My Book Choices

by Krystalyn

For the month of November, we decided to share with you some of our favorite books. I have chosen two from my Goodreads list that I have read in the past year and one classic.

Code Name Verity

A Scottish agent gets captured and interrogated during World War II in Nazi occupied France.

I'm going along with most of the reviews of this book that say the less you know about Code Name Verity going in, the greater your experience will be. It's the kind of book that I thought about for days, kept it on my nightstand, and kept going back to read certain passages.

Anna and the French Kiss

Anna spends her senior year studying in Paris and meets Etienne St. Clair.

To balance out the heaviness of Verity, I chose something light and fluffy. If you like fun, happily ever after romance novels, then this book is for you. Anna and Etienne also make appearances in the companion novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door.

The Secret Garden

Orphaned Mary Lennox is sent to live with her reclusive uncle in Yorkshire.

This book has it all: Gothic mansion on the Yorkshire moors (always a selling point for me), personal demons that must be overcome, discoveries around every corner. I own at least three copies of this book and nearly every movie made of it. The Secret Garden was my first Broadway show. I own the soundtrack and the script. When I was younger, I could often be found acting out the entire show, costume changes and all.

To say this book made an impact on me is an understatement, but I found I wasn't the only one. When I taught first grade, I read this book to my students. Imagine my surprise once I read the last page and a little boy, who I thought had no interest in anything but worms and torturing the girls, came up to me. He loved it, and that made my heart sing.