Books I Love

Okay, some of my fans (just smile and nod) have been asking me for book suggestions. I love books, and I read a lot of books. Not classics, so if you like that kind of thing, this is the time to branch out.
In no piticular order, my top five favorite books of all time:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K.Rowling
Everyone knows that I love Harry Potter. I don't think that everyone knows that the fifth book is my favorite, simply because it answers all the questions that arise from the first through fourth books. If you've ever thought about reading the books, do so now! I also think that I like this more than the rest because I stayed up 'till midnight to buy it, then read constantly for the next two days and 16 hours. I loved it. Don't watch the movies first, they ruin everything. If you want to seem like a complete weirdo, then you can get the cd's and listen to them while you try to get to sleep. Eventually you start to be able to quote Harry Potter at random (this was me in fifth and sixth grade)


The View from Saturday by E.L.Koingsburg
There are two things I really love about this book. Number one is the way it's written. I tend to have a special liking for books that are written oddly. Each chapter belongs to a character, and they're stories from their past. The thing linking all these characters and their stories together is something I didn't really appreciate until this year: they're all in quiz bowl together, and the thing that makes them remember stuff is questions from the state quiz bowl tournament. The second thing that I really like is the characters. If there's one thing that E.L.Koingsburg excels at in this book, it is character development. They all feel so real to me, and I admire this, because in my novel, everyone is flat. Flat and lifeless, but this book really makes the characters come alive.


My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
I just finished this, and I was amazed. It was the selected book for my book club this month, and I figured it would take me a long time to read. It didn't. Instead, I was addicted to it, and finished it within four days of starting it. I didn't even read any other books while I was reading it, quite the feat for me. It's told much in the same manner as The View from Saturday, but this time the thing linking them together is a lawsuit filed by Anna. Anna wants to be medically independent from her parents, who only had her so that she could supply blood and bone marrow for her sister, Kate, who has Leukemia. Anna decides that she doesn't want to give Kate her kidney when Kate's start failing. There is a totally surprising twist at the end, which really makes you think about who deserves to live, and who deserves to die in our society.


The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I like reading journals. I like world war two. The two of them combined, plus the fact that I see so much of myself in Anne is what makes me love, love, love this book. The book opens with Anne getting the diary for her birthday, and she starts just writing about ordinary life. Within a month or two of that, her life does a 180 turn. She is forced to go into hiding with her family, the Van Danns, and Dussel. They annoy her so much, and she feels like no one understands her for the beginning of the journal. It isn't so much a story of the holocaust and hiding as it is the classic story of growing up, but with such extreme circumstances, everything is thrown into a lot of detail. You know you want to read it.

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
Yeah, this one is a little more pop-novel than the rest of them are. Still, being popular doesn't make a novel bad. The premise of the novel is this: Ginny's favorite aunt dies, and sends her on a crazy quest around Europe. Left in the restaurant below her aunt's old apartment are thirteen little blue envelopes, each containing a clue for her trip around Europe. It's pretty cool, even if people think it is sometimes a little bit flaky.