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

The Sunday Fun Five #14

Sunday Fun 5:

#1: The 5 Stages of Reading a Bad Book

#2: The 5 Literary Antagonists You Hope You Never Meet

#3: The 5 Realms of the Written Word You Wish You Never Left

#4: The 5 Authors You Would Revive, If Only For a Day
#5: The 5 Books That Define You as a Person and a Reader
#6: The 5 Genres (or Subgenres) You Never Get Tired Of
#7: The 5 Husband-Material Characters You Wish Were Real
#8: The 5 Books You'd Rather Steal Than Wait For (To Be Published)
#9: The 5 Alternate Blog Names For Your Blog
#10: The 5 Books That Make You Want to Go Places
#11: The 5 Fatal Mistakes of an Author (Literary Pet Peeves)
#12: The 5 Stories/Books that Never Cease to Scare You
#13: The 5 Unluckiest Characters in Books
#14: The 5 Books You're Most Grateful For (that you've read in 2014)
For the 23rd of Nov.: #15: The 5 Things Book Bloggers are Most Thankful For

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?