TGIF - Comfort Reads

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads. Each week a new question is posted for followers to answer on their blogs. This TGIF questions is:
Comfort Reads: Which books do you go to for comfort and familiarity? Is there a type of book you seek out when you're needing that extra bit of comfort in your life?


There are a few specific books that I reread over and over, usually because something about the characters feels familiar or comforting, but also sometimes because I remember reading them for the first time and when I read these books for second or third or fourth times, I can recall how I felt that first time experiencing those particular words.

If I'm in the mood for a comforting book, but don't want to do a reread, I will usually go for some contemporary realistic fiction, mostly coming of age stories or stories where the protagonist gains confidence or self-awareness by the end of the book. There are also some authors I will always go back to, like John Green, Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Maureen Johnson, because their writing styles feel so familiar to me by now. In high school I would reread all of Caroline B Cooney and Francesca Lia Block's books.

Pictured Above:
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti
Paper Towns by John Green
Tomorrow, Maybe by Brian James
A Time for Dancing by Davida Willis Hurwin
I Can Hear the Mourning Dove by James W Bennett
Samantha Crane on the Run by Linda A Cooney
Echo by Francesca Lia Block
Twins by Caroline B Cooney

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for People Who Like Sarah Dessen

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. Each Tuesday there is a different Top Ten topic to join in on, and you can see past and future topics on their features page. This week's topic is: Books For People Who Liked X Author. For this topic I chose Sarah Dessen, because in high school she was one of the first author's that I really latched onto and enjoyed basically everything she's ever written. So these books are for fans of Dessen who are looking for something new to read.


Top Ten Books for People Who Like Sarah Dessen:


If you liked these books:

Then you will like these books:

The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti

Just Like That by Marsha Qualey

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

For Keeps by Natasha Friend

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson

Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler

Catching Up, Part One: Blakley-Cartwright, Kagawa, Caletti

This is Part 1 of "Catching Up" - Where I will review three books at a time, covering what I have read from the end of March until today. These reviews will be shorter than usual.

For this installment I will cover The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa, Stay by Deb Caletti, and Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

The Iron Queen - Julie Kagawa

2011 - Harlequin Teen

Read: April 5, 2011

Review: With

every book in the Iron Fey series, I love Prince Ash more and more. I feel like this book in the series really stepped up the action with all of

the fight scenes and battles that took place. Meghan really stepped up and started to learn to use her powers and fight for herself, rather than letting boys fight her battles for her, which had begun to wear on me in the previous books. I am really looking forward to the next book and reading about Ash's quest. Julie Kagawa's writing in this series has been just amazing. I originally hadn't liked the idea of the story, but had heard such great things that I set my judgments aside and picked up the first book... and became completely consumed with the story and characters. I definitely recommend this series to people who love fantasy but also people who love a good romance as well.

Stay - Deb Caletti

2011 - Simon Pulse

Read: April 7, 2011

Review: I have been a big fan of Deb Caletti for years, since I first read Honey, Baby, Sweetheart as a teenager. In Stay, we follow Clara as she moves to the beach with her father to get away from her ex-boyfriend Christian, who has become obsessed to the point of danger with her. Caletti writes relationships so well, not just romantic relationships but just the relationships all people have with each other - fathers and daughters, friends, etc. And her side characters always get me, especially Clara's father and Finn and Finn's siblings (and the seagull!). I really felt like I understood Clara and connected with her as a character, which I think is such an important part of YA lit. The way Caletti strings words together is just amazing.

Red Riding Hood (movie version) - Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

2011 - Poppy

Read: April 7, 2011

Review: This was, surprisingly, not as bad as I had been expecting, especially because it was written after the movie was written. It was a quick read, and not very challenging, but the story flowed and Blakley-Cartwright did a great job of putting a preexisting story into her own words and still making it sound believable. And, I honestly didn't know who the wolf was. However, I was rather annoyed that I had to go online to read the "bonus chapter" in order to find out who the wolf was and how the story ended. I recently watched the movie, and have to say the book was much, much better than the film was, so I really commend Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

To learn more or purchase these titles:

The Iron Queen

Stay

Red Riding Hood