Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I’ve Read Recently

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is 10 Of My Most Recent 5 Star Reads or Top Ten Of The Best Books I’ve Read Recently. Since I rarely give a book a 5 star rating, I’m going with the latter.

I’ve added some stipulations for this list. I didn’t include sequels and if the book made it onto last week’s list of books I loved but don’t talk about enough, I kept it off this list in order to avoid repetition (I also held some of these books off last week’s list because I knew I’d be talking about them this week).

1. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch – This book got me out of the reading slump I’ve been in the last couple months. It’s a great fantasy with a little bit of Oceans Eleven mixed in. I loved it.
2. The Witches, Salem 1962 by Stacey Schiff – Thankfully this book was just as good as I was hoping it would be. I couldn’t wait to read Schiff’s account of the Salem Witch Trials, given my personal connection to that piece of history. I found Schiff’s writing style and extensive research made for an interesting read.
3. The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher – I’m a huge fan of Butcher’s Dresden Files, so I couldn’t resist reading the first novel in his new steampunk series. The world Butcher has created is huge, and I really had a lot of fun reading this book. I can’t wait to see where the series goes from here.
4. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – This is probably one of my favorite YA novels of last year. I loved the multi-media aspect of the book – the fact that it’s told as a collection of recovered documents, transcripts, etc. instead of in the standard novel format.
5. The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin – I haven’t read many middle grade novels, but this one was terrific. It was heartfelt, and honest and I loved the protagonist.
6. The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick – This book reminded me a lot of Sarah Addison Allen’s novels; a light, fun and easy read with just the right amount of magical realism thrown in. The fantastical elements made this a really pleasant read and it’s a perfect book for fall (not that you should wait until then to read it if you you’re interested).
7. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon – I usually prefer my YA reading with some sort of fantasy/scifi aspect to it, but I really enjoyed this novel. I loved the characters and the story. If you’re a fan of John Green, I highly recommend this book, which I found even better than The Fault in Our Stars.
8. Armada by Ernest Cline – This may not have quite lived up to Ready Player One, but I still really enjoyed Cline’s follow-up. It was engaging and fun, and a great read for nerds like me. Sure, at times it felt like he may have been trying to hard to put those references in there, but they still made it a lot of fun.
9. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George – This was probably one of my favorite reads of 2015. I loved this book about a man who decides to take his floating bookshop on a trip. I loved the characters and the references to books. This is a great read for booklovers like me.
10. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller – This was an interesting read; it’s different from the post-apocalyptic fiction I’m used to reading, but I still really enjoyed it.

There’s some of the best books I’ve read recently. What books are on your list?