The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Recommended? Yes. Super fun. But, um….duh.
The New World by Patrick Ness. Recommended? Yes, if you like and have read The Knife of Never Letting Go.
The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Recommended? Yes, though the whole (SPOILER) sex change thing at the end was unexpected and weird.
The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye. Recommended? Absolutely. I was reading it to the baby (to get her in the habit), but I had to leave her behind and finish it on my own. I don’t think she minded. 🙂 But I’ll definitely read it to her again when she’s big enough to follow a plot line, for it’s light, happy, sweet, and though a princess story not another story about how happiness is shoes.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Recommended? Yes, though if you’re tired, don’t read this book. They’re going to sleep All.The.Time.
2k to 10k by Rachel Aaron. Recommended? I don’t know. I haven’t tried her recommendations for increasing your word count for writing yet. We’ll see. We’ll see.
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. Recommended? Sort of. It was awesome. And stupidly dark. Stupidly, horrifically, unreasonably, dark.
The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Recommended? If you like pulp, it’s excellent. Though it needed far more Jane.
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith/ J.K. Rowling. Recommended? Yes. Please. The thing is, I WANTED to like this book, and I did. It wasn’t surprising. I liked murder mysteries, I LOVE J.K. Rowling, and I was inclined to like it. But I think I would have fully enjoyed it regardless of my previous desire to love it.
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Recommended? Meh.. It was funnish, and if you’ve also got a classic novel resolution, totally. However, if you read just a little, it wouldn’t be my first recommendation.
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. Recommended? Sure, especially for reading to a little one. For adults reading middle readers? Probably not. For me it was somewhat boring. For the tot, he loved the shiz out of it.
All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin. Recommended? Yes. I don’t like dystopians. Or organized crime novels. This is both of those things. And a YA that hits all the familiar notes with all the familiar tropes. But somehow superseding all the mehs it should have had and took those mehs making them pretty darn fun.
Macrieve by Kresley Cole. Recommended? I must preface by saying this book is pretty darn smutty. So, if you don’t edit as you go and don’t want to read the smut, no. If you either edit or don’t care, yes. Kresley Cole is one of the few authors I still read with the smutty stuff because she’s so very, very good at everything else.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Recommended? Yes. But only if you’ve read every other Jane. She’s hilarious even in this one where I can’t stand any of the characters. Except pug. I like pug. (And maybe I like the bad boy. Kinda a lot. What?! Sure he makes terrible, terrible mistakes. But at least he isn’t a d-bag, jerk face, a-hole who is stuck on himself, “molding” idiot Fanny’s mind, and constantly letting her down while also thinking that he’s pretty great. Is this a love story or an epic on why you should remain single?!?!?!??!?!?)
Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet. Recommended? Mixed bag on this one. The tot enjoyed this one too. So yes in that respect. But if it were me reading alone, I wouldn’t have finished the first let alone picking up the sequel which was worse. Even still, there’s the tot factor, plus we already own the third (it’s a bind-up), so we’re totally reading Dragons of Blueland or Blue island or something. There’s a place. It’s blue. Dragons seem to live there.
The Book of Mormon. I’d say it’s recommended, but you already know that. Glad to have read it again and for the peace it brought my life this last month with the addition of Boyo.
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. Recommended? I’d go with the obviously on this one. The thing is the audio book is…not as fantastic as it should be. It’s weird. Honestly, I need the reader to do better voices for me like I do for Boyo. And I need him to quit singing. And the lines of Aragorn need a significant amount of additional emotion of ooomph. I still love the story, but I’ll enjoy another read through at a future date in print.
~Amanda
Amanda A. Allen 