portrayal of him. Not only does he assault children, and join the Taliban, but
he has to idolize Hitler as well. Yikes. I get a visceral feeling of hatred
just thinking about him. Moving on…
Hidden Gems:
Stay the Distance is a great YA
horse story. It’s “hidden” since it is from a small press and not widely 
known
about. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans of stories like
Flicka and National Velvet at the drop of a hat!
Egil’s Saga is “hidden” because, it
is not well known about. Lots of people read Ancient Greek and Roman works in school,
but Egil’s Saga is from medieval Iceland and I had never heard of it until a
history course I took last semester. Iceland has a rich tradition of
literature, from poetry to prose sagas, and after learning about this I was
really surprised that this was not well known about (in America at least). Especially
for fans of history, there is a lot of insight into life at this place in time
in these works, as well as a lot of evidence of where the likes of Tolkien and George
R. R. Martin get their inspiration. I kept expecting the Rohirrim or member of
the Stark Family to show up.
Best Romances:
If you are
on the look out for good romantic reads, I would definitely suggest either one
of these
. The Mine is a time travel romance (love those) with the male lead
from modern times and transports him back to the forties where he meets and falls
in love with a female friend of his grandmother’s.
The
Fortunate Blizzard is a M/M romance, and a very quick read. The plot felt a bit
rushed at times, but gave me the warm fuzzies, to see the relationship,
conflict, and love between the characters.
Best Action:
Yet again, City of Stairs makes it
onto a “best of” list, but it was just that good you guys! The magic, gods, and
monsters add a lot do the adventure of the story. The aforementioned Viking
Prince jumps out of a crashing airship at one point! Despite having such a
complicated plot in terms of political intrigue, it also has a ton of action!
Speaking of
magic and political intrigue, Throne of Glass is also incredibly action-packed.
I feel kind of late to the party with reading this one, but my friend finally
convinced me to read it. Celaena is such a tough fighter and her trials to
become the king’s assassin are gripping.
Best Humor:
For one of my college courses last semester I had to read
Aristophanes’ Frogs. I wouldn’t have expected an ancient Greek play to be
so hilarious, but I was laughing out loud throughout it. It has a great
combination of slapstick, bathroom-humour, and poking fun at other contemporary
playwrights, which I’d also studied. It is by far my favorite thing I read in
class last semester in any of my classes, as well as the best “humor” book I’d
read all year. Best Young Adult Reads:
Since Howling Turtle is first and
foremost a YA blog, I thought I’d commend my favorite book of the genre. I
couldn’t pick just one, so I narrowed it down to my top three:
This is Not a Love Story is, ironically enough, a love
story. I had encountered the characters in a novella written by the same author
a while ago and loved to see their story. It is heartbreaking and gritty, but
so passionate at the same time.
Out of the Easy is written by the same author as Between
Shades of Gray, and I was so moved by that book that I was eager to read anything
else that author put out. Out of the Easy is a coming of age story in a
historical setting, but also has a phenomenal cast of characters and deals with
some real issues of the time.
Anna and the French Kiss is one of the sweetest books I read
all year. A love story focusing characters at an international school it is
whimsical and romantic. The characters’ lives are far from perfect, but the
strength they draw from each other and Anna and St. Clair’s relationship made
me smile.
Needless to say, I highly recommend these books to readers
of YA. These books touched me and moved me to all sorts of different emotions. They
are a part of what made me have a wonderful 2015.
What were your favorite books of 2015? I’d love to hear in
the comments!
Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love comments, and I will definitely read anything that is left here. Don't be shy, I'd love to know what you are thinking!