Top 6 Books of 2016
With it being New Years Eve (at least in my time zone), I wanted to do a special post for everyone to let you all know my top 6 books for the year of 2016. While I read a lot of books this year I feel it was easiest for me to name my top 6 due to time constraints ,memory, and the thought that 6 books for 201 was kind of fitting. Either way though I hope you all have a fantastic new year and whether you already are in the year 2017 or waiting for midnight in your time zone, I hope you have a fantastic day and future year ahead of you filled with amazing memories, experiences, and of course books.
Without further ado, here are my top 6 books of 2016:
6. Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes
I really enjoyed this book. I received it in my Uppercase box this year and was really happy to read a book that focused on a teens mental health and anxiety, as well as have things like tennis in them which is a sport I actually enjoy to play occasionally. This books centers around a girl named Maguire whom has anxiety which causes her to believe she is a jinx and can't do certain things without causing bad luck after she is the only surviving member of a car accident that took the lives of her brother, dad, and uncle. After going to a therapist who suggest she try to do certain things to help her branch out of her comfort zone and help her to start to feel that she really is not a jinx, Maguire joins tennis, makes new friends, and even may end up finding potential love. I really liked how to book did not make light of mental illness and did not act like Maguire's boyfriend magically could fix all her problems due to "their love" or anything like that. If you are looking for a nice contemporary book I would give it a try.
5. Weight of Zero by Karen Fortunati
This book I felt was a very quick read, but something I could not put down. I went in expecting a pretty good story and got so much more. This book is the story of a girl who had bipolar disorder and depression and how even though she feels she wants to commit suicide at first, starts to find enjoyment and happiness in her life in the forms of friends, school, her relationship with her mom, and a possible romantic relationship. I talk more about this book in my review which you can read here, but I honestly felt like this book gave me so much more than I was expecting and even taught me a few things about history I never knew. Weight of Zero is definitely a book I would check out.
4. The Duff by Kody Keplinger
When they say do not judge a book by the movie, they are 100% correct. I had watched the film version before reading the book and was completely turned off from the book because of it. Actually, I almost gave the book away until I decided to give it a chance. Was I in for the shock of a lifetime. Not only did this book become a huge surprise to me, it became one of my favorite books of all time probably. This book centers around a girl named Bianca Piper who stars a "enemies with benefits" situation with a popular boy at her school named Wesley Rush. This book not only talks about important topics like alcoholism, friendship, family, sex, etc. Keplinger also writes these topics extremely well. She was apparently a high school graduate when she wrote this book and she wrote the book which featured realistic characters, situations, actions, themes, etc. that I felt Keplinger wrote perfectly. If you are looking for a quick read that will go above and beyond, The Duff would definitely be a book I recommend.
3. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Before this book the closest I had ever come to tears while reading was tearing up while reading Me Before You or The Fault in Our Stars. This book however went beyond that and caused me to laugh out loud and sob uncontrollably in the one day it took me to read this book. This book is very long, but pulls you in so much you do not want to stop reading. The book follows a girl named Taylor Edwards whose family is going to the Poconos mountains for one last family trip before her father's death. While there she has to mend old relationships that she left hurt and torn the last time she was at the mountain house and also try to help develop the relationships she already has. This book is a book that touches on so many themes of friendships and family and makes sure not to leave anyone out. While I feel a lot of YA books tend to focus more on the younger protagonists of the stories, this book was great at showing the relationships with all the different characters whether they be old or young, or friends or family. If you are looking for a book that will make you laugh and cry, this is a great book to pick up.
2. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
This was my first Nicola Yoon book I ever read and was a book that made me want to yell at the pages for there to be more. I loved this book and while I do understand the problematic issues that some may have with the ending, I felt there was a lot of good things in the book and that the book even helped make me add Nicola Yoon to my favorite authors list. This story follows a girl named Madeline whom has a disease called SIDS which basically makes her allergic to everything and unable to live a normal life outside of her home. When she sees a boy move next door, they become interested in each other and start secretly meeting with the help of Maddy's nurse. While I can not give too much away without spoiling this novel had a unique writing style that Yoon is great at and enjoyable story and characters. The only thing I have left to say is that you have to pick this up for yourself and see for yourself the joy that is reading Everything Everything.
1. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
This was one of the last books I read in 2016 and 100% my favorite book of the year. While it does go pretty slow (it mostly centers around one day in the life of the people in this novel), the second you read the last line of this book you realize all the perfection that this book has to offer. The Sun is Also a Star follows the tales of 2 young teens who meet in New York City. Charlie is a young man whom has to deal with parents who want him to be better than his for lack of a better term, jerk brother. Natasha, is a young teen who due to her selfish father's actions will be deported along with the rest of her family unless she can somehow get help from a lawyer to help her family. This book takes places mostly in the span of 2016 and is fantastic at showing how much development people can have in one day and even how one person can affect others in more ways than they may ever know. I loved the differing viewpoints of minor and major characters in the book and how much I even learned in this book about cultures, history, and more. I will not dare give the ending away but it felt 100% satisfactory and realistic and made the "insta-love" issue that some may see in the book, forgivable at least for me. There is nothing else I can say about this book besides that it is my favorite of the year and was one that is worth at least one read in a persons life.
I hope you all have a great new years and see you in 2017!
- Jessica
