books make me happy

Beginning sometime in September I started really slacking off on my reading.  It took me two months to read six books.  That is UNHEARD of in these parts.  I blame the baby.

Regardless of my slackyness (and whose fault it is *cough* baby *cough*) I've read a decent amount of books this year and there have been some good ones.  So here's my list of my 2011 favorite books!  In no particular order.

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen year- old Mia Hall has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck... A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

I can't describe in words how much I loved this book.  It was incredibly sad, but sad in a way that I could handle.  There have been books, like My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, that broke my heart in a way that I felt was so unnecessary and I was so angry after finishing them.  If I Stay wasn't like that.  I just flat out loved it.

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she’s about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor. The truth doesn’t always set you free. Still Missing is that rare debut find—a shocking, visceral, brutal, and beautifully crafted novel.

This book blew my mind.  I wrote this review when I wasn't even finished with the book yet.  Now, I read a lot so I start getting a bit jaded when it comes to plots and twists.  Mostly, I've seen it all before.  But this...this was something that just kept me on the edge of my seat.  Definitely the best book I've read this year.

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small house in the smallest of towns, is an apple tree rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. A successful caterer, Claire prepares dishes made with her mystical plants--from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her cousin, Evanelle, distributes unexpected presents whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys--except for Claire's sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's quiet life is turned upside down. Together again in the house they grew up in, the sisters soon realize they must deal with their common legacy--if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom...or with each other.

I first read The Girl Who Chased the Moon and found it to be curiously beautiful.  I couldn't figure out the big secret, but I didn't even care because I was loving getting to know the characters.  I stumbled across her newest novel The Peach Keeper shortly thereafter and found it to be just as rich.  So I went out and found me the rest of Sarah Addison Allen's novels and by far, Garden Spells was my favorite.  It reminded me of Practical Magic.  Perfect.  You can read my review of all of her books here and here.

Seven cassette tapes, thirteen stories, thirteen reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide. Clay Jensen, Hannah's former classmate, arrives home from school one day to find a box on his front doorstep. The box is addressed to him, but bears no return address. Inside the box he discovers seven cassette tapes labeled with numbers 1-13 in what he assumes to be blue nail polish. He begins to listen to the mysterious tapes on a cassette player in his basement. He is shocked when Hannah Baker's voice crackles across the speakers. On the last day of her life, Hannah decided to send one more message: an explanation for her suicide.

I had this book on my TBR list for a long time, but due to the subject matter it took awhile for me to finally pick it up and start to read.  The book was suspenseful for a couple of reasons.  You want to know why Clay got the tapes, what did he do?  And also, you just want to get all the answers.  

The book is a must read for everyone, teens and adults alike.  It shows how the simplest gestures, actions, or words can cut someone so deeply.  How these things can snowball for someone until they do something so permanent.  The writing is simplistic, but tells the story the way it needs to be told.  There's no happy ending, in fact, the ending has already happened.  We're just invited to the awful, awful truth telling.

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. 

But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her.

What I liked most about this book is that Roth wastes no time painting the perfect picture for you.  Thanks to The Hunger Games this year we saw TONS of dystopian YA novels.  Matched, Delirium, Wither, Across the Universe, and Enclave just to name a few.  Of them all, for me (and for many others as I've noticed Divergent has made the top spot in the Best YA novel, Best New Author novel & Best All Around in different lists around the web) Divergent was the best.  

Roth simply immerses you in the world that Tris lives in.  And though everything seems to happen so fast you definitely get a good sense of who she is.  The world is confusing at first, but once things really get going you are swept away.  Tris is a believable heroine.  She's strong, despite her size, brave and determined, but she also has doubts and battles with her confidence.  After all, she's gone in a direction no one would have expected so even she  has doubts.

If there is one YA novel you read in 2012 it should be this one.  If you've read the Hunger Games and loved it this book is definitely up your alley.

My honorable mentions for 2011:

 As you can see it was a good book year!  Looking forward to the sequel to Immortal Beloved & Divergent.  There's so much I want to read!