Top 10 Contemporary Books

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower: This is my favorite book of all time so it's no surprise that it tops this list as well. I love that this is book where we just follow the main character Charlie through his freshmen year of high school because the plot is simple but this allows for a bunch of great character stories through out the book. I also just really love the way that Charlie thinks because it's so lovely and not like any other character that I've ever read.
2. Impulse: I really Ellen Hopkins books in general and this is my favorite book of her's that I have read so far. I love that this story starts with our three main characters recovering from attempting suicide and I love how we slowly learn what led them to the point of wanting to kill themselves. I really love that the three characters each have distinct voices and I really love the poetry form the story is told through.
3. Looking For Alaska: I really love how this story starts off as a going off to boarding school and just general teenage issues but half way through the book the story becomes darker and deeper. I also just really love the characters who had so much life to them and I love the way that the book was written as well.
4. Perfect: This book is a companion novel to Impulse and I like that it gave more depth to one of the characters stories in that book and also introduced us to the stories of 4 new characters. I love that this book dealt with the idea of trying to achieve perfection and how since perfection is impossible it's a very damaging thing to do and some of the characters learned this and other didn't.
5. Heist Society: I really love this fun light story about teenage con-artist that has lots of travel, heists, great characters and a nice dose of romance that at no point overtakes the plot which is a nice change compared to most YA novels.
6. Gallagher Girls: This is a nice fun story about girls spy school that has plenty of great friendship moments and mixes teenage girl and spy pretty much perfectly. As the series goes on the story gets more complicated and darker which I'm really enjoying. There's also a bit of romance that I enjoy quite a bit as well.
7. Tricks: This is a story about five teens who somehow end up having to sell themselves for various reasons and I really enjoyed how different each of their stories were and how they were told as well. I feel like this is a book that sounds a bit strange to say that I loved it but I thought it had a really good story to it although it was by no means a happy one.
8. The Fault in Our Stars: This is a book that is known for it's sweet romance and it's sad ending and while I agree that both those things are great parts of the book I also think that it's wicked sense of humor is also one of the major things that makes me love the book.
9. Tilt: While I always love the beautiful poetic writing of Ellen Hopkins I admit that the reason this book makes the list is only because of Shane's story(I didn't care much for Hardly's and Mikayla's stories). His story went in a way I never expected it to and I really loved him having a crisis of faith and just basically slowly falling apart wanting someone to notice and not wanting to bother anyone with his problems at the same time, it was a complicated story and one that I completely adored.
10. It's Kind of a Funny Story: This is the story about how the pressures of achieving became too much for a boy named Craig and how when he couldn't meet the especially high standards that he set for himself he became depressed to the point of being suicidal so he checked himself into the mental health wing of the hospital and slowly began the process of recovery.

Top 10 Books that Made Me Cry

1. Game of Thrones(A Song of Ice and Fire): The last part of the book with Ned Stark's demise is pretty heartbreaking even if you weren't a fan of his character because the end of him was heartbreaking for his whole family who chances are you love at least one of them so seeing their mourning will end up making you cry at some point and his end is also the beginning of the war which I think everyone could tell wouldn't end well. There's also Daenery's POV chapters that were pretty heartbreaking as well as exciting which also ended up making me cry. Although what got me the most was Sansa's last POV chapter where she had just discovered that pretty much every belief that she ever had is wrong and she has to live in a truly awful situation and I just sobbed through the entire chapter.
2. The Book Thief: This book had a very heartbreaking ending that the narrator of the book Death had been warning us about through out the whole book but that didn't make the events less heartbreaking and it didn't stop the tears following down my cheeks which just proves that when something is written well being spoiled won't ruin the emotional pay out for you.
3. The Fault in Our Stars: This book is one that had made me laugh with it's dark sense of humor, made me fall in love with it's characters as well as Hazel and Augustus's relationship and then the book ended up breaking my heart and making me cry with it's ending. This book made me feel a ton of emotions and I'm glad it did and I loved how beautifully written it was and I was glad that I had the privilege to get my heart broken by this book.
4. Thirteen Reasons Why: This book dealt with a very sad subject matter and it's ending while clear from the start still ended up making me cry. I love how this book made you think that Hannah could have been saved but since the tapes came out after her death the people that might've listen didn't hear until it was too late.
5. Tokyo Babylon Vol. 7: This volume is just depressing from start finish it's something that in the back of your mind you know the story had to end this way and this was the only way this story could have ended but you wish it would've ended anyway than this one. It's a brilliantly written completely heartbreaking end to this series that leaves a big impression and this ending is enough for me to recommend this series to anyone because this is how you end a story sadly without making the readers feel like it was a bad ending for the series because it was a great ending it was just a depressing one.
6. The Lovely Bones: This book had a dark subject matter dealing with murder, death and mourning and it was a really sad read and it's sadness ended up sticking with me a lot longer than it's characters did and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
7. Impulse: This book dealt with three teenagers after attempting suicide so it's not surprise that this story is a rather sad one but it was nice that for two of them things seemed to be moving in the right direction that things will get better in the future. But it was so terrible sad to see that for the last one that nothing was going to change that all his problems will still be there once he gets back home and they will be swept under the rug like they always had been and that's what made me cried.
8. Looking for Alaska: The second part of this book that dealt with the mourning process in a way that felt painful and real and showed that sometimes your not going to get the answers that you desire and that the only form of closure you can get is to move on from it and accept that it's in the past now.
9. Fruits Basket: This is my favorite series of all time and it has made me cry many times I know that I've cried during volumes 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15,16, 22 and 23 for sure and probably a few others as well. I love this series because of it's great characters that you end up loving so much and I think my love for the characters is why I have cried so many times during this series.
10. Linger(Wolves of Mercy Falls): This book is a bit different than the other ones on the list because it's not some big tragedy that effects the whole story or even something that most fans thing of for longer than the second their reading it but there are so many little moments that make me feel for the characters that made me cry a bit although a lot less than the other books. It was just things like Sam remembering the good things about his parents and how part of him still misses them or how he remembers how his parents tried to kill him when he was little, and then there's the stuff with how Cole wants to do anything to get out of his own head because he can't stand himself anymore because being the bad boy is anything but good but he doesn't know how to do anything other than self destruct. There's the whole thing with Isabel wanting to self destruct as well and dealing with the guilt about her brother's death. I just love this book and I wish people would ignore it's deeper character moments and write it off as a fluffy romance because it's so much more than that.

Top 10 Books of 2013

1. Looking for Alaska: This book I loved because it was a great coming of age story with the main character Pudge going to boarding school and for the first time being part of a close friend group which he had quite a few good times with but it's also a story that becomes much darker and deeper in it's second half. There's also the character Alaska who is pretty complicated, interesting and frustrating she has a lot of problems but she doesn't think anyone else is allowed to be upset because their problems are trivial compared to hers according to her but she can also be quite fun and she seems pretty smart. Then there's the second half of the book that deals with loss and how in the end you can't fully know a person or what happened in their last moments and that sometimes in life not all your questions can be answered and you just have to on with your life. This book was both funny and sad, was well written and had great characters.
2. The Fault in Our Stars: This book was much better than I thought it would be because I thought it was going to just be depressing all the way through but it wasn't. This book had a dark sense of humor which is my favorite kind and it really did suit the characters teenagers with cancer would totally make those kind of jokes. I also loved the relationship between Hazel and Augustus they were just such wonderful characters and they fit together just perfectly in the end. The story did take a depressing turn in the end which I was okay with even though I sobbed for quite a while.
3. Tilt: This is an Ellen Hopkins book which means I loved the way it was written in beautiful but easy to understand poetry. I wasn't a huge fan of Hardly or Mikayla because they both seemed to make obvious horrible life choices repeatedly but I did feel for them and their stories were interesting. Shane story on the other hand was one that I just loved, I loved his relationship with Alex which I never expected to be a sweet romantic one, I loved his relationship with his mother who he both feels like he needs her but also that he can't go to her because she already has too much to deal with, and I love that his storyline came to be about how he couldn't get past how pointless death is and he actually has a crisis of faith. I really love this book mainly for Shane's storyline that I'm probably not explaining it's brilliance very well since I haven't read it in months.
4. It's Kind of a Funny Story: This book is one about a high school boy who got himself into when of the best schools around and just feels like he isn't smart enough to be there and he is just ends being overwhelmed by all the work which leads him to becoming depressed. One night he decides to kill himself but instead checks himself into the psych ward in the hospital and starts his recovery process. I just really loved the book I really cared for and understood the main character and I always enjoy anything dealing with mental health.
5. Cinder: This is wonderful retelling of Cinderella in a futuristic China which has terrific world building and a great plot that makes you want to know more about everything that happens in this world. The characters are also great especially Cinder and Prince Kai who also develop a friendship hopeful romance later on in the series, through out the book that is a lot more realistic than I would expect out of a book based on Cinderella. This is a terrific book and there's not a single reason I can think of to not read this book.
6. Forever: I loved the last book of The Wolves of Mercy Falls series although not as much as I loved Linger but I'm oddly obsessed with that book so that's not really a surprise. I felt like it was a good conclusion to Sam and Grace's story with Grace making peace with her parents and Sam learning and accepting a lot about Beck, also there together at last which is what they have been trying to have since the beginning. I think that Cole and Isabel's storylines were less resolved but they both seem to be going in a positive direction with Cole wanting to actually survive and caring for other people and Isabel accepting her brother's death and confronting her feelings about most things a bit better. The relationship between Cole and Isabel is still complicated and undefined but there definitely closer now. I loved this book and the series as a whole especially Linger, but what I love most is the characters.
7. Only the Good Spy Young: This was the most exciting book in the series so far with lots of logical twist and turns I never saw coming. I also continue to love the characters and their relationships with each other.
8. Perfect Scoundrels: I loved this book because there was a lot of background information on Hale that was given that I had always been interested in. I also really loved Kat and Hale's relationship with them being from different worlds being the conflict in their relationship which was much more interesting to read about than some random love triangle that I half expected to see in this book but luckily that never happened.
9. Hide and Seek: This book was one that was exciting and full of plot twists that I've come to expect and enjoy through out this series.
10. The Magician's Nephew: This story about the beginning of Narnia was sweet and very fun and interesting read for me.

Top 4 New to Me Authors 2013

1. John Green: This year I read The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska and I found both books to be great reads. Both books were able to be both heartbreaking and hilarious and were filled with memorable characters. I loved how the humor throughout The Fault in Our Stars was fairly morbid and I like that this book surprised me because it had humor in it and romance rather than just the sadness I was expecting. I loved Looking for Alaska probably even more than I loved The Fault in Our Stars, it was a coming of age story that was very entertaining and then it became a story about accepting death and how there's always going to be some questions that can't be answered and you have to accept that. Anyways both books were well written and I will read more of his books in the future.
2. Marissa Meyer: I read her book Cinder this year and that book had a very unique retelling of Cinderella and had characters and a story that were far more developed than anything that I would have expected out of a story that was based off of this fairytale. The world building in this book is also very brilliant and the whole species of lunars are very interesting and detailed even though not much is known about them.
3. Ned Vizzini: I read his book It's Kind of a Funny Story which was a book about a high school boy who becomes overwhelmed and depressed by his highly competitive new school when he feels his grades aren't good enough and it also shows the beginning of his recovery. I loved this book it was an interesting story and despite it's subject matter it was actually rather humorous at points. I also learned this year that Ned Vizzini co-wrote the Teen Wolf episodes Venomous and Restraint which I enjoyed both of those episodes as well even though neither are my favorite of even season two both were good and I found it cool that he wrote a few episodes for one of my favorite tv shows. I plan to read more of his books in the future.
4. C.S. Lewis: I started to read The Chronicles of Narnia series this year and I really do enjoy the books and how they were written especially since I just love the way older children's books are written.

Top 6 Books that Should be Required Reading

1. Fruits Basket: This series is one that I'm sadly sure will never be taught at schools but I really think it should. Fruits Basket is really just bout broken people who end up helping each other fix themselves while learning to also love each other but more importantly accept themselves. This series is one that sounds shallow but is actually incredible deep with having almost every character having a backstory reveal and the fact that about half of the major characters personalities are more or less defense mechanism that they developed at a young age to hide how broken they are. I love that while most of the characters have a sad past and a lot are trapped in a life where they have few choices and most of them think very poorly of themselves, I love that the series is about the characters growing and learning to like themselves and learning how to form meaningful connections with people. I just really love this series and I feel that reading the series makes your life better, I know that sounds a bit dramatic but I feel like it's true. I also feel like this series is well written and could lead to a lot of class discussions and I have wrote an essay on this series before so I think that there's a lot to be learned from this series.
2. Perks of Being a Wallflower: This is another book that means a lot to me and I feel like this would be a good book to be taught in school because I feel like a lot of people could relate to Charlie's struggles to find himself in high school. I also think that reading this book for class would be a good idea because Charlie is such a kindhearted person that I think he'd be someone that people could easily root and be invested in. I feel like a lot could be written about this book because it deals with a lot of issues and that also makes for good discussions as well.
3. Perfect: I think that Perfect would be a good book for students to read because in high school a lot of people are motivated by expectations whether they'd be their own or other people's expectations they feel they have to live up to some ideal and often times people standards are to high to be met which leads to distress. The book Perfect is about four teens who deal with the concept of perfection with what it means to them and how they feel the need to live up to being perfect and the desperate measures they go to trying to achieve the impossible. I think this book would be one that students could relate to which would make them more interested in the book considering that almost all required books are about adults from long ago it's no surprise that students aren't interested or understanding the stories fully. I think this book could lead to some much needed discussions and there's a lot of issues to be talked about.
4. Looking for Alaska: This book is a coming of age story that deals with death and I feel that it's one that is very well written and could be a book that students would enjoy reading and on some levels could relate to. But on other levels I feel that the students could learn much from this book and much could be discussed and written about it as well.
5. Thirteen Reasons Why: This book deals with suicide and it shows that it can be caused by simple everyday actions that seem harmless at the time and I think that this book being taught in schools would lead people to be more thoughtful about how their actions could affect other people.
6. Linger:  This may seem like a weird book to put on this list but this book really spoke to me and if you've read my Top 10 Book moments list you know how much I loved it. I really loved how this book dealt with Sam's uncertainty that his cure was real and how he didn't really know how he was suppose to feel now that his curse was lifted and I love that he's still broken from all went through in the past and is still working through it, I just kind of love Sam's storyline in this book because I felt like it was dealing with the whole what happens after happily ever after. I also really loved Cole's mission to get away from himself and I love that he hates himself for being basically what one thinks of as a bad boy because those people are actually awful people and he knows this but doesn't seem to know how to be anyone else so he'll settle for getting out of his own head. I also really loved Isabel's whole thing with feeling guilty about her brother's death and how she wants to start a self destructive relationship with Cole. I think this book has a lot going on in it and I feel like there's much to discuss and write about.

Top 10 Books set in Schools

1. Gallagher Girls: I love this fun action series that is set in a boarding school for teenage girl who are training to be spies. I feel that the school makes the books what they are with there assignments being used to further their own off the books investigations and the spy training is something that is very much ingrained in all of the main characters. I love all the books of this series I have read so far it's a series that can be a lot of fun but there are also shocking plot twists and real danger in the series as well.
2. Rosario+ Vampire: This is a series that I love a lot about an extremely average human boy who accidently finds himself going to a school for monsters. This series is one that starts off pretty humorous but as the series goes on it's clear that the series has a lot of heart and it also takes several dark turns at times as well.
3. Looking for Alaska: This is a lovely coming of age story about a boy named Pudge coming out of his shell a bit and making some friends that change his perspective on life. This book also deals with loss quite brilliantly and I really love the way that it is written and I really love the messages that come from this book in the end.
4. Secret Circle: This is a story about witches and high school basically and I really love that this series mixes the mean girls of high school with the fantastical element of magic. I love that magic in this series is used for petty things because that's the type of stuff real teenagers would do if they had magic. There's also some intriguing darker plots that develop as the series goes on that I enjoyed as well.
5. Gakuen Alice: This series is about a boarding school for people who have special abilities called Alices. This series actually has a good plot that can get surprisingly dark considering how old the main characters are. I really love the characters and the relationships in this series as well.
6. Shugo Chara: This series is a magical girl series that is set in high school and is about finding your true self. I love the magical girl genre in general and I especially love the characters in this one.
7. Hex Hall: This is a series about a boarding school for faries, shape shifters and witches, the series is great fun but it's also has a really intriguing plot as well and has more twists to the story then I was expecting. I also really love the friendship between Sophie and Jenna a whole lot.
8. The Lying Game: This is a series that is about an incredible cruel clique and a girl who is impersonating her dead twin while she tries to figure out who murdered her because her twin has a lot of enemies this makes the task very difficult.
9. Fruits Basket: This is my favorite series of all time and there's quite a bit of time spent in school in the series but a lot of time is spent in other places as well which is why the series is so low.
10. Cardcaptor Sakura: This is my favorite magical girl series lots of time spent in school but also other places but it's a great series either way.

Top 8 Books I read so far this year

1. Looking for Alaska: It was close call between this one and The Fault in Our Stars because both of the books were written with so many memorable lines and also both made me experience a lot of emotions. But I choose Looking for Alaska as my favorite book of the year so far because I just connected to it more. I really loved reading the story and I felt a pretty good connection to Pudge especially with how before the story started he never done much of anything but stay at home and read but he's also in search of more of something more exciting in live in what he refers to as the great perhaps. I also really loved how this book had it's characters value intelligence and I like the thing about the school sports team being so awful it's funny. I liked all of Pudge's new friends and how they were all different and how they all had their own stories to tell. I love how in the end it seems to me that we were suppose to be somewhat conflicted about our feelings for Alaska and I loved that she was a mystery that couldn't quite be solved in the end and that it doesn't really matter all that much that she can't be solved as long as she will be remembered. I also loved how the book was divided into a Before and After section and how the tone and theme of the story is different in the section but both sections are equally enjoyable.
2. The Fault in Our Stars: The Fault in Our Stars was a book that I heard a lot about before I read it and therefore I was a bit nervous it wouldn't live up to the hype so I was extremely happy when I discovered how much I loved this book. This surprised me with it's great dark sense of humor where Hazel, Augustus and Issac would frequently joke about their cancer or really just death in general. I love that kind of dark sense of humor and it seemed to fit the characters because they are teenagers even though they have cancer which was nice to see in my opinion. I really loved the relationship between Hazel and Augustus, I loved seeing it developed from friendship to love and I really just thought the two of them were extremely cute together and I loved that they both gave each other books in order to get more insight into what the other likes. I loved that this book broke my heart and made me cry as much as it did because for some reason I love it when a book can really make me cry as much The Fault in Our Stars did.
3. Tilt: This is a book that I thought about putting higher on the list until I realized that even the whole thing is written in the beautiful poetry of all Ellen Hopkins books I read I only actually loved Shane's storyline and was just interested and sympathetic to Mikayla and Harley. I loved this book because of Shane's storyline I loved that though his character was gay that his whole storyline didn't revolve around that although I did really love his relationship with Alex because they were really sweet and I loved how they both went into the relationship looking for something causal but ended up falling in love. I really loved how Shane did love his sister Shelby but didn't think that she really had much of a life but despite that her death still hit him really hard. I loved Shane trying to come to terms with death and I loved seeing him have a crises of faith partially because I loved that he still believed in god at the beginning of the book. I loved how Shane desperately needed his mom but at the same time didn't want her to worry about him at all because he knew that she was going through a hard time as well. I was all that invested in Mikayla and Harley's storylines but there were still moments I enjoyed them a whole lot but I didn't love them like I loved Shane.
4. Only the Good Spy Young: The fourth book of Gallagher Girls series is my favorite in the series so far. I loved that there was a big plot twist right at the start of this book and I loved the way the characters reacted to the plot twist because my thoughts were pretty similar to theirs and I just loved the way all the twists played out in this book. I really loved all the action in this book and I loved how the stakes were so much higher in this book the early ones. I also continue to love all the characters and their relationships.
5. Perfect Scoundrels: The third book of the Heist Society series may just be my favorite. I loved how this book dealt with Kat and Hale's relationship with having the whole thing about how Hale is part of Kat's world but Kat doesn't have a place in Hale's world and she isn't sure that she can ever have a place in his world. I also loved that Kat saw that Hale coming to her world was somewhat similar to how at the beginning of the first book Kat ran away to boarding school and how she wonders if Hale is doing the same thing with her and it's just a matter of time until Hale goes back to his own world. I just loved that Kat and Hale's relationship dealt with all kind of really problems instead of some contrived love triangle like most YA books seem to have because it made more sense for their characters and in the end it said a lot about both characters. I loved learning more about Hale and the world which he came from in this book as well. I also loved the con artist parts of the story as well and I loved seeing all the characters that I fell in love with from the first two books again.
6. Magic Knight Rayearth II: I really love how the second half of this series is dealing with how the end of the first half of the series is effecting the girls. I loved that when the girls returned to Cefiro and see that the world is falling apart they decided they need to do everything in their power to save it.  I love that almost all the characters from the first half of the series are back and I love that there are many new characters from other worlds entering the series. I also love that it seems that this series is pointing out Cefiro's flaw of having one person support an entire world and not value anyone over anyone else. I continue to love the girls and their lovely friendship with each other and I continue to love artwork that is some of the most beautiful that I have ever seen.
7. Hide and Seek: The fourth book of The Lying Games series is very exciting in my opinion and I continue to love the mystery and I love all the twists and turns the series makes. I also adore the relationship between Emma and Ethan as well.
8. Gate-7: I've just start this series by Clamp and so far I'm really liking it. The artwork is beautiful and the characters seem interesting and it seems like there's going to be a lot of interesting mythology so right now I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to explaining the series but I do know I really like it so far.

Book Review: Looking for Alaska

                                                    Looking for Alaska Review

Looking for Alaska by John Green(the author of The Fault in Our Stars another book which I love) is about a high school boy named Miles 'Pudge' Halter who has decided to go to Culver Creek boarding school in search of the "Great Perhaps". Pudge is a boy that never really had any real friends and he spends most of his time reading biographies and memorizing last words. While at Culver Creek he starts to make actual friends with the Colonel, Alaska and Takumi and they introduce him to a new way of life which involved drinking, smoking and pulling pranks although Pudge notes at one point early on that although his parents would say he fell in with the wrong group of kids they are all very smart which is something I find interesting and enjoyable about the group. Pudge also has major crush on Alaska throughout the book, Alaska is a girl that at one moment she's very friendly, bubbly and caring but the next time you see her she could have withdrawn into herself and considering that everyone else's problems no matter what they are to not be real problem. The first half of the book I would say is mostly coming of age story for Pudge with him meeting new people, doing new things and overall just discovering a new way of life.

The second of the book deals with Pudge and the Colonel trying to figure out the mystery of Alaska Young but because of how little of herself that Alaska is willing to relieve they find themselves at somewhat of a loss to explain why Alaska did the things she did and overall they just couldn't fully know her or understand the way she thought of things. The second book also deals a great deal with death and what is it that happens to a person after they die.

Overall I loved this book it has great characters, a pretty good plot line that just feels very real which is something I can consider a good thing. There were a lot of great quotes through out this book, I loved so many quotes in this book that I'm thinking of making a list of all the quotes I loved from this book. Overall I loved this book in fact I loved even more than The Fault in Our Stars the other John Green book that I read and loved.