one!!

and here it is!

my favorite book of 2010 is...

Mockingjay

by: Suzanne Collins

{the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy}

I was so excited when this book came out in August. Remember when I had my Mockingjay dilemma? That's how excited I was. This was probably my most anticipated book of the year and that's also why I decided to make it my top book of 2010.

If you've read it before you can probably understand what makes this book great. If you haven't what I will tell you is this: I loved this book because it summed up everything in this series without sugarcoating anything. This fictional world of Panem is not a happy place. How could it when they make kids fight for their lives in the Hunger Games? Not everyone was going to survive. There would be hardships for our favorite characters in the end, yet somehow they survive. I don't want to ruin too much of the book though.

so those are my top 5 favorite books of 2010!

my goal for 2011 is to read 30 books :)

so what about everyone else? what was your favorite book you read last year?

two!

I had a hard time choosing my second favorite book.

let's just say it was a three way tie

so my second favorite book(s) of 2010 were

The Mortal Instruments Trilogy

by: Cassandra Clare

I know it's probably not fair to choose all of them because I did choose just one out of the other series in this top 5, but I couldn't wait to read all of them when I started with City of Bones.

There are many different parts to this series that drew me in. First, the supernatural aspect. I don't know if you can tell by now, but I love supernatural type books. I think this was inevitable since the first series I fell in love with was Harry Potter. The idea of having this other world in the mix of a modern day world in New York is the kind of thing I love to read about! There is never a moment where you want it to end. Just when you think you've solved the problem, it twists and turns into something you didn't imagine. Loose ends are tied up but others are presented and keep you wanting more!

This series was initially suppose to have just the first three but Cassandra Clare decided to continue the series into three more books

(City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire) in addition to a prequel series (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess). This leaves plenty of books to look forward to in the future for these characters and some new ones too :)

three!

my third favorite book of 2010 was

Shiver

by: Maggie Stiefvater

{first in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series}

This was another of the many summer books I read. What I like about this book is the detail of the scenes in it. I felt like I was feeling every rise or fall in the temperature. I could see the snowy backyard of Grace's house. I could picture Grace's wolf. I wanted to hug Sam whenever I learned something new about his troubled life. There are so many emotions for these characters. And this was only the beginning of the story! I felt everything all over again for these characters in the sequel Linger.

four!

my fourth favorite book of 2010 was

Sisters Red

by: Jackson Pearce

This was one of my summer reads. I liked this book because it was a new twist on something old. The author took the story of Little Red Riding Hood and made it into this tale of two sisters who devote themselves to tracking down and killing any Fenris (werewolves) they can find. I enjoyed reading about the two sisters and the battles they face both against the Fenris and with each other.

five!

my fifth favorite book of 2010 was

Beautiful Creatures

by: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

{the first book in the Caster Chronicles}

I read this book in January last year and really enjoyed it! What I like most about it was not just the relationship shared between Ethan and Lena, but the build up to the "main event" I guess you could say. The way these two characters fall in love with one another but still have this decision that they have no control over hanging over them had me turning the pages for more. Another point that drew me in was the Casters and the powers they possess. With romance and magic, this book and it's sequel Beautiful Darkness were right up my alley.

it's a countdown!

you've seen the books that i read last year

now i want to share my top 5

i think what would make this fun and more suspenseful would be to release one book a day all this week :)

we'll start with my fifth choice tomorrow (monday) and work to my top choice on friday!

any guesses to what the #1 book may be?

books I've read in 2010

a year has flown by. I have no idea where it went!

BUT

I can trace my year in books.

remember way back last year around this time when I set a goal. I decided I wanted to read 25 books before the end of 2010 and hopefully most of those books would be new to me.

I succeeded.

I actually surpassed my goal and read 29 books this year!!

this feels really good to have completely my goal and a little bit more :)

maybe this will be a great lesson for me. I can accomplish anything. if I can imagine myself completing a goal successfully then I shouldn't have a doubt in my mind. I just need to go for it!

I'll be taking this into account while I move into 2011. this year I have surprised myself with how much I've been able to do and learn. there were so many changes in my life just over a year. looking at the years since I entered college I have faced my lowest points and then jumped right up to some of the best points in my life. everything is constantly changing.

and as I've learned in the past, change is good.

I was quite organized when tracking these books. I wrote down the dates I finished reading them so I know in the future how long it's been since the last time I read one of these books (since I love rereading books so much).

but enough of that for now. here are the 29 books I read in 2010!

(the * before the number means it was the first time I read it)

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by: J.K. Rowling

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by: J.K. Rowling

*3. Vampire Academy

by: Richelle Mead

*4. Beautiful Creatures

by: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by: J.K. Rowling

6. The Hunger Games

by: Suzanne Collins

7. Catching Fire

by: Suzanne Collins

*8. City of Bones

by: Cassandra Clare

*9. City of Ashes

by: Cassandra Clare

*10. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

by: Rick Riordan

*11. City of Glass

by: Cassandra Clare

*12. Nightlight

by: Harvard Lampoon Editors

*13. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

by: Stephenie Meyer

*14. Shiver

by: Maggie Stiefvater

*15. Evermore

by: Alyson Noel

*16. Pretty Little Liars

by: Sara Shepard

*17. Sisters Red

by : Jackson Pearce

*18. Linger

by: Maggie Stiefvater

*19. Charlie St. Cloud

by: Ben Sherwood

20. Blue Bloods

by: Melissa de la Cruz

*21. Masquerade

by: Melissa de la Cruz

*22. Mockingjay

by: Suzanne Collins

*23. Clockwork Angel

by: Cassandra Clare

*24. I Am Number Four

by: Pittacus Lore

*25. Beautiful Darkness

by: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

*26. Secret Society Girl

by: Diana Peterfreund

*27. Under the Rose

by: Diana Peterfreund

28. The Host

by: Stephenie Meyer

*29. Witch & Wizard

by: James Patterson

I'm going to do my top five books of 2010 based on this list in the next post.

It was a wonderful year of reading. I'm so excited to continue this tradition in the future :)

Have you read any of these books?

Let me know if you want to discuss or hear my opinion on any of them. I love to share!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

break

I have been on winter break for a total of 4 days now.

It has been a gloriously relaxing 4 days.

my days have consisted of a lot of nothing.

since I haven't done much so far here's a little recap of finals week:

studying and lots of it.

math tutoring. not as much as I thought there would be.

procrastinating. more than anyone should be during finals week.

late night visits to the library. had to take advantage of the 2am closing time.

bits of stress and complaints about not wanting to study which can be included in the time of procrastinating.

watching the Bruins.

one meeting.

packing and cleaning.

the actual finals themselves.

and a partridge in a pear tree.

it was the fastest, slowest week ever!

that doesn't make much sense, but it's true.

I have 3 weeks of vacation until I move back to school on January 7th for winter orientation. you better believe I'm taking full advantage of this down time :)

there may have been some pictures involved in the process of finals week:

we have a thing for mustaches, but then again who doesn't?

(my awesome roommates Nicole on the left and Morgan on the right)

we were very serious about our studies in the library, really we were (after taking a couple pictures)

in the end we all survived finals week :)

tumblr

I have a tumblr!

I'm still working on figuring out how to use it to tell you the truth.

I'm not completely sure if I want to use it for any particular reason or just for some randomness that comes to mind.

you're welcome to follow me at

http://megwithanhan.tumblr.com/

:)

an interlude

The posts have been few and far between for a little while now.

Winter break is coming up very soon so hopefully I'll have some posts to share soon.

That is if I survive finals (please hope I make it through finals).

Christmas is going to be upon us in 2 weeks time and I need to get some Christmas cards out!!

If you're interested email me at:

meghano19[at]gmail[dot]com

I'm always around on twitter if anyone wants to say Hi or see what's going on in my life.

but until later, who's excited for Christmas???