Happy Friday readers and welcome to the end of the week! We hope you find some time to relax and unwind this weekend. Today on the blog we are continuing with our 'getting to know you' activity with our staff picks reading lists. We asked each staff to submit five reads that represents their tastes, influences, and a little bit of themselves.
Welcome to MB’s list of book recommendations that you probably already know what she’s going to say but she’s going to list them out anyway!
House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I don’t remember how this book was recommended to me- I think it may have been randomly by someone like Wil Wheaton on Instagram or something. I do remember that it was suggested to me during a time when I had nothing else to do with my time but read, and in looking for something new I decided to pick it up.
To date, it remains the most entertaining and creepiest book I’ve ever read.
I’ve always been a fan of survival horror and mysteries and crime and puzzles and Easter eggs and rabbit holes that bring you to something even more disturbing than the previous level… House of Leaves has all of this and more.
At least if you start reading it now during the pandemic, you won’t get weird looks from people around you on public transportation while you’re reading as you flip it upside down and right-side-up… trust me, you’ll see.
A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
This will be the first of my ‘I read this book before this book was cool’ choices because even though the popularity of the show may have overshadowed the books, the first book of the A Song Of Ice And Fire series remains my favorite. A Game Of Thrones showed me that authors can be cruel and it was the first time I remember reading a certain part towards the end… rereading to make sure I read it correctly… and then throwing the book across the room in tears because I couldn’t believe what actually happened, happened. It was honestly the first adult fantasy series that pulled me in enough to want to read more and more until there’s no more to read… and there’s still no more to read.
We’re waiting, GRRM.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
I suppose this book could be my second ‘I read the book before this book was cool’ choice, though not so much. I had heard about the books many years before the series was announced, and I know I should have read them much sooner than I did. I believe it was when Season One of the Outlander TV show was either announced or was in its premiere run that I started reading Outlander. When I started, I knew it was going to be a long series with a lot of books… I just didn’t know I was going to binge-read all eight of them in the span of 3 summer months. And then I got both my mother and my sister into reading them that same year. Because who doesn’t want Jamie Fraser in their life, just a little bit?
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Not going to lie- Cassandra Clare was about to lose me after slogging through the end of The Mortal Instruments. Even The Infernal Devices couldn’t keep me coming back… but then I came to discover that The Dark Artifices was going to be about the Blackthorns we came to know in City of Heavenly Fire, but all grown up and I’m thinking ok- no more Clary and Jace? I can be down with this.
And thank the gods I was.
If you want angst and humor and wit all in the Shadowhunters universe, complete with your Faeries and your Demons and your Warlocks and everything else in between, Lady Midnight is the best book for you. I just… there’s just so much here I would love to say but spoilers. I want to make it clear that this book, and its trilogy, redeemed the Shadowhunter books for me. And continue to remain my favorites of the series.
A Court Of Mist And Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Saving the best for last? You better believe it.
I wish all I needed to say here was RHYSAND but also I feel I need to provide a little more insight as to why this book continues to remain my most favorite book ever.
I hate to admit that I almost took my time reading ACOMAF for the first time. A Court Of Thorns and Roses bothered me for many reasons, and most of them were named Tamlin. So I needed a nudge from a mutual at the time to read the next and it would all be worth it.
Needless to say, I finished ACOMAF in 24 hours the first time I read it.
Yes. The first time.
Because never before has there been a book I’ve read more times than I have ACOMAF.
And each time still makes me feel a little bit like it did the first time through.
The book hangover was real, and I still haven’t found anything that comes close (though the aforementioned Lady Midnight almost got me there. Almost).
Though it is the sequel to a series, I would suggest slogging through ACOTAR because the payoff from ACOMAF makes it all worth it.
And now I want to start reading it again...