One year ago, Jon Acuff posted a blog about the Empty Shelf Challenge.
He set a goal of filling a bookshelf with every book he read in 2014. I like
reading, and I like a good challenge, so I decided to join him in this journey.
Mine, however, was a virtual bookshelf because I read everything on my iPhone.
For twelve months, I pinned every book I read (or re-read) to a Pinterest board
so that I could keep track. This is my (nerdy) assessment of the year.
Altogether, I read 190 books. About 40% were re-reads of
books I’ve read before. Nine were novellas. The shortest novella was around 30
pages, and the longest novel was over 800 (thus justifying my counting novellas
on the list). And, not surprisingly, about 60% were in the adolescent
literature category.
Based on all the NEW books I read in 2014, I compiled my top
ten list for your viewing pleasure. And because it’s New Year’s, I made it
into a countdown.
10. Panic by
Lauren Oliver.
This is one of those that technically classifies as
adolescent lit, but the themes are much more mature than I would recommend to
most teenagers. The book follows a few high school seniors as they long to
escape their sleepy town after graduation with a large sum of money that they
could win playing the game Panic, even though it’s illegal, dangerous, and
possibly deadly.
9. Zion Covenant series
by Bodie Thoene
This series mainly follows one woman, Eliza, through Europe
as Hitler rises to power. I enjoyed it because I learned a lot about the
Gestapo and the behind-the-scenes of the Nazi forces. It offered different
perspectives than most Holocaust books. This book would be classified as Christian
fiction.
8. Wool trilogy by
Hugh Howey
I didn’t include this trilogy because I loved it; I included
it because it stayed with me for a very long time, and I believe that’s a mark
of books well done. Wool is set in a
dystopian American future. America has been bombed or gassed somehow, and the
only remaining survivors live in an underground tower. But as we know from all
good dystopian novels, things aren't always what they seem. This is definitely
written more for adults than teens.
7. Maybe One Day
by Melissa Kantor
Zoe and Olivia are sixteen-year-old best friends, but Olivia
is dying of cancer. Zoe has a hard time dealing with how the illness separates
her from Olivia, both physically and emotionally. I think this book explored
friendship and grief and loyalty in a true manner.
6. Shenandoah Sisters series
by Michael Phillips
This is a set of four books, followed by four more called Carolina Cousins, and they chronicle the
lives of two girls, one black slave girl and one white plantation daughter,
through the end of the Civil War in the deep south. I like historical novels
anyway (see the WWII series above), but this one kept my attention with the
suspense and camaraderie these girls face, and I enjoyed the Christian perspective.
5. The Clockwork Three
by Matthew J. Kirby
This book, which is on the Illinois Rebecca Caudill reading
list for 2014, introduced me to a literary term I hadn’t heard before:
steampunk. According to Wikipedia (God’s gift to people who don’t like to
research), steampunk is defined as “a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy
literature and art that commonly features some aspect of steam-powered
machinery.” That definition makes me glad that I hadn’t heard of it before.
Luckily, the story itself is fascinating, as it follows three children at the
turn of the 20th century in nondescript America. All three children
are fighting their own struggles, but as their stories intersect, they learn to
work together.
4. The Language of
Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
This was one of the most emotionally difficult books I read
all year, but it was also one of the most beautifully written. Orphaned
Victoria is now of legal age, and she knows nothing of how to survive in the
world except what she was taught about flowers. The way she learns and grows and
develops is heartbreaking and redemptive. This is definitely an adult novel,
though.
3. Just One Day by Gayle Forman
Forman is the author of the depressing novel-turned-movie If I Stay. Thank goodness Just One Day is nothing like the other
novel. Allyson is a high school graduate traveling through Europe when she
meets someone that changes everything about the rest of her trip. Though the
main characters are teens, it’s not one I’d hand to a high-schooler. College
students and older would enjoy this one.
2. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
This book is one of those guilty pleasure books that I had
to include. It’s typical chick lit, but it kept my attention, and it had a very
sweet premise. A disgruntled husband takes his daughter to his childhood home
for Christmas while his workaholic wife stays behind, but when she calls him,
she reaches her husband from the past, before they were engaged, and it sparks
her interest all over again. So far, I’ve loved everything I’ve read of Rowell’s,
including one I’m almost finished with called Fangirl.
1. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
This book knocked me off my feet. As soon as I finished it,
I wanted to read it again. I knew immediately that it would top my book list
for the year. Lockhart writes cheesy teenage girl books, and I’d read most of
them already, so I downloaded We Were Liars
for some fun reading. I was in for a big surprise, though, because this book isn’t
light. It focuses on a family of cousins who vacation together each year on an
island, and it’s told entirely from the perspective of Cadence, a 17 year old
who hasn’t been back to the beach in two summers and is eager to catch up with
everyone, but everything feels off.
If you read nothing else in 2015, read this. Seriously. Read it. And then email
me what you thought.
I had fun cataloguing my reads, and I plan on keeping track for 2015, but I will not be numbering them anymore. I don’t care how many I’ll read, and I anticipate a much lower number as I start working on my grad degree in a few weeks. But for anyone who wants to see all 190 (including my all-time favorite books that weren’t included here because they were re-reads), find me on Pinterest.
