Top 5 Wednesday | Book Recommendations that I Loved

Today’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another Top 5 Wednesday, which was created by gingerreadslainey. Anyone is welcomed to join the goodreads group. Here are the top five books that I’ve been recommended and enjoyed reading:

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I was interested, though the first time I tried reading it I didn’t get pulled in at all. But then one of my friends from university recommended it to me and told me to keep reading, to give it a chance, and I did. And boy am I glad that I kept reading. I really enjoyed this novel and it’s worth the reading experience.
2. Bird Box by Josh Malerman – My sister recommended this to me and when I looked it up on my nook, the ebook was only 1.99$ at the time so I bought it. I ended up reading it in a few sittings. It was just such a unique and different reading experience. Not only did the characters wear blindfolds when leaving the house, but you, as the reader, felt like you were wearing a blindfold. The characters experiences were made even more real because no one knew what was out there. I wrote a review of it after reading it that you can check out here.
3. Crank by Ellen Hopkins – One of my friends love all of Ellen Hopkins novels and I hadn’t ever read a novel written in verse. She highly recommended I start with Crank and I’m glad I read it. Ellen Hopkins is such a brilliant author and poet. I’ve read a couple of Ellen Hopkins’s other novels, too. Definitely one of my favorites.
4. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – My sister read this novel first and really enjoyed it. I ended up checking out shortly after she returned it (there was a copy in our high school’s library). She told me that it was a great novel and that I should read it. I ended up loving it (and it was the first novel by Jodi Picoult that I read). Since then, Jodi Picoult has become a favorite author of mine as I’ve read a lot of her novels and own about half of her published novels in either paperback or hardcover.
5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen – I can’t remember who recommended this one to me, but I do remember someone telling me about it. I think a few different people recommended it to me. This is definitely my favorite and I’m planning on reading the new novel that Sara Gruen published, though I haven’t been able to get to it yet. I will some day, though.

And those are just the top five books I’ve been recommended that made it onto my favorites shelf on goodreads. Are any of these novels you were recommended that you ended up loving, too? Also, feel free to recommend any novels that you think I might like because I loved these five novels. I open the metaphorical gate for book recommendations, even though I have plenty to read that I already own and just haven’t read yet. I like have many books that I haven’t read, though. Means I have a selection to choose from based on my mood. I’m very much a mood reader as far as pleasure reading goes.