It's been awhile since I've participated in Top Ten Tuesday and I've missed my favorite weekly meme.  This week's topic didn't require much thought, so it seemed like a good time to jump back into the fun.  This time around, the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish want to know about the Top Ten Books I've Read This Year.  I always keep a running list of the books I've finished, using asterisks to mark those I enjoyed most, so it was a cinch to recall my favorites.  Here they are, in no particular order:






1.  The House at Riverton, The Distant Hours, and The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton—Since these three novels are by the same author, with lots of similarities in theme and story, I'm going to count them as one.  Morton excels at writing lush family sagas and I loved each of these.  If you forced me to choose a favorite from among the three, I'd probably go with The Forgotten Garden, but seriously, I enjoyed all of them.



2.  A Death-Struck Year by Makkia Lucier—Good historical YA novels are not exactly plentiful, so I'm always excited when I find one.  Especially when it's set in the same neck of the woods where I grew up (Portland, Oregon).  The novel concerns a wealthy teenage girl who's left alone in the city during the vicious Spanish influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918.  It's a tense, haunting story that kept me riveted.



3.  All The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry—This spare, but lyrical YA novel centers around a young woman who hasn't spoken since she returned from a mysterious absence.  It tells an intriguing, suspenseful story.  All The Truth That's In Me won a well-deserved Whitney Award for Best General YA novel.



4.  Stung by Bethany Wiggins—Although this YA dystopian wasn't all that original, I still enjoyed the Sleeping Beauty twist on a familiar post-apocalyptic/zombie story.



5.  Cress by Marissa Meyer—The Lunar Chronicles is one of my very favorite YA series.  It's original, it's fun, it's clean, and it gets better with every installation.



6.  In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis—McGinnis' first book, Not a Drop to Drink, sucked me in so totally that it became one of my favorite books of last year.  While the sequel isn't quite as fresh, it still offers up a taut, harrowing tale of survival told in tight, gripping prose.



7.  A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd—This quirky MG novel is a fun, playful story about the power of words.



8.  Save the Cat by Blake Snyder—I've been hearing about this writer's Bible for years.  I finally read it and, yes, it definitely lives up to the hype.  If you're having trouble plotting your novel, definitely check out this guide for screenwriter's.  It's invaluable.



9.  Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer—This is the fifth book in another of my favorite YA series.  Like its predecessors, this novel tells a rollicking adventure tale starring the indomitable "Bloody" Jack Faber.  Jacky's one of my favorite YA characters of all time—it's impossible not to love her.


10.  Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana—An atmospheric MG novel about a young girl living in the Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina.  It's a gritty, but hopeful tale.

How about you?  What are your favorite books so far this year?

*All book images from Barnes & Noble

If you hang around here a lot (and I really hope you do!), you've probably heard me talk about LDS Storymakers.  The organization, which is made up of writers from the LDS community, hosts an annual writing conference which draws hundreds of attendees from around the country.  It's a fun, informative event that always has great teachers/presenters like Brandon Sanderson, Jessica Day George, Aprilynne Pike, Janette Rallison/C.J. Hill, Dan Wells, Melanie Jacobson, Kimberley Griffiths Little, Sarah Eden, Elana Johnson, Natalie Whipple, Brodi Ashton, Anne Perry, and many, many more.  I attend most years, not just for the writing advice, but for networking opportunities, the chance to see old friends, etc.  While the 2014 conference wasn't my favorite (the keynote speaker soured the experience quite a bit for me, but I won't get into all that drama), it was a good ole time.

My point?  Although the focus of the conference is not religious at all, it's amazing how much time the presenters and attendees spend gushing about the Bible.  I'm not referring to the Holy Bible, oh no.  I'm talking Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder, a screenwriter who's hailed (at least at LDS Storymakers) as a kind of writing god.  What, you might ask, does crafting a movie have to do with penning a novel?  Lots, actually.  Especially when it comes to plotting, pacing, and populating your story with all the elements that dazzle moviegoers as well as book readers.

The thing that makes the book so helpful is Snyder's identification of the "beats" that every good movie needs and in which order they should appear to maximize their effectiveness in the telling of the story.  This formula can easily be applied to novels (in fact, I know several authors who use Save the Cat! Scrivener templates every time they draft a book).  Just as Snyder breaks down popular movies into identifiable "beats," you can do the same with any novel, which helps you to understand why they do/do not work.  It's very revealing.  Snyder's beat sheets are especially helpful when plotting a novel, as they help you recognize potential slow, weak spots in your story.  Again, extremely helpful.

So, does the book—and the ideas it contains—deserve the reverence it receives every year at Storymakers?  I think, yes.  I found it to be not just informative, but also entertaining, encouraging, and enlightening.  If you write (or try to write) novels or screenplays and you haven't read Save the Cat!, do it.  Before Snyder passed away in 2009, he wrote two sequels:  Save the Cat Goes to the Movies and Save the Cat Strikes Back.  If you can't get your hands on the books, there's also a fabulous Save the Cat! website as well as frequent Save the Cat! workshops around the country.  Obviously, Mormon writers aren't the only ones extolling the virtues of Snyder and his famous cat :)

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall; also, the other Save the Cat! books)

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To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Save the Cat! from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.