Hey guys it's Trina and today I am sharing with you what my favorite books
I read in 2017 were. This year I have read 88 books in total. I think I have 11
books on my list. I started out with quite a bit more and I really wanted to
narrow it down and I just could not get it to 10. It would not be genuine if I
tried to just put 10 books on this. I could not leave any of these off. I
really truly love all of these books. I'm not going to be ranking these although I
do have a top favorite so I'll tell you that one at the end but I'm gonna kind
of sort them by genre. First up I want to talk about my favorite graphic novel
that I read this year. It's actually a whole series of graphic novels so maybe
you want to say this counts as three books but I'm just counting it as one slot
in my favorites list. It is the March trilogy by John Lewis. John Lewis is a
political figure in the United States and he was a very active leader in our
civil rights movement in history and this series of graphic novels is his
true memoir, it's like his autobiography. He did have help from another writer and
an illustrator to put this series together but this is his story in his
own words. It's real history so I mean... oh, I loved it. It was very very impactful. It
had me crying and I just have a huge appreciation for what this man has been
through. It was a good time to be reading this series this year in my opinion and
it really really stuck with me. Next I want to talk about my favorite retelling
that I read this year. That was Hunted by Meagan Spooner.
This is the only book on this list that I gave four stars as opposed to five
stars but I still really felt like it deserved a spot on this list because it
was my favorite retelling that I read this year and when I read it I really
had fun with it. Like, I gave it a lower rating for some technicalities, like it's
a little bit slow and the ending wasn't quite as impactful as I wanted it to be
but I really enjoyed my time in that world and just spending time in the
character's day to day life and just the way that Meagan Spooner wrote this tale.
It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast by the way. And the story and the
characters have stuck with me in my mind you know for the rest of the year since
I read it so when I was making this list I was like you know what that's not the
best book I read this year but it's one of my favorites. Like that feeling of
just feeling engrossed by it. I think it was definitely a case of I picked this
book up at the right time when my reading mood
just needed that book so I still really really enjoyed it. If you love retellings
I would definitely recommend this one. As for my favorite science fiction reads
of the year one of those is Warcross by Marie Lu. This is the type of sci-fi
that I really enjoy. It's YA, it's like technological, like videogame based. I
just had a really fun time reading this. I enjoyed the main character and the
quest that she was going through and just like the setup of the world and
that technology. Part of the reason I like this one so much is because I've
read everything by Marie Lu at this point and this is a book I felt she was
meant to write, like her writing just really suits the technology. I think she
does it so well. Another sci-fi series that I'm fitting in here together is the
Themis Files series by Sylvain Neuvel. The first book is called Sleeping Giants
and the second book is called Waking Gods. I read them both this year. This is
an amazing series. It is told in like interview format, like dossier style, and
it is just - I was just there for it. I was really hooked on it. I thought it was
very intriguing. Actually, you know, I gave the first book 4 stars also so there are
two books on this list that were four stars but the second book I gave five
stars and like just viewing the two together and the series overall it's a
five star series in my heart. I really loved it. I geek out so much when I read
these books. I can't wait for the next book. This is - this is like maybe number
two on my list like if I'm having to rank them. This is a series that I feel
like has defined my year. I just geeked out over it so much, it makes me happy,
and yeah like he keeps doing things that are like a little bit mind-blowing at the
end of these books. It's a unique, interesting, weird series and I love it.
Then there is Before The Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray which is science
fiction / historical / paranormal / fantasy. It's kind of a mash-up of a lot
of genres but oh I love the series. This is the third book in The Diviners series
which this series is now in my all-time favorites. There's an amazing cast of
characters. The friend group is really wonderful, the diversity is wonderful, the
plot is very interesting, kind of spooky. This book like had a big
kind of climactic scene where you start really learning more answers and seeing
really like the villains come out and seeing the main cast of characters
really work together and again I just really completely geeked out about this
series as I was reading it. It just made me happy. She threw me for some twists. I
changed my opinions on certain characters and certain things and it
gave me like the emotional highs, emotional lows, it did not disappoint at
all. I am in love with the series, absolutely.
My first favorite fantasy book that I read this year was Three Dark Crowns by
Kendara Blake. I read this one pretty early in the year and I know this one
has a lot of mixed opinions but I really loved these characters. It is kind of a
slow beginning because you're having to learn three whole different sets of
characters and locations and magic systems but once they all came together
I thought that they came together beautifully and one of the things I
loved about it most was the amount of theorizing I got to do while reading
this book because I just have a feeling that things are not what they seem and I
love to theorize when I read and this was the book I read this year that just
gave me the most opportunity to think 'this is what's gonna happen, that's
what's gonna happen, this person is really like this,' and you know so I just
really enjoyed that experience. I have not read the sequel to this one yet but
I can't wait to read it and find out where things go. I really love when
the first book of a series you know has a lot there for me to grab on to and
also look forward to in the future of this series and this one definitely did
that for me. My next fantasy favorite is The Wayward
Children series by Seanan McGuire. There are currently two books out in this
series and a third one is coming out in January and I have the advance copy of
it so I've read all three of these books in 2017. The first book is called Every
Heart A Doorway, the second book is Down Among The Sticks And Bones, and the
third book is Beneath The Sugar Sky. I definitely love this series, just one of
these books if I'd only read one of them this year it would have been on my list.
I really love how whimsical and kind of gothic this series is at the same time.
Like it's a little dark, it's a little light. It's just a magical series. I loved
learning about all the different types of worlds that exist, like it's kind of
a multi-dimensional type thing, like these characters find portals to
other worlds and find out where they really belong and I absolutely love this
series. I also have to throw this fantasy book on there, it is Tower Of Dawn by
Sarah J Maas. This is one of the books in her Throne Of Glass series. It really
surprised me. I thought I was going to hate it, I didn't want to read it at
first. I was very surprised with a lot of things. First of all I really liked that
this installment in the series - this is a high fantasy series, there's a lot of
magic and there's like Fae and in the rest of the series we're following this
character who's very very powerful, a bunch of characters that are very very
powerful - and in this one we're just following a human character and the
world seems a little bit more mellow, a little bit more relatable because this
is just the human character and you're seeing how they experience this world of
great magic and prophecy and everything and so to me I guess it just brought it
back down to earth a little bit. I also really have enjoyed seeing how I believe
Sarah J Maas's writing has grown in this book. I think it's definitely miles ahead
of the past books in this series in terms of world building, character
development. I really like this book for what it was, for what it has and I hope
that she keeps that momentum in the rest of the books in this series and just
like whatever she writes in the future. And the rest of the books on my list are
all contemporaries and the first that I want to talk about is Bad Romance by
Heather Demetrios. This is a book about an abusive romance. I've been open about
this on my channel before: I've experienced very manipulative, toxic, and
abusive relationships in the past. This was a book that I could really like live
in and relate to because I've been through it and I mean I think it's
definitely gonna be great to outsiders as well because there are many moments
where it just makes it very very clear how the victim is feeling and why she is
staying in that moment and I think that's something very important to have
especially in young adult books where you can really empathize and understand
why someone gets into a situation like this and feels like they cannot to get
out of it. So it was very impactful. It meant so
much to me. I saw so much of my own experiences reflected in this book so to
me it was just like a little piece of myself and I
really loved it for that. Another book that I feel was a piece of myself but
it's completely opposite in themes and tone is The Upside of Unrequited by
Becky Albertalli. This is a lighthearted little romance. The main character is fat
and she has anxiety. Those are both things that I personally relate to and
she is a hopeless romantic, she's got a lot of crushes on boys that don't even
realize it and I totally totally was like that when I was a teenager so
completely related to this main character Molly and just felt the things
that she was going through and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed having a
book that represents me because I haven't seen very much fat rep or
anxiety rep that I really connected with. I loved it. I love Becky's writing. I
loved her characters, and I just really appreciate having this book so
definitely a favorite of the year. And then I have saved this book for last
because if you asked me what is your one top favorite book of the year I would
tell you without hesitation it is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book
has an a very powerful message, very needed and timely message about the
black lives matter movement but beyond that it's just wonderfully written in my
opinion. Angie writes so many different types of
scenes in her book that I can't believe one writer wrote this. Like she can write
a very brutal murder scene, she can write protest scenes, she can write family
dinners, basketball games, a day in her school life, hanging out with her friends,
and just like every single one of them felt flawlessly put together. It's like
she just didn't even miss a beat. She can write action and slow stuff and
important heavy stuff and sad things and happy things and funny things. She just, I
think like for a debut author I can't believe how well-written I thought this
book was. Absolutely cannot wait to see what more Angie Thomas writes. I love
this book. So those are my favorite books I read in 2017. Also, I will have a second
video up for my least-favorite reads of this year if that is something that
you're interested in seeing and bunch of other year-end videos should be going up
around this time. Thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know what your
favorite book of the year was and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
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