FIVE: Favorite Characters of 2010

Today's official topic is best YA books of 2010, but because my top five list is going to be posted on iheartdaily in early January, I decided to go with a different list: favorite characters. I expected this list to give me a hard time, but instead it wound up being ridiculously easy, because as it would happen I already knew which characters I loved most this year.

1. Peeta Mellark

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay

In a world of children-killing, deception, and a vicious war, Peeta manages to be good. I don't mean interesting, I don't mean nice or sweet, though he is those things -- I mean good. He holds firm to what he believes to be right and protects the one he loves even as he has to fight tooth-and-nail for his own survival. In all honesty he could give such legendary "good" characters as Melanie Wilkes and Beth March a run for their money and he's earned a permanent spot as one of my favorite characters ever.

2. Bronwen Oliver & Jared Sondervan

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

I tried not to let myself include any pairs in this list, but in the case of Bronwen and Jared it just didn't seem right to include one of them without the other. Because although Bronwen is kind, loving, and long-suffering and although Jared is sweet and old-school gentlemanly, what makes these characters memorable is the way they are together. Bronwen and Jared bring out the best in each other; they make the other one both happier and more interesting. So of course, I had to list them together.

3. Milo

Fall For Anything

Milo is an incredible character. Walking on eggshells around his best friend since the death of her father, he manages to be enigmatic and at the same time completely supportive. Milo is the friend everyone needs, the one who cares so much and so deeply, the one who you just know is on your side no matter what. And it's how much he cares, more than anything else, that makes him an incredible character.

4. Edie Reeves

Fall For Anything

Oh, Edie. I just wanted to give her a hug and be like you will be okay, promise promise promise. Edie is lost, confused, sad, and utterly, utterly vulnerably human. It's rare to find a character who is such an honest portrayal of painful and personal emotions as Edie is, and for this I love her.

5. Cassia Reyes

Matched

Cassie wins the award for "Best Character Journey." Her growth from the beginning of the book, before she's Matched and before her grandfather's death, to the end of the book after everything has happened, is an incredible one. What makes it even more incredible is the way Cassia handles everything, the way she seems to grow and mature and become whoever it is she's going to be with each new event or trial that she faces. I feel like Cassia isn't really a fully-formed character just yet, but that by the end of her saga she'll be whoever it is she's meant to become. And it'll be awesome.

an explanation for numbers 2-4, namely why did Bronwen and Jared share a space while Milo and Edie didn't?

It's not because Bronwen and Jared are a couple, or because I needed to narrow the list down to just five spaces. It's because while Edie and Milo are both amazing characters on their own, Bronwen and Jared don't become amazing until they're together. Explain'd.

FIVE: Books That Had A Personal Impact

For me, reading is an intensely personal thing. There's not much better than finding a book, character, or even just a passage, that I can truly relate to and that seems to speak to me. I love books that help me understand people better, understand myself better, or, best of all, give me that aha moment. You might know what I mean: Aha, I'm not the only one! That feeling.

Here are five books I read this year that became incredibly personal to me, in no particular order. Warning: Mild spoilers below.

1. I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

Erin McCahan

I mentioned in my review of this book how much I hated Bronwen's mother. But there's more to the story than that. I hated the way her mother treated her, the way she didn't seem to like her and sometimes didn't even seem to love her. As if Bronwen was this annoyance that she had to deal with and she should just make herself as unobtrusive as possible. I hated that she made Bronwen feel as if her needs, wants, and opinions didn't matter. The way she totally neglected her. I'm lucky enough to have an amazing family -- parents that I get along well with and who are completely supportive and a sister who is my best friend. I have always known that what I want and what I think is important to my parents and have never been made to feel unloved or neglected. But I know that not everyone has that. And I know that sometimes what's even more painful than outright abuse is the more insidious neglect of a son or daughter. It's possible to be neglected even with a roof over your head and food in your stomach. It's possible to be unloved in a seemingly perfect and normal family. And it sucks. This book reminded me so much of someone I know who did grow up in that kind of family and, yes, it helped me understand them a little better.

2. Some Girls Are

Courtney Summers

I know I've already talked about this book so much on the blog, but it warrants another mention. In the last two years I lost two people who I considered my best friends, including one whom I had been best friends with for a decade. And by "lost" I don't mean that they died. I mean that we were friends and then we weren't at all. Both of the friendships had been bad for me and by the time they ended I realized that. They were extremely toxic friendships that made me stressed, sick, feel bad about myself, and second-guess a lot of the things I said or did around these friends. I didn't (thank goodness) go through the type of bullying that happens in this book, but I still had friends who didn't understand me, who thought they knew how I should act and what I should say and what I should wear. Friends who lied to me. Who gave backhanded compliments. Who made me a very confused and messed up person. I'm not blaming them; I truly think that some people just don't work as friends, but no matter where the blame lands the fact is that they were very, very bad friendships and I saw that experience of toxicity reflected in Regina and Anna's friendship and it helped me realize - again and again - how important it is to get out of those types of relationships, whether they be romantic or platonic.

3. Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins

I don't know what it was about this book, but it really and truly blew me away. It was, in my mind, the perfect ending to the Hunger Games trilogy, but more than that it was just really, really amazing. It broke my brain. It gave me a reading hangover. It showed me how powerful a book can be. I don't know how to explain it except to say that it had been years since I had read something that - through sheer force of story - made me feel so much. It's so rare for a book to come along that I not only love and think is amazing, but that somehow seems to reaffirm the power of the written word and of story. And the fact that this happened in the genre I adore, the genre I want to write in (YA, not dystopian) is even more amazing to me because it proved that YA matters and made me proud to be a part of the YA community. I know it sounds crazy, but Mockingjay made me a little crazy.

4. The History of Love

Nicole Krauss

I'm going to be honest here and tell you that it's rare for me to find a mainstream novel that I love as much as most YA. A lot of the mainstream or literary books I read leave me with a 'meh' feeing. This book is the exception. As the title says, it's about love. About all kinds of love, from romantic to friendship, to family. Everything. And there's something about this book that's so incredibly beautiful, so raw and honest and amazing. As if a little piece of my heart fell into place when I read this book; it's that good. The writing is beautiful, the stories are great, but it's the raw, raw emotion that really got me. It made me so happy and so sad both at the same time. It's one of those books, one of those reading experiences, that there really are no words for.

5. The Unwritten Rule

Elizabeth Scott

This book touched on a couple of issues for me, but the main one was, unsurprisingly, the friendship between Sarah and Brianna. Though the situation with me and one of my friends was completely different, this book helped to explain everything I'd been trying to explain to myself about what went wrong in that friendship. In a lot of books someone is right and someone is wrong and friendships either last forever or fall apart and the girls end up enemies. They don't always show that sometimes the friendship needs to end but it doesn't mean that your feelings for that person end. It doesn't mean you don't still care about them and want the best for them. There's a lot of confusion that goes along with ill-fated close friendships, and this book did an excellent job of laying that confusion bare for the reader.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Fall for Anything, by Courtney Summers

The Summer I Turned Pretty, by Jenny Han

FIVE: Great YA Bloggers

I restrained myself from including author blogs on here or blogs that are primarily concerned with the writing or publishing aspect of YA. These are all YA book blogs -- the ones that I absolutely adore and read every single post from.

1. Frenetic Reader (khyrinthia)
In addition to being an incredibly sweet and funny individual, Khy's blog is also great. For the most part we have very similar reading tastes (if she's read a book I haven't she can usually guess if I'm going to like it or not) and I love that she posts every single day. Sometimes the posts are just her random, book-related thoughts, sometimes they're reviews or more in-depth posts, but I always love reading them. And usually afterwards I want to just comment OMG KHY YOU'RE AWESOME!!! Plus, I love the quirkiness.

2. Forever Young Adult (many bloggers)
I don't know how it took until just a few months ago for me to discover this blog. Aimed at YA readers who are "a little more A than Y," this is a sharp and funny site full of reviews, lists, and lol-worthy Flowers in the Attic recaps. (I will never read that book. Their recaps are more than enough for me.) Though my reading tastes don't always match up with theirs, I read all the reviews just for the abundance of funny.

3. Not Enough Bookshelves (Alexa)
Ages ago Alexa had a personal blog that I loved to read (back when I had my own personal blog) and her book blog was much less frequently updated. However, having rediscovered the book blog just this month I've realized that it's COMPLETELY AWESOME. The writing is great and there's something very genuine and heartfelt about her posts that keeps me coming back and incredibly interested in what she has to say.

4. Persnickety Snark (Adele)
Adele is sort of like my book-blogging hero. Not only are her reviews incredibly well written and thought-out, but she often is able to say just what I was thinking much better than I could ever say it. Additionally I love that she seems to operate a bit outside of the typical realm of YA blogs -- she's a little offbeat, a little different, and always does her own thing. She talks about books that nobody else is talking about and posts thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion posts instead of merely echoing what others have said. Though the future of her blog is a bit TBA right now, she's definitely inspired my blogging.

5. The Story Siren (Kristi)
This blog has interesting posts, good reviews, discussion posts that actually spark discussion, and a "Dear Story Siren" feature that's incredibly helpful to lots of bloggers. Not to mention Kristi's spearheaded the whole In My Mailbox meme and is hosting the Debut Author Challenge for the second year in a row. Really, her blog speaks for itself: she's helpful, humble, and incredibly nice while running one of the best YA blogs out there.

FIVE: Great Author Moments

To be perfectly honest I don't go to enough book events to have five author moments from 2010 alone, so instead this is a lineup of author moments from my life. In a (hopefully-but-probably-not) chronological order, here they are...

1. Cindy Pon's book launch for Silver Phoenix. 
The kicker here is that I've never read Cindy's book, but because the launch was close to me and I wanted to buy a copy to giveaway on my blog and because my buddy-buddy-roo Khy was going to be there, I went. And I had a fabulous time. Not only is Cindy Pon an incredibly incredibly sweet person, but her book launch was a ton of fun. There was people! And books! And Khy video taped it!

2. Gayle Forman's event for If I Stay.
This event was a little further away from me, but it was for a book I'd heard awesome things about and I'd actually had some email correspondence with the author (what about? I DON'T REMEMBER). In any case, I decided to skip out on my last couple classes of the day and drive to the event, which was a couple hours away. I was operating on about four hours of sleep that day and had to blast Lady Gaga on repeat to keep myself awake on the drive up. The bookstore was this adorable little children's bookstore in the middle of a very western-y looking town and Khy was there (me and Khy live a few hours apart so we end up going to book signings together fairly oftentimes) and other people were there and Gayle Forman was wonderful. I'd missed the "reading" portion of the event, but she had a Q&A where she answered some questions about the book and afterwards I bought a copy of the book (which, btw, is wonderful and I can't wait for the sequel) and got to talk to her for a while. The message Gayle Forman wrote in my copy of If I Stay when she signed it is absolutely the best note from an author I've ever gotten in a book and I loved meeting her. I loved driving out and blaring Lady Gaga, loved the event and meeting the author and hanging out with Khy, and I loved driving back home, happy and exhausted, after a completely awesome day.

3. Sarah Dessen's signing for Along for the Ride.
It's no secret that I love Sarah Dessen's writing. The Truth About Forever was my first introduction to YA literature -- the book that made me love reading it and want to write it. Since then, I've accumulated every Dessen novel there is and read most of them multiple times. So of course I had to meet Sarah Dessen when I had the chance. I went to the signing/reading with Cindy Pon and had a wonderful time. I did meet Sarah Dessen and talk to her for a couple seconds, though of course I don't remember what I said and I'm sure whatever it was, it sounded stupid.

4. John Green and David Levithan's signing for Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
I haven't read Will Grayson (or much by Levithan, really), but John Green is one of my favorite authors. An Abundance of Katherines made me laugh the way few books have been able to do and Paper Towns is just incredible. Seeing how many people were at this signing was awesome, of course, as was meeting John and hearing him talk about his books. The event was livestreamed (wait... is that a word?) and me and Khy were sitting right next to the computer; a couple of other bloggers said they could hear us talking before the event really got started, which I found hilarious.

5. Heidi R. Kling's meet up for Sea.
This wasn't an actual event. How un-actual was it? There was no reading or official signing, and the bookstore hadn't even gotten their shipment of Sea in for it. But it was awesome all the same. For one thing, it was at the bookstore in Downtown Disney, which gave me a supergreat excuse to drive out to Disneyland (I don't love driving, but I do love Disney) and it was basically just Heidi Kling and a bunch of bloggers sitting and talking. Heidi is every bit as wonderful and friendly as you'd expect her to be and I had a blast talking books with people like Khy and Catt in real life, as well as browsing the bookstore shelves and comparing which books we'd read.

& now five authors I'd love to meet but haven't yet:
Courtney Summers
Maureen Johnson
Susie Day
Lynne Rae Perkins
Sarah Ockler
(and, of course, lots more)

FIVE: Books I Didn't Read

Every year there are more books that come out and sound fantastic than I actually read and this year was no exception. There might have actually been more this year just because I paid more attention to the pub dates of books. So here are five books published in 2010 that I wanted to read this year but didn't. (Yes, hopefully in 2010 I'll read them all.) I'm limiting this list to books that (1) are YA and (2) I knew about for a long time. For some of them since before they even had covers or titles, but at least since before they were published.

1. Anna and the French Kiss

Stephanie Perkins

Quite honestly this book has been hyped so much and I'm not 100% sure I'd like it, but I want to read it anyway. Because it kind of does sound fantastic and I haven't heard of anyone not liking it (it would just figure for me to be that one-in-a-million) and not only did John Green totally fanboy over it, but he also said it was like him and Maureen Johnson had a baby book. And uh, I think we can all agree this would be the greatest thing ever. 

2. Friend is Not A Verb

Daniel Ehrenhaft

I'm a huge fan of books related to social networking and have absolutely loved a few of Ehrenhaft's other novels, so I was really hoping to read this one when it came out. However, of course by the time it was published I had all but forgotten about it and when I remembered it I couldn't find it in my BN, which is a sadface. Now it's the end of the year and I still haven't read it.

3. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Morgan Matson

I love road trip books and this one has one of the best titles I've come across. I don't typically buy hardcover though, and this book is still not in paperback. (It hits me now that the cover to this book and the one above it are startlingly similar.)

4.  A Match Made in High School

Kristen Walker

I feel bad for this book. It was originally set to come out in 2009 and the pub date apparently got pushed back. I was so excited to read it last year but by the time 2010 rolled around and it was finally published there were other books I wanted to get to that suddenly seemed more interesting and this one got pushed aside. 

5. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

Emily Horner

I absolutely love love love the premise of this book and have been wanting to read it for ages. I think I heard about it before it even had its final title. I haven't seen it in stores at all (le sad), but I still really really want to get my hands on a copy.

FIVE: Most Anticipated 2011 Titles

1. Delirium

Lauren Oliver

I've just heard awesome things about this and the premise of it is wonderful. I haven't read a ton of dystopian novels, but a lot of them -- especially this one -- are really sounding great lately.

2. Where She Went

Gayle Forman

I'm not typically a big fan of sequels, but I absolutely adored If I Stay, and the whole idea of this book being from Adam's POV is amazing. Can. Not. Wait.

3. Invincible Summer

Hannah Moskowitz

Moskowitz's first novel was incredibly different from a lot of what I read, but I really loved it and I'm excited for this one. I'm such a fan of YA novels about family and Break handled the subject so well.

4. What Happened to Goodbye

Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen. Need I say more?

5. Imaginary Girls

Nova Ren Suma

In addition to having one of the best titles and most beautiful covers I've seen in... well, ever, probably, it's also a story about sisters which I love. I really liked Suma's middle grade novel and I'm really excited for her YA debut.

FIVE: Great Rereads of 2010

1. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell - I read this for the first time in eighth grade and for years after I would read it every. single. year. And then I racked up library fines and didn't own a copy and somehow or other three or four years went by without me getting to read it again. This year though, my mom made good on her promise to buy me a copy and I read it again. It's my favorite novel and every time I read it I notice something different, something more, which makes it one of the most dynamic reading experiences I've ever had.

2. serafina67, by Susie Day - I love this book so much. It's the You've Got Mail of books, meaning that I'll read it (or even just some of it) when I'm not feeling well and don't have anything else to read or I just want a comfortable, familiar, friendly book to read. The protagonist reminds me a lot of myself (almost too much) and how the book is written is pretty much how things go on in my mind: ie. completely crazy. 

3. Twenty Boy Summer, by Sarah Ockler - So beautiful, so heartbreaking, so amazing. I had to read it again.

4. The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen - This is not only the first YA book I read, but also the one that made me realize this is the genre I want to write in. Dessen is a master of PUTTING WORDS TOGETHER IN NICE WAYS and this is her best work in my opinion. The story, characters, and language is so great.

5. Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins - I hadn't read this one in quite a while, but decided to read it again this year after making my list of favorite Newbery winners. It's a strange, slow-moving story, but absolutely wonderfully written and beautiful. It tells the story of that awkward place between childhood and adolescence better than any other book I've read and (at least for me) this awkwardness carries on way past the particular age. 

Now, five books I want to reread this coming year, though I don't know if I actually will or not:

Paper Towns, by John Green

Sweethearts, by Sara Zarr

The First Part Last, by Angela Johnson

Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Snap, by Alison McGhee

FIVE: Series on My List

I'm not a big fan of series. Either I don't read them because I really honestly like stand-alones better, or I feel like if I buy the first I have to buy the others and I'd rather not make the commitment. I don't think I've read five different series this year, so instead of listing the five best I'm going to list five series I want to read/finish.

1. Matched

Ally Condie

2. Summer

Jenny Han

3. Delirium

Lauren Oliver

4. Confessions of Georgia Nicholson

Louise Rennison

5. Gallagher Girls

Ally Carter

Some of these are series I've already started reading but there are more books out than I've read, and others are ones I haven't even started yet but really really want to.

FIVE: Favorite Lines of 2010

The official FIVE for today is covers, but I was a little unsure of how to tackle that one so instead I'm going with something I absolutely love from books: great lines. Here are five favorite quotes from books I've read (or reread!) this year, in no particular order.

Envy, by Anna Godberson

She thought of Henry and Diana on the stoop, gazing at each other with the confusion and sadness of two puppies who have just stumbled into their first puddle and not yet come to understand what has happened to them.

Girls in Pants, by Ann Brashares

They were growing up. It was inevitable. But please, God, she couldn't do it if it was a trade-in. She couldn't strike the bargain if growing up meant drowning out the friendship that stood at the very center of her life, the thing that gave her strength and balance.

serafina67, by Susie Day

If I was a movie then that is what would happen. But things don't get cured and mended and tidied up like that. I am not cured and mended and tidied up either.

The Treasure Map of Boys, by E. Lockhart

I know they're not getting divorced or anything, but when your parents argue it makes the whole universe seem like it's tipping, like everything could change if they got mad enough at each other, like the world isn't a safe place.

And of course, that's true, isn't it? The world is not a safe place.

Envy, by Anna Godberson

[Diana] went to her window and looked at all the twinkling windows and above them all the faint stars. How many false impressions lived out there? she wondered. How many hearts broken through carelessness and failures of nerve?

FIVE: Best YA Debuts of 2010

1. The Mockingbirds

Daisy Whitney

To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most beloved books in America. I've yet to meet a person who doesn't love that book. There's a balance of Truly Great Characters and Right v. Wrong that's impossible to ignore. With her debut novel The Mockingbirds, Whitney pays tribute to the great classic by not only tackling a heavy issue (date rape) and having justice always at the forefront, but also by the obvious and wonderful references to the classic that are sprinkled throughout the book. Though The Mockingbirds stands very well on its own, it works much better if you've read To Kill A Mockingbird beforehand. In either case, an incredible book with a great message, story, and characters.

2. Sea

Heidi R. Kling

Oh, Sea. One of the most unique and original premises I've come across in a long time, this book is definitely one-of-a-kind in the best way possible. Kling manages to not only write a wonderful tale of grief and love, but also weave together one of the best cross-cultural novels out there. With an emotional connection that's impossible to ignore and an incredibly atmospheric setting, Sea is one of those books that I genuinely wish everyone knew about. It's just that great.

3. The Naughty List

Suzanne Young

In one of the best subversions of stereotype, Young's The Naughty List mixes cheerleaders, espionage, and cheating boyfriends to create one of the sweetest books yet. With its sugar-sweet heroine, shades-of-grey questions of morality, and omg spies!!, this is not only refreshingly original, but also just plain awesome.

4. Tweet Heart

Elizabeth Rudnick

Told primarily through tweets, Rudnick's debut Tweet Heart is a cute story with a premise old as time (the old boy-likes-girl-who-likes-another-boy thing) and a cast of characters that are wonderfully quirky. I'm a sucker for stories told in interesting ways and the online drama of Tweet Heart is both adorably awkward and wonderful. Plus, you guys, there are just so many Star Trek references. (Never doubt my geek cred.)

5. I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

Erin McCahan

The story of a high school girl who gets engaged and spends her senior year planning a wedding, I Now Pronounce You Someone Else tackles a subject rarely mentioned in YA, and it does it well. Not only is the love story super incredibly wonderful, but the realism and pain of the situations that our protagonist finds herself in is handled really well. This novel covers not only teen marriage, but also the complex world of family dynamics, and what it means to be yourself versus what it means to be an Us. A story that I highly recommend.

Have you read any of my top 5 picks? If so, what did you think of them?