Here's to Brittany's Book Reviews 2014!

Well here's to a year of blogging! Albeit off and on blogging ... it's hard to blog and read and write when you work full-time. But here I am back from about 2 weeks in Minnesota sitting in my sunny Oklahoma apartment - sick. I should be at work hearing hours of gibber-jabber, but as you can see (or read) I'm not.  I finished three books in Minnesota this break (granted one I finished in the car on the way to Oklahoma City but you get the picture). So the first three blog posts of 2014 will actually be about books in 2013. The first 2014 book I am reading is The Marriage Plot and I love already even though I'm not yet 100 pages into it.

I hope 2014 is a year of change and progress. I hope I will be able to read more books, write more blogs, and find love and happiness wherever I end up in work and wherever I will choose to call home after this school year. Things are happening, folks! I wish the same for all of you who give up your time to read my ramblings. I appreciate your feedback and your interest.

Stay tuned for blogs about my last three finished books of 2013 - A Dance with Dragons, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, and An Abundance of Katherines. Here are some of my favorite books from 2013:

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

• Scott and I were listening to this as a book-on-tape (or rather CD) on our incessant driving adventures this holiday break. I loved reading the book and adored hearing it read to me and enjoying the dark story all over again with its horrible characters and its unfailing ability to make me hate a character one second and root for them in the next. 

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 

• I saw the premiere of this film in Cannes and read the book last May. It's dark and gritty and marvelous and indulgent in our baser natures. 

The Dinner by Herman Koch 

• Amazing book. One of my favorites. Almost bought it on tape (CD). READ IT! I'm seeing that I have a theme going of loving books with simply terrible people in them. 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

• A simply frightening and magical story with old vintage photographs that add to the mystery and excitement. The sequel comes out this year! 

Paris by Edward Rutherfurd 

• I bought his also humongous book, London, after reading this. I was hoping to read London during the holiday break but couldn't fathom reading another 800+ page book after finishing George R.R. Martin's, A Dance with Dragons. I lent my copy of this book out to a friend and still haven't gotten it back yet. My heart aches with yearning for it to be back in my possession because of how much I loved and adored its interweaving chronicles of life, love, and history in Paris. 

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 

• I didn't love the first book in this trilogy so much as I adored the second. However, you must read Wolf Hall before you can dive into this one. It is worth it. Thomas Cromwell is a character from English history that I had never truly cared about before, but this novel dragged me into the depths of who this man must have been from Mantel's research and genius perspective. 

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

• If you have read and loved The Paris Wife (as I did) then you should definitely give this woman's story a try. 

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty 

• Loved it. Read it. Please. It's the story of two unlikely women coming together for a summer that will change both of them forever. 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

• Critics hated the film - I loved it. I love the book and still feel uncertain about whether or not I should read it aloud to my fifth grade students (particularly now that we're going to be reading Number the Stars together in class). I just got this for Scott's mother, Jody. I hope she loves it as much as I did. 

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty 

• Here is a book that judging by its cover I couldn't tell tell if I would like it or not ... but I LOVED it! Please listen to me on this one and give it a try. It's a seriously engaging story. I should really read her other book sitting on my shelf that I've had for years now considering I loved this one of hers so much. Oh well ... I'll just have to try and shoot What Alice Forgot to the top of my list. But as I've mentioned before ... I can be fickle with my book choosings. 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

• Somewhat obvious, and yes I realize I'm somewhat behind the times, but this trilogy is seriously awesome. Action-packed, political, socially-relevant, and thought-provoking for our young adult readers. It's a series that gets kids to love reading (similar to what Harry Potter did for my generation). I still haven't seen the second installment in the film series. I was originally supposed to go with Scott for my birthday and then with a parent-of-a-student-friend for her birthday and then that all failed ... so hopefully we'll be going to see it this weekend. IF it's still in theaters which I very much hope it is. Read all three!

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

• This is by the same guy who wrote The Fault in Our Stars. So if you loved that please listen to me because I personally thought this was better. This was a surprise gift from Scott - I had never heard of it before. The Fault in Our Stars was good, but this was witty, funny, touching, and compassionate. I wish the review for it existed, but as of yet it does not. So look for it in the January 2014 section of my blog - it's coming! But remember I did technically get it done before the New Year so it's a good way to end things for 2013. Ending on a good note with a great book.

Some other books to consider that didn't quite make my favorites list:

• Beautiful Ruins
• The Selection, The Elite (the third book hopefully coming out this year). These are young adult novels as well.
• The Fault in Our Stars (it'll probably make you cry but also kind of annoyed me too, even though I liked it in the end). 
• Orange is the New Black ... not a whole lot like the TV show so be prepared for that, but it's very good in its own originally-written way. Yup ... TV show took a lot of liberties.
• The Silent Wife - AWESOME book.
• Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl all by Gillian Flynn
• The Descendants ... also a very good movie with George Clooney 

Read the Game of Thrones books too! They're gggrrrrreeeeaaaatttt! And please PLEASE share any recommendations with me as well. Always looking to add to my pile (and I've got some cash and Barnes and Noble gift certificates to burn through as well.) Already on my list is the memoir Call the Midwife. I just got addicted to the BBC show on Netflix (thanks Jody!). 

So please click on the title of any of these books to read my actual reviews of them. And hey, who knows? Maybe one of my favorite books from 2013 will become one of your favorites for 2014! Here's to finishing up my second year as a fifth grade teacher and any new adventures to come after. 

Love you all lots and Happy Holidays from my family to yours,

Britt

Book-on-Tape / CD! The cure to any 12 hour drive

Sad to be leaving the Twin Cities

Happy New Year!