7 Cool Books to Read ...

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I can’t imagine having a list of cool books that didn’t have this one included. I’ve read quite a few vampire-esque novels in the past, but this entire series surpasses them all. Tossing in the addition of friendly shape-shifting humans that change into wolves is an excellent touch. I’m sure everyone knows the main plot of this story. Bella moves from Arizona to Washington, switching from living with her mom to moving in with her dad, and ends up falling in love with a vampire. The series focuses on such a variety of occasions and always includes the constant conflict between Bella and Edward. She wants to be a vampire and he wants her to remain a human. The Twilight series is filled with a fantastic lot of characters and an amazing story line.

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Having owned a yellow lab at one time, whom my family and I were very attached to, I saw this book and immediately picked it up. I don’t usually read sentimental or even sad books, but this one is so good. Even if I did cry as I read it, I would definitely read it again! It’s a true story about the author and his family raising their yellow lab, Marley. Anyone who has raised Labrador Retrievers knows how active and neurotic these dogs can be. You can’t help but love them to pieces. I definitely recommend reading the book before watching the movie.

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As a teenager, I lived for the latest Stephen King book to appear on the book stands. Now that I’m older, I seem to read less disturbing and graphic horror novels and more whimsical one. I do remember this book being one of my favorites and I have a hardback edition that I won’t part with. It came out in the late 80s and was even made into a film in the early 90s. I never saw the film, since I like to remember the characters as I envisioned them. The story behind The Dark Half involves an author whose books aren’t doing very well. He begins to write under a pen name and starts to become more successful. Once everyone finds out that the pen name is actually him, he and his wife stage a sort of funeral for the fictional author. It then turns out that the killer the author created under his pen name has manifested himself physically and ends up going on a killing spree. Super eerie!

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I was perusing through the Young Adult fiction section at the local book store and spied this book. It’s the cover that attracted me to it. I have since read the following books in this series as well. There are seven out at the moment. The story revolves around a teenager named Artemis Fowl who is a criminal mastermind. It is very action packed and involves Artemis’ scheme to capture a fairy and receive his ransom of gold. This vague description of the plot might make it sound like a mild adventure book, but the descriptions of battles and such are very descriptive and sometimes gruesome.

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I had this book for almost a year before I ever read it. It’s been around since 1988 and has been translated into around 56 different languages. Thankfully one of them was English; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to have the chance of reading this work of literary excellence. It is also a very thin book, so I read it in one sitting. The story begins with a young shepherd from Spain who has the same dream over and over again. He feels that this is a prophetic dream and decides to follow what he sees in the dream. This leads him to Egypt in search of treasure. There is plenty of danger, disaster, opportunity, and love in this story.

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I picked this book up on a whim and it was the beginning of a never-ending love for the entire series. Here I thought I had found a book that maybe had a couple to follow it. Little did I know that there are around 20 and the Scottish author is still going strong. I was never big on murder mysteries, but this series involves an unlikely sleuth. She’s a sassy lady named Agatha Raisin who is always trying to meet the perfect man. The murders happen right at the beginning of each book and Agatha ends up solving the mystery by the end, but always accidentally.

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This was a completely random choice at the local library one day. The story starts off with a girl named Summerdai who decides to move away from her little medieval village after being told she cannot take over her mother’s ‘job’ in town. She packs up her small dowry and an unattractive ring her father left to her. It turns out the ring contains a portion of unicorn horn, which gives it magical properties. Summer is able to communicate with animals now and the ring also warns here about danger. Due to her recently gained connection with animals, she ends up with a whole troop of animals accompanying her on her journey. There is so much more that goes on in this book, once she finds a pig with bat wings!

I hope you find at least one or two in my list of 7 cool books to read that sound interesting. I usually find a lot at the local library, but then end up buying the truly excellent ones on Amazon or from some other online source. Have you read some good books that you think others should know about? What types of books do you tend to migrate towards?

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