What are your favorite books to read?
Q&A With Shay Each Sunday
As we all may know you can’t really be a great writer or grow to your writing potential without…READING!
Q: What are your favorite books to read?
A: You might be able to guess that since I write young adult, my favorite genre to read is also young adult. I’d say probably mostly in the sub-genre of coming-of-age stories. However, I also love some good thrillers and suspense—adult and YA. My first YA novel Crashing Waves was a suspense story and Fractured is a coming-of-age story. So I guess it’s no surprise that I would also gravitate toward reading these genres. Sometimes I try to branch out and read some non-fiction or classics/literary, and maybe even a sappy romance, but I like what I like.
Some of my favorite YA books are: The Fault in our Stars and Looking for Alaska by John Green. He is just so profound! I also love Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher—the book and the series. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera. I also really LOLed a lot at the Carter Finally Gets It series by Brent Crawford (especially the first book). The list could go on plenty. I loved Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, definitely my favorite by her, though it’s more of a YA/Adult crossover.
As for other “Adult” books I love, to name a few: Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher. This one is full of AWESOME quotes. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (not usually a huge fan of historical fiction but this one was so beautiful and moving and I loved the structure). Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens, Defending Jacob by William Landay, and, of course, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
I really do believe the saying, “Too many books too little time.” There are so many amazing authors out there with an array of stories and beautiful writing. Since I work as an editor and writer I need to give my eyes and mind a break sometimes and I find myself less able to read as much as I’d like! But I’m always interested in recommendations, especially some new or hidden YA gem I haven’t heard about before or just haven’t gotten around to reading yet. Reading is cool. So are Netflix shows and stuff, and, like, when they make books into movies or a series. That’s super awesome. But I think we can usually agree: the book was better.
