Today is
the last day of my recommendations week. The focus for today is non-Christian
books. Same as with the previous posts, I have read all the books mentioned and
the complete series where recommended. These books all got at least a 4 star
from me (except perhaps a book or two from within a series recommendation, but
no lower than 3.5). This list is a little longer than the others because I am
doing both fiction and non-fiction together. So let’s get started:
1. Favorite middle grade fantasy:
Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
Two princess sisters. A
deadly disease with no known cure, but knowledge that a cure does exist. A
prophecy that the cure will be found when the fearful become brave. And an epic
journey to save a loved one.
2. Favorite young adult fantasy:
The Precious Stones Trilogy by Kerstin Gier
Time travel, prophecies
and mysterious groups. Gwen is thrown into this mix at 16 years old when she
unexpectedly turns out to be the 12th time traveler that everyone
thought was going to be her cousin. Chaos and danger ensue.
3. Favorite adult fantasy:
Dragon Song
by Anne McCaffrey
Music and dragons. A
young girl from a fishing village who loves music and doesn’t fit in. When she
runs away from home, she ends up bonded with 9 fire lizards and set on a path
to find her place in this world.
4. Favorite young adult science
fiction:
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Futuristic retellings of
4 well known fairytales (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow
White). Characters from earlier books carry on to the later ones and become
this epic friend group fighting the evil queen.
5. Favorite middle grade fairytale
retelling:
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Ella is cursed to always
obey a direct command (even if given unknowingly). Add this to the general Cinderella
plotline and we have a fantastic story.
6. Favorite young adult fairytale
retelling:
Violet Eyes
by Debbie Viguie
Violet is a farm girl
who falls in love with the prince in a chance encounter, but his parents have
devised a contest to determine his bride. So she sets off to prove her worth in
this retelling of the Princess and the Pea.
7. Favorite young adult classic
retelling:
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
A dystopian/ science
fiction retelling of Persuasion by Jane Austen. Lost love and second chances
amidst a judgmental and uncertain society.
8. Favorite adult classic retelling:
Cyrano by
Geraldine McCaughrean
A direct play to fiction
retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Love, beauty, and the
importance of looking at the heart told in a tragic tale.
9. Favorite middle grade myth retelling:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
An imagining of Greek
mythology set in modern times. Percy Jackson discovers the truth about who his
father is and it changes everything in his life and sends him into a spiral of
events leading him on a quest through mythology he never imagined could be
real.
10. Favorite young adult myth retelling:
The Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey
A retelling of the
legend of Mulan. All I can say is beautifully done.
11. Favorite adult myth retelling:
Till We Have Faces by C S Lewis
A retelling of the Greek
myth of Psyche. About trust and doubt, mistakes and consequences.
12. Favorite adult historical fiction:
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The first disguised hero
story. The scarlet pimpernel is rescuing aristocrats in France from the
guiotine and the new French Republic, while they seek to discover who he is and
stop him. Margurite is a French woman married to an English aristocrat and forced
to play spy trying to find out his identity.
13. Favorite young adult contemporary
fiction:
On the Fence
by Kasie West
Charlie is an only
daughter with three older brothers (an the neighbor boy basically adopted in)
to a single father. She is a tomboy through and through. A self-discovery story
with a sweet romance. <I have a review coming>
14. Favorite adult contemporary fiction:
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
A popular but lost young
man and an unpopular girl who is confident and comfortable in who she is get
thrown together and change each other’s lives.
15. Favorite children’s book:
A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson
A cute story of being
content and happy with what we have (looking at circumstances in the right
light).
16. Favorite children’s classic:
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A little girl who knows
every girl is a princess at heart and tries to live that out, no matter what
life throws her way.
17. Favorite middle grade classic:
Rose in Bloom
by Louisa May Alcott
A beautiful story of
growing up and meeting life in its changes.
18. Favorite adult classic: (sorry but I
really couldn’t narrow it down to just one)
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
Rabbits seeking out
a new home and the adventures they encounter on their way.
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A young man seeking to
find his way, to support himself and his family after the death of his father
and trying to do what is right no matter what life throws his way.
Daniel Deronda
by George Eliot
A young man raised as
ward of a wealthy man who knows nothing of his origins and is uncertain of his
future but with a good heart seeks to find his way and a young woman full of
herself and only what she wants.
& He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
A paranoid man and how
he destroys his family by refusing to believe that he could be wrong, and many
romances blossoming for the people around and connected to them.
19. Favorite play:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Fairies, magic, mistakes
and love. A night of craziness and fun.
20. Favorite non-fiction history book:
The Flag, the Poet and the Song by Irvin Molotsky
The history of the
American flag.
21. Favorite bickering couple:
P S I Like You
by Kasie West
These two just can’t
seem to get along until they are forced to see each other in a different light.
A modern, young adult version of “You’ve Got Mail”. <I have a review
coming>
22. Favorite enemies to lovers:
In the Garden of Gold and Stone by Ryan Muree
A beauty and the beast
retelling, with a switch: the girl is the beast.
23. Favorite friend group dynamic:
Harry Potter series by J K Rowling
This small group of
friends are fun to see. They are all so different, but are caring and loyal and
will see each other through anything.
24. Favorite sibling dynamic:
Entwined by
Heather Dixon
A Dancing Princesses
retelling. This group of sisters is together dealing with loss and grief and
finding their way to living again.
25. Favorite poet:
Kalopsia by
Andrea Michelle
26. Book with ethnic diversity:
Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier (Turkish)
A young European girl
travels with her merchant father to Istanbul and is drawn into a magical
journey with two Turkish men.
27. Book with physical diversity:
Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels
A young man dealing with
a terrible degenerative disease isolates himself from the world until a young
woman finds her way through his thick shell.
& By Your Side by Kasie West
A high school girl hiding her
anxiety disorder and the results of this choice on her friends. <I have a
review for this>
As I
mentioned I would in the previous post, here is a link to my goodreads page if
you are interested in seeing more of the books that I have read and/ or really
liked. <https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/19319918-chelsea>
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