At last, I’m ready to talk about the books I liked. Of course there were books I liked! In fact, I mentioned some of what I’m about to say right here back in October when I first read one of them. Among them, these five books taught me one of the more valuable lessons I learned from the class.

This time, I’ll skip straight to the book review, and save my analysis for after. The books I actually liked were How to Train Your Dragon, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, The Hunger Games, and A Curse Dark as Gold. The greatest of them all, though, was Die Trying.

Die Trying vs. Dragon, Fink, Games, and Curse

I’ve already said a little bit about three of these, and I can add a fourth below.

How to Train Your Dragon did as much with its lovable caricatures as it did with its delightfully wretched setting to make a fun adventure out of its imaginative storyline.

Jeremy Fink made me cry.

The Hunger Games did amazing things building a deep and inventive character and wrapping her in a plot that dragged the reader (me) through page after page with a burning need to know more.

A Curse Dark as Gold introduced a world that walks an intriguing line between historical fiction and classical fairytale. In fact, it presented a fantasy story through an almost dry, autobiographical conceit.

I enjoyed all four of those books. I defended them in class. I recommended them to friends (and I recommend them to you). After six or seven years of reading almost nothing, and then several weeks of reading books that didn’t appeal to my reader expectations, I really thought these books were great.

And then I read Die Trying by Lee Child.

It’s a thriller with enormous and masterfully-crafted suspense…and in that spirit, I’m going to make you wait until tomorrow to learn what I loved so much about it.

(All five of those links are affiliate links, and every one of them comes with a strong recommendation. Read them. You’ll be a better writer for it.)