Read with Victoria: 2014

Hey everyone!

So as I am sure everyone has been able to see, I have not updated in about a year. School, of course, is to blame for this, but I hate it less than I used to now that I've decided to do a graduate program in book publishing and editing. One really learns to appreciate their education more when they actually have a game plan.

That being said, I have been doing a lot of personal reading, a lot more than usual. Since I do not currently have the time to review each and every book I've been reading, I am going to put a list of the top books I've read over the past year with a few words for each as to why I loved them.

(I hope to one day be a book critic, so it would be a great help if we could get some comments/discussion rolling, and perhaps pass on this blog to your friends. If you do, I promise to make more posts.)

*All cover images for each book mentioned can be found at the bottom.
*Oh, and, um...SPOILDER ALERT. (To avoid spoilers, simply read the titles and not what I have to say about them.)

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

How could I NOT include this one as my number one pick?
I have to admit, at first I didn't want to read this book. I know, I know. Classic story of not taking any interest until EVERYBODY ELSE does. But really, I love John Green's other books. I just happened to hear him reading the first chapter of TFIOS on Youtube, and I really didn't enjoy it. I now know that I simply don't like listening to people read to me. (I mean, I'm 20 years old. A little past the bedtime story phase.)
So I saw a clip for the movie and decided to give the book a try.

AND I LOVED IT.

I mean, holy crap, never in my life has a book inspired me and touched me as much as TFIOS did. It is the best book in the world, and not just because of the plot, but because of the honesty and sensitivity of the writing. John Green has written a beautiful teenage love story that is in no way condescending or humorous or naïve. He has opened up a world to the reader where true love is a very real and literal thing, and is just as difficult at seventeen as it is at twenty-six or thirty. Anyone who has ever been in love, or even felt the tiniest peck of it, will not be able to put this book down.

And, as a side note, if I see anyone call Hazel "Hazel Grace", I will have to slap you, because only Gus can call her that.

2. Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer.

Over this past summer (2013), Nancy Thayer was my first real trek into the world of easy adult fiction. Now, when I say easy I do NOT mean that she is less than other authors out there. I simply mean that she has a laid-back way of looking at the world, particularly its relationships and problems, that allow the reader to invest and submerge themselves without drowning in its melodrama. So often do I try to pick up those 400-page novels that are almost entirely prose, and I simply just can't get through the first 100 pages. I think it comes with being an English major, and having to suffer through that for the entire year; when it comes to summer vacation, I just want to throw books like that in Lake Ontario.

Beachcombers is an incredibly touching story, and I found myself in love with the characters as if they were my own sister. What I love about Nancy Thayer's writing is that all of her characters have some serious flaws, but she writes them in such a way that the reader can't help but accept them and appreciate them as a whole unit. One thing that did bother me about her writing, and continues to bother me about her writing, is that she tends to write younger characters (and I mean around the age of 20) as incredibly immature. As a 20 year old myself, I certainly do not act or speak the way her 20 year olds speak, nor do I know any that do. For myself, it was incredibly annoying to have to suffer through the POV of those particular characters, and I often skipped over them. However, on the whole, the majority of her characters are incredibly loveable, and each of them contains something unique. Another thing that I love about her writing is the setting--NANTUCKET!!!!--and the fact that each story has a really unique, and maybe somewhat whimsical element to it, usually centering around the characters' summer jobs. All in all, Beachcombers is a book to get lost in.

3. The Entire Starcrossed Series by Josephine Angelini.

I have blogged about her books before, but WOW did this series end with a bang. While I felt the first book started off (much like Nancy Thayer) portraying teenagers somewhat immaturely, Angelini quickly remedied that with the remainder of her series. Bringing ancient Greek mythology to modern-day Nantucket (can you tell I have an obsession?), Angelini combines the traditional story of star-crossed lovers with the everyday trials of the modern world in such a way as to take your breath away. I know that sounds like the same old thing any book critic would say, but it's true (and I also can't think of a way to describe how awesome it is without giving anything away).

I think what really drives this series is the combination of YA with a heavy sexual tension between the characters that causes young people to go wild. I mean this very literally. Too often do YA authors sugar coat love and sexual passion, often only ever giving readers the PG-13 version of what EVERY TEENAGER IS THINKING. I appreciated Angelini's writing for being realistic and passion-driven. If anything, I wished she'd given us a little bit more. I mean, after three books worth of telling the reader how badly Helen and Lucas want to do it, it would have been nice if they had...

4. The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.

*Note: I have not seen the movie.

I think I liked this book because it was so utterly strange and unique to me. The narrator very obviously has mental issues from the start, which makes it kind of hard to read at points, as you are literally stuck in his confused, messed-up train of thought, and frankly I was really sick of hearing about how great his ex-wife Nikki is.

But frankly, the story this book has to tell is really sweet. It is brutally honest, and also shows the very selfish side of love, but is that a bad thing? I, for one, felt really refreshed when, at the end, Pat and Tiffany confess that they love each other because they NEED one another. It seemed to me like quite a different way of approaching that fairy-tale ending, but I was still left feeling content in the end. I think the reader is supposed to be left knowing that their relationship will obviously not be without its problems, but that just makes it all the more realistic.

Unfortunately, those four are the only four that I enjoyed enough to keep in my memory for this entire time. (I read a lot of bad books.) I hope that some of you will give each of them a try, because they are all really great in their own ways. Especially The Fault in Our Stars. If you only read one more book in your entire life, you should make it that one. You will never regret it.

Happy reading. :)

-Victoria

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