Well originally I was going to use The Hunger Games Trilogy for this day, but as that ship has sailed far past the area of twelve months, I guess I will be thinking again! Although this year started slowly in terms of reading due to settling into University, I have sure been making up for that this summer by racing through many books! I’m happy to say there have also been a few five stars handed out in my reviews which I love being able to do because it doesn’t happen often. 😀 Within the last twelve months I have given out five five stars, (ohh how poetic) and that’s pretty good going for me. But how an earth do I pick which of these elite is my favourite?
I can’t, I just can’t!
They can’t be compared, they are all completely different genre’s with polar opposite characters and I don’t see how it is possible to choose. So instead I will mention all of them. 🙂
Now today I am going to be very lazy blogger, I hope you will forgive me! I don’t really see the point in reiterating all the things I have said about these books before, so instead I am going to give you a few excerpts of my reviews and point you in the direction of them. Besides, Becky needs a blogging break, she is frazzled! 😛
So here they are in no particular order:
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: 
‘You know when something is just sooooo good and you want to throw your arms up, squeal and unrecognizable words just tumble out of your mouth that vaguely resemble vowels? 🙂 If you guys were here right now I would be stuffing this book in your face until you agreed to take it. I never thought I would love a non-fiction book, let alone a writing one!’
‘I can’t recommend this book enough it’s such a compelling read and in my opinion, vital to anyone who is serious about wanting a career in writing.’
‘This book is great because you can pick it up whether you are a beginner or have been writing for years as it is accessible and at a level where anyone can understand it. It is useful in so many ways, not only technically in terms of writing, and it really is great technically, but also as a muse. On Writing is so inspiring and really gets you motivated, King’s cut out the bullshit and get to it mentality is exactly what most of us procrastinators need!’
You can find my review of On Writing here.
I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk (The first of a series.):
‘This book takes escapism to a whole new level! Ridiculously unrealistic yet fabulously entertaining. Like. Candy. To. A. Baby. SERIOUSLY.’
‘The plot taps into every females suppressed dreams and secret desires (Many of which I didn’t even realise I had!) from having an endless money resource, someone acting as your own personal shopper giving you amazing new clothes, makeup and accessories that transform you from bland to grand. Multiple guys hitting on you at once and an automatic friendship group.’
‘For the record, you are witnessing history here! I have never given a chick-lit book five stars, and I didn’t think that I ever would! Now I have to eat my words. :P’
You can peek at my review of I Heart New York here. I also gave the second book a four stars and the third another five star! 🙂
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: 
‘One boy’s journey of self discovery packed to the brim with some of the most memorable characters I have ever come across.’
‘It is difficult to sum up what Great Expectations is about, it has so many layers and I’m positive that you would get something different out of it with each reading. It covers class struggles, the definition of love, obsession, poverty, ambition, revenge etc. and each time I felt I was about to pinpoint Dickens key message something else monumental would happen to change my mind completely.’
‘This book took me on a massive journey, and I feel like I’ve walked a thousand miles just by reading it.’
Check out my review of Great Expectations here!
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen: 
‘This book ripped my heart up into pieces and then put it back together again.’
‘The emotion in this book hit me like a tidal wave, somehow Dessen got me screaming about the unfairness of human nature and reveling in its beauty at the same time. I wasn’t expecting to be quite so blown away!’
‘Just Listen pushes the boundaries, making the reader think and question how they live their everyday lives. While Annabel is not a kickass heroine like Katniss Everdeen, Lisbeth Salander or Elena Michaels she shows her strength in less obvious ways that are far more realistic.’
Pop on over to my review of Just Listen here.
Sorry for the lackluster post today guys!
What is the best book you’ve read in the past twelve months? It’s a tough question right?! 🙂
What’s the 30 Day Book Challenge you ask? Click here and find out.
Image Sources:
Banner: My own, please do not reuse.
Book Covers: All from Goodreads.
Blogs-Of-A-Bookaholic 
It is really difficult to pick a favourite, isn’t it? Adding I heart New York to my to-read list. 😉
The best books I read in the last 12 months, hmmmm… The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers; the Fault in our Stars by John Green; Cinder and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer; and The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. =]
It sure is! I looked at these and thought it over for a long time but my answer STILL changed every thirty minutes! Ohh that’s great to hear, I hope you enjoy it! It’s a pretty quick read because of the style. 🙂
Wow I haven’t heard of most of them, I must be getting out of touch. The dreaming books one sounds amazing just from the title and I can’t wait to get round to TFiOS!
In the last 12 months, it’ll have to be Game of Thrones. They’ve all kind of blurred into a single entity so I couldn’t really nominate one of them… maybe a combination of the second half of the first one, and the first half of the second one.
And that Sarah Dessen cover is disturbing.
I noticed your progress with them on Goodreads and was thoroughly impressed! I’d never seen you read a set of books so fast, they must be awesome. 🙂 I can’t wait to start reading them!
Awh, I quite like the cover idea, although I will agree that the face is quite weird. :L
Mmm. I looked through my ratings on Goodreads and nothing jumps out at me as best book of the year. If I include re-reads, I’d count “The Face” by Dean Koontz.
Just outside the year is “Unwind” and “The Terror” by Dan Simmons, a little surreal but very enjoyable.
I read a few Wilkie Collins last year, and they were interesting – I rated “The Woman in White” as 4/5.
Day 23…you can make it! {waves pompoms}
Ohh no that’s a real shame! I felt a bit like that with my reading last year and it was as bit saddening. I’m so glad this year is already way better. 🙂 It’s that Unwind again, I’m definitely going to look out for that one.
I’ve heard great things about The Woman in White so it’s promising that you enjoyed it because it means maybe I will too. 🙂
Hehee, thank you Tony!!
I finally got around to reading On Writing this year, and thanks for bringing I Heart New York to my attention.
A Different Blue by Amy Harmon is one of my favourite reads so far this year.
That’s great, I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed On Writing as someone who has always been against writing books. I loved the authors approach to it. 🙂
No problem, Emma, happy I could help! I will keep a look out for that one.
It should come as no surprise that I love the book cover for “Just Listen” as much as I love your version of “The Truth About Forever”! XD I haven’t read any of these books, but as we talked about Dickenpoo the other day, I wanna give Great Expectations a shot. What I find really interesting about these books is that 3 out of the 4 of them seem to be books you (based on how you describe your reading interests) wouldn’t typically think you’d like – which means they MUST be pretty impressive! It’s always somehow… relieving? Exciting? To know someone gave an unlikely book a chance and it turned out to be a big hit! I am gonna add “On Writing” to my TBR list, too, despite my frustration with King after suffering “The Tommyknockers” this summer
(honestly, did not like this book. A soda machine kills a man. Yes. It happens. How can I take this book seriously?!) But as far as your blog today, I don’t blame you girl, it’s been a rough 30 day challenge D: and yet you’re doing fabulously! This is a great blog – your highlights of your reviews were all that were necessary since you blogged about them in the past year 😀
Good choices, and great post! ^.^
Yay! I love how she uses stuff that’s relevant to the story to create a picture on the front page, I’ve always likes that kind of collage/eclectic design. 🙂
Haha yes I think Dickenpoo has had his fare share of the limelight on this challenge by now!
You know that’s a really interesting pattern you’ve noticed and you are spot on as well. Most of these books were ones I was expecting to dislike. I wonder if we enjoy things more when we have such low expectations, when we leap out of our comfort zone or finally if we are just not very good at picking the books we think we are going to like, ha! I do like to jump out o my comfort zone with reading once in a while to keep me from getting complacent. The one area I rarely do is thrillers/crime though.
I haven’t read a King novel yet but was so shocked by how much I fell in love with On Writing, not only is it useful but it’s also written in an entertaining way. A killer soda machine? That’s sounds hilarious! Although I’m not sure how it would translate in reality…the idea is probably better.
It has been rough! Especially now I’m doing back to uni prep it’s hard to juggle this. Awwh thank you Lauren. 😀 That means a lot, I’m a bit of a perfectionist with blog posts!
I have this somewhat (?) relevant memory from a sociology class in which we learned that people from cultures/demographics who have lower expectations of themselves or expected of them are actually generally happier than people who are richer or better off. Just made me think of that when I read your idea about book expectations, so I think you’ve got something there! 😀
I’m not much of a thriller/crime person either – well, I do like true crime, probably from spending so much time looking over my mom’s books, lol. Ughhh The Tommyknockers… if you’re gonna read a King book, I strongly recommend not starting with that one! I’ve only read Pet Sematary, IT, and the novella of “The Mist” aside from Tommyknockers, but if I had to pick one to begin with I’d say Pet Sematary. But then again, I haven’t read The Shining or Salem’s Lot or any of the other big hitters, so who knows – just avoid Tommyknockers! 😀 (really long, all about aliens, ughhh – that’s why I don’t want to watch Under the Dome, because I think King is plagiarizing himself now!)
Ooh well good luck with all your back to uni prepping! It’s a rough/exciting time of year! 😀
That’s a fascinating finding and I think it makes a lot of sense! When your expectations are low to begin with things can only really get better. 🙂
My issue with crime is that I struggle with so many of the stereotypes, cliches, and gender roles and for those reasons I rarely get on with them! Mind you, I’m not a big action, crime fan in general, not even with movies or TV series.
Ha, duly noted, I will steer clear. 🙂 I’m not a big fan of alien stories. I own Salem’s Lot, IT and the Kennedy one so I will probably start with one of those!
Thank you Lauren. 🙂
Your posts are never lackluster :). Take a break girl!
This one is, LOL. But thank you Cindy. I am looking forward to a well deserved break very soon. 🙂
I read a lot of great books this year too! The ones that spring to mind straight away are Ferney by James Long, A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen, and the first two instalments of A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R R Martin.
That’s great! I am actually reading A Street Cat Named Bob at the moment, it’s really sweet. 🙂 I can’t wait to get round to R. R. Martin too, whether it will be this year or the next I’m not sure, but I know it’s going to be awesome!
So happy you’ve been having a great reading year Jessica. 🙂
It is a really difficult question. I’ve read a lot of excellent books this year. I’d probably pick The Road by Cormac McCarthy or The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal
Ooooh I’ve never heard of either of those so I’d better keep an eye out for them. 🙂 It is a very tough question, I could choose!
“On Writing” by Stephen King sounds interesting! Might have to read that one.
I am pretty convinced that the best book I’ve read the last 12 months will be Persuasion by Jane Austen, though I haven’t finished it yet. I just wrote a little bit about it here http://organizedscenery.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/new-old-love/ if you’re interested! Can highly recommend it (unless it completely changes in the last 50 pages. Actually think I’ll finish reading it now!). Have a good evening 🙂 Alice
Thanks, I’m glad you think so. 🙂 I was expecting to dislike it because I’m not big on books about writing but I found On Writing fascinating. Oooh that’s intriguing because I don’t actually know much about Persuasion, so I’m looking forward to it being a surprise when I read it. I will definitely check out your post!
Hahaa sounds like a good plan, enjoy. 🙂 Thank you for reading!
I’m too indecisive to choose my best! Very hard questions but I would love to do this challenge.
I know right! I’m no good when it comes to these questions. 😛 Doooo the challenge, doooooooo iiiiiittttttt. 😉
On Writing and Great Expectations are two books I’ve been meaning to read for quite a while!
They’re such fantastic books so they are definitely worth the wait! I was glued to them from beginning to end.
Thanks for reading and commenting Melinda. 🙂
Geez I don’t blame you. Blogging everyday is waaaay harder than it looks. When you said you were feeling lazy, I thought you were just going to put the links up only to the reviews. That’s what I would have done. But you put extracts up as well, kudos! 😀
Thanks for reminding about SK’s On Writing. I need to order that book soon!
My favourite in the last 12 months would have to be Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White. I think Hunger Games also falls outside the 12-month range for me but Catching Fire doesn’t so I’ll include that as well… 🙂
It so is, I honestly don’t know how people do it and still have relevant intelligent things to say! Hehe, thank you, that’s what I originally thought I was going to do but the blog looked so empty and sad so I added the quotes, then copy and pasted. It didn’t take too much effort, so all’s good. 🙂
Ohh Nisha you will LOVE On Writing, I just know it. 😀 I can’t wait to see what you think, I raced through that book so quickly, it was addictive.
I don’t think I could ever do The Hunger Games justice so it’s probably a good thing it was out of the time frame, I just love those books so much! Are you thinking about picking up Mockingjay yet?
I’m curious about The Woman in White because although it’s a famous novel, I don’t know much about it! 🙂
I’ve scheduled Mockingjay for December holidays after exams are over. 🙂
#memoryfail #oldage
I think I did a book review for Woman in White but I can’t remember what I wrote, ha!
Oooh, sounds like a great plan to me. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it.
I do remember you doing a post on it of some sort because it was the first time I had ever heard of the author! I think it was your blog that made me curious about it in the first place. 😀