Books Are Jazzy

Best books according to my goodreads reviews this past year:
These four masterpieces earned a full five stars for making reading such a pleasure. Please bear in mind that it is not in my nature to hand out such good reviews without an explicit reason.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them   -J.K. Rowling
The Martian -Andy Weir
Fangirl -Rainbow Rowell
Musta kuin ebenpuu -Salla Simukka

I am secretly proud of how diverse I am in reading, at least according to this list. All represent a different genre. There is sci-fi, fantasy, a thriller and YA fiction. Totally planned.

As a whole the year wasn't a bad one considering that I had such an abundance of four star books too. Only one book falling behind with a lone star and another one reaching a pair. The average rating remained at three stars which is a rating I often give to good reads that had one too many boring page or something else that I really didn't like. Four stars can be a wonderful book, only it lacks something. That magical feeling that only a really good book can awaken.

I also came upon several new authors (new to me) and will definitely go back to authors like Andy Weir and Rainbow Rowell. Also old favorites like J.K. Rowling and Salla Simukka didn't disappoint. My most read authors were infact Salla Simukka (2) and John Green (3).

To try something new, I'll include a bit about the beloved books turned to movies. Unfortunately I feel that most screen adaptations were unable to live up to my (admittedly skyhigh) expectations. The Mockingjay part 2 was too lengthy while Paper Towns completely failed to keep me interested. Insurgent came out a bit blah and left me with the feeling that I won't be paying for the last parts. There was, however, a positive surprise too. The Scorch Trials exeeded my expectations. The final Hobbit film was spectacular, as I expected, and I still have a high hope for the Martian. So an okay year on this field too. Not as breathtaking as hoped, but not an all time low either.

-Anna

For me, the books I enjoyed most this year were:

The Here and Now - Ann Brashares

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan

Illuminae - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Carry on -Rainbow Rowell

Due to my school obligations I wasn't able to finish my goodreads challenge for the year :( I've only read 83 out of the 100 I was aiming for. For next year I think I'll go for a smaller goal, as I'll be starting university (hopefully).

-Laura