Sunday, November 9, 2014

SFF: The 5 Books You're Most Grateful For (2014)

The Sunday Fun Five #14

Sunday Fun 5:

Feel free to participate by commenting below or writing a blog post: I wrote up some guidelines for blog participation here.

A Countdown of

The 5 Books You're Most Grateful For (2014)


5. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (4.5 Stars)
Read during the first weeks of August 2014
Most diverse book read in 2014? Check. Most informative book about Hawaii's culture read in 2014? Double check. Most interesting man in the world? Err... no. What I mean is, this book has a lot of interesting elements, but does not have the actor from the Dos Equis commercials as a character in it. It does, however, educate the reader about Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy) and the life of people stricken with the disease from the early-to-mid 1900s.

4. The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (4.5 Stars)
Read during the Travel the World in Books Readathon, 5th-7th September 2014
To know this book was lurking in my pile for a couple years bothers me. I bought it due to its cover, and never suspected the story within wouldn't be about a Samurai, but instead a beautiful and pensive rendering of pre-WWII Japan. I'm now hopeful that more of my pile books will end up as lovely as this.

3. The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (4.5 Stars)
Read from August-October 2014
How can a book that took me so long to read end up so high on my list? Simply put, the ending was fantastic, even if I ended up with a case of The Broken Eye blues. And also, the characters are like people- people I want to meet in real life!

2. Poe by J. Lincoln Fenn (2nd 5 Star Read of 2014)
Read in the first week of October 2014
This is a case of the right book at the right time, though to be honest, even if I hadn't read this during October, it'd still be a five star read. I loved the characters, the humor, and the combination of horror, urban fantasy, and paranormal elements. I also love the book itself. In other words: Read it. Even if it isn't October anymore.

1. Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) by Brandon Sanderson (the Benevolent) (5 Stars)
Read during the second week of March 2014
I thought the first book in this series was excellent, and expected Words of Radiance to be of the same, or lower, quality. Mr. Sanderson (the Benevolent) truly knocked it out of the park with this one- characters I was iffy about in the first book made their mark on me in this one. And it didn't have a cliffhanger ending, wasn't drawn out too long (a feat for a 1000+ page book), and it satiated my inner book monster. But I still want the next brick book. Right now.
















Honorable Mention(s):
The last 4.5 Star(s) for 2014, The Scribe (Irin Chronicles #1) and The Singer (Irin Chronicles #2) by Elizabeth Hunter are an exceptional start to a Paranormal Romance series, and well deserve a place on my Five list, but I ran out of room. Perhaps someday it will be the Sunday Fun Seven: The 7 Books You're Most Grateful For?

What books have wowed you the most this year? How many five star books have you read in 2014?

2 comments:

  1. Great list Litha, I'll look some of these books up in the near future. :) I read so many good books this year and found several new favorite authors it's so hard to choose! The Handmaids Tale, The Bluest Eye, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Invincible, and The Giver are probably my favorite 5 star books so far this year, though I have a handful of honorable mentions. I've been really trying to catch up on classics this year and loving it.

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    1. Sounds like you've had a good reading year- I tried to read some of those back when I was about twelve years old, but Slaughterhouse-Five confused me because I thought it was nonfiction (I'd never read dystopia before at that point: it was so strange). I've been trying to read more classics too, but there's been so many new, shinier books that have caught my eye- I get easily distracted by pretty covers.
      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
      ~Litha Nelle

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