IT’S THANKSGIVING!!
I’m so excited. I love Thanksgiving. Not as much as Christmas but more than Halloween. I like being home and cozy and eating lots of good food and beginning Christmas celebrations and seeing friends and family.
What does Halloween have to offer compared to that?
Anyway. Because I love Thanksgiving I want to write a post about it. But because I am appreciating my time at home and also the film White Christmas (which is the best Christmas movie hands down no question), I’m going to do a relatively-brief-at-least-for-me-which-isn’t-saying-much post
So here are some books I’m grateful for!
The Annotated Alice
As everyone knows, I love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and am physically incapable of shutting up about it for even one second.
This book, in addition to just being a great reading experience, SOMEHOW MANAGED TO DEEPEN MY LOVE FOR THE ORIGINAL ALICE.
It did the impossible. And now I am even more insufferable. And also grateful for it.
The Raven Cycle
Also not surprising.
I am grateful for this book for a number of reasons:
- it restored my faith in YA
- these books are so magical
- the characters are lovely and I never love characters
- great villains
- amazing setting
- beautiful writing
But I’m mostly grateful because they brought Richard Gansey III into this world.
I’ll Give You the Sun
I am such trash for this book!!!
It is seriously so beautiful. It makes me feel SO MANY EMOTIONS AND THAT RARELY HAPPENS.
Am I saying I’m grateful for this book helping me to remember that I’m a person capable of feeling things?
Yikes.
But also it’s such a gorgeous story and it makes me remember that people and life and books are capable of being really beautiful.
Brazen
I AM SO GLAD THIS BOOK EXISTS.
I went on a huge feminist-collections-with-pretty-illustrations kick after this, but none quite lived up to this.
It’s just honestly really empowering to read a book that acknowledges there have always been amazing women, whether or not they were noted in their lifetimes, who are making huge changes, and those women are of all different ethnicities and abilities and economic classes and anyway it’s just amazing. I love this book so much and I’m extremely grateful for it.
Anna and the French Kiss
I know this book is trash. It’s got cheating and insta-friendships and normal-teenage-girl villainizing and drama and it’s so so so cheesy and cliché.
However.
I love it so much.
I could reread it a million times. It’s so comforting to me. I’ve read it at times when I’ve been really anxious or stressed or unhappy and it’s like a damn security blanket.
But if a security blanket involved hot French guys.
A Million Junes
I am well aware that it’s coming to the point where I basically talk about the same four books all the time. Just this book and Alice and The Raven Cycle and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
But I’m totally f*cking fine with that because THEY’RE THE BEST BOOKS EVER.
This book is so funny and magical and unique and the characters are amazing and so is the setting and the writing, but more than that it introduced me to the wonder of Emily Henry, who is now the great love of my life, obviously.
East of Eden
My gratitude for this book is occasionally overshadowed by my gratitude that it was a summer reading book when I was in high school, because I really can’t imagine another point at which I would be willing and/or able to pick up a six hundred page biblical retelling by John Steinbeck.
And this book is really gorgeous and what if I missed out on it!!! Can you imagine!!!
I want to reread this but will I? Could I? How? When???
Anyway. Timshel.
So there’s a small number of books I’m grateful for! Now I’m going to get dressed because it’s 2 p.m. and I’m wearing head-to-toe sweats.
I hope all you Americans have a happy Thanksgiving! And everyone else just has…a nice Thursday?
This is such a wonderful post! I love your list 😊 I’m grateful for The Raven Cycle too, for all the same reasons as you. I’m rereading the series right now and it’s amazing. I love all the characters so much 💕 I’ll Give You the Sun is also wonderful, it totally restored my faith in YA contemporary! I’m from Norway, so yup just a Thursday for me, but happy Thanksgiving! Food and family’s the best!
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thank you!!! i juuuust finished The Raven King and i can’t stop thinking about rereading the books. tbd.
omg samesamesame! i’ll give you the sun totally restored my faith in contemporary. i hope your regular thursday was great!!
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Happy Thanksgiving!! I’m thankful for good books too, and I totally agree with you about Anna! I really liked the first book of the raven cycle, but haven’t gotten into the second. I’m hoping to give it another try soon. Have fun at home!
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woo hope you had a lovely thanksgiving!!
the second Raven Cycle book is my least favorite in the series, but the third and fourth were both five star reads for me so if you make it through it’s worth it!! shoutout to anna ❤
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Ah, yess to including East of Eden to this list!! ❤ I’ve adored this book so much, it wasn’t a required read for me as I’m Romanian and all that, but I love Of Mice and Men and I thought I’d try another book by him. It was the best decision ever 😍
I haven’t read I’ll Give You The Sun yet, but everyone seems to talk about it, so I’ll just have to do it 😢 I hope I won’t dislike it because of the hype, I just have to like it since it sounds soo good 😆
Great post, happy thanksgiving!! ❤
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omg i so admire you reading Of Mice and Men (which is good but also sooo short) and then being able to decide to pick up East of Eden!! i have such long book fear.
i am praying the hype doesn’t ruin I’ll Give You the Sun for ya! it is so beautiful. hope you had a lovely thanksgiving!!
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YES the Raven Cycle series is amazing, I’m so happy you loved it!! Also, I’ll Give You the Sun is beautiful I completely agree.
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ahh the series that restored my faith in YA fantasy and the book that restored my faith in YA contemporary!
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Yeah, both genres make me nervous because there are a lot of less than stellar books in them. But gems like the Raven Cycle and I’ll Give You the Sun are why I keep reading them!😁
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yes yes yes! i totally agree (and also i can never quite give up my love of YA)
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Lovely post! I adore the Raven Cycle books so much! And I really need to read A Million June’s and I’ll Give you the Sun at some point! I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about them! 🤗
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thank youu!! they are both such gorgeous reads, i hope you love em if you pick them up
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I think i’m gonna try the Raven Cycle this winter 😀 You just reminded me that i still need to read this.
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oooh i hope you enjoy them!! they’re such unique & cool reads
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Happy thanksgiving to you! I’m so thankful for TRC too; I might be confused 99% of the time, but that series is just magical ❤
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omg “confusing but magical and i love it” = perfect blurb for the series
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I am eternally grateful to Anna and the French Kiss . The book has made me fallen in love with Paris 💕
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ooh Paris in anna and the french kiss (and in real life) is amaaaaazing
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when I turn 20 I am going to Paris 💕
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I love Alice in Wonderland ❤ thanksgiving is the best because food is the best happy thanksgiving ❤
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sooo true. hope you had a happy thanksgiving!!!
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I am immensely greatful to have ignored my hipster brain and gave into The Raven Boys frenzy – I just need to find the time to continue the series but hell, it was gorgeously atmospheric and magical.
“I know this book is trash. However. I love it so much.” Hahaha oh girl, I got you, I got you xD
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oh my god seriously every comment from you i somehow love you more. SO GLAD you started + enjoyed the raven boys!!! even gladder to be sooo understood
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i SO called alice, the raven boys, and a million junes BUT I DIDNT KNOW YOU LOVED ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. im genuinely scared to reread it bc i read it back when i was very new to ya contemp and i LOVED it, cheese and all, so many worries BUT I LOVE THAT YOU LOVE IT TOO
i hope you had a great day and the turkey wasn’t too dry ❤
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MAY IT’S SO BAD. but i trust you to both remain aware that it’s bad and also adore it. IT’S THE CHEESY BEST i hope you reread it and re-love it
i hope all of your days are great days ❤ ❤ ❤
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OH MY GOD. WHITE CHRISTMAS. EMMA. THE “SNOW” SCENE???? I’M OVERWHELMED. OUR FRIENDSHIP IS ETERNALLY STRONG.
as soon as u mentioned it i just,,,,,”snow” “sNoW” snowww” “SNOW” ///it won’t be long before we’re there with ~~~~snow~~~~///////
+ The villains in TRC were so good????? I wasn’t expecting to love them so much, but the married couple && that one assassin dad man??!! THEY WERE SO INTERESTING.
++my goal for December is to read Emily Henry, I have no excuses whatsoever
+++ I love East of Eden so much, and I don’t know why bc my favorite brother, Charles, lives (pretty much) a shitty life skdj Also poor Tom!!!??????? that poor sunshine.
it’s so much better than Grapes of Wrath && I want to read Cannery Row so much
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OH MY GOD MALANIE. every time i think i can’t love you more you PROVE THAT THE AMOUNT IS LIMITLESS
~~~i want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snowwww~~~ god best movie!!!!
THE VILLAINS IN TRC ARE BOUNDLESS AMOUNTS OF INTERESTING
plz plz plz read emily henry…also she read this blog post and i’m eternally fangirling about it
guh i need to reread east of eden b/c it’s so gorgeous and i barely remember it and that is a sin
i’ve never read grapes of wrath but i alsooooo want to read cannery row very badly………….
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