My Recommended Books of 2012

I like to read books a lot. So much, in fact, that I like to think of myself as sort of a recommendation master. I never get a chance to actually recommend the books I've read to other people, so I am always filled to bursting with ideas for "if you like this, then you'll love..." recommendations.

Here are a few recommendations based upon the books I've been reading lately:

First, an easy (and obvious) choice: Read Divergent, by Veronica Roth, if you loved The Hunger Games. Or if you love dystopian fiction in general. These are sure to thrill you.

If you've read Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society books, move ahead with Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms (or Small Change for Stuart in the UK) by Lissa EvansThe books both feature mysteries, puzzles, and a sense of chidlike wonder. It's perfect for a clever kid, that really smart kid who loves to read in your life.

I feel like there are a lot of Twilight knockoffs out there, but for one that has nothing to do with vampires but reminded me so much of Stephenie Meyer's books (even the relationship between the two main characters aggravated me in exactly the same way!), read Starcrossed, by Josephine Angelini, which is an epic romance with Greek demigods instead of fanged bloodsuckers.

Two books that I read this year were set in the 1920s in barren lands that heavily feature story lines involving a couple finally getting a child they have been waiting for, which I find very odd. The Australian-lighthouse-island book, M.L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans, is the more psychological-character-study of the two. The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey, was (for me, at least) the more emotionally resonant of the two, set in Alaska featuring a take on a heartbreaking Russian fairytale called "Snegurochka." If you read and enjoyed one of these books, I encourage you to read the other.

My next recommendation depends on which part of the book you liked: Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is about a man doing some thinking about the past and walking a long distance to visit a friend. If you liked the actual walking part, then it's a no-brainer to read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, his travelogue that chronicles his journey on the Appalachian Trail. If the musings on life and memory and past actions are more your thing (or, in general, really "British" novels), go for the Booker-Prize-winning The Sense of an Ending by Julian BarnesI couldn't get either of these books out of my head while I was reading Joyce's novel.

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Article Author: Jonathan Wlodarski

I go to college to read books.

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