Sarah's Top Five Books

I have been slacking reading this past week. It is been a crazy, busy week for me with the holiday and work's been a little crazy! With this blog, I told myself I would never force myself to read when I didn't have time because then it would feel like a job instead of a fun, fun thing!

With that being said, I have no new reviews so I thought I would share with you guys what my top 5 books are and why you should read them! These are in no particular order, and sometimes they change with the times and what mood I'm in!

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Now, I said these books are in no particular order. This is the exception. This is my absolute favorite book and has been since I read it in 6th grade.

If you have never read this book, please do. It's simply fantastic. It is a "Young Adult" book, but deals with extremely adult topics. In fact, I had to get my parents to sign a waiver for me to be able to read it in school.

The Giver is about a teenage boy growing up in a utopian society that is segregated from the rest of the world. This town is basically in a bubble and has taken away every bit of individuality from their citizens. They also don't have colors, music, weather or pain. While this may sound awful to you, the people there are pretty happy because they don't know anything different and their lives are pain-free! Woohoo for them.

There is one man in the town though (the giver) who has all the memories of these things, good and bad, and our main character is selected to learn about all of these things for various reasons explained in the book.

I won't give any more away although I could talk about how wonderful this book is for hours and hours and hours.

If you haven't read it, please do! Please, please, please. It's so wonderful.

An interesting tidbit about me and this book is because my parents allowed me to read this in school, I have never read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. That is what the only kids with parents not as awsome as mine read instead and I've still never read it. I don't know, is this book still good for adults?

2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

There is not much to say about Gone with the Wind except it is just such a wonderful story. It's just a sweeping epic novel that is extremely well written and just well-told.

While this is an old novel, it doesn't feel like it. It's simply written and language still stands up today unlike some classics (cough, Jane Austen).

So, read it!

3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This is the newest entry on my top five list. It's so new in fact, that I've written a post about it on this blog. You can find that post here, so I won't say any more!

4. The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry

Alright, I'm going to have a work hard to make a case for this book. As you may be able to tell from the title, this book is about the flu pandemic that took place in 1918 across our country. If that sounds boring to you, I promise you, it's not. This book is so fantastic.

John M. Barry does such a wonderful job making what could be an extremely boring topic so exciting it's almost unbelievable. This book has so many twists and turns and is so wonderfully written.

If you are going to read just one non-fiction book this year or even in your life, make it this one. You will learn a ton but not even realize it because it will feel like a story!

Also, read it because you can learn a lot about Thyphoid Mary and I'm convinced her story is one of the best in history. And read it because I said so!

5. The Harry Potter Series

When I got married this past August I told my husband and myself I wasn't going to read any of my Harry Potter books until I had kids and I was reading it to them. This is been the hardest thing I've ever tried to do and it's been 11 months. I think that's enough said.