MUST READS

Seeing as some people have been asking for book recommendations, I have painstakingly gone through the books I own and a list of books I WANT to own. Let me warn you, that list was 3 typed up pages in 10 point font. I shudder in horror to think that my personal library hasn’t reached the 200 mark yet. I DID pass the 125 milestone, though… Here is my list of MUST READS, GOT-TO READS, and READ-THIS-BECAUSE-IF-YOU-DON’T-YOU’LL-HAVE-MISSED-OUT-ON-EVERYTHING!!!!

For the historical fiction nuts out there:

• The Luxe Series, by Anna Godberson—because you can’t live without scandalous Manhattan socialites living in 1899.
• The Secret Countess, by Eva Ibbotson—because we all wish we knew someone like the protagonist, Anna Grazinsky, a Russian duchess in disguise post World War I, pretending to be a lowly servant in Britain to make money for her fallen family and manages to charm everyone around her.
• Vixen, by Jillian Larkin—who DOESN’T wish they’d been living in the 1920’s? Flappers, mysteries, and newly found freedom, OH MY!

For those of us that KNOW the surreal goes on in the real world :

• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series, by Michael Scott—you will cry like a heart-wrenched pirate who lost his treasure after reading all the books. 
• Inkheart Trilogy, by Cornelia Funke—this is every reader’s dream: to have the words they’re reading COME TO LIFE. That’s all I’ll say about that.
• Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin—this book is all about growing backwards. Yep. Growing but the other way around… so isn’t that shrinking? This will keep you mind boggled until long after you’ve read the book. 

Books-that-don’t-fit-under-just-one-category-so-I-put-them-all-in-this-big-one:

• Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore—for those of that have already read Graceling and Fire, I don’t need to explain the utter awesomeness of this book. For those of you that haven’t: this is the sort of high fantasy book with 18-year old queens meets revolutionary world meets mystery to be solved meets SHEER AWESOMESAUCEYNESS that is hard to pass by.
• Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks—because all sparklers have an inner geek that is waiting to be unleashed.
• The Wolf Tower Series (also known as The Claidi Journals), by Tanith Lee—post-apocalyptic worlds for the win! Servant girl escapes. Servant girl must survive desert-wasteland all while trying to wrap her mind around the fact that The House she has lived in her whole life is not the last place on Earth with humans. Drama ensues in which a foreign prince may or may not have chosen her to be his bride and she may or may not find out that people she used to work for have been planning her “escape” all along.
• Poison, by Chris Wooding—a book for all you avid readers out there because we ALL have asked ourselves, at some point in our lives, whether or not we are just characters from a book and someone is writing about us/reading about us… mysterious? I think so.
• The Triskelia Trilogy, by Carrie Mac—more of the post-apocalyptic world that has resorted to life like in the Dark Ages but better because different parts of the world control the weather and there is a circus involved—frankly, anything with a circus in it has one word flashing: FUN.
• The Protector of the Small Quartet, by Tamora Pierce—if you haven’t read anything by this author then you have missed out. You  will now rush to the library to read about Keladry of Mindelan, the only girl (after the Princess Alanna) to dare to become a Lady Knight in a world filled with men, magic, and plots to stop girls from trying to pursue their dreams.