Top Ten: 2014 Releases I Didn't Get To

Tuesday Ten: Books I Wanna Read

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish (Top Ten Books That are On the Top of My TBR List for Fall) is one I'm taking in a different direction. As far as books currently on my shelves to read (which is what I consider my TBR list), I don't have much more than that. And my wishlist has books from ALL OVER THE PLACE on it, but still I'm going to talk about the top books on my wishlist and maybe this will motivate me to actually acquire and read them? OH, PLANS!

Five Not-Yet-Out Books (in no real order):

1. The List

Siobhan Vivian

(April 2012)

It may or may not interest you to know that the last Siobhan Vivian book I read was her debut, which was so so so great and everything, but now I feel bad about not reading her other books. This one sounds incredible though and I'm so jazzed about it already.

2. A Million Suns

Beth Revis

(January 2012)

AHHHHH!!!! I have more excitement and hopes for this trilogy as a whole than I maybe ever have for a series, and definitely a non-contemporary series. I think the overall story is going to end up great.

3. The Disenchantments

Nina LaCour

(February 2012)

I liked LaCour's first novel (Hold Still) so much that probably she could write an alphabet book and I would buy it. I don't even care what this book is about, really. And look at that cover! Those sunglasses! That title! OMG.

4. Being Friends With Boys

Terra Elan McVoy

(May 2012)

This one doesn't even have a cover on Goodreads yet. That doesn't matter; the book itself sounds so so so so awesome and right up my alley. I cannot say in words how excited I am for it. 

5. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Jennifer E. Smith

(January 2012)

Again, this sounds like exactly my cup of tea. Love, awesomeness, airports, a novel that takes place in a day (LOVE THOSE) etc etc. I've already heard such great things about it. WANT WANT WANT.

Five Published Books (in no real order):

6. Songs for A Teenage Nomad

Kim Culbertson

I am a total sucker for playlists and soundtracks, which is why this book sounds so incredibly appealing to me. It's actually one I've been meaning to read for BASICALLY FOREVER and I should... yeah, I should do that. (I always feel guilty when I'm really excited and wanting to read a book and then I never do it.)

7. What Alice Forgot

Liane Moriarty

This grown-up book by the sister of Jaclyn Moriarty (The Year of Secret Assignments, anybody?) sounds deliciously hilarious, if that's a thing. And also a little bittersweet. Life! Amnesia! Memory loss! Want want want want want.

8. Are You Going to Kiss Me Now?

Sloane Tanen

This book, about a girl who ends up trapped on a deserted island with some of her favorite celebrities, sounds like at best it'll be STUPENDOUSLY HILARIOUS AND AMAZING and at worst amusing, neither of which are bad. It's flown in a bit under the radar and I need it in my life.

9. Dreaming of Amelia

Jaclyn Moriarty

You guys, I didn't even know this book existed until one of you lovely commenters (who was it? I don't remember) told me about it. And it seems like a difficult book to get (out of print maybe? hard to tell), but that just makes me more determined. I'll probably read this book I found out about last week before any of the books I've known about for years. 

10. In Zanesville: A Novel

Jo Ann Beard

Sara Zarr mentioned this one on her blog, and really that's all it takes. But it's also about best friends and ordinaryness and it sounds absolutely perfect for me.

Tuesday Ten: Most Underrated Books

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is underrated books and in the spirit of that I'm going to try not to talk about the same underrated books I've talked about a million times before. Because there are so many underrated books I love and I think it's time to spotlight some of the lesser-praised ones here on the blog.

1. Scribbler of Dreams

Mary E. Pearson

This was the first (and best!) Pearson book I read. A Romeo & Juliet retelling, featuring Kaitlin Malone and Bram Crutchfield -- sworn enemies who just can't help but fall in love. Classic retellings, even books based loosely on classics, are a hard sell with me but I absolutely adore this one - maybe because I've never read or seen Romeo & Juliet? In any case, I loved the characters and their starcrossed love story.

2. Feeling Sorry for Celia

Jaclyn Moriarty

I hope this one isn't as obscure as I think it is, because it's an absolutely brilliant book. The first of Moriarty's Ashbury/Brookfield books, it involves a girl who has run away to the circus and her confused best friend, forced to write to a Complete and Utter Stranger. This book is right up there with the second in the series (The Year of Secret Assignments) as far as greatness goes, but unlike that book this focuses in much more narrowly on one set of pen pals.

3. I Can't Tell You

Hilary Frank

After concluding that talking just leads to trouble, Jake's conversations with others, including his best friend, include entirely of doodles and scribbled notes. I'm such a sucker for books told in this sort of format and this one felt true-to-life with a story I loved.

4. How to Build A House

Dana Reinhardt

To escape the fallout of her dad and stepmother's divorce, Harper joins a volunteer home-building project in a region wrecked by a tornado. This book is so sweet with a story I definitely wasn't expecting and characters whose problems felt entirely real and difficult. 

5. Cheating at Solitaire

Ally Carter

This is the only non-YA book on the list and OH MY GOODNESS IT IS JUST SO GOOD DESPITE THAT EMBARRASSING COVER. Ally Carter's (yes, that Ally Carter) debut novel is a romance novel about a self-help guru-celebrity whose claim to fame is her books touting the positives of choosing to live the single lifestyle. And then she falls in love. And it is all kinds of cute and heartwarming and Julia James is such a great character and sadly this book is out of print but if you happen to find it somewhere, anywhere, do yourself a favor and read it. You're welcome.

6. Peaches (series)

Jodi Lynn Anderson

Published in the midst of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, this three-book series of friends who come together during the summers on a peach orchard is - dare I say it? - quite possibly even better than its more-successful  counterpart. The southern girls of this series - Birdie, Leeda, and Murphy - were overshadowed when the books came out, I fear, but their story of friendship sharp, compelling, and even a little bitter-sad at times. I love it. Love love love.

7. The Kid Table

Andrea Seigel 

The story of six cousins, narrated by one the family fears might be a psychopath, is my kind of story. Full of family get-togethers, the push-and-pull of family relationships, and way-beyond-quirky characters.

8. The Naughty List

Suzanne Young

A cheer squad that doubles as a crew of spies. NEED I SAY MORE?

9. The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading

Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance

The tale of a geek girl who makes the Varsity cheer squad and catches the attention of her basketball-star crush. OMG, so much love. Cheerleaders and geeks galore and a know-it-all boy, plus the best opening line in the history of YA. 

10. After the Kiss

Terra Elan McVoy

When Camille kisses Becca's boyfriend, the two girls who've never met become connected in a way they aren't even aware of. As Becca deals with the painful breakup that comes, Camille's dealing with her always-on-the-move family and unable to set down roots and trust her new friends. THIS BOOK. OMG. It combines some of my favorite elements (including unorthodox narration styles) and tells the slow, quiet, emotional story of these girls SO INCREDIBLY WELL. I love these characters and this story this book. Love.

If you haven't read any of these books, you really should get on that.

Tuesday Ten - Authors That Deserve More Recognition

This meme is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish.

Amidst the big author names in YA, such as Maureen Johnson, Suzanne Collin, and Sarah Dessen, are dozens of other authors I love that notably less people know about. Whether I've read two or a dozen of their books, here are ten authors that I would sincerely love to see get more recognition. (The reason I'm not including authors I've only read one book of -- or that only have one out so far -- is because this list would end up looking more like a list of 10 books that need more recognition instead of authors. Trust me, there are so many debut authors and novels that I love.)

Also, for those of us that regularly read YA and MG and are fairly involved in the online community, a lot of these are no-brainers, but they are the authors that I'd love to see get more recognition out there in the real world. In short, these are ten under-recognized authors that I wish everyone knew about.

In no particular order...

1. Sara Zarr (Story of a Girl, Sweethearts, Once Was Lost) -- I could talk for ages about the depth of my love for Sweethearts. It's one of my all-time favorite books, contains my absolute favorite quote, and is just so incredible. Sara Zarr is a brilliant writer and storyteller. Her characters and their relationships (in Sweethearts and Once Was Lost especially) are amazingly real and well-written. 
2. Kristina Springer (The Espressologist, My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours) -- Springer's middle grade novel, My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours, is honestly one of the cutest, funniest, and refreshing books I've read. Though I generally have a harder time finding great MG than I do YA, this one was a slam dunk. Additionally, her YA novel The Espressologist is also so cute and awww-worthy.
3. Courtney Summers (Cracked Up to Be, Some Girls Are, Fall for Anything) -- There's a part of me that doesn't even know what to say about Courtney Summers. Her books are amazing, of course, and Some Girls Are is one of those books that has affected me more than many many other books. But more than that is the fact that Courtney Summer manages to write so well about anger and emotions and the different ways that girls can be messed up. Her books are dark but hopeful with dysfunctional characters that you (or at least I) just can't help but root for.
4. Gayle Forman (If I Stay, Where She Went) -- Gayle Forman has such a way with words. She writes about trauma, loss, heartbreak, and the most difficult choices ever with such beauty and ease that you'd think the words just fell onto the page. Any author with that kind of skill is one who deserves recognition.
5. Lynne Rae Perkins (All Alone in the Universe, Criss Cross) -- Like so many of the writers on this list, I just don't even have the words for how great these books are. All Alone in the Universe is quite possibly the one book ever that I've wished I was the one to write. And Newbery Winner Criss Cross has such searing moments of truth in it that it's amazing. Perkins also has a recent YA out (As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth) that I really want to read but haven't yet.
6. Robin Palmer (Geek Charming, Cindy Ella) -- I don't like Cinderella and I never have, but I absolutely adore Robin Palmer's retellings of fairytales. They're so cute! And the characters have winfaces! And I really want her to write more and more and then everyone know about them and read them and sorry for devolving into total spasms, but Disney Channel is making a movie of Geek Charming. This is incredibly exciting.
7. Wendelin Van Draanen (Sammy Keyes, Runaway, Flipped, The Running Dream) -- I thought that Flipped was one of those middle grade books that just everyone had read, but I've asked quite a few people and apparently it's not nearly as popular as I thought. Most people know Draanen as the writer behind the Sammy Keyes mysteries, but her stand alone novels are just fabulous. Flipped in particular holds a very special place in my heart, but The Running Dream is her new book and I also definitely recommend it.
8. Dana Reinhardt (How to Build A House, Harmless, A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life) -- It's been a while since I've read any of Reinhardt's novels, but her writing has a simplicity that I really love and though How to Build A House is a "quiet" book without a jump-out-and-grab-you hook, the story is wonderful. And I remember Harmless being a page-turner, though I haven't read it in years and years.
9. Sarah Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer, Fixing Delilah) -- Just the premise of Ockler's debut novel, Twenty Boy Summer, inspired me. Eighteen pages in I was crying. Sarah Ockler is such a great author; she writes the sad-but-real stories with both hope and bittersweetness; I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
10. AS ALWAYS, I KEPT ONE SPOT EMPTY TO SIGNIFY OUR HOPES AND DREAMS*

*Gavin Volure, 30 Rock.

FIVE BOOKS I DIDN'T THINK I'D LIKE...

1. Anna and the French Kiss - Sure, everybody rave rave raved about this novel when it came out, but I had a strong gut feeling that I'd be the lone blogger to just not like it. Surprisingly just the opposite happened: it was even better than the hype and I loved it more than I ever would have predicted.
2. Sea - Another novel that I'd heard good things about but was wary going into. However, the fact that I stopped my own writing and spent the entire day curled up with Sea's adventure speaks for itself.
3. Break - This book just didn't appeal to me at first. It wasn't until Cindy Pon said it seemed like something I'd love that I read it (thank you, Cindy!) and OMG am I ever glad I did. Amazing amazing amazing.
4. Twilight - I resisted reading Twilight for so long because, like with Break, it just didn't appeal to me. I didn't think I'd like it at all but I picked it up after a friend recommended it so strongly and couldn't believe I hadn't read it yet.
5. The Luxe - I don't read historical and I'm not a fan of Gossip Girl, which I'd heard this series compared to. In fact, I don't remember what ever compelled me to pick it up (maybe that gorgeous dress on the cover?) but whatever reason, it's now one of my favorite-ever series.

So tell me, what books did you not expect to like only to be surprised when you discovered that you loved them?

Top 10: Favorite Love Stories

ALRIGHT SO. Favorite love stories is a little different for me than favorite couples and there are a few GIANT GAPING HOLES in this list because of leaving out a few of my favorite couples whose love stories just weren't as amazing as the characters on this list. I also left out an actual historical pairing to keep everything fiction. Also I feel incredibly uncultured for having almost no classic couples on this list, but I guess I'll just have to live with that. (Oh, and this list, unlike some of the others, is actually in order. Amazing.)

1. Victor/Anthony & Sierra/Priya

Dollhouse (tv)

Best love story ever? I THINK SO. Because it's Dollhouse and therefore incredibly confusing, I have no idea how to sum up Victor & Sierra's relationship. But the basic premise of this show is that there are people who've had their personalities and minds wiped and replaced with other personalities... these "dolls" have no memories and no personality of their own, yet Victor and Sierra somehow find each other no matter what personality they're imprinted with, as well as in their simplistic doll state. SEE, I WARNED YOU IT WAS CONFUSING. 

2. Jim Halpert & Pam Beesly

The Office (tv)

This is maybe the sweetest television love story ever, from the very first episode when Jim talked about Pam's favorite flavor of yogurt. They're just too adorable and nice and sweet and sometimes awkward. I love them. I also love this video.

3. Calliope & Eliot

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight (book)

This book blows me away every time I read it. Though only fifteen years old, Cal and Eliot's love story is one of the truest and most believable I've come across. 

4. Landry Clark & Tyra Collette

Friday Night Lights (tv)

Friday Night Light's least popular and most hated storyline (ahem, that whole murder thing in the second season) is one of my absolute favorites and out of it came Landry and Tyra, the best couple on the show. They deserve to be on this list despite not being together anymore because (a) I love them and their story too much to leave them out, and (b) there's one season left; it's not impossible for them to end up together. These are two characters that really do bring out the best in each other and prompt the other one to be a better person.

5. Anne Shirley & Gilbert Blythe

Anne of Green Gables (book)

I'm a little ashamed to say that I don't remember which book it was that these two finally got together, but if it wasn't the first book it was at least somewhere in there. Anne is one of the best protagonists (in my opinion) and the entire history between her and Gilbert Blythe is so cute and wonderful, not to mention their story and life together after becoming a couple.

6. Elpheba & Fiyero

Wicked (musical)

As much as I tried I couldn't get through the novel, but I absolutely love the musical version of Wicked, especially Elpheba and Fiyero's love story. It's such an interesting take on The Wizard of Oz story and I love how the different characters (in this case the scarecrow and the wicked witch) connect in Wicked. Plus, I just really really love Elpheba and Fiyero, end of story.

7. George Bailey & Mary Thatch

It's A Wonderful Life (film)

Really, It's A Wonderful Life needs no explanation. Brilliant.

8. Bryce & Julianna

Flipped (book)

This is the cutest jr. high love story ever. Ever ever ever. Not only is it adorable, but there's tons of character growth and expectations vs. reality and just so much awesome I'm surprised more people haven't read it. Go. Now. Read.

9. Sara & Tobey

When It Happens (book)

Colasanti's debut novel is one of the best love stories I've read. It's one of the few "opposites attract" stories that I actually really love.

10. Kaitlin Malone & Bram Crutchfield

Scribbler of Dreams (book)

I've never been a big Romeo & Juliet fan, but there are a couple of retellings I absolutely adore and this is one of them. Kaitlin meets the kindhearted Bram when she's forced to move to a new school, only to discover he's part of the Crutchfield family that her family, the Malones, have been feuding with for ages. The "families feuding" angle is done so well here.

Top 10: Books That Made Me Cry

I really wanted to put this list in order like I did with these lists, but it's proving too difficult so instead I'm listing them by genre. 

1. Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

There are plenty of times in the course of this book that I have cried (or nearly cried), but **spoiler alert** Melanie's death definitely takes the cake. The first time I read it I experienced a brief, all-encompassing hatred for a book and author that would do that to such an incredible character. It's a testament to the writing here that I always feel like the characters on the pages are real people.

2. Little Women

Louisa May Alcott

The best way I can describe how I felt reading a certain part of this book is to simply tell you that it belongs in the freezer. Hopefully you all get the reference.

3. For One More Day

Mitch Albom

This book, about a man who tries to kill himself and instead finds himself face-to-face with his mother (who died years earlier) is heartbreaking. Truly Mitch Albom's entire goal in life is to make people CRY LIKE BABIES, and out of all of his books this is the one that's made me cry the most, especially when I got to the end and found out who the story was being told to. 

4. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

John Boyne

The ending. Oh, the ending! 

5. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Ann Brashares

Every book in this series has its heartbreaking moments, but I think the first book takes the cake. To be honest, I didn't cry the first time I read this. I sniffled a little maybe, but the true impact of this book and of Bailey's death didn't come until the second time I read it, maybe because by then I'd read all of the other books also. In any case, the character of Bailey and her story throughout this first book is incredible and heartbreaking and so many tears my goodness I am incapable of doing anything but crying.

6. Splendor

Anna Godberson

This book is in a different category than the others on this list. While most books that make me cry are beautiful and have incredible stories that stay with me and characters that grow and make me proud to know them and authors I admire, this one... isn't that. Despite my everlasting love for the Luxe series and its characters, the ending here threw me for a loop and when I cried it was because I was completely heartbroken and angry at the way the author left things with her characters. I finished this book and then proceeded to, in a rare moment of anger, throw it across my room and sob for, like, ever. So much unhappiness here.

7. Twenty Boy Summer

Sarah Ockler

In this story of grief, it was the fact that Matt died of a heart condition that got me. Unlike other deaths, in other books, this one seemed incredibly personal.

8. Stop  Pretending

Sonya Sones

This book about a family dealing with mental illness is... well, it's amazing is what it is. There were so many little moments here that were tear-inducing, not to mention the subject matter itself.

9. Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson

I know I've talked about this book before in other Top 10 lists, but it really is one of the most amazing, sad, and beautiful novels I've read. For such a slim book, it really packs a punch.

10. Kira-Kira

Cynthia Kadohata

Something about this book - maybe the sisters' relationship - made it incredibly sad for me, possibly even sadder than it was "supposed" to be. When I finished reading it I just remember thinking this book is amazing, now where are the Kleenex? I have to stop crying. This is actually one of the few books that I absolutely love but have only read once because I'm a little afraid of how sad it would make me to reread it.