Monthly Recommendations/T5W: Books You’re Thankful For

Since we’re in the month of Thanksgiving, I wanted to combine both of these groups since their topic was the same. These are books we’re thankful for and they could have any reason that we are grateful for them. These aren’t in any order, but here’s at least five books I’m grateful for experiencing 🙂

1. A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

I’ve been a cat person ever since I was a teenager. My mom, brother and I adopted a cat that was abandoned in our neighborhood. With having her with us, I truly learned what it meant to nurture and care for an animal. Since then, I’ve become a major animal advocate for adoption, learning about the bond between animals and humans and also being a great pet owner. This book also strengthened my faith in people and animals. James Bowen was struggling with his drug addiction and trying to make a living when he met Bob, a stray orange tomcat. If you love rescue stories, this warm your heart anytime of the year 🙂

2. Sabriel by Garth Nix

This isn’t a surprise to anyone who knows me or has followed my blog for a while. I picked up this book in my school library when I was 12 and the cover drew me in. After I read it, I’ve listened to or read this at least 3 times now. This is the story of Sabriel, whose father (the Abhorsen) gets kidnapped and taken into death. She then has to take up responsibility to become the next Abhorsen and fight the rising dead. This defined the kind of fantasy that I love today. I also don’t retain a ton of info about books when a long time goes by, but I’ve remembered how special this book and series is to me. (I still have my somewhat beat up mass market paperback edition) Garth Nix has said in many interviews how important this book was in the mid 1990’s; many books didn’t have a strong female protagonist like Sabriel. The only other authors at the same time were Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley and he’s talked about writing a story for young women and how to be strong. If you haven’t checked out this classic, please do 🙂

3. The Silver Kiss by Annette Kurtis Klause

First published in 1990, I also read this book when I was in my early teen years and it’s stayed with me now. I have read this book 6 times! I rarely re-read books more than twice, three times if I really forget stuff. This follows a  young girl whose mother is dying, her best friend is moving away and she meets a vampire. This is just a great story of two people who are suffering and find each other and help heal each other. It’s not instalove or really angsty at all. There is an evil they have to help face (still creeps me out to this day) but other than it’s a quiet story of how to finally accept change and let go.

4. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

When I read this book, like many of us, I had no idea that this stuff happened to Lithuania and other neighboring countries during WWII. It follows 15 year old Lina and her family as they suffer the horrors of long, claustrophobic trains, hunger, disease and labor camps in the arctic. I’m thankful for this book for teaching me something in history that I never knew about. But I’m also thankful for the author’s intentions to write this book. If look up an interview with the author, you’ll see how closely her family is connected to this tragedy and I highly recommend finding an interview where she talks about it. This also teaches us that there will be light in darkness 🙂

5. Hunted by Meagan Spooner

I still need to re-read this book again, but I just am so thankful for this book. When I listened to it clear back in March of this year, I had a personal and meaningful connection this book. Yeva as a character reminded me what it means to be kind, strong and selfless when there’s so much awful in this world. Yeva is a role model many younger readers need right now and this story, as well as the author’s note, reminded me of how to follow my dreams and even if you don’t know what you want, always keep looking and you’ll find it 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this list. What books are you thankful for? Have you read these books? Why are you thankful for certain books?