Five Years of Favorites: The Books

Five Years of Favorites: The Books

• Dec 13, 2016

Welcome back to my blogiversary celebration - Five Years of Favorites! Today's post is all about the books - the ones that kept me up late, left me swooning, made me cry, have numerous highlighted passages, and are filled with characters that feel real to me. Although it was incredibly difficult, I chose my five favorite books from each year that I've been blogging. And because I'm me, I listed five honorable mentions, too. 

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you won't be surprised by most of the titles you'll see featured here. In fact, I've got a feeling you've probably already seen me rave and recommend all of them before. Clicking on each title will take you to my review (or Goodreads), so I used quotes from the books as little teasers. If you've read one of these books in the past five years because of me, I'd love to hear about it!

“Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?”

“I notice when you're not. Does that count?”

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry,

but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, 

so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - 

or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, 

but I don't suppose many people try to do it.”

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

“There are moments that you'll remember for the rest of your life 

and there are moments that you think you'll remember for the rest of your life, 

and it's not often they turn out to be the same moment.”

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater 

“She craved a presence beside her, solid. 

Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. 

Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, 

and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, 

keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, 

with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust.”

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Honorable Mentions:  

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

“Then you appear, through the trees, guiding your mule as he pulls a tree limb. 

Like a soldier back from battle, you fill my vision. 

You're a flood, a baptism I'd forgotten, and the force of you leaves me breathless.” 

All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

“To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.” 

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

“You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.” 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

“The thing about someone knowing you better than you know yourself 

is that you can’t shut off their knowledge when it hits too close to home.” 

Nowhere but Home by Liza Palmer

“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, 

you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. 

Just let your pile of good things grow.” 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Honorable Mentions: 

Longbourn by Jo Baker, The Girl of Fire and Thorns Series by Rae Carson, Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas, Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

“Put the jerk in the south wing, you won't see him for weeks at a time. 

Or lock him in the attic. The law will not be on your side, but literary precedent will.” 

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

“She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.” 

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

“He would have told her - he would have said, it matters not if you are here or there, 

for I see you before me every moment. I see you in the light of the water, 

in the swaying of the young trees in the spring wind. I see you in the shadows of the great oaks, 

I hear your voice in the cry of the owl at night. You are the blood in my veins, 

and the beating of my heart. You are my first waking thought, and my last sigh before sleeping. 

You are - you are bone of my bone, and breath of my breath.” 

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

“I know at that moment what he's given me and it isn't a chair. 

It's an invitation, a welcome, the knowledge that I am accepted here. 

He hasn't given me a place to sit. He's given me a place to belong.” 

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

 “I've come to realize that resentment is malignant. 

That it starts small and festers. That it grows wild and unfettered inside of you 

until it's so expansive that it has worked its way into the furthest, 

deepest parts of you and holds on for dear life.” 

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Honorable Mentions: 

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe, Before I Go by Colleen Oakley and Girl Before a Mirror by Liza Palmer

“Granny then said that the real trick of life was that 

almost no one is entirely a shit and almost no one is entirely not a shit. 

The hard part of life is keeping as much on the not-a-shit side as one can.”

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

“But the things we remember are what we hold on to,

 and what we hold on to becomes the story of our lives. 

We only get one story. And I am determined to make mine a good one.”

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

“I fell in love with a person, not a prince; the rest is just circumstance.”

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

“My life feels like a book left out on the porch, and the wind blows the pages faster and faster,

 turning always toward a new chapter faster than I can stop to read it.” 

These is My Words by Nancy Turner

“Instead of trying and failing, Delia never tried. 

She told herself that failure was inevitable and she'd only look silly in the process. 

It was fear, cloaked in rationalisations and self-deprecation.”

It's Not Me, It's You by Mhairi McFarlane

Honorable Mentions: 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay, Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas and Unequal Affections by Lara Ormison

“Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance.” 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

“I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, 

and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.”

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

“To the stars who listen— and the dreams that are answered.”

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

“You won't find someone who treats you as you should be treated 

until you start to believe you are worth the ones you want, 

the ones who aren't asking you to do any work. 

Find the man who appreciates you at your best, 

not one who confirms your worst suspicions about yourself.”

Who's That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane 

 “You don't need to be gifted with a blade. You are your own best weapon.” 

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Honorable Mentions: 

Results May Vary by Bethany Chase, Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Check back tomorrow for

Five Years of Favorites: The Blog!