Today I have another guest post for you from the lovely Siobhan who I’ve met in person and is absolutely as wonderful as she appears. She is sharing with you her top five books of 2014 so far, all of which I haven’t read and now need too! So without further ado…
Hello friends!
My name is Siobhan and I write over at Siobhan Emma, which I started in December 2013, originally as a food blog, but over the past couple of months it has slowly started to morph into a lifestyle blog where I review my recent reads, write about the clothes and beauty essentials I love, as well as days out and everything in between…and of course I still write about food too. I love it too much to not write about it!
As a fellow book worm, I will be taking over Fiction Friday this week for the lovely Imogen whilst she’s on her jolly’s, and today I would like to share with you my top five reads of 2014 (so far!).
My one and only Kindle read of the year so far, and which technically I started at the end of 2013, but I didn’t finish it until 2014 so I’m classing this one as counting…I love it too much not to include it. Personally I would save this read for the festive season, as this book consists of three love stories over Christmas time; Christmas Eve to be exact. The stories are are written by three different authors, two of which are two of my favourite teen fiction authors, Maureen Johnson, and the King of teen fiction, Mr John Green.
I’m not usually one for love stories, but these ones are more heart warming than mushy, gushy, and I love that they’re set on Christmas Eve, my favourite day over the festive season (Yes, even more so than Christmas Day…even if I do have to work!). There are no twists or turns in this book, just three lovely stories to get you into the spirit of things and feel all fuzzy inside during the most wonderful time of year.
This was my first official book of 2014. This book was recommended to me as a great read for feeling inspired during the new year, so as soon as I finished reading ‘Let It Snow’, I got my nose stuck straight into this. Although I really struggled through the beginning of the book, it was so worth the struggle of that first part to get to the truly inspiring parts for me. Elizabeth’s memoirs of her time in India and Indonesia are so beautifully written. She has really inspired me to see more of the World and experience life more.
Again this isn’t a book with twists and turns, as these are the memoirs of Elizabeth’s journey through life after her divorce, and I really felt like I went on the journey with her. At the beginning of the book you really feel for her as she describes the pain she is going through with her extremely rocky divorce, then as you get towards the end of the book, you can practically feel the happiness beaming out of the book. This is a really great read if you’re feeling a little lost in life and need a little inspiration.
I had never heard of Ruth Ozeki until I came across this book in a blogger book club I am a part of. A tale for the Time Being is read from two perspectives. There is the main character Nao, where it is as if you are reading her memoirs that have washed up on a beach and are found by Ruth, who is the other characters perspective you read from.
I’m not actually a huge fan of Ruth’s character, as I found her to be quite mean to her poor partner Oliver quite a lot of the time, but luckily for me, as the book was written as if Ruth was also reading Nao’s memoirs as well as you, the focus was mainly on Nao’s character, who I just found enchanting, and at times tragic. Some of the stories she tells you are heart breaking, and at times cover pretty heavy subjects, but to balance these out are the stories of her and her grandmother, and I couldn’t help but smile at these stories. There is a slight hint of fantasy in this book as well, which always gets a big thumbs up from me!
What I love most is the message in this book, which I can’t really tell you without pretty much telling you the entire story, but it definitely put things into perspective for me.
Ahhhh ‘Wonder’…what a wonderful read. This is such a feel good story, reminding you that us humans aren’t all bad. August was born with a severe facial defect, and the book takes you on his journey from being home schooled to being a student in a public school, and how he copes with being thrown into all of these new situations that he has never had to deal with before.
This is another book based on a number of people’s perspectives; August, his sister, his friends, and even his sister’s boyfriend, which actually opened my eyes. You got to see how August’s condition not only affected him, but those close to him as well. Sometimes we can forget that although conditions as severe as August’s will obviously affect the person who has to live with the condition, but it will affect those around that person and care for them as well, just in different ways, and it’s good to be reminded of these things sometimes.
I won’t give the ending away, but I’m not going to lie, the ending brought a little happy tear to my eye.
Oh Lord…it’s THE book. The book that has broken hearts all around the World! And come June we have to sit through a whole film of it!
I put off reading this book for so long because I knew it would make me cry, but with the film release looming ever closer, it had to be done…and what a wonderful, heart breaking story it is!
Hazel Grace Lancaster is terminally ill due to cancer, and whilst attending one of her support groups, she meets Augustus Waters, who completely turns her World upside down, thus starts the amazing love story that is Hazel and Gus, which ends far too soon for my liking, however, completely not in the way that I expected, and if anything, broke my heart more than I was anticipating!
This book is an emotional roller coaster, so if you are yet to read it…prepare yourself!
So there you have my top five reads of 2014 so far. I hope they’ve given you some ideas of what you can read next, and if you have any recommendations for me, then please throw them my way!
Imogen's Typewriter. 
I really enjoyed A Tale For The Time Being. My Mother-in-Law read it through her book group and told me I had to read it! Hubby is reading Wonder right now and loving it so I'll be tucking into that when he's finished with it! xstrupag.com
LikeLike