I'm pretty sure that a great many of the people reading my blog are avid readers, and as the year draws to a close, I just thought I'd share with you some of the best books (out of many) that I've taken the time to read this year.  It was a very slow year for my reading progress, and while I know I've read a million other spectacular things in the past, I thought some of you may like to know what in particular has given me inspiration lately so that it may go on to inspire you too.  Remember, even if it was a slow year, I tend to do a lot of reading, so if a book has made it to my top 10, it's definitely worth a look.  Enjoy! <3

1.) It by Stephen King - Okay, anyone who knows me knows that Stephen King is of course going to be on my list. I read this one a little bit before I went to Germany in April (at the airport too), and of course, he didn't let me down.  Like a good many of his books, it's a fat book and a long read, but when it's that good, it's completely worth reading from beginning to end.  What made this one stand apart from some of his other books was while he did spend half the book bonding you to the characters and giving some background, there were also a few captivating incidents of horror.  Naturally, it doesn't dive into current events until the second half, but the history in itself was definitely more action packed than his other works.  It's also really interesting to see what was left out of such a long book in the still relatively long movie that was made of it.

2.) The Giver by Lois Lowry - I actually had to read this for my Young Adult Literature class this summer, and while I missed out on it in middle school and high school, I am so happy I finally got a chance to read it.  The words are very simple, but the message is as poignant as it is blatant.  It's like the horror of the situation becomes so much more real and deep when described in the innocent and childlike language of the main character, a young boy who has just transitioned into the early adulthood of his increasingly eerie world.  While at first glance it seems rather uncomplicated, it is a harsh warning of the error of imagining a Utopian society or a world of sameness, as well as letting the general public live in ignorance and forgetting its own history.  After reading it, one of the people in my class considered entitling his essay "Read The Giver or You Suck," and in the spirit of that, I hope that everyone, even if you've never picked up a book before in your life, takes the time to read this amazing book.


3.) Travelling Through the Eye of History by Daniel Schwartz - I know I've mentioned this book before in another blog, but it really is worth mentioning again.  When looking at the cover or reading the description, one might just think it's a photo-filled coffee table book or just a bit of information about Central Asia, but what it really is is a touching history of not just Central Asia but the Middle East that gives a photographic glimpse of this group of perpetually war-torn countries.  Not only does it offer an extremely detailed timeline of the history of ceaseless war in these regions, it goes in depth into the daily lives of those affected by that never-ending conflict.  It both brings us to a better understanding of the wars and lives of people in this region and, while I'm not sure whether or not it was the author's original intention, gives perspective on the futility of trying to stop a war that has been going on for thousands of years.

4.) The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg - While it wasn't assigned, I did indeed read this for my Young Adult Literature class as well.  I ended up using it to support my final essay on the importance of elements of feminism in young adult literature.  It was captivating to learn how advertising and the pursuit of making money off of people's insecurities has brought our society from a world where a woman's worth was based on merits to a place where girls everywhere tremble beneath the fear of what advertisers tell them is wrong with their bodies.  It has crippled our collective self-esteem.  That is why for the sake of solving problems we weren't even aware of until we were shown by an advertisement, we worry, hate ourselves, and spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to cure it all.  One thing I found particularly interesting was that the origin of training bras even has a basis in fear: early advertisers stated that if parents didn't buy a training bra for their daughter, her breasts would be deformed and ugly because of improper support during growth.  Now, I won't say that just becoming aware of this will stop one from being a slave to it (it certainly didn't stop me), but it is wonderful to have a perspective on the whole mess.  This book is definitely a step toward bringing women back to reality.


5.) World of Warcraft and Philosophy by various contributors - Mike bought this book, but I thought it would be an interesting read and a great way to kick off my upcoming obsession with World of Warcraft.  It's part of the Pop Culture and Philosophy series, which is a collection of books containing serious philosophical essays with pop culture icons from movies, television, and video games as the basis.  After reading this portion of the series, I'm very much looking forward to reading others, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy and Final Fantasy and Philosophy.  It may sound immature, but there were things in there that made me really think.  I literally had to put down the book a few times to think about life.

6.) The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre - Okay, I didn't read this book for the first time this year; I actually keep it by my bed and read it constantly.  I don't often read books more than once, but anything by H.P. Lovecraft is definitely an exception.  This is actually the first collection of stories I ever read by the greatest horror/science fiction writer to ever live, and I still hold it in high esteem.  It is the only collection that houses all of my most favorite stories of his, such as "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Rats in the Walls."  If you like Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, or simply enjoy horror and science fiction, this is an amazing place to take your reading journey.  It's also the perfect book to start with if you simply have an interest in the author and are picking up his stuff for the very first time.



7.) Nightlight: A Parody by The Harvard Lampoon - Like any respectable writer or at least book aficionado, I abhor the Twilight series.  It's absolute literary garbage.  I actually tried to read the first book while simultaneously blogging about the incident, but I never could make it through the whole thing.  The writing was horrid, the plot was nonsensical and a shame to the entirety of vampire novels, and it was like a giant leap backwards for women's rights.  Anyone who looks on her very own website where she describes how the series got started can see that she was simply pulled at random from a pile as the new flavor of the season and signed on to a long-term book and movie contract after months of revising by a professional agent and editor.  While I do appreciate the fact that it gets young people to read, I do not feel that it is the first piece of literature that a child should be exposed to, as it is in many cases.  All this is why a parody of the whole thing is right up my alley.  Nightlight is an easy read that can be finished within a day by any level of reader, and it's absolutely hilarious.  The plot centers around a main character who is none to bright, completely man dependent, and thinks the intense nerd in her class has to be a vampire (while he just thinks she wants to role play).  As for fans of the series, I know it can be fun for you too; I've met plenty of people who love Twilight and love Nightlight too.

8.) After the Lost War by Andrew Hudgins - I was first introduced to Andrew Hudgins in a collection of award winning Alabama authors put together by the Alabama Writers' Forum.  I liked his style, so I decided to check out After the Lost War from the ASU library.  After the Lost War is a sequence of poems telling the life of Civil War veteran and poet, Sidney Lanier.  This was my first venture into biographical poetry; I'm more used to the author being the speaker.  However, it turned out to be amazing.  While I could never take myself outside of myself to write something like this, it was really amazing to read the work of someone who can.  I could also quite honestly say that this was the book that sparked my recent interest in the Civil War.

9.) Bellocq's Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey - I was first exposed to Natasha Trethewey in my poetry class last fall, so I decided to check out another of her books and found myself loving this one even more than the first.  Like After the Lost War, this book interpretively follows someone's life, that of a prostitute that appeared several times in the photos of E.J. Bellocq, a photographer who devoted his life to the secret project of photographing the prostitutes of Louisiana's legendary area of legal prostitution, Storyville.  The girl in question, pictured to the right, was a mulatto girl of mixed parentage whose skin was particularly fair.  However, because certain of her features gave her away, Bellocq found her in a brothel he took pictures at quite often that exclusively housed mixed race girls.  Many of the poetry focuses on her struggle existing between worlds and how her features held her back from all others, black and white, making the world of the particular brothel where she lived the only one that would accept her.  This is the general theme of Trethewey's poetry in all of her books, and while it has little bearing on me or my life, it is intriguing to be able to have a glimpse into that world.


10.) The Planets by Dava Sobel - I first read this books as a prelude to attending a speech held in the ASU student center by the author, and while I wasn't sure I could be captivated by a book on planets that wasn't a coffee table book or lengthy study, I most certainly was.  It's a fairly short and educational read that gives both the main facts about each planet and the most interesting tidbits on each, such as the story of the rock from Mars containing what appears to be fossils of tiny bacteria.  Also, it's not entirely devoid of pictures: at the end of each chapter is a little collage employing all the most fascinating elements of each planet's individual story.