Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'd Recommend to People who Haven't Read YA Contemporary

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we discuss wonderful bookish topics.

This week's topic is a choose your own. So here's mine:

Books I'd Recommend to People who Haven't Read YA Contemporary 

I've noticed that a lot of people won't read contemporary books. They much prefer something supernatural or with some sort of twist in it to make it more interesting. But then again, everyone has read The Fault in Our Stars, so if you loved that one here are some of my other faves that deal with real life, teen issues:

1. Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schimdt: A great companion to TFIOS, Mia has cancer but she will not let it rule her life. A much happier ending than the latter.

2. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord: A great story about friendship and love and trying to find out who you are.

3. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour: A very likable character in a world I'd love to live in, this book shows that we can't always get what we want but things will work out anyway. 

4. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: A very cute romantic story that will have you hoping for a happy ending. 

5. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: For anyone who loves France or is ready to fall in love with France, or really for anyone just looking to fall in love.

6. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick: A very good story about love from the wrong side of the tracks and the difficulties that come with it.

8. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: A great book for anyone who has ever been obsessed with something, especially good if you've read Harry Potter. Lots of fun with some real life drama.

7. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: A different take in grief, this book paints a way too realistic picture of life after death.

9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: A book about redemption and trying to make things right even when there's no real way to fix it.

10. Looking for Alaska by John Green: Because if you liked TFIOS, you'll love all of his other books. This is his first and it's pretty amazing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unique Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we talk about bookish topics and share the love.

This week's topic is:

Top Ten Most Unique Reads

1. Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane: A mystery involving books that made my love for books even deeper.

2. Mind Games by Kiersten White: Just as the title suggests, this book played games with my head and it stood out from the rest because of it.

3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: Juliette's voice is unique one of a kind, that you'll never forget it.

4. Pivot Point by Kasie West: Two completely different worlds and realities playing out at the same time made for a really fun and unique read.

5. Imaginary Girls by Nova Suma Ren: It was hard to tell what was real in this book and as far as unreliable narrators go, this one has the best one.

6. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: Cute and quirky, this book takes the email world to the extreme and I loved it!

7. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: The grief in this book stands out above the rest and the notes and poems scattered through the pages made this book feel very real.

8. Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt: Two narrators, one counting down to something and the other just trying to get through. The titles of the chapters and the way that it played out in one evening gave this book a nice, unique quality.

9. Panic by Lauren Oliver: The concept was cool and different and the writing was very different from what I've been reading lately.

10. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: I'm a big fan of books written from the stand point of a dead character (morbid I know) and this one was heartbreaking and touching with a bit of mystery involved.

What are some fun, unique reads you've had the pleasure of reading?

Review: The Sky is Everywhere

The Sky is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Published: March 2, 2011
Paperback, 277 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Lennie plays second clarinet in the school orchestra and has always happily been second fiddle to her charismatic older sister, Bailey. Then Bailey dies suddenly, and Lennie is left at sea without her anchor. Overcome by emotion, Lennie soon finds herself torn between two boys: Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, and Joe, the charming and musically gifted new boy in town. While Toby can't see her without seeing Bailey and Joe sees her only for herself, each offers Lennie something she desperately needs. But ultimately, it's up to Lennie to find her own way toward what she really needs-without Bailey.

Grief steals you. It engulfs you and won't let go no matter how hard you try. It is a character in your life, following you around wherever you go with no means of escape. Grief is hard to write properly. It needs to be a character in itself, it needs to fill the pages with its darkness in order to feel real. I haven't experienced real grief, I have not lost any beloved family members, but I know how it eats away one's soul. I know that there is no real escape from it. Writers write about grief a lot, trying to capture just how soul sucking it really is. I have no read another who captures it quite like Nelson does and it is beautiful in its darkness. Lennie's older sister Bailey died suddenly one day while at college and life hasn't been the same since. Without much family left, Lennie feels completely alone, drowning in her sorrow and killing those around her. She shuts out what's left of her family and takes her grief out on random pages or coffee cups or trees, leaving notes and poems scrawled for Bailey. The only person she feels knows what she's going through is Bailey's (ex)boyfriend, Toby, whom she find comforting and just what she needs. Toby knows everything about Bailey and she knows she can talk to him about anything, remember Bailey through him. The new guy at school, Joe, is the exact opposite. He never knew Bailey and Lennie feels completely different around him, living in a world without Bailey isn't so hard when she isn't constantly reminded of her. Lennie has different feeling for each boy, and each boy brings out something different in Lennie. Processing grief isn't easy, but with the help of the people around her, maybe Lennie will make it through.

Lennie's reactions to her sister's death are so realistic, I can't believe this isn't a true story. She shuts people out, including her grandma and uncle, and tries to reach out to her dead sister through writing, in some small hope that it will make her better. She leans towards Toby because it is the comfortable thing to do. They can talk about Bailey freely, their grief the same, and the can hold each other under it stops hurting. But Toby also brings out the worse in her grief, as he sees Lennie as Bailey and not as herself. Joe on the other hand, is a healthy way of her dealing with it. She can be herself around him, no Bailey to be compared to. In him, she finds her love for music reinstated and a new outlook on life. It's not easy for her to choose who to go to, which is completely realistic. As we know, I'm not a fan of love triangles, but this one made so much sense. Toby represents a life with Bailey and Joe represents a future without her. It's hard watching Lennie try to become who she has to be without Bailey, but it's also amazing and heartbreaking. Nelson has a way with words to make something simple and routine feel like it's coming off the pages. Comparing Lennie to a houseplant and using her grandma's garden as the centrepiece to the whole story rounded this story out and separated it from others. The poems and miscellaneous writings that Lennie leaves all over the town are endearing and heart wrenching, words of a broken girl trying to piece herself back together. They broke up the novel nicely and worked well with each chapter to reveal more of the story as it went along. Everything came full circle at the end, making this book unforgettable and perfect. I was rooting for these characters from the beginning and I was hoping that Lennie would finally get to a point where she knew she could continue living without Bailey, no matter how hard it would be. We are intrepid, we carry on, no matter how badly we want to give up. This is a wonderful representation of family, love, loss, and eventually - acceptance. 

“Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes part of you, step for step, breath for breath.” 

“Remember how it was when we kissed? Armfuls and armfuls of light thrown right at us. A rope dropping down from the sky. How can the word love and the word life even fit in the mouth?”

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that will make you cry

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we discuss bookish topics every week.

This week's topic is Top ten books that will make you cry

1. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green: This is the perfect book. Yes you'll cry, you may even throw it across the room, but boy will you be glad you read it.

2. The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson: Grief and acceptance are huge parts of this book. You'll laugh and cry and end up with a warm fuzzy feeling when you're done.

3. If I Stay - Gayle Foreman: A girl in a coma looking at her life and deciding if she should keep on living or not. Need I say more?

4. Send Me a Sign - Tiffany Schmidt: Another cancer book because these ones make me bawl. This one is wonderfully written and has stayed with me long after reading it.

5. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks: I watched the movie first (many a times) and when I finally read the book I thought I'd be prepared for what I knew would come. I was not. Needless to say my pages are wrinkled from my tears now.

6. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: These two kids got to me. Eleanor's home life was awful and there was nothing Park could do to save her. The ending killed me. I want a re-write!

7. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Awful things happen to people who used to be awful. But some people change! The agony I felt for the character in this book, as well as all of Summers' others is so real that I thought it was happening to me.

8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: I'm sure if I cried the first time (probably) but I definitely cried the second time I read this book. Why, Suzanne, why?

9. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan: He's an evil man and I should really read The House of Hades so I can control these feels.

10. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: I wanted a different ending so badly for this book even though I knew it was impossible. Amazing prose, amazing characters, and still one of my favourite Oliver books to this day.

Who doesn't love a good cry? What are some of your favourite tearjerkers?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we make lists about different bookish topics.

This week's topic is: Top ten books I wouldn't mind Santa bringing me

Christmas is right around the corner (tomorrow!) and here are some of the books I'm hoping to find under the tree!

1. Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
2. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
3. Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood

4. Champion by Marie Lu
5. The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore
6. Resist by Sarah Crossan

7. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
8. The F It List by Julie Halpern

9. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
10. The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Milley

As you can see, I need to catch up on a lot of series. And there are a few older books that I still need to read. How about you guys? What are you hoping for this year?

Also, Merry Christmas everyone!