2014, A Year of Books

I thought that since the year is ending, I'd give you the highlights of the books I read this year.  I read 75 books this year, most of which I loved, and I had a hard time narrowing it down, but here are most top 10 favorite books of the year, in no particular order. (If I read multiple books in a series, they're counted as one).  All of the official descriptions came from Goodreads, and the brief reviews were written at the time that I finished the book.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Official Descriptions

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washedup child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun–but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Or

Katherine V thought boys were gross

Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart 
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.
On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

My Brief Review:

This book was incredibly funny.  I loved the characters, the situations, and even the calculations.  It was truly masterful, and one of my favorite realistic fiction books.  It's the second-best John Green book, by far.

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Official Description: 

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Brief Review: 

I really loved the book's voice. (In a way, it reminded me of the narrator in Beautiful Creatures.) The entire book flowed very smoothly and the storyline was very engaging. This book was definitely worth the hype, which so few books are. It was fantastic. Highly recommended!
In an unrelated note, I love how the author's name on the front cover was so small unlike some others like James Patterson whose name fills each of his books' entire cover so that it's difficult to tell if you are reading "Blah Blah Blah Book" or "James Patterson". I really appreciate it when authors make the book more important than themselves. You go, Ransom Riggs!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Official Description:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

My Brief Review:

Easily the best book I've read in a long time. I cried during the last third of the book, but I loved it so much! It is one of those books that seem to reach into your soul and brighten some small essential part of yourself. At least it did for me.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Link to Full Review from earlier this year

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Official Description:

Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten...and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.

My Brief Review:

An amazing book. Not a single slow second in all 800 or so pages. I highly, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone! It was both a mystery, romance, and science fiction book all in one! I've recommended 11/22/63 to more people than I can count.

Misery by Stephen King

Link to my review from earlier this year

Legend by Marie Lu

Link to my review of this entire series from earlier this year

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Link to my review of this entire series from earlier this year

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

Official Description:
Vane Weston should have died in the category-five tornado that killed his parents. Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memories of his past - except one: a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing in the winds. She swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she's real.
Audra is real, but she isn't human. She's a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She's also a guardian - Vane's guardian - and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs.
When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both their families, Audra has just days to help Vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them. 

My Brief Review:
I loved this book! It was just perfect. I do not have a single complaint (which is a first). The characters were wonderful and non-annoying. The romance was believable, and the plot line was really engaging. Also the voice of the novel (both Vance's and Audra's). 
It's kind of similar to Beautiful Creatures. But better. 
I highly, highly recommend!

Winger by Andrew Smith

Official Description:

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.

My Brief Review:

Amazing. It was probably one of the funniest books I've ever read. I just loved Ryan Dean's narration style. It's also not very rugby-oriented like the official description would have you believe. (I'm not entirely sure what rugby IS and I loved it). 

I highly recommend Winger (but only if you have at least a high-school maturity level). 
I didn't have high hopes for this book, but it surprised me by being completely amazing. It had everything you could ask for and placed it all together perfectly.

If you are looking for a book to read this coming year, I strongly suggest trying out one of these.  They are all incredibly different but they were completely amazing, nonetheless.  

Happy Reading!

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld 3/5 stars

I received Afterworlds from edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't really enjoy reading Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield.  In fact, I was a bit disappointed by it. I read another book by the same author earlier this year, Uglies, and actually enjoyed it, so I had higher hopes for this book than were met.  All of this isn't to say that Afterworlds wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
The Cover:

The Cover:
I have no idea what the cover shows.  It looks like a tear drop falling on a forest that went through a forest fire to me.  I don't get it.  (If you do, please tell me in comments).  However, the phrase below the image, "you thought your way here" makes sense.  You hear it in the first chapter or two and you will recognize it, but I don't want to spoil anything by explaining it.

My Description:
Every other chapter is about Darcy, a young writer, is in the process of publishing her debut novel, Afterworlds.  However, the process is not going as smoothly as she thought.  Darcy meets other authors and travels through the writing process with them.
The remaining chapters are Darcy's book about a girl, Lizzy, whose near-death experience allows her to see ghosts and travel from the land of the living to the land of the dead.

My Review:
I didn't enjoy reading Afterworlds. The Darcy storyline was uneventful and a bit boring.  Nothing exciting ever happened on that side of the story, and I greatly considered skipping every other chapter of Afterworlds as a result.  On the other hand, Darcy's book was exciting and well-paced.  I was definitely interested in its plot and enjoyed reading it.
Another issue I had with this book was the self-praise.  In every single one of Darcy's chapters, someone would come up to her and praise her outstanding book, which Scott Westerfeld just happens to have wrote.  He wrote characters whose entire purpose was to glorify his own writing.  Everytime anyone would compliment Darcy's writing, I would just think to myself, "Hmmm. That's pretty nice praise, coming from yourself." As a result, I ended up frustrated with the author as well as being unable to take the story seriously.
The characters were nicely developed, though there were only a few characters that we saw more than once.
Overall, I would not recommend Afterworlds unless you are looking for a book mainly about the publishing industry.

Phrase: Cold spot inside me

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff 5/5 stars

I recently read an ARC from edelweiss for Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff.  It was amazing! I loved it!  I wouldn't be at all surprised if this doesn't become an instant hit.  It had all the qualities needed for a fantastic book, and I think that people will really like it.

It reminded me a bit of Paper Towns by John Green, except it was much more intense.  

Anyway, here's the cover:

The Cover:
The cover shows Sam, our protagonist, listening to Hayden's playlist with Astrid.  I particularly like the sentence at the top of the cover, "You never really know someone until you listen."  It really fits this book, and I'm glad they put it on the cover.

The Description:
Sam found Hayden his best, and only, friend dead one morning.  He had committed suicide and all he left Sam to help him comprehend this was a playlist of songs and a note: For Sam- Listen and you'll understand.  But that's not enough for Sam as he attempts to uncover the events that led up to Hayden's suicide.  The mystery unravels a little further with every page and every person Sam meets, including a girl, Astrid, who claimed to know Hayden before he died.  Song after song go by on the playlist as Sam learns more and more about his friend and even more about himself.
It was partially a mystery, love story, thought-provoking, and grief book all in one.

My Review:
I loved it! It had everything that you could possibly want in a book.  It was deeply thoughtful, funny, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at the same time.  Playlist for the Dead is kind of similar to both Perks of Being a Wallflower and Paper Towns.  It falls under the same categories as those books and cause you to think about the same type of issues that the above books do.
It was also organized in a really neat way.  Instead of chapter titles, it had song titles from Hayden's playlist that corresponded to each chapter.  They fit the story perfectly and really added to the experience of reading this book.  I strongly, strongly suggest listening to the songs during or after each chapter.  You might even find a new song/band that you like!
The characters were superb.  I felt really connected to the main character, Sam.  That might have been mainly because it was written in first person, but he was a really developed character who went through changes throughout the book.  Character development definitely occurred to most of the established characters.  Everyone was very complex and different.  They were also written to be very relatable to.  Even the characters that I am nothing like, let's say Ryan or Eric, I found connections to by the end of the book.
Even while set in a normal school setting, I found myself on the edge of my seat throughout entire chunks of the story.  The plot was interesting and kept me hooked.  Every few pages, we would learn a little more about the circumstances leading up to Hayden's death.  I was constantly surprised by the next installment of the story!
I'd highly recommend reading Playlist for the Dead to anyone looking for a new book to read!

Phrase:
Metallica T-shirt

Playlist for the Dead comes out January 27, 2015.