My Top 5 Books For (Half) Of 2015

Hey guys so it's June!

Yeah okay. It's been June for a while now....Um...yeah... Anyway, I don't exactly know how half a year has gone by but it has and I thought that this was the perfect time to do recommendation post. So I'm going to recommend 5 books to you based on what I have read over this last half year. I've read 54 books so far and if you want to see all the books, you can click here. Okay so let's get straight into it!

1) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

If you only read one book this entire year, I would say read this one. I read this in the early part of the year and reviewed it here. So you can check out my full thoughts on it if you want. But basically this is a historical fiction book that follows the lives of two sisters as they try to survive in France which has just been taken over by the Nazis. If you are worried about the historical aspect, don't. Its not boring or overly factual. It's more fiction really. I cried so hard during this book. It broke my heart and then stomped on it. And I loved it!  In fact, this is the book that I have been recommending left and right and I will continue to recommend it for a very long time.

2) All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

This book was perfection. You can read my full review here. But it is essentially about these two kids. Theodore and Violet. They meet on the top of a bell tower when they are both trying to commit suicide. They pretty much save each other from that and they soon start hanging out and eventually they fall in love. This book has quite a hard ending. It made me cry and it made my heart hurt for days after. I still think about this book now and consider how it made me feel and react.

3) An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

This book follows Laia, a slave who is trying to free her brother from prison. She joins the Resistance and in exchange for their help, they send her to one of the most dangerous places. They send her off to be a slave and spy of the Commandant. The woman in charge of the Masks. She is in charge of a training ground for Masks and she is deadly. Among the Masks is a boy called Elias. He is desperate to be free of the Mask life. He meets Laia and together they attempt to attain freedom. I absolutely loved this book. The world building in this one was excellent. I loved how complex the story was yet it managed to still be very much readable and enjoyable. Certainly something to pick up.

4) Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

This book was something I enjoyed greatly. It's about how this young girl named Jenna spends her whole life trying to find her mother who disappeared when she was 3. She enlists the help of a psychic, Serenity and a private investigator, Virgil to find her mom who walked out of a hospital and vanished after a trampling killed her co-worker at the elephant sanctuary where she worked. The book is shrouded in secrets and mystery and I love how the story twisted and turned all the way through. I especially loved how much I learnt about elephants through this novel. Jodi always does amazing research for her books so each of her books is a learning experience in itself. I completely recommend this if you like a good mystery and have a passion for animals. Actually, even if you don't have a passion for animals, Jodi will make you love them in this book.

5) A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J Maas

This book is a retelling of Beauty And The Beast. It's about a girl called Feyre who kills a wolf in the forest one day. Unfortunately, she doesn't realise that the wolf is a Faerie. Because of what she has done, a Faerie named Tamlin comes to take her over the wall that separates Faeries and humans and he keeps her captive there. Slowly, Feyre finds herself falling in love with Tamlin. The story twists and turns and spins around. It's a really amazing book that I just fell deeply in love with. I completely recommend it if you're looking for an interesting love story.

Well that's my recommendations for the first half of this year. I most likely will do another recommendation post at the end of the year. Hopefully by then I would have finished another 50 books which actually looks like it might happen if I keep going at the pace I am keeping with now. Honestly this half year has been full of really good books so check out all the books I've read if you want to find more great reads. Other then that, have a great Monday and an awesome week ahead!

The Disney Book Tag

Hey guys! So I haven't blogged in quite a while and I feel like I've lost a limb. Somehow blogging has managed to become a very important part of my life in these last 11 months (my blog will be a year old next month!!). Unfortunately school has gotten very crazy and the stress is building. Between my numerous assignments and driving lessons, I've just not have much spare time. Well okay I do have spare time but in my spare time I try to do something other then writing (which guess what, I'm actually doing so much more of this year). So I've been reading and of course, watching way too much Youtube.

Since I've been on Goodreads and Youtube so much, I've discovered the Booktube community. And the Disney Book tag challenge has been going around on there a lot. So I decided to give it a go because it actually looks really interesting.

1. The Little Mermaid - A character who is out of their element, a “fish out of water”

I would say 'We Were Liars' by E.Lockhart. I know I never really talked much about this book after I read it because it's honestly better to not know anything before you go into it. But Candence was a complete 'fish out of water'. She was constantly being treated with kid gloves and always being fussed over and she constantly felt like the odd one out among the Liars. 

2. Cinderella - A character who goes through a major transformation

The Tail Of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler. This was one of my favourite books from my childhood. Basically this girl Emily learns that the reason her mother never let her in the water was that her father was a merman and so she is half mermaid and she sprouts a tail when she gets in the water. It was a whole series that consisted of a few books and it was so magical and wonderful. All the feels remembering that one. 

3. Snow White - A book with an eclectic cast of characters

All I can think of is The Mortal Instruments series. I think Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec and Magnus made such an awesome kickass team.

4. Sleeping Beauty - A book that put you to sleep

Well this is a difficult question because I usually read myself to sleep and I'll wake up with my Kindle under me or something. The thing is, I plan to read myself to sleep. So it's not like the book is boring or anything. But I guess in terms of books that were dry enough to make me need to reread paragraphs over and over, I would pick Wanted by Amanda Lance. That book was annoying and a horrific train wreck.

5. The Lion King - A character who had something traumatic happen to them in childhood

The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. This is my absolute favourite book in the whole wide entire universe. So there are 2 kids in the book and the most horrible and traumatic thing to happen to them is that their fathers have to leave to fight in the army and I don't want to spoil it but the Nazi's invaded and I'm sure you can imagine how horrible a childhood they had after that.

6. Beauty and the Beast - A beast of a book (a big book) that you were intimidated by, but found the story to be beautiful

This is going to be weird because this book was technically a DNF. Okay so the book is 11.22.63 by Stephen King. I read it when I was in Secondary school and I actually loved the book. Except that with my exams and stuff I didn't have time to finish reading it and I had it for weeks under my desk and I had renewed it about 4 or 5 times at the library so I finally decided to let it go. I hope to one day pick it back up and continue it though because it was really good.

7. Aladdin - A character who gets their wish granted, for better or worse

My Heart And Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga. Spoiler Alert: Aysel got her wish because Roman didn't die. So obviously it's for the better.

8. Mulan - A character who pretends to be someone or something they are not

 Mara Dyer from the Mara Dyer Trilogy. For the first book in the trilogy especially, she was constantly denying that she had any powers or that anything was wrong with her. 

9. Toy Story - A book with characters you wish would come to life

This is not even a question oh my gosh. I have honestly never heard of any reader who does not want the characters of their books to come to life. But if I had to pick just one, I would pick Park from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. You guys know that it is one of my top books ever and i just think that Park makes an excellent boyfriend. He's such a gentleman and he respects that Eleanor is scared. He protects her, loves her despite her flaws and he is just always there for her. I mean how could you ask for any more? 

10. Disney Descendants - Your favorite villain or morally ambiguous character

Cal from Red Queen by Victoria Avyard. I mean lets face it. A tag like this just wouldn't be complete without Red Queen yes? Yes. So I really think Cal was super morally ambiguous. He started out as the good guy, then the sort of bad guy then the reluctant good guy and just....ahh swoon worthy!!!

The Nightingale By Kristin Hannah

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.  

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France.-Goodreads

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Oh wow. How do do this. How to do I put into words how this book made me feel and how it changed me ever so subtly.

So let's start from the beginning. I love history. I did it as a pure O'level subject and I got a B (mostly because I suck at Southeast Asian history). But I've always loved history. I've loved hearing about Hitler and Stalin and about what life was like under their rule. I've always been so fascinated by the concentration camps and about the mass killings. It makes me think a lot about how strong someone has to be to go through all that torture and still survive to tell the painful tale.

The first book I ever read of historical fiction was 'Good Night Mr Tom'. I loved it. Second book, 'The Story Teller' by Jodi Picoult. I was in tears. So this is my third encounter with a historical fiction book and I knew from the very first chapter that I was going to adore this book.

I started reading it while waiting to register to learn to drive and right there in the driving centre, I was fighting tears like crazy. Many other reviewers warn you not to read this book in public and I have to say, heed their warning. I read most of this book in the spare pockets of time I could find in the midst of all my work. So mostly that was on the bus and right before I fell asleep. That meant that I was basically fighting emotion in public. Seriously this book made me so emotional. I have never cried at so many points in a book before. I've cried at endings. But no other book has ever made me ugly cry at so many points. 

I loved the character of Vianne the most. The way she sacrificed herself time and again for the people she loved. The way she loved children and her family. The compassion she had in her heart was just breathtaking. It really makes you stop and think about what it really means to love sacrificially. She was just there holding everyone up. She never seemed to be able to stop and let grief over the people she lost take her. She was always helping everyone with their grief but she never stopped to take care of herself.

And Isabelle. Sweet and reckless Isabelle. She loved so deeply but often just didn't think. Her character was so strong. She was forever the feminist. Always questioning why a man could fight but not a woman. She was the voice in this book.

In the book, there is an unknown woman who tells her story in 1995. We don't find out till the end who that woman is but when we do, it is magical. It feels so incredibly real. Everything just felt real and painful and tragic.

Honestly I don't think there are enough words to describe just how powerfully this book moved me. How much it made me think. By the time I was done with the book, I felt like I had left a part of my heart in its pages. Because the loss of having finished this book was so strong. Again, I'm not really one who gets that emotional when books end. Even if it was a good book. But this book just did strange things to me. 

This book has gone into my favourites shelf where it will remain. I can completely see myself one day returning to it's beautiful pages and immersing myself in the story of Vianne and Isabelle.

This review is also dedicated to all the current survivors of the Holocaust. Recently the annual commemoration in Paris took place and they are saying that by next year, there might only be a few survivors left and very soon there will be none. We must never forget the war. Even when the survivors die, we must never forget their fight. So this goes out to them.

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My Rating: 10/5 (Yes you can have that rating)
Publishing Date: 3rd February 2015
*An advanced copy of this book was given to me to read and review by the publishers*
Purchase the books at The Book Depositary using my special link Here.