Top 5 Books Of All Times

After my last post about the Top 5 books by Stephen King, I thought it might also be a good idea to do one about the Top 5 books ever – please note that this is just my personal opinion and what I think at this point of my life.

1. Stephen King – Pet Sematary

What a surprise. You can read my full opinion here https://dreamtraveler86.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/top-5-books-by-stephen-king/ where this book has also the first place in my favourite Stephen King reading list. Basically, no matter how much my taste in books will shift in the future, this one will be always be the biggest book love of my life, because it’s the one that started my madness for King and reading in general.

2. Cody McFadyen – Shadow Man

What can I say about this? If you generally love horror movies and books that are brutally detailed and cruel – Cody McFadyen is your man. This was the first books he ever wrote, and the 2nd one that I read (after “Face Of Death”) – and boy, I will never regret it. For me, there are barely really compelling books out there, books that grab you, pull you into their story and don’t let go until you’re finished with the last page of it – this book did that with me. And more importantly, it was the moment I started writing on my own book a few years back because I was so inspired by McFadyen’s writing skills and his ability to reach out to his readers in ways not many authors nowadays are able to.
I absolutely love the story behind Smoky Barrett in general: she has been tortured, her face has been scarred for life, and a psychopathic murderer killed her husband and daughter, leaving her no other option than shooting him in cold blood. Nevertheless, she stood up again, walked back to her job and did what she does best, and that’s quite inspiring for me (even if I would never wish the horrors her character has been through, or other characters in McFadyen’s book for myself), because behind all the layers of gruesome, bloody and life-scarring proceedings, all the fall-backs Smoky and her colleagues/friends are facing through the story, they all never give up. Combined with the suspense that never leaves the reader with this book – what more can you wish for?

3. Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games Trilogy

I know this isn’t just one book mentioned, but when mentioning “The Hunger Games”, you can’t just go with one of them, can you? My favourite by far is the first one – first book I read in less than a day because I just couldn’t put it away (don’t ask me how I was able to work 8 hours that day and managing my own household). Suzanne Collins had me from the first moment I started reading, and I absolutely admire her writing skills, her passion (that you feel in every sentence), and her seemingly inexhaustible imagination. Sadly, I was a bit…”deprived” of imagining the looks of Katniss and all the characters or the districts because I only started reading the books when the first pictures of the first movie were released, but I think I can easily get over that, because it didn’t diminish the joy and excitement I felt while reading. Or, for that matter, the joy and excitement I feel whenever I re-read them over and over again.

4. Chris Carter – The Crucifix Killer

When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in the middle of Los Angeles National Forest, Homicide Detective Robert Hunter finds himself entering a horrific and recurring nightmare. Naked, strung from two wooden posts, the victim was sadistically tortured before meeting an excruciatingly painful death. All the skin has been ripped from her face – while she was still alive. On the nape of her neck has been carved a strange double-cross: the signature of a psychopath known as the Crucifix Killer. But that’s impossible. Because two years ago, the Crucifix Killer was caught and executed. Could this therefore be a copycat killer? Or could the unthinkable be true? Is the real killer still out there, ready to embark once again on a vicious and violent killing spree, selecting his victims seemingly at random, taunting Robert Hunter with his inability to catch him? Hunter and his rookie partner are about to enter a nightmare beyond imagining. (Source: amazon.com)

When I read this description on the back of the book while I was strolling through a book store while waiting for my bus home – I was instantly in love. I have never experienced that already the back of a book gripped me so tight and screamed “BUY ME! BUY ME!” loudly into my ear.
And Chris Carter definitely didn’t disappoint me. What I especially love about the book is the beginning: it begins at the end. I can’t say much to not give away the story, but the reader is already sucked into the world of Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia, his partner when you read the first paragraph; it’s like you are fast-forwarded to the end of something and feel the constant need to know how on earth the two main characters got themselves into their mess. Plus, the little puns between Hunter and Garcia are highly entertaining, and they pull you out of the horrors that they are facing every day with just some teasing comments about Hunter not having problems in hustling women and Garcia being kind of “prudish”. This is what makes this book one of my favourites and Chris Carter definitely one of the best crime-fiction writers that are out there – in my opinion.

5. Laurence Rees – Auschwitz-A New History

Now how does this book possibly fit into this line of great story-telling books? For starters: Laurence Rees is telling a story, the story of Auschwitz, about what was really going on behind the scenes of this Nazi killing machinery. Never has a book about the Third Reich sucked me in as much as this one; especially the part about the poor french, jewish children that were taken away from their parents and had to suffer in more than one concentration camp, just to end up in Auschwitz anyway. Rees is definitely not soft-pedaling in the way he describes all the horrors in the almost 4 years Auschwitz existed, and for me, this is the exact right way to handle this subject – because there are still way too many people out there who think the Holocaust was just a huge lie put up by the enemies of the Nazi-Regime. Also, the book contains not only interviews with survivors of Auschwitz, but most importantly, interviews with former members of Hitler’s circle of murderous, faithful subjects. It seems inconceivable to read about these people describing how they perceived the entire situation, how less sympathy they feel for their victims. You’re tend to feel so much hate, but at the same time, Laurence Rees tries explaining the reasons for their behaviour, which, for me, makes it even more interesting. If you’re as interested in the entire Holocaust History (and the 3rd Reich in general) like I am, you always crave to finally understand all the real motivations behind the Nazi-Regime and their concentration camps – and this book definitely helps a bit with that. For me, the best book about this subject I’ve read so far.

There are a lot of other books that should be in here – “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn, for example, or one of the amazing books by Karin Slaughter, – but the ones in this post inspired me the most. If you have read them or not, if you plan on reading them or not, that is totally up to you, because, above all, do what makes you happy. And read what you enjoy the most.

Book Review: Veronica Roth – “Divergent”

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. (Source: amazon.com)

I started reading this book only because one of my best friends,  Sarah, told me about it while we were texting, said it was amazing. And I have to admit, when I read a sample – meaning the first two chapters of it -, I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it sounded promising, on the other, there was something that didn’t quite convince me I should invest my money into it. Plus, it all sounded to me like a cheap version of “The Hunger Games”, a book series I absolutely adore. Then, after two weeks of stalling the inevitable, I downloaded the entire series – containing three books – onto my Kindle. Risky.

It was one of the best decisions on a book I have ever made.

I did not expect anything when I started the 1st book 3 days ago, because as I said, it seemed too similar to “The Hunger Games”. Young girl confused about who she is, growing up in a country where she’s kind of hidden of the real world, raised to pigeonholing…my thoughts were all over Katniss Everdeen. But Veronica Roth surprised me.

A first big plus about this series: the names. I mean, I absolutely love “The Hunger Games”, it’s by far my favourite book series, but the names just never grew to me at all, because obviously they’re all made up, there’s nobody in the world with the kind of names people are dealing with in the books. The names in “Divergent” are normal, which, for me, made it easier to get into the story itself. You can picture the life of the characters way more easily when you hear familiar names. That’s my thought, at least.

Also, the dystopian world the story is set in is not that far from reality as you might think, because I think a world where – as a punishment for things that happened decades ago – kids are put into a arena to fight each other to death is way less realistic than a world where a country is divided in 5 different parts with 5 different…”tribes”, as I started calling the factions in my head, with each “tribe” having their own principles, rules and own “infrastructures”.

Second plus: the protagonist, Beatrice Prior, is  lot like the usual girl. She’s insecure, she puts her family and friends before herself (even if it’s the education and the principles of her faction), and due to her not being very noticeable, she is an easy target. She has learned to duck instead of speaking up for herself. But during the story, she changes; she gets stronger, she starts thinking more of herself, if not all the time, but a lot more than she was raised to do. And for the first time she feels like home when she dives more and more into her new family, the Dauntless., and their traditions and rules.

Of course there is a love story, but I what I really like about this book is that it’s not being the most important thing, that unlike “The Hunger Games”, it’s not Beatrice’s love life that’s in the focus, but her struggles with enemies who only see her as a weakling, and struggles with herself about her decision to abandon her family. Even death finds its way into her new life, and although her strength, her will and her bravery is tested more than once due to that, although she’s being thrown on her back more than once, (including attempted murder, betrayal and suicide), she never gives up. Confusion is omnipresent with Beatrice, especially when it comes to one of her instructors, who everyone only calls “Four” – and whom she is attracted to, something the reader can feel from the first moment she meets him. Of course, at one point, the mystery about his real name and his past is put out in the open for the reader, and that is the only thing that kind of…not disappointed me, but definitely didn’t leave me in awe. I wasn’t surprised at all when Four reveals himself to Beatrice; to me, it was kind of predictable and I would’ve wished for Veronica Roth to be more surprising with that mystery. But that is only a little flaw in an otherwise flawless book, and it won’t be a reason for me to not read it again.

I really had difficulties to put this book away, I have to admit, especially during the middle and to the end of it, when the tension between Beatrice and her opponents – Peter, one of the other initiates and Eric, the youngest leader of the Dauntless, both ruthless and reckless through and through, – rise with every new day. And all the feelings Beatrice goes through – trust, mistrust, disappointment, shock, anger, the will to survive -, people can relate to easily, at least in my opinion. You might think this is a book for teenagers, due to the character’s young age, but I definitely don’t think so, because just as “The Hunger Games”, it’s quite cruel in some parts. And at the end, you just want to know how the story goes on now that Beatrice’s life has been turned completely upside down.

Thumbs up from me. If you haven’t read it yet (or struggle yourself with doing it, just as I did at first), my only advise: get over your fear of being disappointed (be Dauntless, so to speak) and let that book take you in. I promise, you won’t regret it.