Okay, so today we're gonna be talking about my favorite standalones. Every year in December i
update my favorite authors, favorite series and favorite standalones. They always change a little
bit because i always read some new favorites, which i love and i hope that every year i get to
re-do these videos, continue to find new favorites. We already did
favorite authors and favorite series and today we're going to do a favorite standalones. Okay,
just like in the other videos i'm just going to go ahead and start from the top and work my way
down. We're gonna do the top six again because apparently i can't choose top fives anymore.
And my top number one favorite book of all time is still Peter Pan. I'm currently very slowly
doing a re-read of Peter Pan so you will get a dedicated review for it soon. Finally. This
is actually the first classic that i read when i decided, "Hey. I haven't read very many classics.
Maybe i should try them out." and fell in love with classics. That probably has something to
do with it, but also just the book itself means so much to me. I love the whimsy of the world
as well as the darkness of the world, the hidden darkness in this story. I love Peter Pan for how
silly and and childlike he is, but also how deep his character is. He's a little brat
and he's hurting. And technically i guess you could call this not a standalone because
there is Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens which i have read, but it was written as a standalone
so should it count? No? It's here and i will be talking about Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens when
i do review this book, do the... finally do the deep dive of why it means so much to me because
that and it actually... it did. It did add to the story despite me not liking it. Anyway,
i love their journey that they go on. I love the adventure that they get into. I love the world. I
love the way he wrote it, but more than anything i love the ending! Um, it's something that
i think was very intentional the way he wrote it and it was supposed to be pulled on. Oh
it's hard to write... it's hard to talk about spoiler free. It's something that i think he
was very intentional with the way he ended it and it's an ending that has spoken to me a lot
so we'll talk about it soon. I promise. I know i've been saying that all year, but i'm actually
rereading it now so we'll talk about it soon. Next on my list, you may be surprised to hear,
is going to be The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, And The Horse. Uh, i'm gonna do a re-read
of this really soon too. I'm gonna re-read it with my son. I read it with my son the
first time. So this is a book that is formatted for children but really written for everybody.
So it has these very simple yet beautiful illustrations and then just a few words per page.
And i don't even know what genre to call this. Oh gosh, i love this story so much. Um, but what
it does is it takes these really deep and complex emotions and writes about them very very simply,
but in a way that is so profound and there's so many deep and complex emotions that they kind
of break down and help you to process and um i love this. It's a story that i was going to just
read it quickly to my son and he did sit through the whole story, so you know, it works for kids.
And i was crying through it and my son's just like, having a nice book. But it's a book that i
wish i had read growing up because it it does such a great job of simplifying without diminishing
things that we as humans need to process and need to sort through in our minds. And it was impactful
for me as an adult too so it's definitely a story that i'll be rereading to my children as they grow
up and that i will be re-reading to myself anytime i need a reminder of some really fantastic stuff.
I really recommend this book. After i read it i was i was saying (and i still think this) there's
so few books that i actually tell people "you need to read this" because it's like, let me
just share my love for certain books and you can decide how you feel about them, but with this book
you need to read this! You just, you need to read it! I think it's such a good book. Okay, so
next book on the list is And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer. I decided to restrict
myself to pick one book per author because there's a lot of Backman books that could fall into my
favorites category so i chose this one because i still think it's my favorite. Things My Son
Needs To Know About The World which is his only non-fiction could also potentially be a favorite,
but i'm going to stick with this one. This is the first Backman book that i ever read. This is about
a grandpa, his son, and his grandson. It follows all of their perspectives and the grandpa is
losing himself within his dementia. This is a personal subject to me and i just love the way
Backman writes because he does such a great job of getting down to the core of humanity
and i guess he talks about subjects that are really personal to him and it feels that way
when i read his books. I feel like i've just related to a person about something that is
meaningful and personal to both of us. It doesn't feel like i'm reading a story, it feels like i've
had a discussion with someone who gets me and i love that his books do that and this is a book
that's very personal to me so i felt seen. I felt like my family was seen by this little short story
and uh i love it for that. Next on the list is going to be The Count of Monte Cristo. So this
one's actually really tough to describe spoiler free because most of the main events of the book
don't start until you're a good chunk into it. This is about a man who's living a good life
until he gets betrayed by a friend and then things change and it's such an interesting
story narratively because you start off knowing more than our main character. We see the betrayal
happen and he doesn't. And then we spend a good chunk of time with him in prison and after that
section the the narrative flips to where now he knows a lot more than us and we're just
along for the ride, and it is such a great ride. If you're okay with me saying a little bit about
the story itself, which is a classic so you probably already know some things.
It is a revenge story and he's out to get back at the people that have harmed him and it's,
oh my gosh! It's such a complex and brilliant story as far as just a storytelling just along
for the ride, it's a great ride. It's such a complex and smart story and and going along with
everything that's happening is such a fun uh it's such a fun ride. It's, i think it's, i think it's
published as an adventure novel and it's such a fun adventure, but also there's such great
discussions had in this book and and such great reflections that happen with these characters...
I love this story so much. Someday i'll do a re-read and we'll do a dedicated review.
It's a fantastic story for the sake of just a fun ride and for the sake of some really complex
things discussed that are really good. Really really good. Okay, now we're down to Jane Austen.
This is my Jane Austen set. The woman on the spines. And um, man! My one book per author rule
again stumped me for a minute because i didn't know which one to choose because i think i love
almost all of Austin's novels nearly the same. I just think that she's a brilliant writer. I love
her storytelling abilities, i love her romances, i love her character studies, i love her societal
studies and i love her humor. I mean, Jane Austen. I love this author. And i wasn't sure
which book to choose and i went back and forth between several of them,
but if i'm honest i'm probably pretty generic that Pride And Prejudice is still my favorite; which
is, i don't know. I don't know if that's true or not. I really don't know if that's true or not,
but it's the one i picked today. I think it's, i think it... i don't know if it's true.
I love, i love this story um, i love all of her stories, but i guess i just kind of wrapped it
up. I think that she's a really brilliant writer. I think that her character work and her character
dissections are really really smart, Her romances are always fun and i always root for them and i'm
not a romance reader, but she wins me over to every one of her romances. Also, i just think
the way she depicts societal expectations is not only brilliant and critical, but also so
brave. The stuff that she writes about, the kind of scandals she puts into her books and
the kind of ways that she reflects on what society thinks about... about women and about families and
and and just like the ridiculous expectations for the way people function and the way people
interact with each other and the kind of dialogue that's appropriate. And stuff like that. Like,
the her reflections on society and her critical reflections on society i think are so brave
that she decided to tackle in her books and i just enjoy, i enjoy these discussions so much and i
enjoy the subtle ways that her characters, not just Elizabeth, all of her characters
are so strong and brave and going against certain expectations. I don't know. I just love it. I just
talked about all her books instead of Pride And Prejudice specifically. I cheated. I don't really
feel bad about it. Last book on this list is going to be Rebecca. I have a feeling this is going to
be beat out as i continue to explore Du Maurier's work because Rebecca i think is my favorite
book that i've read by her, but then i read My Cousin Rachel and i think it's better
written. I just like the story more in this one, so i think as i explore more of her work and i
read some of her later work (because this is one of her earlier books) i think i'm going to
fall in love with a lot more of what she writes, but anyway. You probably know what a Rebecca is
like because the movie was recently released and it was pretty good, but they really botched the
ending. So one thing that Du Maurier does really well is she takes these characters, these twisted
twisted characters and she... oh no. I'm talking about an author again instead of a book. Okay.
I'll talk about the book this time. Rebecca is about a girl who's in a tough situation.
She meets a man who's in also a tough situation, but he's well off. He has money. And the two kind
of collide. They're two broken people that are trying to escape their problems and they fall
into this whirlwind kind of obsession to solve their problems and it doesn't work out so well
because he uh has his own secrets there. He had a late wife who um... when she gets there she finds
that his whole manner is obsessed with this woman named Rebecca. And before she passed away all of
these people were really zeroed in on her to the point that our main character who is never named
in the book (which i think is brilliant) our main character falls into the obsession too and
is, oh gosh. It's just so good! Anyway, um it's... a lot of people call it a mystery. Don't
go into it thinking of a mystery, think of it as a domestic thriller and there is an unraveling of
"who done it," but not in a mystery type way. Not in a way that you would expect from a mystery
novel, but also i just love her vague endings. I love that she gives us all the information so
that we can conclude what happened, but different people can conclude different things and there's
just always, ah! I just ah! I love the way she writes. I love the way she writes her characters,
i love the way she writes her creepy, unsettling tones and environments and settings. And i love
the way she structures her stories. I just... you should, you should read her books. Okay, so
those are six standalones that i adore. Probably my top six this year. Not... i didn't read them
all this year, but as of 2020 this is this is my favorite list. Next year maybe i'll have some
changes to it. Anyway, thanks for watching. I'd love to hear you chat with me more about these
books as well as i'd love to hear your top six list. I post videos every Tuesday, Thursday,
Saturday... I post videos every Tuesday through Saturday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye.