Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven't Talked About Enough/In A While

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Here at We Live and Breathe Books, two of us choose five books each week. This weeks topic is...


Books I really love but feel like I haven't talk about enough / in a while!

Kiersten's Picks

I feel like every book I like fits into the haven't talked about in a while portion, particularly since I disappeared from blogging a few months ago and are just getting back into it now. So here they are, although I feel like I talk about these books a lot.

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone
Adele Griffin
Goodreads 

I actually never want to stop mentioning that I love this book. I didn't know what to expect when I picked up The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone. To be completely honest, I didn't think it looked very good, and I only started reading it because I got an ARC at BEA and none of the other bloggers wanted to read it. What I found once I started reading it, however, was that it was so utterly and completely compelling. I wanted to know Addison Stone, and I felt like the world lost something when she died, which is silly considering she is a fictional character. Anyway, I could go on, but you can just check out my review instead.

The Accident Season
Moïra Fowley-Doyle

In contrast to above, I was actually really excited about reading The Accident Season. From the cover to the blurb I read, it looked so good. And it was. It was beautiful and chilling and just wonderful. I could not stop turning the pages, yearning for more. This book was a lot of things, and honestly, I can't really explain it without ruining the magic, but I tried in my review. This book is definitely a must read.

The Sweetest Dark
Shana Abé
The Sweetest Dark, #1
Goodreads 

The Sweetest Dark was the first advanced copy I ever received - it was before I started blogging, through a Goodreads giveaway. I probably would have never read this book if I hadn't won that giveaway - it would most likely still be sitting on my TBR with a bunch of other books that I don't remember adding; however, as chance would have it, I got this book and absolutely loved it. AND it ended up being one of the first reviews on WLABB!

Falling Into Place
Amy Zhang 
Goodreads 

While my cobloggers did not like this book as much as I did, I absolutely loved it. The story is told in such an interesting way, shifting in the timeline from before to after the accident, ending with when the accident happened. The main character is a mean girl, but the way Amy Zhang showed how even people who seem like they have it all can be unhappy was absolutely beautiful. Check out more of my thoughts in my review (mine is the second one)!

Third Daughter
Susan Kaye Quinn
Royals of Dharia, #1

I don't think I can say enough times that I absolutely love Susan Kaye Quinn. SKQ is an indie author, but she was also a rocket scientist - A REAL ROCKET SCIENTIST!!! She's so cool, and I think her books are absolutely amazing and everyone needs to know about her. I really enjoyed her Mindjack series, which is how I first found her, and although I haven't completely the series yet, Third Daughter was absolutely amazing! Check out my review for more of my thoughts.

Noor's Picks

Okay, so small preface: this looks like an easy topic, like "hey pick a bunch of books you love and write them down" but usually when I really love books I never shut up because as a general rule of thumb I never shut up and so when I decide I love things I just add screams about those things into the never-ending stream of consciousness babbling coming out of my mouth so it was a lil rough picking books I loved but also that I hadn't screamed about "enough" or "in a while" but this was still fun I liked this topic ok here u go:

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
Goodreads 

Okay, so this is cheating a little because on a scale of one to never I do talk about how I love The Book Thief frequently enough. However, I think I'm fair to include it because I feel like I'm always mentioning it casually like "Hey I really love this book you should read it" which really doesn't encompass how much the book really dug itself a space in my soul. I don't think I can ever really talk about it enough in a way that'll express the effect each line had, which is why it's one of those books I appreciate with a quiet reverence instead of always screaming about it.

Eon
Alison Goodman
Eon, #1
Goodreads 

This one is actually a book I haven't spoken about in ages (I had to try really hard not to say eons so please appreciate this). I read the duology in 2012 (I think) and I was captivated. The book tells the story of Eon, who is training to study dragon magic, except Eon is actually Eona (a GIRL, GASP) and girls are Not Allowed to do dragon magic and it is all very wild. I was super into all the world-building and the different cultures Goodman researched to put these books together and of course, my favorite animals, dragons!!!!! I don't really know why I don't scream about these books more but my 16 year old self remembers them being rad so if you trust her, you should read them.

Since You've Been Gone
Morgan Matson
Goodreads 

I never really discussed this book too much after our review of it but it always stayed with me. It was partly the huge personal growth that happened, partly the way this book was just so focused on the friend-relationships, partly the effortless characterization that had me rooting for Emily (the protagonist). There was just something about the book that made it feel deeply intimate and relatable even though I have definitely not had a best friend who I have an unhealthy dependency on disappear for the summer and leave me a list of weird things to do so like I probably shouldn't relate to it too much.

I Crawl Through It
A.S. King
Goodreads 

I read and reviewed this about six months ago and although I did recommend it more than zero times, I think for the amount of wedging the book has done into my soul, it has not been enough. The book is just really bizarre and surreal and 100% a love-it-or-hate-it piece, so a lot of the time when people are like "hey recommend me so-and-so kind of book to read" it isn't the first one I suggest. But I truly do love it; remember that last sentence I said about The Book Thief? This is the same thing.

Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Goodreads 

I talked about Life of Pi a lot when the movie was relevant and everyone was always asking "Wow have you seen Life of Pi!!!" and then I would reply "Yeah it was great!!! Have you read the book it was also great!!" and then they would then reply with whether they had read it or not and then we would talk about the movie or the book or something else and you get the gist. (Also I usually don't use 'great' as an adjective in conversation I don't know why I'm terrible at imitating myself.) Anyway, there was just a period of time where I was really obsessed with Life of Pi. I think it's because it took me a week to watch the two hour movie and then we watched it again in some class in school and then I read the book some time in between those two occurrences and so I was so enmeshed in the story that I just didn't let go of it and I got obsessed and I was a little untethered when I branched out and was like "hey I should read another Yann Martel book" and so I read Beatrice and Virgil but I was still lowkey thinking in his writing style all the time (does that happen to any of you? when you finish a book and you think in that author's writing style?). Anyway, the movie hype died down and I regained my sense of reality and people talked about it less frequently and so I also talked about it less frequently and while it remains a book I love, I definitely have not talked about it in a while.

What books do you really love?
Let us know in the comments!

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