Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I’m Thankful For

Hello friends! I hope you all have had a wonderful November so far. In case you missed it, this post explains my absence from the blogosphere pretty well. Even though finals are creeping up soon, I finally got back into bookish things (in other words, I’ve been reading again) and hopefully will have some book reviews up.

Anyways, in honor of Thanksgiving holiday and break, I wanted to share my list of Top Ten Books I’m Thankful For or special books that have some meaning to me or a period of my life. This week’s T10T, a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, was actually an open interpretation to allow readers to get creative but I just decided to share this simple list. It’s been months since I’ve participated in this meme. As some of you may know, I used to be pretty religious with keeping up T10T posts when I first started blogging  and I’ll direct you to this post as to why I stopped doing that. Anyhow, I wanted to join in this week’s fun since I thought I could add a variety of books I don’t usually talk about on Xingsings. I’m sure there’ll be a couple on here that will be a surprise for some.

(All links to Goodreads are under the photo.)

Tuck Everlasting | The Glass Castle | Half the Sky | City of Bones | The Truth About Forever | Twilight | Maximum Ride Forever | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | Unbroken | A Little Life

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
We had to read a lot of awesome books when I was in middle school; Flowers for Algernon, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Shiloh to name a few … but the one that has sticked to me until now was Tuck Everlasting. I loved that story so much. Actually, I still remember how I finished it in one sitting (we were supposed to read it together in class the next day; this really shows how I was such a hardcore bookworm then, haha). Now, I can’t even imagine finishing a book in a sitting since I read so much slower and don’t really have the patience to stay still that long (aka I only read to escape from my studies and I feel uneasy procrastinating for so long, lol).

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Probably one of the most inspiring and thought provoking memoirs I’ve read in a long time. You can read my review here.

Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn
Easily the most compelling nonfiction book I’ve ever had to read for school (I read it my freshman year of high school for AP Human Geography; fun times). Definitely one I’d recommend if you want to learn more about different forms of women oppression and why it happens.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
I’m thankful for this read because I remember this being the book I completely fangirled for days over. Like I was obsessed with scouring everything related to this book when I read it from companions to fanart. I actually demanded my dad to go out to buy me the rest of the series (at the time I was a preteen and couldn’t drive and didn’t pay for my own books, so it was a big deal to ask my dad to do this; the only TMI books released at the time was up to City of Glass though). And I was such a big fan that I got the back of my iPod at the time engraved with “To Love is to Destroy.” Okay, so don’t ask why… I was a pretty angsty middle schooler, lol. That was also my punk rock phase. XD But anyway, back to books…

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
As a preteen, I went to the library and had one of those summers, aka the Sarah Dessen summer full of sa-woon-worthy summer flings (in terms of reading and not real relationships, lol). My first Dessen read was Lock and Key and I remember picking up great books like This Lullaby and Just Listen, too, but it wasn’t until I read The Truth About Forever did I confirmed my love for Sarah Dessen’s beautiful writing. And ah, Wes. Sa-woon.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
This was the one I was referring to earlier when I said some of these picks may be a surprise to you all. Actually, I’m quite thankful for Twilight even though I can happily say I’m neither a fan or a hater of this series. Like many other young girls when this came out, I was obsessed with this series and Edward. I definitely can see the flaws now but I can’t deny that it can be a fun, guilty pleasure type of read. Anyway, this was actually an important book in my life because it introduced me to books tailored for young adults. Though HP is somewhat ya-ish, I never really read books for more mature audiences until this series came along. And I’m so glad I did! Because now I primarily read ya books for fun.

Maximum Ride Forever by James Patterson
So before when I was a kid that rarely bought books because my dad was a frugal Asian father (not a bad trait though-I’m thankful for the way I was brought up actually), I often would hang out at the books/magazine section of Wal-Mart when my dad went to get our groceries. During those short perusals I would read James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series and the occasional Vampire Knight (like whatever volume they had there, haha). Maximum Ride Forever is a particularly special installment because it was the very first physical ARC I received after a few months of blogging. Speaking of review copies, you can read more of my experiences with ARCs here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Well most of you all already know of my HP experience and how I actually read Deathly Hallows before books 1-6. I did some reading like chapter books such as Amelia Bedelia and Junie B. Jones, but it wasn’t until the summer between 4th and 5th grade did I fall in love with reading because of this book’s release.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Well I was recommended this book from a friend and client at work. Ugh, what an emotional rollercoaster this was. I think I cried so much knowing it was a real account of someone’s life. How did Louie endure such hardships? A wonderful biography about a man’s determination, discipline, and resilience. And it shows how awful humans can be and what lengths they’d go to as monsters and villains. The Bird. shudders This is also a special book to me because it was my very first book review on Xingsings. So you can say it was a book that inspired me to want to start blogging. So I’m thankful I read such a moving tale that encouraged me to join this bookish community.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Last but certainly not the least is A Little Life. Okay, so yes, I’m not finished with this yet. But all I’ll tell you is that it’s such a beautiful, heartbreaking read already. I have a stack of review copies and gifted books I want to read before the years end but this will most definitely be the first book I return to reading when my load lightens up.

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So, no surprise, this is a scheduled post so please let me know if you participated this week (links would make it easy and convenient; thanks!) and what your list was like. Have an awesome Tuesday, everyone! 🙂