Ladybug Storytime Review

Thank you Kristina at Ladybug Storytime for reading Celia on the Run and sharing your thoughts on your blog. So glad you enjoyed it! http://ladybugstorytime.blogspot.com/ I'm in awe of readers and bloggers who can take on a book, read it, and are then able to write their own personal and original thoughts about it. This is something I have a hard time doing myself, but really want to work on. I love to read, I read quite a lot of books, but I never write reviews because I have a difficult time talking about other people's work, regardless of whether I enjoyed the story or not so much. Can't explain why that is! One of my goals this year is to start getting comfortable writing reviews, and by the end of the year, I'd like to have accomplished 10. Seems doable, seems like it should be pretty straightforward, but I promise you I'll get writers block when I sit down and try to write words about a story I read & loved. I do think reviews are extremely helpful when I'm looking for my next read, so I feel like such a slacker for not contributing. Going to change that this year!

My Top Ten

It's always exciting to hear someone out there enjoyed reading Celia on the Run at the 5 out of 5 star level! A big thank you to Taeesha from a blog called A Diary of a Book Addict for her wonderful review of my debut novel. Check out her spoiler-free write up here: http://adiaryofabookaddict.blogspot.com/2012/11/celia-on-run-by-sarah-mandell-book.html# I'll admit I'm very stingy with giving out 5 stars myself so I feel totally honored here. Most books I read are 3 or 4 stars (which is good!). I enjoyed them immensely but didn't finish the book thinking, "Man, that was really and truly the best book I've ever read". So what are the best books I've ever read? Here's my top ten favorite books of from the last few years, in no particular order:

The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall

My Name is Memory by Anne Brashers

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker Thompson

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith

Dash & Lilly's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern