My Top Books of 2017




Hey guys! I know it's already quarter into the year of  2018, but here I am with my top picks of books I've read in 2017. I've categorised them roughly by genre so you can go seek them out if any of them catches your eye! Hope this was helpful :)

Top Chick Lit:

The Secret Ways of Perfume
by 


 

Have you guys read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (also adapted into movie)? If you have, I'm sure you understand the allure of perfume. I absolutely loved the book Perfume, mostly because it left such a strong impression on me. (I know it was disgusting in some ways because of the murders, but mostly it was really fascinating to me.)

Since then, I have been on the lookout for more perfume stories. This book is a perfect blend of romance and a little bit of mystery. It may drag on sometimes here and there, but overall I definitely enjoyed the whole premise and would recommend it.




I was attracted to this book for two reasons - the bright cheery cover, and that the plot included gardening. A widow renegotiates life with the help of gardening and the people around her in this story. This is a rather fast and enjoyable read, though sometimes sad.



Top Fantasy:


I gave this five stars. I certainly did not expect to come across such a delightful read. What a gem! An original, fun adventure with richly painted scapes and strong characters with depth. I was very impressed. Would read again just to take a leaf out of her book when I attempt to write my own novel again.

Top Mystery/Thriller:

Journey Under the Midnight Sun
by 

However, it was so worth it to finally unravel all the mysteries within it once you get through this tome.  

I appreciate how the dynamics of a group is explored here, it's what makes the book so delicious as it is. Five stars for great storytelling! 

Top Autobiography


Really enjoyed reading this! Jahren made science concepts approachable and easy to understand for the layman. What I liked the most were her personification of different plants, giving them such lively characters and enabling readers to connect with, or at the very least be more interested in plants, which are usually thought of as insentient beings.

Because maybe plants do care about others, just that they just do not care about us humans.

Below are some of my favourite quotes I collected from the book:

"My laboratory is like a church because it is where I figure out what I believe. The machines drone, a gathering hymn as I enter."

"A seed is alive while it waits."

"Each beginning is the end of a waiting. We are each given exactly one chance to be. Each of us is both impossible and inevitable. Every replete tree was first a seed that waited."

"The first real leaf is a new idea. As soon as a seed is anchored, its priorities shift and it redirects all its energy toward stretching up. As the tiniest plant in the forest, it has to work harder than everything above it ,all the while enduring a misery of shade."

"One new idea allowed the plant to see a new world and draw sweetness out of a whole new sky." (on the cactus developing the spine from the leaf)

"A vine makes it up as it goes along. They do not play by the rules of the forest: they place their roots in one optimal spot and grow their leaves elsewhere, a different optimum, usually several trees over. Vines steal. They steal patches of light left unattended and rivulets of rain. Vines do not enter into apologetic symbiosis, but instead grow bigger at every opportunity, a dead scaffold being just as good as a living one.

Vines are not sinister; they are just hopelessly ambitious. They are the hardest-working plants on Earth. Vines are evergreen, which means that they never take a day off: no long winter vacation like the deciduous tree that they have laboriously scaled. On top of everything, vines do not flower and bear seed until they reach the open sun above the canopy of the forest, and therefore only the strongest have ever survived."

"For trees that live in the snow, winter is a journey. Plants do not travel through space as we do: as a rule they do not move from place to place. Instead they travel through time, enduring one event after the other, and in this sense, winter is a particularly long trip."

Highly recommended for anyone with the slightest interest or fondness for plants and all things green.

Other books that were fun to read:

The Unseen World

Dramatic fiction about a daughter looking for clues on what her scientist dad left her.

The Hating Game 

by 

I don't need to introduce Neil Gaiman to you guys, do I? :)

A Separate Peace

An American classic about friendship and tragedy,
A fun-filled adventure with a premise of a 'virus' in the form of a .wav file! 

The Bear and the Nightingale 


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