You'd Think I'd Given You Some Recomendations By Now

No, really.

I've been reading so many books, and I haven't given you any recommendations! What kind of friend am I? A terrible one, apparently, if we're basing friendship on the amount of recommendations I give you regularly on my blog. I'm very glad that our friendship is not based on that.

Here are my Top Ten books (in no particular order. Meaning #1 is not my most favorite book. It's just the first one that popped into my head):

1. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE -- Laini Taylor
I started listening to this one on audiobook (which I am just about to finish, and I would recommend it to everyone). It's a new idea, an interesting concept, and it's so beautifully written! The book is amazing, the audiobook is fantastic. It definitely helps with the pronunciation of the spattering of Czech/Chimera/Seraphim names and words included in the story.

2. THE BOOK THIEF -- Markus Zusack
 Seriously, if you haven't read this book yet, then you haven't lived yet. Beautifully tragic in a very Amanda Palmer's THE BED SONG way, it's a vast roller coaster of emotions. Very real, very personal, and very entertaining. Especially since it's told through the perspective of Death, who is very deep and very wise in the ways of mortal beings. Primarily, us.

3. THE GIVER QUARTET -- Lois Lowry
 Most people have heard of THE GIVER, but most of them don't know that it's actually the first book in a quartet, and that the last book of the quartet just came out. They go as follows: THE GIVER, GATHERING BLUE, MESSENGER, and SON. That's the order. My favorite is probably GATHERING BLUE. The beautiful thing about this quartet is that you don't see why they're lumped together until the very end. It's a very beautiful end.

4. DIVERGENT -- Veronica Roth
 I don't know what it is about me and books about people in different groups (part of the appeal of Harry Potter), but this one filled that need in my literary heart. It's about a girl named Tris who is special, and she meets this boy named Four and it's a realistic relationship for once, and there isn't a love triangle, and it's a book that makes me feel dangerously brave. I love it. There are flaws in the characters, there is tragedy, there is strength and secrets and war. It will suck you in and keep you there.

5. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS -- John Green
 You may have been noticing that many of the books I've selected for this list include a hint of tragedy. This book surpasses that hint (much like THE BOOK THIEF), but don't you let that drive you away, reader! Take it, love it, just take precautions and bring a couple six-pack boxes of Kleenex with you. Or you could just say that you dropped it in the bathtub and that's how it got crinkly-stiff formerly-drenched pages.

6. GOOD OMENS: THE NICE AND ACCURATE PROPHECIES OF AGNES NUTTER, WITCH -- Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Sometimes I put books on this list that I would recommend that I haven't actually finished, mostly because of me being too busy to read it when I got it from the library and I can't get my grubby little hands on it again because it's so dang popular. This is one of those books. Full of snarky, dry British humor and clever premises and execution, this is easily one of the most interesting books I've read, and easily one of the most intellectual.

7. WINTERGIRLS -- Laurie Halse Anderson
Written by the author of SPEAK, another one of my absolute favorite books, WINTERGIRLS is intensely dark. It's about a girl who suffers from anorexia, written in a poetic and haunting way that, to quote one of the reviews "is hard to read, but even harder to put down." That sums up this book perfectly. You get disturbingly close in her head, but it is worth every moment, and the ending makes it okay. You get done, you breath a sigh of relief, and you realize that you're going to be okay.

8. A TALE OF TWO CASTLES -- Gail Carson Levine
This is one of those younger books that I read because I absolutely love anything by Gail Carson Levine -- and she does not disappoint in this book. A mystery of fantastical proportions (get it, because it's a fantasy book?), it's full of twists and turns and ends nothing like how you thought it would. A breath of fresh air, to be honest. Very fresh air.

9. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES -- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
This is another one of those I-haven't-finished-reading-it-but-I-like-what-I've-read books. Sure, it's probably the most cliched out of all of the books on my list, but it's set in the South, and it's written well enough for me to enjoy it. I'm a sucker for stories set in the South. And I can't read a book, no matter how interesting its premise is, unless it is written well. The fact that I like this book despite its cliches is a compliment to the authors, indeed.

10. THE NIGHT CIRCUS -- Erin Morgenstern
I actually did finish this one, before you ask. And I loved it. I didn't really care for the two main characters -- to be honest, they were the most boring characters of the book, and that's saying something, because they were really cool. But they weren't meant to be the most interesting characters in the book. The circus was, and it is. And the clockmaker. I have a very special love for the clockmaker and the contortionist.