Recently, I participated in a Facebook Live Q&A session with Kristina A Bishoff (the composer of the Green Rider book soundtrack) and during our call, someone asked us what some of our favorite books were.

Funnily enough, several months ago I had actually written this blog post, but had set it to the side as I wasn’t able to find a good time to post it. Well, since the fans on our Q&A session were curious, I figured it was time to pull this blog post back out and share it (luckily I hadn’t deleted the draft)!

Of course, some of these probably won’t be surprising (I don’t think it will come as a shock that I am a huge fantasy nerd), and some of them you’ve probably, like me, reread about 100 times. But maybe there’s a few on my list that you haven’t tried yet… in which case, here is your invitation to do nothing this weekend other than venture to Barnes and Noble (or Amazon.com…), followed by a trip to the comfiest couch in your home.

 

 

My favorite books (or series):

 

The Green Rider Series

You knew this was coming… right? I don’t think there is an explanation necessary, but in case you need some convincing, here are a few reasons to start reading book one (and then the rest of the series):

  1. www.greenriderbooksoundtrack.com
  2. Kristen Britain creates the… most real, most hilarious, and most inspiring novels I have had the pleasure of reading. I laugh, I stay up all night because I need to know what happens next, I get all blubbery in certain parts. It’s that kind of book. And yet, through all of the fantastical experiences and journeys, she still manages to make her characters so very relatable.
  3. Kristen is probably one of my favorite authors to follow because of how engaged she is with her fans. It really is nice to see when an author shows such appreciation for the people who support her.

On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G’ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount’s neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lay dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a “life and death” message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission “for love of country.” As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, “Beware the shadow man…”

Karigan’s promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

 

The Bridge of D’Arnath series

Really anything by Carol Berg…. but if someone were twisting my arm to pick a favorite of hers, it would have to be this series and the one that is next on my list. She writes the kind of books I could read over and over again and never tire of the story.

This review from Goodreads reviewer Shannon is the perfect summary for this particular series:

The Lady Seriana has exiled herself from all she knows and all she is accustomed to, though with good reason and no hesitation. Her husband Karon was brutally tortured and murdered for being a sorceror, and all their friends too. The only reason she was not also burnt at the stake was because her brother Tomas, the best friend and Champion of King Evard, has done that much for her. He did, however, murder her new-born baby. After all this tragedy, getting as far away from the city is the least she can manage. After ten years spent quietly at a cottage in the country, eating what she can grow, wearing the same clothes every day, her peaceful existence is shattered by the appearance of a man, naked and injured, mute and without memory, running from the King’s lieutenant Darzid and the soulless Zhid who come from another world.

 

 

The Collegia Magica series

Not only are Carol Berg’s worlds incredibly rich and detailed, making you feel completely engrossed in her stories, but the character development is unlike anything else I’ve read.

Here’s the Goodreads synopsis for the Collegia Magica series:

For Portier de Savin-Duplais, failed student of magic, sorcery’s decline into ambiguity and cheap illusion is but a culmination of life’s bitter disappointments. Reduced to tending the library at Sabria’s last collegia magica, he fights off despair with scholarship. But when the king of Sabria charges him to investigate an attempted murder that has disturbing magical resonances, Portier believes his dreams of a greater destiny might at last be fulfilled.

As the king’s new agente confide, Portier – much to his dismay – is partnered with the popinjay Ilario de Sylvae, the laughingstock of Sabria’s court. Then the need to infiltrate a magical cabal leads Portier to Dante, a brooding, brilliant young sorcerer whose heretical ideas and penchant for violence threaten to expose the investigation before it’s begun. But in an ever-shifting landscape of murders, betrayals, old secrets, and unholy sorcery, the three agentes will be forced to test the boundaries of magic, nature, and the divine.

 

The Harry Potter series

Obviously.

Duh.

What kid who lived through the early 2000’s wouldn’t have this series on their list of favorites? Let’s be real.

 

The Shadow series by Orson Scott Card

Ok, I love Ender’s Game. That’s probably actually my favorite of Orson Scott Card’s work. But as a series, I loved the Shadow series, which is the story of Ender’s Game (and beyond), retold from the perspective of the character Bean.

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In Ender’s Shadow, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean–the one who became Ender’s right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean’s past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School’s recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender….

 

 

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

I’ll be honest: my mom forced me to read this.

But once I did… it’s one of those books that just sticks with you, you know what I mean? One of my favorite quotes from the book: “This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”

If you need a reminder on how much there is to be grateful for and happy about in this life, this book should be the next one you pick up.

At one time Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that there would ever be a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life nothing at all out of the ordinary had ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her spinster sister and their elderly father in the tiny Dutch house over their shop. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another. However, with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, a story did ensue.

Corrie ten Boom and her family became leaders in the Dutch Underground, hiding Jewish people in their home in a specially built room and aiding their escape from the Nazis. For their help, all but Corrie found death in a concentration camp. The Hiding Place is their story.

 

And now it’s time to return the favor! I’m currently reading the Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and am quite enjoying it so far… but I’d love to know: what are your favorite books? Any I should pick up for my next couch potato session?