Back in the Saddle Again

Well....I feel like I've said it before...but I'm back!

A new computer has motivated me to get the old blog up and kicking again so, to quote Whitesnake, here we go again!

It has been over A YEAR since I last posted! A year! Many wonderful books were read and clearly not discussed here.  If you want to check out what was going on in my literary world last year, you are always welcome to check out my Goodreads page.  Every book I read gets posted there, with a tiny review / general thoughts, so please come visit and say hi!

Since it would take forever to recap all the books I read last year, here were my Top 5 reads for 2014.

1. The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman writes good books.  Really good books.  I was such a fan of her novel The Dovekeepers that I was really excited to read this one and it did not disappoint.

2. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

After finishing this, I actually wanted to go back to the beginning and read it again.  One of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time and definitely one of the best bad ass heroines I've ever read.

3. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Such a beautiful book and my favourite teen novel of the year.  Considering this was Dellaira's debut novel, I'm pretty darn excited to see where she goes next.

4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I was so blown away by this.  It deserved all the acclaim it got.

5. Us by David Nicholls

I have talked to several people who thought that this was just ok, but for one reason or another, this just spoke to me.  One Day was a DNF for me so I was really surprised I liked this one as much as I did.

So, there it is, 2014 in a nutshell.

And here we are now almost halfway through 2015!  Book wise, the year is off to a good start. I've read many books that I've really enjoyed, however,  I am still waiting to find that book that really knocks my socks off.

Here are the Top 3 things I have to report for 2015 so far:

1.  My best discovery has been the novels of the absolutely dynamite Australian novelist, Liane Moriarty.  Seriously, go pick up either The Husband's Secret or Big Little Lies, and get ready for a day of addictive reading.  You're welcome.

2. Teen novels everywhere!  Best so far have been Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places, everything Rosamund Hodge writes (Cruel Beauty, Crimson Bound, Gilded Ashes), and The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski (man, this series just keeps getting better!).  I've got a lovely stack of current and upcoming teen books to get through so I'm pretty excited to read those.

3. I'm making an effort to read more non-fiction since it is something that I don't read all that often and really should.  So far I have I've read Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling, and Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim.  All have been enjoyable and not felt like school (which is always my fear with non-fiction, despite the fact that it is rarely true...)

Well this has been long and rambling!  I'm glad to be back :)




Cheers,
Sam