1. favorite first sentence: This from John Green's The Fault In Our Stars: "Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death." NOW IF THAT ISN'T A GREAT FIRST SENTENCE I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. (It's a bit long, but that's okay.)
2. favorite book title: Love and Other Perishable Items, by Laura Buzo. So, so great.
3. favorite reading experience: There were plenty of good reading experiences this year, but the one that stands out to me is reading A Million Suns, by Beth Revis. This book just sucked me in and I spent my day curled up on the couch, blanket on top of me, furiously turning pages. I was hooked and it's not often that a sci-fi book hooks me like that.
4. book with the best food in it: The Summer I Learned to Fly, by Dana Reinhardt. This one takes place in a cheese shop. A CHEESE SHOP! Nobody can beat that.
5. book with the most sensual weather: Bittersweet, by Sarah Ockler. I'm a sucker for winter and snow and gloom and this book is perfect in that regard. LOVE.
6. most embarrassing book cover: 7 Clues to Winning You, by Kristin Walker. Book covers don't tend to embarrass me exactly, but even I have to admit that this is a bit hard on the eyes. It's like an ad for acne cream, but not the ad they actually choose to use.
7. can't believe i waited so long to read the book: Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. NO QUESTION. It's amazing. It's beyond amazing. I have no words, honestly, just read it if you haven't... or if you haven't since you were a kid. I totally see why it won the Newbery, as I'm not sure I've read a more deserving book, ever.
8. book i'd give your mom to read: Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. I actually did give my mom this one to read. And my dad. They both loved it.
9. book i'd give my dad to read: A Million Suns, by Beth Revis. If this weren't the second in a series I'd make my dad read it, but he has an even more serious aversion to series than I do; you've no idea how long it took to convince him to give The Hunger Games a try and even now he's taking an exceedingly long time on starting Mockingjay.
10. book i'd like to give my past self to read: What Did I Do Wrong? by Liz Pryor. This would have been a good book for me to read when I was 18 or 19.
11. book that lived up to the hype: Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi. There are actually a few books that lived up to the hype, but this is the one I was most surprised about. Due to a combination of the dystopian hook, the cover, and the all-raving early reviews, I was skeptical of this one. But we all know how much I love it. Went way above expectations/hype for me.
12. book i stayed up the latest to finish: Tiger Lily, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. I don't know how late I stayed up, but I'm pretty sure I had work the next morning so I definitely paid for it.
13. book i was dying to read the most: How to Save A Life, by Sara Zarr. Every Zarr book is a treat for me because her stories are constant enough to be reliable (as in, I'm pretty much assured of liking all of them) and different enough to be surprising.
14. fattest book (by page count): The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. 522 pages and worth every one. It also reminds me I need to do a reread of Gone With the Wind when I can get around to it. You know, when I feel like devoting a few weeks of my reading life to that tome.
15. killer cliffhanger award: Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. The title of this award is appropriate because cliffhangers usually make me feel like killing the book to death. Luckily none of this year's books have had cliffhangers that are too terribly bad -- Cinder was the worst of them not because anyone's in peril or anything, but just because it makes you want to know what's happening next RIGHT NOW.
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