Best of the Bunch Award: August

Best of the Bunch is a monthly award ceremony started at Lyrical Reviews that spotlights the absolute best book read each month. There are no rules about what kind of book is has to be, except that it had to knock your socks off so hard that you just want to tell the whole world about it. If you’d like to participate, you can read all about it here. This seems like such a fun idea and a great way to discover amazing new books each month. Thanks to Lyrical for inviting me to participate in such an awesome meme!

I’m actually semi-cheating (I know I probably shouldn’t be doing that my first time participating, oops), but I can’t pick just one book for August. And I’m justifying picking two because one of them doesn’t come out in the US until February. So it wouldn’t really be fair for me to only gush about a book that isn’t out for six more months, right? Plus, both of my picks are so amazing that even if they WERE both out, I wouldn’t be able to choose between them.

My first Best of the Bunch pick…

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

For those who don’t know, this is the sequel/companion to If I Stay, which is also absolutely fantastic. And for that reason, I’m not going to post the summary. It gives away too much from the first book, and I really just want you to go and read both of them. Right now.

I’m picking Where She Went because I can’t remember the last time that a book tugged so hard on my heartstrings and left me feeling SO MUCH. I literally couldn’t start another book for several days after finishing it, which is highly unusual for me. I just wasn’t ready to leave the world; I wanted to soak in it for as long as I possibly could. I’m also really in love with the cover; I think it’s just gorgeous.

My second pick (out  in February 2012 )…

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she’s going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He’s out there somewhere – spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night – and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy’s stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she’s managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they’re suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

This book is just perfection. Everything comes together so seamlessly: the characters, the plot, the execution, the writing… Oh my, the writing. It is gorgeous. So so gorgeous. Cath Crowley has such a gift for words, and her descriptions and characterizations are flawless. I want to crawl inside this novel and live there, or failing that, I want to tattoo these words all over my body so they’ll always be with me. I can’t praise this woman enough. I’m currently on a mission to get my hands on everything she’s ever written.

Well, there you have it. My two Best of the Bunch picks for August, both of which are amazing and highly highly recommended reads. And now that I’ve distributed my bananas, what were your favorite reads from August?