Best of 2014: Young Adult Fiction

This year I read thirty-three books that fall into this category.

They are:

My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins
Vivian Versus America (Vivian Apple, #2) by Katie Coyle
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss, #3) by Stephanie Perkins
Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1) by Rachel Hawkins
Let it Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green, & Lauren Myracle
Winterspell by Claire Legrand
The Summer I Became A Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Tsarina by J. Nell Patrick (Jackson Pearce)
The Hate List by Jennifer Brown
I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill
Unbreakable (The Legion, #1) by Kami Garcia
Love in the Time of Global Warming (Love in the Time of Global Warming, #1) by Francesca Lia Block
Winger (Winger, #1) by Andrew Smith
Enchanter Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #4) by Cinda Williams Chima
Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff
The Falconer by Elizabeth May
Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman
The Madness Underneath (Shades of London, #2) by Maureen Johnson
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
Beautiful Darkness (Beautiful Creatures, #2) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Marcel and the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
The Diviners (The Diviners, #1) by Libba Bray
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill
Falling Hard (Roller Girls, #1) by Megan Sparks
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1) by Ransom Riggs

First place goes to . . . 

Nina LaCour has stunned me with every one of her books, but this is by far the best she's done yet. Everything Leads to You is filled to the brim with romance, beautiful writing, and a story that will make you want to come back again and again. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.







Second place goes to . . .

After falling in love with the first book in this series, I was worried that the second and final book wouldn't live up to my high expectations. I was so wrong that it's laughable. Everything about the ending to Vivian's story is so much better than I could have hoped for and I cannot wait to read even more from this awesome author.
Side note: Both books are out in the UK at the moment, but the first book is going to be released for the US on January 6, 2015 under the title "Vivian Apple at the End of the World." You need this book, random reader. You need it. So please go preorder it immediately.


And third place goes to . . .

This is a must-read for pretty much every nerd that is out there. Rainbow Rowell goes above and beyond in this lovely work about Cath, a nerdy fan fiction writer who has just gone off to college. I adored every part of this book. And Rainbow Rowell has recently announced that her next book is going to be about the very characters Cath writes about in the book, which might just be the coolest thing I've seen an author do in a very long time.





Honorable mentions . . .

Best of 2014: Non-Fiction, Adult Fiction, & Rereads

My original plan for the end of the year was to post a Christmas book haul here and then have that jumpstart my end of the year categories, where I would post my favorites of what I read this year in different genres. However, my Christmas has been delayed and we are celebrating it tomorrow instead of two days ago. So I'm going to start my "Best of 2014" series now and just interrupt it with a book haul when I have opened presents. 

For each category I will give a list of the books I read which fall into that category, then follow it with my top picks from within. (The ones which I have reviewed on this blog will also have links to those reviews.) There will likely be a top pick and one or two honorable mentions. For today, we have three categories that were small enough the be put together. The others will be done as one category per blog post.

Non-Fiction: 

This year, I read eight books that fall within the Non-Fiction Category.
They were:

Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti
The Crimes of Jack the Ripper by Paul Roland
Weird Things People Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell
More Weird Things People Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

And the winner is . . .

Betty Friedan's famous examination of the nameless problem plaguing American women in the fifties and today is every bit as amazing as I had heard. It blew my mind and is as entirely relevant to today's culture as it was when it was written.








Honorable mentions:

Adult Fiction:
I read eight books in the Adult Fiction category.
They were:

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Misery by Stephen King
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

And the winner is . . . 

  This book by Kazuo Ishiguro was every bit as exceptional and interesting as I had heard it would be. I was captivated from beginning to end by Kathy's tale of her growing up at Hailsham. It really is a stunning read and one that leaves you reeling long after you've put it down.









Honorary mentions: 

Rereads:
I reread eleven books this year.
They were:

Speechless by Hannah Harrington
Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara
Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (2x)
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


And the winner is . . .

 This book about a 21st century Dutch boy falling into the Children's Crusade is a story I wish every person would read. I still cannot believe it is the only one of this author's books that has been published in English. Every part of this story is captivating and wonderful.








Honorable mentions: 

Coming tomorrow: Manga/ Graphic Novels!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor was right: She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park was a Christmas present. It wasn't a surprise one, but a book I'd heard about from various different sources and wanted to add to my collection. Still, it's been sitting idly on my shelf since.

I only cracked it open yesterday morning because I heard the news that Faith Erin Hicks (who has written and/or drawn a number of graphic novels I'm in love with) was teaming up with Rainbow Rowell for a graphic novel in the near future. I was thrilled and decided I ought to celebrate the occasion by cracking open this lovely novel.

Oh. My. God.
I fell in love.

There are a thousand and one things I'd love to say about this novel and yet it all seems to come out in a high pitched squeal, because I cannot get over how much I fell in love with it. I mean, I devoured this book. I could hardly function for wanting to read it.

Eleanor has bright red hair and dark brown eyes. She comes from a broken home with a mother who has long ago forgotten how to care for her daughter, a stepdad who makes Eleanor want to run and hide, and siblings who have learned that to be silent is to be safe. She's uncomfortable, she's fat, she's weird . . . and Park can't take his eyes off of her.

Park is half Asian, half American. His mother is a beautician and his father a veteran who will never be pleased with the son who is too effeminate and too different. His brother is exactly the macho child his father always wanted and he looks American. Not to mention, he's getting bigger than his older brother every day. He's a comic book and music junkie who'd rather fade into the background than draw attention to himself. He's uncomfortable, he's weak, he's weird . . . and Eleanor can't breath when he's not around.

A love story that wraps you up, breaks your heart, and makes you believe in love that conquers all, Eleanor & Park was an absolute treat. It's one that has immediately installed itself as one of my all-time favorite books and I can tell I'll be revisiting its pages many, many times in the years to come.

Rating: ~★★★★★~

"I don't think I even breathe when we're not together," she whispered. "Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it's been like sixty hours since I've taken a breath. That's probably why I'm so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I'm so out of  control, I can't help myself. I'm not even mine anymore, I'm yours, and what if you decide that you don't want me? How could you want me like I want you?"
He was quiet. He wanted everything she'd just said to be the last thing he heard. He wanted to fall asleep with I want you in his ears.

Banned Books Week

An excerpt from Americus, a wonderful graphic novel about banned books

There's a difference between banning books and parenting.

As a child, I was not allowed to read Harry Potter. This was because my parents didn't believe it was proper reading material for me("witchcraft" and all that). Admittedly, they were operating out of ignorance, but they were operating with my best interest at heart and that is their job as parents. (Since then, each of my siblings and I have become steadily addicted to everything Harry Potter and my dad has finally started reading the books as well. He loves them.)

The censorship we are talking about when we discuss banned book week is the kind where a person (almost always someone who hasn't actually read the book in question) tries to get a particular book banned from schools and/or libraries because they happen to find that particular book objectionable and carry a twisted belief that it is their job to keep every other person from reading it as well.

For example, Rainbow Rowell (author of Fangirl and Eleanor & Park) was slated to speak in the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota. Though the speaking engagement had been planned months in advance (to take place this week-during banned book week), as the event drew closer, the author began getting the silent treatment from everyone in that area. It wasn't until the National Coalition Against Censorship became involved that she found out a ruckus had been made about the fact that she was invited and a parent had become upset over the profanity in Eleanor & Park, even going so far as to demand that the librarians who set up the original speaking engagement be disciplined.

You can read more about this very interesting (read: appalling) ordeal here: "Talks Cancelled for YA Authors Meg Medina and Rainbow Rowell." You can also check out this lovely interview with Rainbow Rowell herself, in which she discusses her books as well as censorship and gives a bit more detail concerning this ordeal in Minnesota. The interview can be found here: "Talking With Rainbow Rowell About Love and Censorship."

 When we ban books, we band knowledge and ideas. That's not fair to the person who is banned from reading it, to the people who ban it, or to society in general. So much can be found through access to good books, whether they are controversial or not.

I'd rather my daughter approach a tough topic for the 1st time in a book, than in the MS cafeteria. #NCTEchat
— Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) September 23, 2013

For me, personally, books have always been my lifeline. They are how I thrive and grow, how I find inspiration to create and understand the people around me. Books are everything to me. So when you censor my favorite book, "Perks of Being a Wallflower" because of its drugs, sex, and violence, are you guarding me from harmful material or leaving me defenseless in a world where those very themes run rampant? Are you cutting me off from the things that will harm me or from ideas that scare you? And what if those very ideas are the ones that help me make it through this unforgiving world we live in? What if those themes that run along the border of obscene or offensive tell me exactly the things I need to hear to get me through from one day to the next?

Everyone deserves access to the knowledge and information hidden within the pages of our favorite books. That's what libraries and schools are designed to do: introduce us to new ideas and information we never would have accessed otherwise. If we are constantly knocking those books out of the hands of students, what can we expect but that they'll eventually stop picking books up altogether? And if they stop picking up books, they will forever doom themselves to ignorance.

I could go on and on about this, but I won't. Instead, I'll leave you with a few lovely resources I've managed to come across in the last couple of days. I won't leave you with a list of banned books you ought to read, because you can find that with a quick Google Search. (Though I do hope that you'll pick up a banned book this week in honor of the occasion, which is exactly what I intend to do as soon as I finish reading American Gangster by Mark Jacobson. If you need help finding one for yourself, I do have a "Banned Books" tag on my book reviews that you can search.) Instead I'll leave you with some other lovely pages about censorship that you can check out for yourself:

• 11 Quotes from Authors on Censorship & Banned Books
• A Word on Censorship
• NCTE Banned Books Week Twitter Chat 2013
• Ten Books About Censorship for Kids & Teens

If you're reading a banned book this week, I'd love to hear about it. I think I'll be picking up I Know Why the Caged Bird sings by Maya Angelou. What about you?