2014 Fiction Reading List

Last year I read a total of forty-nine books (that's almost one book every week!) and this year I've already read nine, so I'm on track to beat my number from last year.  I've been using the goodreads app to track the books I've read and also the books I'd like to read.  Right now I have ninety-five books on my to-read list…and it just keeps getting longer!  So I've put together a list of my top ten fiction books to read this year.  This post only has the first five, so I'll do another post next week with the other five.

The next book I'm going to read is Divergent, by Veronica Roth.  I know I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon, but I figure with the movie coming out next month now is the time to read it.  I waited on the library's waiting list for about a month, but I finally got it yesterday!  Here is the summary from Amazon:

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

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Wool, by Hugh Howey, is a book that was recommended to me by a co-worker.  I'm not much of a science-fiction fan, but the story sounds interesting and I decided to give it a shot.  Here's the summary from Amazon on the first book of the series:

In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

Wool is the first novel in the bestselling Silo series that also includes Shift and Dust.

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The Eve series by Anna Carey was suggested to me on my library e-reader app.  It caught my eye because the quote on the cover is from the author of the Fallen series, which I just finished a couple of weeks ago.  Here is the summary from Amazon for the first book:

Where do you go when nowhere is safe?

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust . . . and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel in Eve’s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure.

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I recently saw the movie version of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  I really liked the story so I am looking forward to reading the book (even though I usually like to see the movie after reading the book).  Here is the Amazon summary:

Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective…but there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

Since its publication, Stephen Chbosky’s haunting debut novel has received critical acclaim, provoked discussion and debate, grown into a cult phenomenon with over three million copies in print, spent over one year at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and inspired a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

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On a recent trip to Belfast, my love for all things Titanic was re-ignited.  We added Belfast to our 11-day European itinerary without any plans on what to do when we got there, so when we realized that the Titanic was built there we knew the best place to visit would be the Titanic museum.  It was an awesome experience to stand where the Titanic was built!  So when I heard about The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott I knew it was a book I'd really like.  Here's the summary from Amazon:

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she’s had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be her personal maid on the Titanic. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men—a kind sailor and an enigmatic Chicago businessman—who offer differing views of what lies ahead for her in America. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes, and amidst the chaos, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat.  
 
The survivors are rescued and taken to New York, but when rumors begin to circulate about the choices they made, Tess is forced to confront a serious question.  Did Lady Duff Gordon save herself at the expense of others? Torn between loyalty to Lucile and her growing suspicion that the media’s charges might be true, Tess must decide whether to stay quiet and keep her fiery mentor’s good will or face what might be true and forever change her future.

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And those are five of the books I'll be reading this year!  Later this week I will be writing about my happiness project and the non-fiction books I'll be reading in an effort to learn some new things this month.  

If you have any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them.  I'm always adding to my list!