Hello there, I know this is going up late, but I actually had to put
some thought into this one. I've looked through all of my own books
and I've decided on the 15 physical books that I would like to read
sometime this year. There will of course be a follow up, the Top 15
Kindle Books to Read in 2016, which will have a look at my ebooks.
Naturally the list will be subject to change as the year goes on.
With no further adieu, let us begin!!
Book
#1: The Martian by Andy Weir
Six
days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to
walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate
the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on
Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that
he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies
would be gone years before a rescue could arrive. Chances are,
though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery,
unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much
more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed
with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a
gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of
strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his
botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact
NASA back on Earth. As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable
obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might
make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in
store for him yet. Grounded in real, present-day science from the
first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot
that surprises the reader again and again, The
Martian is
a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel
that manages to read like a real-life survival tale.
I've heard a lot about this book. And by a lot, I mean, a lot.
Most of the Booktubers that I watch have been going crazy about this.
They say it's just enough humor and science mixed together to make
for a good story. I saw the movie cover in Walmart the other day and
gave it an immediate pass, even though I wanted to read it. I was not
fond of the cover. I went to a different Walmart a week later and
found the pretty orange cover that I'd wanted. Huzzah!
Book #2: Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano
When
Paige moves from LA to Idaho with her mom and little brother after
her parents’ high-profile divorce, she expects to completely hate
her new life, and the small town doesn’t disappoint. Worse yet, the
drafty old mansion they’ve rented is infested with flies, spiders,
and other pests Paige doesn’t want to think about. She chalks it up
to her rural surroundings, but it’s harder to ignore the strange
things happening around the house, from one can of ravioli becoming a
dozen, to unreadable words appearing in the walls. Soon Paige’s
little brother begins roaming the house at all hours of the night,
and there’s something not right about the downstairs neighbor, who
knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Things only get creepier
when she learns about the sinister cult that conducted experimental
rituals in the house almost a hundred years earlier. The more Paige
investigates, and the deeper she digs, the clearer it all becomes:
whatever is in the house, whatever is causing all the strange
occurrences, has no intention of backing down without a fight. Found
in the aftermath, Diary of a Haunting collects the journal entries,
letters, and photographs Paige left behind.
Have you ever come across something that just looked so interesting
that you had to have it....? This was how I reacted to Diary of a
Haunting. Its just too pretty not to want to read, and hoard,
forever. It has one of those awesome plastic covers where there is
something epic underneath. I bought it at Walmart with money I'd been
saving to use to buy the Harry Potter series for my Kindle.
Book #3: Beautiful as Yesterday by Fan Wu
Stretching
from mid-century China to both coasts of the United States at the
turn of the millennium, "Beautiful as Yesterday" tells the
powerful and captivating story of three Chinese women from the same
family. It is a penetrating exploration of what it means to belong,
what it means to be a family, and the impact of history and memories
on one's life."Speaking English is like taking a bath with my
clothes on," Mary Chang admits after having lived in America for
more than ten years. Under the facade of being a devoted wife,
mother, churchgoer, and a hightech professional, she is tormented by
adultery, her grudge toward her parents, and her despair at work.
Ingrid, Mary's attractive estranged sister, prefers her bohemian
friends' Latin culture to her own, though her college boyfriend's
tragic death never fails to haunt her. And when their widowed mother
Wang Fenglan, a state factory retiree, travels from China to America
for the first time under Mary's request to explore the possibility of
emigrating, she awkwardly reunites the family and unknowingly stirs
up buried family tensions and secrets.
I have no idea. Really I don't. I just saw this in the Book Nook that
is hosted in the back of my church and I was immediately taken by the
cover. I had to have it, even though it's not really in the genres
that I like to read. I started it while I was still there (and
supposed to be listening to a congregational meeting), but I was
developing a headache and wound up putting it off. I will have to
start it again as it's been too long since the first attempt.
Book #4: Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Middlesex tells
the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations
of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny
village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era
Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race
riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban
Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other
girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing
genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious
and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and
thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the
American epic.
I saw this book in my church's Book Nook (not at the same time I got
Beautiful as Yesterday) and thought nothing off it. It was there for
several weeks in a row. I then saw a few Booktubers talking about it
and some even raved about it. I was like “Hm....this must actually
be pretty interesting.” So I grabbed it for $1 from the Book Nook.
It actually turned out to be better than I thought it would be. I
started reading it while trying to organize my shelves and struggled
to force myself to put it down and wait til I was done with the seven
books I was already reading.
Book #5: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
The
year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the
criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed
by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by
breaking into people's minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a
clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by
breathing.
It
is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and
kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for
two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige
is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her
master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain
her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison
where she is meant to die.
The
Bone Season
introduces
a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young
writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha
Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.
I actually borrowed this from a friend. I've seen it a while back on YouTube, but I don't have money (usually) to buy books. I much prefer borrowing them from friends or my library if I can help it. I was told this book reminded people of J.K. Rowling, but even on page 2 it's already reminding me more of
The Host by Stephenie Meyer. To be fair to myself, I'm going in completely blind as per usual.
Book #6: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
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 sister actually lent this to me back in the beginning of last year, and I still haven't read it. I think when I finish one of the 8 physical books I'm currently reading, this one will definitely be the next one up in the list of books to read. I'm interested in it to see how they handled cancer in young adults and what they went through. I've had a good number of family members die from cancer and my sister has said this book was very good. I want to read it so bad, I just haven't managed to get around to it yet!
Book #7: Cujo by Stephen King
Outside
a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a
two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has
ever had. One day Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole - a cave
inhabited by sick bats. What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a
horrifying vortex inexorably drawing in all the people around him
makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has
written.
Haha another borrowed book. I got this one from my mom. I'd borrowed the library book and she was like "I have a copy of that...." so I ended up returning theirs and taking hers. Which oddly enough was also in much better condition. I've had it longer than I've had my sister's copy of The Fault in Our Stars and I'm pretty sure my mother's convinced I've either forgotten I have it or I've lost it. Neither of those things have happened! I just haven't actually gotten to it yet! This is going right to the Currently Reading list after The Fault in Our Stars. I want to read it because I've heard so much about it.
Book #8: So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
Hunter
Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot
what is "cool," combines his analytical skills with
girlfriend Jen's creative talents to find a missing person and thwart
a conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture.
I honestly have NO IDEA what this book is about. I've been seeing a lot of people on BookTube, Facebook, and Goodreads going loco over another book by Scott Westerfeld that I have managed to entirely forget the name of. In that regard, I saw this one when I went to the local Ollie's (with my sister) for only $1.99. Seems as good a place as any to jump in I guess. From what I've gathered about the book, the main character and his friend(s) are the people who look for things to make them cool and popular in the mainstream. They have to solve some kind of mystery and it just looked awesome and I have no idea what's going on in it and I want to find out.
Book #9: The Voyage by Philip Caputo
In
the tradition of great seafaring adventures,
The
Voyage
is an
intricately plotted, superbly detailed, and gripping story of
adventure and courage. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Caputo
has written a timeless novel about the dangerous reverberating
effects of long held family secrets.
On a June morning in
1901, Cyrus Braithwaite orders his three sons to set sail from their
Maine home aboard the family's forty-six-foot schooner and not return
until September. Though confused and hurt by their father's
cold-blooded actions, the three brothers soon rise to the occasion
and embark on a breathtakingly perilous journey down the East Coast,
headed for the Florida Keys.
Almost one hundred years
later, Cyrus's great-granddaughter Sybil sets out to uncover the
events that transpired on the voyage. Her discoveries about the
Braithwaite family and the America they lived in unfolds into a
stunning tale of intrigue, murder, lies and deceit.
No idea. None at all. This was at my church's Book Nook and I was like "Ooooh pretty must have" and that's about how it went. I think I've finally paid it off though. I do a sort of combination between paying in batches and bartering with other books I have. It looks beautiful and brilliant and it's some kind of personal journey sort of thing. For whatever reason that I don't know, I'm all about those.
Book #11: The Unseen by Katherine Webb
From
Katherine Webb, the author of the acclaimed international
bestseller The
Legacy, comes a
compelling tale of love, deception, and illusion
A vicar with a passion
for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with
his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year
1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are
forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a
disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after
entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in
the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows
nearby. Quickly
finding a place for herself in the underbelly of local society, Cat
secretly plots her escape. Meanwhile, Robin, a young man of
considerable magnetic charm and beauty, soon becomes an object of
fascination and desire. Sweltering in the oppressive summer heat, the
peaceful rectory turns into a hotbed of dangerous ambition, forbidden
love, and jealousy—a potent mixture of emotions that ultimately
leads to murder.
I was working on a very similar (though not quite) book for NaNoWriMo 2015 and when I saw this in the store some time in either November or December I just had to have it. I thought it had to be good and worth while to read. This one is also my favorite variety of softcover. It's the floppy sort.
Book #11: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A
mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of
curious photographs. 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.
Yet another borrowed book. This one belongs to my uncle. It's one of only four books that I happen to know he's owned (I bought him Hollow City and Library of Lost Souls for his birthday). I meant to read this book back in October, because, you know, tis the season and all. Creepy books should be read around Halloween. I was informed that the book wasn't scary. I know this, it's supernatural. Same season.
Book #12: A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
Growing
up in a small rice-farming village in 1980s Iran, eleven-year-old
Saba Hafezi and her twin sister, Mahtab, are captivated by America.
They keep lists of English words and collect illegal
Life
magazines,
television shows, and rock music. So when her mother and sister
disappear, leaving Saba and her father alone in Iran, Saba is certain
that they have moved to America without her. But her parents have
taught her that “all fate is written in the blood,” and that
twins will live the same life, even if separated by land and sea. As
she grows up in the warmth and community of her local village, falls
in and out of love, and struggles with the limited possibilities in
post-revolutionary Iran, Saba envisions that there is another way for
her story to unfold. Somewhere, it must be that her sister is living
the Western version of this life. And where Saba’s world has all
the grit and brutality of real life under the new Islamic regime, her
sister’s experience gives her a freedom and control that Saba can
only dream of. Filled
with a colorful cast of characters and presented in a bewitching
voice that mingles the rhythms of Eastern storytelling with modern
Western prose, A
Teaspoon of Earth
and Sea
is a tale about
memory and the importance of controlling one’s own fate.
This was one I got from the discount bin in Barnes & Noble. This year I seem to be all about either borrowed books or soul searching books. This one is a soul searching book. I don't know why I thought a book set in Iran would be something I'd want to read, but, hey, it looks good. So why not? I might expand my horizons a little.
Book #13: Dark Prince by Christine Feehan
Enter
the enchanting world of the Carpathians, where dark adventure,
mystery, and love await, and the desires of two daring hearts unite
in one irresistible passion. A telepathic hunter of serial killers,
Raven Whitney helps catch some of the most depraved criminals. But
her work keeps her from getting close to others, and has drained her
body and spirit. In need of rest and rejuvenation, she embarks on a
vacation far from home. Mikhail Dubrinsky is the Prince of the
Carpathians, the powerful leader of a wise and secret ancient race
that thrives in the night. Engulfed by despair, fearful of never
finding the mate who can save him from the encroaching darkness, his
soul cries out in loneliness. Until the day a beautiful voice full of
light and love responds, softly soothing his pain and yearning. From
the moment they meet, Raven and Dubrinsky are helpless to resist the
desire that sparks between them. But just as fate unexpectedly brings
these life mates together, malevolent forces threaten to destroy them
and their fragile love. Yet even if they survive, how can these two
lovers—Carpathian and human—build a future together? And how can
Dubrinksy bring Raven into his dark world without extinguishing her
beautiful goodness and light?
One of my friends (Rowan!) told me about this book series a while ago. She kept telling me that I'd love it, that I should read it. Do you think I ever saw it in a book store? Nope. It wasn't until weeks later when I'd nearly forgotten about it completely that I happened to look down at the hardcover books on the bottom shelf of the endcap in the Dollar General. Sitting right there, out in plain view, was this book. Not only was it the one she wanted me to read. It was the special author's edition with I think an extra 100 pages of content?
Book #14: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
At
the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians
emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the
Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to
be long dead in England -- until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals
his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. - Soon, another
practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring
Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces
in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the
wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with
Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.
This is yet another borrowed book. This one is from a fifth entirely different person. My friend handed it to me probably a year ago or better and said "I think you'd like this." I was like okay, and put it on my TBR pile (which was maybe twenty books if I was lucky). I started it, got a little ways in, and had to put it down because life got in the way. I ended up completely forgetting what it was that I'd read so now I'm doing a re-start to figure it out and actually finish it.
Book #15: The Princess Bride by William Goldman
As
Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess
Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a
mercenary and his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry
Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who
absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling
adventure, she'll meet Vizzini - the criminal philosopher who'll do
anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik - the gentle giant; Inigo - the
Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen - the evil
mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into
their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup's one true love and a
very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.
I have seen the beginning of the movie, I have seen the middle of the movie, and I have seen the end of the movie. I have not, however, seen all three parts of the movie in consecutive order at the same time. When I saw this while rummaging through the books a friend was going to toss, I grabbed it. My own friend, Kaylee, (who lent me Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) had lent me her copy which will now be returned since I have a copy of my own.
All
Harry Potter wants is to get away from the Dursleys and go back to
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing
his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature
named Dobby - who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts,
disaster will strike. And strike it does. For in Harry's second year
at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an
outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit
named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted
attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. But each of these
seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or
something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be
Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be
Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one
everyone at Hogwarts most suspects... Harry Potter himself.
All
Harry Potter wants is to get away from the Dursleys and go back to
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing
his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature
named Dobby - who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts,
disaster will strike. And strike it does. For in Harry's second year
at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an
outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit
named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted
attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. But each of these
seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or
something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be
Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be
Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one
everyone at Hogwarts most suspects... Harry Potter himself.
