22) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- JK Rowling

Ah, the book that started it all. I remember not being able to get through this book when I was in the fourth or fifth grade. Why was I on chapter four and he STILL hadn't ended up at this mythical school that would teach him how to dominate in the wizarding world? Why did I spend the entire first chapter learning about a lurking cat? Then I was forced to listen to it on tape during a long car drive and proceeded to ask myself why I was such an idiot for not just reading it. It's okay.

Anywho, we all know what happens. Harry has been hidden from the wizarding world and has been left with the Dursleys. They're awful people and when he turns eleven, Harry finds out he's a wizard when Hagrid comes bursting through the door. Just before the clock strikes eleven, he meets the Weasley family and soon a friendship blossoms with his (mostly) faithful sidekick, Ron. 

We all know how it goes. We've all read the books and seen the movies. But reading them now, just weeks before the final chapter hits movie theaters...it's a bit weird, to be honest. Here we are, over a decade later and these books still hold up. You still feel yourself smiling when they save Hermoine from the troll, you still get mad when it turns out it isn't Snape that's trying to get to the stone and you still wish you could high five Neville for gaining those last ten points for Gryffindor. By the time you close the last page, you find yourself looking at the clock and wondering if you could read the first two or three chapters of the next one before you fall asleep. 

It's like being in elementary school all over again (in the best way).

21) By Nightfall-Michael Cunningham

This was a random purchase. I had wanted to read it, but never really felt like buying it. Sadly, a bookstore was closing near me. Fortunately, there were copies of this and since the stack under my arm was already teetering, I figure it would be okay if I just stacked another one on the top. I was intrigued by the fact that it was about the New York art world. I rarely read books about the art world (however, I would like to and will take suggestions) and thought it would be quite interesting. Plus, he wrote A Home at the End of the World.

The book focused on New York art dealer Peter Harris. He's married to Rebecca who runs an art magazine, they have a daughter named Bea who for some inexplicable reason hates him and Rebecca's drug-addict brother Ethan (nicknamed Mizzy for "The Mistake") is coming to stay for an undecided amount of time. Peter and Rebecca have settled into a routine that Peter isn't sure he likes anymore. It's all the same and he wonders if his unhappiness with it shows. When Mizzy comes to stay, things seem to go topsy-turvy and Peter sort of starts to lose it. He begins to evaluate everything happening in his life and wonders how it is he can change it, if at all. Why does his daughter despise him? What is beauty? Why do I feel this way? Does Rebecca feel the same way as I do about our now stagnant lives?

I liked this book. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Despite a few of his other books getting the movie treatment, I'm not entirely sure this is one that should be made into a movie. This book was also far more erotic than I could have anticipated. Not that there's any problem with sex or sexual feelings, it was just not something I was anticipating being so detailed in this book as often as it was. Despite it being about the art world, it wasn't necessarily the focus of the story. I was looking for a bit more, but it was still nice when they talked about it.

I thought it was a good read. It just wasn't necessarily my favorite.

20) Bumped-Megan McCafferty

This is a book I was seriously looking forward to. Being such a big Jessica Darling fan, I wanted to see what her next series would be all about. Needless to say, this book was a bit like crack. I could NOT put this down. At one point, I put my phone in another room because I was annoyed that people were talking to me and trying to be my friend. That's how fantastic this book was.

Told between the perspectives of identical twin sisters Melody and Harmony, we learn that by 2036, all humans go completely barren by the time they reach 18-20 owing to a virus. This makes teenagers the hottest commodity seeing as they are fertile and essentially the only hope there is for keeping the human race alive. Melody has one of the best contracts with a leading surrogate agency, but because the couple who hired her have such high standards, she has yet to "bump" with anyone and is almost reaching the age where the virus will soon take over. As if that wasn't enough, the twin sister she barely knows (Harmony) shows up from Goodside (the church settlement that adopted her) and threatens Melody's life in many ways. If people found out that there were identical, ideal and fertile twins, it could cause Melody to lose her contract, thereby rendering all the work her parents have put into making her the perfect specimen completely meaningless while simultaneously ruining her future as well. How will Melody and Harmony deal with this? Why did Harmony run away from Goodside in the first place?

It's a very interesting read. It's quite topical as well. With the media being so obsessed with shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom (okay, I AM guilty with that one), I'm glad someone sat down and thought, "Well, what if ONLY teenagers could get pregnant? What if they were our only hope for humanity? What would that be like?" They are very interesting questions that at one point, we may have all asked ourselves. 

However, getting to the end of this book just made me really mad. There's a massive cliffhanger and the next one won't be coming out until next YEAR. How am I supposed to wait that long? Ah, well. There are always more books!

19) The Jane Austen Book Club-Karen Joy Fowler

Confessions must be made, kids. I am, in fact, a Jane Austen-ite. I'm not a member of any sort of society, club or underground cult. However, if I spot a book that in any way relates to Jane Austen (with the exception of a few weird spin-offs), I will more likely than not place them on the already tumbling stack under my arm. This book is the one that started this awful, downward spiral that has now spread to my friends. Whether or not they thank me for that is not something for me to answer.

Despite my aversion to rereading books as often as possible (there are far too many books to only read a few over and over until the spine breaks), I can't help rereading this one. It makes me really happy. I've also done all that I can to sneak the movie adaptation into every movie night with any friend. It happens.

Anyway, a hodge-podge group of six people get together to form the All Jane Austen All the Time Book Club. Though it's meant as a distraction for only one of their members, it turns out that each member has a problem that needs a distraction. Each person chooses one of the six novels and each section of the book focuses on that character and the discussion they have on that book. The characters are so lovable and all so different. They each learn and grow through the novels and discussion. It's absolutely fantastic.

As I said, this is also a movie and if you feel as if you'd rather watch the movie instead of reading the book (shame on you), then go for it. Both are absolutely wonderful. It wasn't until I read this book in high school that I even thought to read Jane Austen. Thank god I did read this book because I would be hopelessly lost without the romance, the leading men and the swept away feeling each one gives you. If you want to read a Jane Austen, read Persuasion. It's my favorite.

18) A Visit From the Goon Squad-Jennifer Egan

I have been pretty excited to write about this. After I read this, I wanted to tell everyone I knew to read this book. Even if they didn't like reading, I wanted to force this book down their throats. I loved this book THAT much.

The book starts with Sasha, an assistant at a record label in New York City. She's on a date with a guy named Alex who is new to the city. Each new chapter introduces us to someone related to the character from the previous chapter. It starts in the present and weaves between now, the eighties, the nineties and ends in the future. It's a bevy of interesting characters that you end up feeling sympathy for at one point in their tale. I only note that because they really aren't the nicest characters when their stories begin. 

As much as I love this book, I'm finding it difficult to really get into it. For whatever reason, it seems to be really difficult to describe. It's a wonderful story that's pulsing with music on every page. At certain points, you find yourself wanting to deck yourself out fully in leather and stud everything to hell and back. Okay, that happened only once or twice, but who's counting? The characters are interesting and once you get beyond the first few chapters and get into the groove, it's incredibly hard to put down. 

I certainly see how this recently won the Pulitzer for Fiction this year. It's gripping in every way. I honestly cannot recommend this book enough.

17) This Lullaby-Sarah Dessen

Look, I did warn you that there would be a lot of her work on here. I'm learning that maybe the young adult section that I once feared may not be so bad after all. Actually, I'm still pretty scared of it, but as long as I stay away from the supernatural parts, I might be okay.

As I said, many of my friends are pretty big Sarah Dessen fans. When I alerted them that I would be reading another one and then told them the title, almost all of them were so excited I was finally reading their favorite. Well, that didn't put this book up to any sort of standard or anything.

This time around, we meet Remy. She's finalizing the plans for yet another one of her mother's weddings. When she goes to collect a check from the groom-to-be, Don, a guy named Dexter practically slams her into the wall and says he felt drawn to her. Having a pret-ty bad outlook on men, love and relationships (she has a flawless system that always sees her as the victor) because of her mother's frequent trips down the aisle, she ignores him. Besides, she's going all the way across the country to Stanford in the fall. Who needs a boyfriend for the summer after she graduates high school? Of course, this chance encounter bulldozes into her life and starts to shake her perfectly constructed world at her feet.

While I did really like this book, it was harder to get through than the others. I was annoyed with how much of a bitch Remy could be when something started to shift in a way that she didn't like. Then again, the character and her friends do warn us on more than one occasion that this was simply how she was. Dexter is easily my second favorite love interest, though. To all of my friends who feel differently, I'm sorry. I still love Macon Faulkner the best and Someone Like You is still my favorite.

16) The Sixty-Eight Rooms-Marianne Malone

This is another one I had been eying for quite some time. As I have lived just outside Chicago for all of my life, I have frequented the Art Institute and of course, the room of miniatures. After reading this book, I have learned these are called the Thorne Miniatures Rooms. Clearly, I was paying a whole lot of attention on all of those class field trips. Money well spent, Mom.

The morning Ruthie wakes up thinking her life is even less than ordinary, her best friend finds a key in the corridor of the Art Institute that makes it extraordinary. When Jack touches the key, nothing special happens. When Ruthie takes the key to examine it, she suddenly feels heat racing through her body and winding encircling her. The next thing she knows, she's roughly five inches tall. After releasing the key, she grows back to her normal height and stares into Jack's bewildered, yet excited, expression. Was it possible to sneak into the museum after hours and examine the rooms she had come to fall in love with? What lurks beyond the interior of the rooms? Did the magic of the key extend beyond the walls and transport her back to the time period of the room? Was it possible for Jack to accompany her?

Ah, so many questions raised. What I think I liked most about this book WAS the fact that it was about something I had seen so many times in my life. It made me want to go back and look at this permanent exhibit from a completely different perspective. It made you wonder what it would be like to actually be able to walk through those rooms. And then it made me want to find a mythical, magical key and find out for myself how fantastic interior design was in Paris just before the French Revolution, early colonial America, medieval England and ancient China. Sadly, I feel I would have no such luck.