Top 10 Books/Series of 2013

Today, I thought I'd share with you my Top 10 books that I read in 2013, but then I started going through them and realized that maybe Top 10 series would be better, because I couldn't include everything by the same author... And then I thought maybe just Top 10 authors, because so many books by the same author made it into my Top 25 books. :)  So, I've subjectively narrowed this list down to 10, but there are so many more branching out, so this is more like a Top 50 list. :)  I hope you enjoy!

In no particular order:



Fairest by Gail Carson Levine may have been my favorite book I read by her this year, but I also enjoyed Ever and The Two Princesses of Bamarre.  Although I did not read it this year, Ella Enchanted is also always a great read.



Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.  A princess is locked away in a tower for refusing to marry the man her father picked for her.  Her maidservant, the protagonist, is locked in with her and records their story in her book.  This is not some ordinary princess tale, though, as it includes war, starvation, sacrifice, servitude, and lots of danger.

I also read Princess Academy and Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale and I highly recommend those as well.



Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, along with the 3 other books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.



Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George, along with every other book she wrote!  The sequels are Dragon Flight and Dragon Spear.  She also wrote the Princess trilogy, including Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of the Glass Slipper, and Princess of the Silver Woods.  And the Tuesdays in the Tower and Wednesdays in the Castle books.  And Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, although I didn't read that until January of this year.

Best Foot Forward by Joan Bauer - along with every other book she's written.  I think at this point I've read them all, and there are too many to list, but they are all wonderful!

The Extra-Ordinary Princess by Carolyn Q. Ebbitt.  This was such a beautiful and compelling story.  It somehow remained unique while also whispering hints of other fairy tales.

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker. On the other hand, this book referenced every fairy tale it could get its hands on!  After the curse is put on Princess Gwendolyn (AKA Sleeping Beauty), when her younger sister Princess Annie is born, her parents ask a fairy to help them.  She places a gift on Annie so that no other magic may ever touch her.  This means that when the whole castle falls asleep with Gwen's curse, Annie stays wide awake and must go on a quest to find her sister's true love and bring him back to the castle.  There's a sequel, too, Unlocking the Spell.  

I've also really enjoyed The Frog Princess series by E.D. Baker.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood, along with the two sequels that exist so far.

Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis, along with the two sequels, Stolen Magic and Renegade Magic.  Kat is a young girl in Regency England who discovers that she has inherited her mother's gift for a special kind of magic called Guardian Magic.  Doing magic is highly improper in the high society of the 1800s and she's discouraged from it by every member of her family, but she is, after all, incorrigible. :)

True (...Sort Of) by Katherine Hannigan. Delly Pattison has been called bad so many times she's starting to believe she can never be good.  Brud Kinney wants to play basketball better than anyone else.  Then Ferris Boyd moves to town and changes both of their lives.  Be prepared to have your heart broken over this book.  It is so beautiful.  I also recommend Ida B by the same author.

So there you have it - my Top '10' of 2013.  How about you?  What books did you really enjoy this last year?  Do you have any exciting books on your To-Read List for this year?

Love and Literature,

Leah Joy

In the Style of Lemony Snicket

Have you ever read the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket?  If not, I strongly encourage you to do so.  While all the events are, well, unfortunate, the way in which the books are written is clever, unexpected, and very amusing.

My sister and I recently started reading a series called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Wood.  These books are in a similar style, though different enough to not read like copycat work.  There are three books out currently, with the fourth due out in December.







Enjoy!

Love and Ostriches,
Leah Joy

The Monday Rant: Let Me 'Splain

Sometimes on the Internet, I get really stupid comments.  As in, not thought through, purposefully spiteful (yet uninformed), or just plain stupid.  My first reaction is to argue back against their stupidity, but then I realize that this does no good.  It makes me mad, raises my blood pressure, doesn't solve anything, and only fuels discord.  So I take the path of simply deleting the comment.  But that doesn't mean it's not still in my head.  (Good heavens, I still have one stuck in my head from two years ago!)  So today, I'm going to argue back against one I received recently.

I read this book a couple of months ago (along with the other books in the series) and pinned it to my 'Books Read in 2013' board.  (Which, for the record, is simply a way for me to keep track of what I read.  My siblings keep an Excel spreadsheet, and I've never really had a system but wished I did, so this is what I use now.)



The comment was something along the lines of, "Childish?  Maybe you should read it again.  I love Wendy Mass and her books are so great.  If you can't appreciate books for younger audiences, maybe you should stop reading." 

Okay, can you just go for a second to my board?  Now, do you see any books for younger audiences?  Just about all of them, right?  Do they all have negative reviews?  Now let me tell you something.  If I read a book in a genre/style/lexile that I really don't enjoy, I may try one more book in that group, but if I don't enjoy that, I'm going to stop reading that group of books, not read 80 more. (Not an exaggeration.  I counted.)  I appreciate books for younger audiences.

What I meant by the word 'childish' is this: the book was written as if the children for which it is intended do not have a very large vocabulary, do not enjoy a book that challenges their reading ability, and need things explained very clearly because they can't understand the first time.

Of the 105 books I have read so far this year, 80 of them came from the Juvenile Fiction section.  Of these 80, many of them were truly well-written.  The writing style did not hamper the story.  It may not have challenged me (as an older reader), but it did not drag along either.  Do you get what I'm saying?  There are childish books that are well-written and then there are childish books that are childishly written.

For example, The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer was nearly torture to read.  Why?  Because it reads like a 5th grader wrote it.  Almost everything is explained twice, any slightly difficult word was explained in the text (instead of sending readers to a dictionary), and the story drags.  Now, I still read it because I found the story interesting, but it was far less enjoyable than The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker.  This book has a similar idea: a character journeying through the fairy tale world and meeting all sorts of different characters.  But instead of deeply explaining everything ad nauseam, Baker assumes that her readers have a basic grasp of the English language and how to use a dictionary.

I would like to end by saying that I actually did enjoy Finally by Wendy Mass (and the rest of the Willow Falls series).  It just wasn't as good as other books that I have read.

Love and Mugs,
Leah Joy

Book Review: Fairy Tale Retelling

If you follow my Pinterest board 'Books Read in 2013', you may notice a theme: I'm really obsessed with retellings of fairy tales.  REALLY obsessed.  Just this year I've read 11 retellings, and have several more planned.  Just in case you're as obsessed with fairy tales as I am, here are some of my favorites:



The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

Diane Zahler has some other retellings that were good, too; I just didn't feel the need to pin all 11 of the books I read in this category. :)



Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

This one is fantastic, and also has two books that follow it: Princess of Glass and Princess of the Silver Woods.  They're sequels, so read them in order.  All three books are based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but the second is also based on Cinderella, and the third on Little Red Riding Hood.



Curse of the Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but it was really good!



Fairest by Gail Carlson Levine

This one takes place in the same world as Ella Enchanted, and it's a very very cool story.



The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

You can read my blurb in the pin there, but seriously, this book is so fantastic.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  And I won't say that every fairy tale character is in here, but there are so many (whether the main characters or just a brief mention): Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea, and Rapunzel, to name a few.

So there you have it: some great retellings of fairy tales.  I hope you enjoy!

Love and Glitter,
Leah Joy

More Dragon Books

Is there such a thing as too many books about dragons?  I think not.  Here are some others I enjoyed.







The Dragon Trilogy by Jessica Day George is about a girl named Creel.  In desperation for money, her aunt decides to leave her for the local dragon in hopes that a knight will rescue her, marry her, and solve their problems.  Creel has other ideas, and the first book is about her friendship with Shardas, a dragon, and how they (with the help of a cute prince and the other dragons) put an end to a war.  The second two books continue with the fantastic adventures.  I highly recommend them.

Another standalone book is A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carlson Levine.  Elodie travels far from her family to find a trade in the city, but ends up being apprenticed to a dragon.



One thing I found so amusing about all these books is that there are things about dragons that "everyone" knows, but they're different for each book or series.

I hope you enjoy!

Love and Fire,
Leah Joy

Book Review: Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

It occurred to me recently that I have read so many books this year, I could start including a book review portion for you.  I do get asked a lot for book recommendations, so I'm going to start sharing some here.  Today, I'm going to tell you about a fantastic series I discovered by accident.

I was at one of our local library's Spectacular Book Sales and it was the last two days, where everything you can fit in a paper grocery bag is yours for $2.  Talk about an awesome sale!  At that price, even if something just looks slightly interesting, it's worth it!  And if you don't like it - just donate it back to the library for their next sale.  But I digress.  I found Dealing with Dragons on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Table, and since I love dragon books, put it in my bag.



You can see my basic review in there, but it really is fantastic.  Princess Cimorene wants to learn magic, cooking, Latin, fencing, and the like, but her parents consider them improper subjects for a princess to study.  When Cimorene learns that her parents plan to marry her off to a boring prince, she runs away to become a dragon's princess.  There, she has to battle a plot against the King of the Dragons.

This one was so good, I immediately got the other three out of the library.







Cimorene's adventures continue in the second two, but the fourth is more about her son.  I highly recommend them all.  They're intended for grades 4-8, but of course anyone over that age will enjoy them, too.  They are very clever and enthralling.

Love and Literature.
Leah Joy

P.S. I'll be picking random books I've read this summer for book reviews every Tuesday, but if you have a particular request, please let me know!