Hi everyone!
I read so many good books last year. It was a great year for me reading wise, and I thought I’d let you know what my Top 10 favourites were. Most of them weren’t released last year (I take a while to get around to reading books), but I still read them last year and they were all brilliant! I may have cheated a bit and combined some sets rather than individual books but hey 10 isn’t enough sometimes! I’m also not going to give these books ratings as they’re all 5 stars or they wouldn’t be my favourites! These are my Top 10 Books of 2015:
Title: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba
Release Date: December 2003-May 2006
Review: This manga series is amazing! The art style, the story, the covers and feeling of the books themselves! They’re just so great and I read them as soon as I got them I was that excited! The story is so original, I love how it develops and the ending is everything I wanted!
Title: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Release Date: First published 1897
Review: I love love love classic books, and the Penguin Clothbound Classic books are so pretty and are something I’ve been collecting for a while now. This was my first time reading Dracula, and although it took me a while to get through due to the ‘old timey’ language, it was so good! I couldn’t wait to read it everyday and the story is just as amazing as everyone says. It may have been written over a century ago, but it definitely hasn’t lost it’s greatness at all!
Title: The Book Thief by Markus Zusack
Release Date: 1st January 2008
Review: THIS IS MY FAVOURITE BOOK. I had this on my shelf for so long before I read it and I can’t believe I waited such a long time before I got round to it! I love the setting, wartime is one of my favourite settings for books because I just love history so much and it’s all so interesting. I also loved how beautifully written it was, and the narrator being Death added a further unique element to the book and how it was told. I can’t explain my love for this book, the ending is as brilliant as the beginning was and I can’t recommend it enough.
Title: Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L.James
Release Date: April 2012
Review: I know these books have had a lot of controversy over them and a wide range of both criticism and praise but I love them. I’m not a fan of erotica at all, but these books had such a bigger story to them than just the erotic side. In fact when I read Grey (the first Fifty Shades book told from Christian’s perspective), I realised that there isn’t as much erotica in there as I first thought, it really is mainly about the love story between Ana and Christian. I read through them so quickly because I couldn’t put them down, and even know I just want to re-read them because I love the story and yes, it isn’t written the best and there are errors but I love them all the same.
Title: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Release Date: 8th May 2014
Review: First off I love the cover for this one because it’s so simple but stands out so well compared to other books. I didn’t know what this was about really when I picked it up other than the vague synopsis on the back, but I’m so glad I did. It was so interesting and insightful into the spy world, and I loved how it was told from various perspectives and the twists and turns were all so great that together it really made such an amazing book.
Title: The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
Release Date: 20th February 2014
Review: I randomly picked this up from Waterstones last year, I saw it and it just sounded pretty good so I thought ‘well why not?’, and what a good decision that was! I love Loki and I love Norse mythology so much so from the start it was set out to be a good book. The writing of it is amazing. Loki is known for being the ‘God of Mischief’ and he really lives up to that title. It’s a great little book for a nice quick read!
Title: The Martian by Andy Weir
Release Date: 27th August 2015
Review: Now this book was probably the best standalone book I read last year. I honestly didn’t even expect it to be that good, it had a lot of hype surrounding it so I was scared it wouldn’t live up to it’s expectation but it did and it really exceeded it! I loved how it had the science elements to it, but it wasn’t too complicated that I lost interest. The sarcasm of it was also brilliant and kept a nice humorous side to an otherwise moving story!
Title: Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: August 2012-September 2015
Review: If you’ve seen any of my previous blog posts, it’s pretty clear that I adore Sarah J. Maas’ books (see: ACOMAF Review and my Top Ten Tuesday). Throne of Glass was the first book I read by her and I just love this entire series. I read them all in about a week because I couldn’t put them down. The story, the characters, the writing, literally everything is just perfect about them and I can’t believe it took me so long to read them! I can’t recommend this series anymore because it’s just so so amazing! Please give them a read if you haven’t already!
Title: The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin
Release Date: 23rd April 2015
Review: Another book I picked up on a whim, but I loved it! I love a good mystery/thriller book, and this one was exactly what I needed! I loved how unique it was compared to other books of it’s genre, and it constantly kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat!
Title: The Stand by Stephen King
Release Date: 1st May 1990
Review: My dad recommended me this book since it’s his favourite book and when I first saw how long it is I felt very intimidated. It took me a month to read because I have to concentrate so much on the story and because of it’s length, but it’s definitely one of my favourites. The introduction of Randall Flagg who leads on to other King books is so good since it links them so well together. It’s a hard book to get through but it’s definitely worth it!
That’s it! They’re the best books I read last year! I know only 2 were actually released in 2015 but they were all just so good!
What were your favourites from last year? Have you read any of the ones I’ve mentioned, and if so what did you think?
Love,
Meggan x
Between the Pages 