My Favorite Books of 2014

“A good book is an event in my life.”   

- Stendhal 

 

This is sort of late, but at least it's still January, right?

So, in 2014 I did this:

Yay for 100%! (I just barely made it - finished the 60th book in the very last hour of 2014!)
So many of those books were brilliant. Let's talk about them.


Two Important-ish Things:
- These are in no particular order. Putting them in order of favorites would make my brain hurt.
- I'm not going to tell anything about the book itself (because I want to keep this short!), I'm just going to tell you my thoughts on them. If you want to know more, click on the title to check it out on Goodreads.com.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Just wow. A painful book to read, but incredibly beautiful and moving. It became a new favorite historical fiction of mine (after The Book Thief, of course!).

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Book #3 in The Lunar Chronicles, and it was my favorite so far. Crazy fun to read. Lovable characters, action-packed plot, humorous dialogue. Perfection. (Give me Winter right now please.)

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Of course I adored this (here's my fangirl post in case you missed it). I don't think there's ever been a fictional world as detailed and intricate as Middle Earth. It's epic. The best part about reading these books is that now I won't get, "YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS YET?" all the time. ;)

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
Earlier in the year I wrote a post about Christian fiction, and I mentioned how I was going to try to seek out and read more of it. I ended up discovering Melanie Dickerson's lovely fairytale retellings. Dickerson's books are unique, adorable, and terribly addicting. The Healer's Apprentice was the first one I read and it remains my favorite.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
This book blew me away. It also shattered me. I'm still recovering from it. Not a "fun" read, but it was intense, thought-provoking, and extremely well-written. I recommend this, but read at your own risk, as this book is quite violent (I'M STILL TRAUMATIZED), and there was also some strong language.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio
One of the sweetest books I've ever read. I want to hug it forever. Just read it, k?


The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan.
You're the best, Uncle Rick. This final book in The Heroes of Olympus series was completely enjoyable. It wasn't as "Wow!" as I was expecting after a whole series of build-up, and I was mad at the lack of Percy, but this is still a five-star book for me (I'm blindly loyal). Also Leo is my life.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
This year I became a Maze Runner fangirl (see here). Not since The Hunger Games has there been a book that I've had such a hard time putting down. I love the characters, the concept, the twists. Fantastic book, and the series continues to be fantastic.

 
The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan
This made it onto the list because it is one of the loveliest Christmas books that I've ever read. Although it was only published a couple years ago, it had the same old-fashioned charm that you'd find in a Victorian children's classic. I'm definitely going to pick this up again some Christmas.

Honorable mentions:  

1. It is Not Death to Die by Jim Cromarty - thorough and interesting biography of Hudson Taylor.

2. Pegasus by Robin McKinley - A great McKinley book but the ending was whaaat?

3. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - Wow.

And that's it! Hope you enjoyed this. Do let me know what some of your favorites of 2014 were!

love,

Hannah