book recommendations of 2014

“You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” 
- Ray Bradbury

For those of you that know me you will know that I am a fan of words, especially those words that are in books.  Since I was very young I have always loved to read.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I did read the first Harry Potter book in 2nd grade.  So, you know,  I'm basically a child prodigy. 

One thing that I love is that when people disappoint, books are always there and thank goodness for their company.  When you read a book, it's like stepping out of your own life and stepping into one that is so much "more" than yours. Do you know what I mean? The worlds created in books always have so much more to them than our own ordinary lives. 

The thing that has always struck me about authors, is their ability to write thoughts and feelings that everyone has felt and put them into words.  They really make you feel things.  It's so bizarre because they can make you get angry, upset, cry over people and things that aren't really there, don't even exist. 

Anyways, enough of my rambling about my love of books, which as you can see is unconditional.  The point to all this is that one of my resolutions for 2014 was to read 50 books in the year.  

Well, I didn't quite make it. BUT I did read 30 books! Some were new and some a revisit to old favorites.  Once college started I got really behind on my reading time so that is why I wasn't quite able to reach my goal.  That darn college.  

So, I thought that I would give my recommendations on the books that stood out the most over the last year.

1. "Life of Pi" - Yann Martel 

So I was a little behind the band wagon on this one considering the movie came out in 2012, but let me tell you, this book was truly phenomenal. I wasn't so sure of it at the beginning as it started out a bit tedious.  But boy does it pick up.  There is no real use in providing you with a brief synopsis of the story of Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, who survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.    There is no use because once you finish the book you might decide that this was not, indeed, what the book was about at all.  This story of a boy in a lifeboat, examines question of faith, spirituality, and the psychology of both humans and animals.  I understood it as a very metaphysical novel, where the reader can choose his or her own meaning.  It was a very enlightening, beautiful, and engaging read and you should all go read it if you haven't already. 

2. "If I Stay" - Gayle Forman

So I will admit it, I read this book because I heard they were making a movie out of it. It takes a lot for me to quell that hipster ego inside of me and be able to admit I, in fact, read a book after I knew it was to become a movie, not before. (Seriously though people, I read Hunger Games before all of you.)  This book is all about choices.  Mia, the story's protagonist, is a seventeen year old gifted cellist player who is about to be accepted to Julliard for her talents.  However, this will cause her to leave her family and completely un-realistically perfect  fictitious boyfriend behind.  Then in the events of one morning, her life is changed forever and she is left with a new choice, should I stay or should I go?  This was one of the most heart-wrenchingly sad, yet heart-warming stories I have read for a long time.  Yes, there were a bit of cliches and cheesiness in there, but it was a very endearing.  It was full of parallels of happiness and sorrow, laughter and tears, birth and death, love and loss.  It was very artfully written and the characters were real and deep.   The movie was also really excellent and was definitely one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I have seen. 

3. "The Catcher in the Rye" - J.D. Salinger

This book is unique, in that you either identify with Holden Caulfield or you don't.  It is definitely more popular among younger generations as I was discussing it with my Dad and Grandpa, both who did not like the book.  I myself thought it was absolute genius.  It is the narration of a couple of days in the  sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield's life.  Holden is flawed, desperate, depressed, and Salinger does nothing to romanticize his life.  He is so torn between becoming an adult and staying a child that he alienates himself from anyone who has conformed to one or the other.   This book was so indescribably human to me.  It captures the fundamental experience of teenage alienation.  I think it is this struggle that makes this novel timeless. Holden is a unique character in that he approaches everything around him in a cynical, bitter, and sardonic way. One of my favorite quotes from the novel is: 

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.” 

4. Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card 

So for those of you who haven't read Ender's Game, you need to.  Right now.  Go read it.  It is a superb piece of literature. 

This novel is the parallel to Ender's Game although it is a completely different novel and has very little overlap in the actual events of Ender's Game.  It doesn't really matter which one you read first, but once you read one you will definitely want to read the other, as Orson Scott Card says, "these two books complement and fulfill each other". This book tells the story of Bean, who is the best friend of as well as second in command to Ender in Ender's Game.  What Bean lacks in size, he makes up for in intellect as he is a complete genius.  Growing up poor and homeless on the streets of Rotterdam, Bean had to use his brain and strategy to survive, which gets him the recruitment from the Battle School.  Despite his super-intelligence, Bean is relatable to the reader in every way, you ca't help but feel for him. You have to give it to Card, he is a master story teller by turning what was essentially the same story in Ender's Game into something new an unique with a vastly different perspective.  I thoroughly enjoyed both books and intend on continuing on with both the Ender's Game Series and the Shadow series.

Some books that get honorable mention, but not a detailed review (cause this post is already way too long), are: "The Demon King" by Cinda Williams Chima, "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, "Shadow and Bone" by Leigh Bardugo, and "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams 

Well I hope that this list was both informational and inspiring, in that I hope you go out a buy one of these books in the near future cause they are truly that good.  I'd love to hear your book recommendations too as I am always looking for a new book!  My list for 2015 has already become quite lengthy and I'm excited for all my future reads. 

Yay for literature.