Top 13 Books Read in 2013 & Wrap Up!

2013 has been probably my best reading year so far in the history of my 17 years of life.  There were so many amazing books that I read, series that I finished, and books that I shed a good amount of tears for.  Turned out that the tear jerkers ended up being my favorites?  Haha, classic.

Anyway, on goodreads for 2013, my goal was to read 65 books.  Did I complete it?  I sure did!  In fact, I finished my goal by reading a whopping 86 books.  The most amount of books I've read ever within a year.  I just feel so proud of myself for going over and above my goal.  I didn't think I could really do that.  The thing that I think gave me the motivation to read as many books as I did was all the awesome fangirling and book reading friends I've made this past year.  For once, I didn't feel that alone, & it was super encouraging.  

Now, without further ado, I present to you all... THE TOP 13 BOOKS I READ IN 2013!

13. The House of Hades  by Rick Riordan

It was a hit out of the park.  Let's be honest here.

12. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Great sequel.  Great plot twist.  Edge of my seat for sure.

11.  Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Frex frex frex frex frex frexing amazing.

10.  Prodigy by Marie Lu

But June.  But Day.  But character development.  But rip out my heart why don't ya?

9.  Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

Freaking Cameron Morgan, that's what.

8.  Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

This book made the previous two look like lost children. 

7.  Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Malina though

6.  The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

A beach house.  Two brothers.  And you all live in that same beach house for a summer?  SIGN ME UP.

5. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Can I have a Cricket?  May I have a Cricket?  

4. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Best ending in the history of best endings ever and best male character that ever lived *cough cough* Will Herondale.

3.  The Selection  by Kiera Cass

Maxon Schreave.  That is all.

2.  Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I've never related to a book more than this one.  Obviously.

1.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Cried like a baby.  Too beautiful for words.  If you haven't read this, what are you doing with your life?

What were your favorite reads of 2013?

Allegiant Tour!

So, this has been my first post in a very long time, but I wanted to share with you all some of the bookish things I have done since I last wrote here.  I thought I would share the biggest and most exciting thing that happened to me October 26, 2013.  I met Veronica Roth!

So her book, Allegiant came out back in October & I was able to convince my dad to buy me a ticket.  This was during the summer.  When school started, one of my awesome friends, Eunbee, informed me that she was going too!  So, we carpooled, got in line 4 hours early & we were one of the first 20 people there out of 1000 people.  We met some really awesome people in line and we talked to them for pretty much the whole day.

Ignore my dumb finger

The night before, one of my favorite booktubers, TheBookTuber, was tweeting that he would be at the event.  Eunbee and I are both avid watchers of BookTube, so naturally, I tweeted him saying, "Hey!  I'll be there!"  And thus, my fangirling reached it's high.  He came 2 1/2 hours before the event started & as he was checking out the front of the line, me and my friend started yelling and waving (and flailing our arms according to Tiernan) and he's a pretty awesome dude.  He ended up hanging with us the whole day and by the end of that fantastic day, we were all friends.  I mean, we bought popcorn together so that basically seals the deal.

Anyway, while we were waiting in line (Me, Eunbee, and Tiernan) a group of girls walked by us and we started talking.  They were a really great group, and now I'm really good friends with some of them.  They're my fangirl friends and they make my day.  Who knew meeting at the Allegiant Tour would introduce me to people EXACTLY like me who don't get bored of me talking about books all the time!  One of them, Carolina, has a blog that you should check out if you have some spare time.  I'll leave the link down below!

We all started talking about The Fault in Our Stars when all of a sudden, people were screaming around us.  Apparently Veronica Roth walked RIGHT past us while she went into the building next to the venue.  This was the place where I put my lawn chairs for waiting for four hours.  For about an hour, all of us were tweeting and texting and taking pictures and basically staring at the door trying to find Veronica.  She eventually came out, and then the idea of meeting her became real.  This was actually happening.

The people running the event let us inside an hour early, and what do you know?  The three of us got front row seats.  FRONT FREAKING ROW.  I didn't believe this was actually happening.  But it did.  I never get that lucky.

So, Margot from Epic Reads was interviewing Veronica, and since the event took place near Chicago (the location for her book, hello!) they had a livestream going on.  It was pretty awesome.  When they opened up questions to the audience, I immediately raised my hand, since I had a question pre-planned.  THEY CHOSE ME FIRST.  Let me just say, I had way too many fangirling moments during this event.  But, we were all fangirls/ boys.  We were in our zone.

After the interview, Veronica and her brother, Karl Vincent Roth sang us a song that he wrote.  Her brother!  It's based on the book and it's such a beautiful song.  I swear, after that day ended, I listened to that song on repeat over and over.  It also made me tear up a little, because it made me think of Allegiant.  Allegiant ruined me, but made my life.  But, I think it was a HUGE mistake to read it the night before the event.  I literally COULD NOT go to sleep for 2 hours after I read the book.  I literally cried my eyes out for days after reading this book.  If you've read it, you know why.  If you haven't, get up off your butt and read it (but read Divergent and Insurgent first cause that's kinda important)!

The book signing portion was up next.  While we waited for our numbers to be called to meet Veronica and have our books signed, the venue, which happened to be this amazing movie theatre started playing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as a request of Veronica.  The day just kept on getting better.

My ticket number was in the 100s so I got to meet her in the beginning.  She was so nice and so sweet, but her response to what I told her was well....she just nodded her head.  I told her about my feelings about the ending of Allegiant.  She was really sweet, smiled at me, nodded her head, asked how I was doing, and said thank you.  Then she signed my book.  It didn't even feel real!

 

Eunbee and Tiernan's ticket numbers were both in the 800s so I got to stay at the event a little longer than planned and watch Harry Potter with them.

The event was one of my favorite memories of 2013, and definitely one of the best days I've ever had in a long time.  I met so many new people & I met one of my favorite authors.  What could be better?

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with her.  I got a video of me talking to her while she signed my book, but that was it.  Although right before Eunbee and I left, I got this picture.  If you look really closely, THAT'S HER.  I KNEW SHE WAS REAL.

Allegiant taught me a lot of things and really touched me as a reader.  Veronica truly wrote a beautiful book series and made some choices I would not have been able to do myself if I was in her shoes.  After the event, there was one thing she said that stuck in my mind which ended up being a central theme in the book I suppose...Be mended.  This was an encouragement to me after finishing the book.  This one single phrase made me think and made me learn.  I hope the books you read do the same for you as well.

Looking forward to what's planned in 2014!

Carolina's blog:  ifyoulikedtfios.blogspot.com
Tiernan's Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBookTuber

Where Am I? 6-27-13

Hey guys, I am so sorry I haven't had too many blog posts lately.  I have been super busy with Driver's Ed and catching up with television shows and hanging out with friends that I haven't had the time to go and update my blog posts.  I meant to do a Top Ten Tuesday, but for some reason I just wasn't as in the mood to do it.  I'll probably put it up sometime tomorrow, as well as maybe another Throwback Thursday.

Also, for some reason, I haven't been reading...I don't know if it's just that I don't feel like it, or I don't feel like the book I'm reading is going to be that interesting but I promise you all that I will read as much as I can from this book before I go to bed.  This is really unusual for me to not have read a book for this amount of time, or not update regularly, but I'm trying my best to make a habit of doing what I should do.

Again, I am very sorry for not posting any new blog posts and I will try to get them up as soon as  I can!

Feature & Follow Friday #3

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

If you wish to follow me, I'm on Bloglovin and GFC!  

This Week's Question:

Share your favorite literary quote!

I have soooo many favorite quotes.  But here's one of them that I think a LOT of people will be familiar with.

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” - Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

 How about you?  Link me up!

Book Review: Holes

Title/ Author:  Holes by Louis Sachar

Publisher/ Year:  Scholastic, 2000.
How I Read It:  Paperback
Why I Read It:  I bought it from a thrift store at the end of last summer & my friend helped me choose what book I should read next!
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

This is a stand alone novel, which was turned into a movie.  Of course I watched the movie first when I was younger.  Now I've read the book!

Summary from Goodreads: And so, Stanley Yelnats seems set to serve an easy sentence, which is only fair because he is as innocent as you or me. But Stanley is not going where he thinks he is. Camp Green Lake is like no other camp anywhere. It is a bizarre, almost otherworldly place that has no lake and nothing that is green. Nor is it a camp, at least not the kind of camp kids look forward to in the summertime. It is a place that once held "the largest lake in Texas," but today it is only a scorching desert wasteland, dotted with countless holes dug by the boys who live at the camp.
The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston to a celebrity auction. In court, the judge doesn't believe Stanley's claim that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that's exactly what happened. Oddly, though, Stanley doesn't blame the judge for falsely convicting him. Instead, he blames the whole misadventure on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Thanks to this benighted distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.
At Camp Green Lake, the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the treacherous warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search—for the truth.
Fate conspires to resolve it all—the family curse, the mystery of the holes, the drought that destroyed Green Lake, and also, the legend of Kissing Kate Barlow, an infamous outlaw of the Wild West. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict.

Quick Summary for those who have not read it yet:
I'm sure most of you have seen the movie already.  The movie lives up to this book.  It was so close to accurate I could have cried.  This book was amazing and for once, there was no romance involved (beside Kate and Sam but those are minor details...).  Almost all the time, I read books with romance and that intrigues me so so much.  I didn't need romance to become intrigued.  Just the overall story did that for me.  I recommend this for those young and old who love books as much as I do.

The Review:
The characters were a great aspect to the story, as well as their backstories.  Stanley is one of those character that didn't have too many friends, and he was big, and he was poor.  When he was wrongfully accused, he was sent to a camp for bad kids.  He became friends with and was a part of a dysfunctional family of other bad kids:  Armpit, X-Ray, Magnet, Zig Zag, Squid, and Zero.  One thing I noticed throughout this book, is that Stanley rarely complained, he didn't cry, and he persevered.  He tried not to cause trouble.  Even when Mr. Sir repeatedly stopped giving him water, he turned the other cheek and always said, "Thank you, Mr. Sir."  Zero is another great character.  He's one of those misunderstood kids that nobody likes.  He's so relatable.  Everyone, but Stanley, treated him like he was nothing and he was too stupid to know anything.  But, he surprised everyone.  He was great at math and he had a great personality.

The best thing about this book was how everything came around full circle, how everything was connected.  It all started with Stanley's great great grandfather who made a deal with Madame Zeroni.  He would carry a pig up the mountain and have it drink water from the spring, and after he would carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain so she may drink.  If he didn't do this, he would be cursed for all eternity.  Ironically, Stanley carried Hector (who happened to be a descendant of Madame Zeroni) up the mountain 110 years later.  The whole story with Kate Barlow and Sam was another thing.  The place they lived 110 years ago would be Camp Greenlake 110 years later.  The boat that Sam died in was the boat that Stanley and Zero took refuge in.  Kate made spiced peaches.  Stanley and Zero were kept alive because of those spiced peaches 110 years later.  Sam grew onions.  Stanley and Zero lived on those onions for a week on top of the mountain.  Kate stole treasure from Stanley's great grandfather. Trout Walker, 20 years after Sam died, looked for the loot.  The Warden, who happens to be a descendant of Trout, created Camp Greenlake in order to find the loot, which belonged to Stanley, in the end, and saved his family and Zero as well.  The funny thing was, the day Sam died, it stopped raining.  The day Stanley got his rightful treasure, left Camp Greenlake, and justice was served, it rained for the first time in 110 years.

This story was brilliant and is a great read for all readers.  Young especially!  It's a great book for those in middle grade who want to get into reading.  I loved this book.

TBT: When I was a Twi-hard...

graphic by myeverydaylifeblog.com

Yes, the title is correct.  I used to be a Twi-hard.  But fear not!  I was just a little 7th grader who was excited about the movie coming out and all of my friends were reading the series.  If any of you haven't a clue to what I am talking about, I am talking about the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.

Now, I am not a fan of the books & I wonder sometimes why I was ever a fan of the books.  I guess it was the big craze back in Jr. High and everyone was talking about it.  I didn't want to be the odd one out.  To be honest, the only books I actually liked were the first two.  I liked Twilight originally because I thought the idea was unique.  Now, looking back on it, I think it was a mediocre idea.  There wasn't a huge lesson to be learned in there.  It was just a story about a girl who falls in love with a vampire, then falls in love with a werewolf, then becomes a vampire because she gave birth to one...it just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  But I will admit that at one point in my life, I was obsessed.  I remember my parents buying the series for me during Christmas and I spent my Jr. High days reading this series.  

The point where I soon realized that this series wasn't "all that" was when I read Breaking Dawn and didn't finish it until a year later.  This was the reason I lost interest in reading as much as I did before.  I was looking at my stats that I kept in my book notebook (contains all the books I have read since 6th grade) and here they are.  In 6th grade (when I sparked) I read 31 books.  In 7th grade (when I read the first 3 books of the series) I read 25 books.  In 8th grade (when I tried to read the last book) I only read 19 books.  Looking back, it shocks me.  My freshman year, I didn't even read a lot.  Only about 27.  But in that 27, I read the Harry Potter series.  Then my sophomore year, I read The Hunger Games series.  Theses books sparked my interest for reading again.

As I said before, there was a time when I enjoyed these books, but now things have changed.  Stephenie Meyer really is a talented writer.  Twilight just gives her a bad rep.  I mean, I recently read The Host and I loved it.  But yeah, I used to be a Twi-hard.  To those of you who love her series, good for you :)  I'm glad you enjoyed it!  Not everyone can be a fan, but really, good for you!

And if any of you were wondering...when I first read the series, I was Team Edward.  Now that I'm older, I'm Team Jacob :)

pssst!  look what I got from the thrift store the other day!

Book Reviews! The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer!

Title/ Author: The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols
Publisher/ Year: Simon Pulse, 2007.
How I Read It:  Paperback (in a set with Endless Summer)
Why I Read It:  I read and LOVED The Summer series by Jenny Han and I saw that this story was similar so I gave it a shot.
Rating:  4 stars out of 5














Title/ Author:  Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols
Publisher/ Year:  Simon Pulse, 2010.
How I Read It:  Paperback (in a set with The Boys Next Door)
Why I Read It:  The Boys Next Door  was a great book & I thought the sequel would be worth it.
Rating:  2 stars out of 5 (IT WASN'T WORTH IT)


These books are the only books in this series by Jennifer Echols.  I got this from my library.  It was a two in one & I couldn't resist.

Summary from Goodreads: Cute, available, and one cabin over....
Lori lives for summertime on the lake. She spends all season wakeboarding, swimming, and hanging with her friends—including the two hotties in the house next door. With the Vader brothers, Lori's always been one of the guys. 
But while Lori and the "baby" brother, Adam, are inseparable friends, she can't deny a secret crush on Sean, the older Vader boy. This year Sean's been paying Lori a lot of attention, and not in a brotherly way.
But just as Lori decides to prove to Sean she's girlfriend material, she realizes that her role as girlfriend to Adam may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way overboard...

Quick Summary for those who have not read it yet:
The Boys Next Door was such a great read and it made me think about summer and it just felt right.  I didn't really like the characters as much as I would have wanted to because they were super immature and I couldn't relate to them.  But overall, the story was cute and it ended amazingly and I recommend for anyone who loves romance.

Endless Summer on the other hand, I didn't really care for.  TOO MUCH DRAMA AND JEALOUSY AND IT WAS  UNECESSARILY SEXUAL THAT I COULD JUMP OFF A CLIFF. I GET IT. THEY LOVE EACH OTHER.  If you read the first book, I strongly recommend that you not read this book.  It will change your perspectives on the characters and I felt like it was not needed at all.  

The Review:
TBND: It was a cute story.  I liked a lot of things, like the overall plot, and how what I thought was going to happen, didn't happen.  I thought it was going to be like The Summer I Turned Pretty but the books were completely different.  Sure, they were similar, but they had different plots.  To be honest, I didn't like Lori.  She annoyed me throughout the book for the fact that she was just too much for me.  Adam was a great part of this book.  He was the younger brother, had ADHD, and he was in love with Lori.  Lori was only pretending to go out with Adam to make his older brother Sean jealous, but she found herself falling in love with Adam instead.  Adam really cares about Lori and I felt a lot of sympathy towards him.  It's hard to love someone who doesn't love you back (at first).  But I loved the things he did for Lori.  Because Adam has ADHD, he's super impulsive.  That was a unique thing about his character that made him different from a lot of characters I have read, and Lori saw past that and loved him anyway.  It was a cute relationship and I really enjoyed the plot.  It was a page turner and was great if you're into summer love stories :)

ES: Okay, brace yourselves.  I did NOT like this book.  I should have paid attention to the warning at the beginning of the second book where it said, "This book is for all the readers of The Boys Next Door who asked me to write a sequel. I would not and could not have done this without you." I always get a bit iffy about books where the author didn't plan to write a sequel and the fans wanted it. It's like those fans who want Suzanne Collins to write another book for The Hunger Games after Mockingjay. Eh. 

The Boys Next Door had a great ending. When I read Endless Summer, my thought throughout the whole book was that, "This should not have been written." I was content with the characters before, but frankly after reading Endless Summer, I found the characters a lot more annoying. The only characters I could probably cope with were McGillicuddy and Tammy. Otherwise, everyone else just got on my nerves. I wasn't a huge fan of Lori in both books, and I only like Adam in the first book.  In the second book, I know Adam has ADHD, which makes him more impulsive, but I'm sorry, his behavior and impulsiveness was too much for me.  It was overdone.  I love Adam, but the jealousy and sexual stuff was a little much.

One of the only things I liked in this book was that the characters learned maturity and developed that way. I guess I had higher expectations, because before I read this, earlier in they year I read The Summer I Turned Pretty and loved it. When I discovered this was a similar story, I wanted to read it because of how much I loved the Summer Series.

So basically YAY to The Boys Next Door and NAY to Endless Summer.