Being as the best fiction book has been taken (@JD4) I will go non-fiction, despite the challenge-givers warning. Ha! There is no shame in disqualification from a challenge that does not pay! (To be kind, I will stay with fairly recent books.)

The best non-fiction book I have recently read, and I have read many, is “Our Declaration... A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defence of Equality”, by Danielle Allen.

Superb! Thought provoking, educational, open-minded, inspirational, patriotic, superb!

Five stars, two thumbs!

I also enjoyed:

“Flags of our Fathers”, by James Bradley.

“Sarah Morgan... The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman”. (I fell in love with a woman dead 150 years to the extent that I made my wife jealous:)

“Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson

Come now, euphoria15... do not grow weary of learning!

** I’ve been writing book reviews for pay for nearly two years, so there are far FAR too many books in both categories - especially if I count all the ones I’ve ever read for fun - so I’ll pick both books from the last 24 months, and post excerpts of the reviews I did for them... **

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MY AUTHOR IS DEAD:

What if our characters knew they were characters? What if they were held to a bunch of “Rules”, hoping to be “good characters” who would one day get to meet their Author? What if one of them rebelled, declaring there is no Author? Michael Bruneau explores just these questions in his delightful tale, My Author is Dead.

My Author is Dead is the story of a boy living in a “village of morons” inhabited by Authorists, who are held to a strict set of silly Rules. One day, while hiding out from a Perfectionist named Cassandra, he meets a little girl and is quickly taken with her. Unbeknownst to him, June is actually a Kafkaist, and therefore a member of a group who are mortal enemies to Authorists. This meeting is the first domino in a series of events which soon see Adam facing legal charges, which could result in his erasure.

I absolutely loved this book and couldn’t put it down. It appealed to my love of the unusual and gives meaning to the phrase “outside the box”, as it takes many rules of storytelling and throws them right out of the box. While the story doesn’t completely break the fourth wall, the tale does have ample talk of the Author (always capitalized), erasure, being of good character, and other literary terms. The story is also full of cynicism, inside jokes, and tongue-in-cheek humor, which add to the fun. One outrageous example of the latter is “Fornication Under Consent of the Kritikillar” (hint: look at the first letter of each word). The chapter titles were cleverly named, as well.

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PROFESSOR CURIOUS AND HIS MIRACLE MACHINE:

There are many scientists, including “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and Beakman, who have narrated children’s shows, and now we have “Professor Curious” (Randall Lechner), the author of Professor Curious and His Miracle Machine: The Mystery of the Glowing Rock.

Even though the title of this book is Professor Curious and His Miracle Machine, the tale focuses mainly on his four young friends, John, Julie, Jack, and Jill, who find themselves “not in Kansas anymore” when they’re accidentally sent to another era in the professor’s time machine (the “Miracle Machine”). It takes the children a while to figure it out, but they have actually arrived in Jerusalem on Good Friday, the day that Yeshua - “Jesus” in Hebrew - is crucified. After witnessing the events that transpire through and including Sunday, when Yeshua rises, they realize that they still have to get home. Rather than finishing the tale, the author invites his young readers to send in essays that they’ve written on how to get the quartet home, with the winner becoming a character in the next book.

When I first saw the title and read the plot for this book, I became quite curious. Well, you know what they say: “Curiosity killed the cat.” This book was a mess from the beginning. In addition to groaning at the book’s flat jokes, I also had a major problem with the way the children spoke, as it was very unrealistic. When one character said, “Guys, gaze at this,” I actually threw my tablet down and contemplated reading no more. Additionally, the characters were all boring...Worst of all, the actual writing was atrocious; as early as the Acknowledgements, it seemed like there had been no professional editing done. It was as if the author had just thrown his story together and published it. Yet, I was somehow unable to look away, much like people watching a train wreck.The most egregious errors were the author’s tendency to change verb tenses, often two or more times in the same sentence, and his failure to stick to one point of view. One minute, the story would be written in first person, then it would suddenly switch to third person and then back. I also often wondered how Jack, the main narrator, knew what the others were doing and thinking, as if he was omnipotent. It was strange how he knew characters’ names without them being introduced as well. All of these writing faux pas greatly took away from the story, and I had trouble seeing the forest for the trees.

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If you’re curious - I promise it won’t kill you! - the rest of my reviews can be found at:

onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-mstri.html

Best book I've ever read - To narrow it down I'm going to pick the best NON-FICTION one because I've only ever voluntarily read exactly one non-fiction book: Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams.

Most people recognize Douglas Adams for his witty Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and his now slowly mainstreaming Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (which took the world years to catch up on, honestly). As a young student I devoured anything he wrote, and ended up suddenly reading a non-fiction story about the different animal species on the planet going extinct -- and Douglas Adams' adventure trying to get in the "last chance to see" them. The fact that he used to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume for charity makes a lot more sense after reading this book.

It's a sad theme but Mr. Adams' writing lifts it up so well you laugh while you cry. It opened my eyes to the idea that really gifted writers can write about anything if they're passionate enough - and frankly I think this book has some of his best writing in it. My favorite part is probably his interview with one of the world's snake experts:

"So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly, then?" I asked.

He blinked at me as if I were stupid."Well what do you think you do?" he said. "You die of course. That's what deadly means."

Despite that, it will likely not get the attention of his more light-hearted efforts and if I hadn't done a generic search-by-author in my local library I likely wouldn't have stumbled across this small gem.

Since we have to put a worst book down here I'm just going to throw out The Scarlet Letter because let's face it, the fact that it's still required reading in American schools is ridiculous. Why does a modern society still cling to the faded thrill of a slut-shaming piece of poorly-written prose that just reminds us the world is made up of assholes, a fact every high schooler is astutely aware of? Come on.

The best book I’ve read?

Honestly, it’s impossible to settle for just one. So how about I make a list of great books that have earned my highest recommendation. And if none of these are for you, that’s alright. There are plenty others you may enjoy.

Best Classic Science Fiction: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, a fantastic novel that explores the evolution of man and technology aided by an unknown alien monolith.

Best Modern Science Fiction: The Martian by Andy Weir, a novel about a scientist stranded on the planet Mars and does everything he can to stay alive until rescue while using realistic scientific methods that seem plausible enough to ensure survivability on Mars.

Best Fantasy Books: A tie between Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. No explaination needed for these books and why I enjoy them. I’ll even add Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher book series too because I enjoyed the video games and only now started reading the books, to which I’m enjoying as well.

Best Classic Book: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a classic novel about two men trying to find work and earn a living during the Great Depression era of the United States, but it also contains a certain ending that had me like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38tfhSYGIVs

Other Classic Book Favorites Include:

-20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

-To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

-Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Best Fiction Book Featuring Dinosaurs: Raptor Red by paleontologist Robert Bakker, an interesting novel that follows in the perspective an Utahraptor (a larger cousin of the famous Velociraptor) and its prehistoric environment.

Best Star Wars Book: The Thrawn Trilogy novel series by writer Timothy Zahn for expanding the Star Wars universe after the events of Return of the Jedi (pre-Disney mind you) and adding likeable new characters such as Mara Jade Skywalker and Grand Admiral Thrawn. I’ll also throw Star Wars: Thrawn into the mix too for helping reintroduce Thrawn in the new Disney Canon.

Best Horror Book: Watchers by Dean Koontz, a chilling story about a man who encounters two genetically engineered creatures that escaped from a lab: a golden retriever with enhanced intelligence and a monstrosity known as the Outsider that seeks to kill the dog.

Best Horror Collection: A collection of horror stories written by the master and inventor of cosmic horror himself H.P. Lovecraft. If you’re curious which of his stories you’d want to try out I recommend reading either The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Rats in the Walls, and Pickman’s Model.

Best Zombie Apocalypse Book: World War Z by Max Brooks, son of the legendary comedian/filmaker Mel Brooks. This is an excellence fictional, biographical book of a world that was once ravaged by zombies as a unknown journalist travels around the world interviewing the many survivors and shares their horrific tales of survival. Just don't ask me about the film adaptation.

Best Epic Poem: Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri, an interesting take of a man's descent into Hell, and one of the many inspirations behind my Sins of the Father stories.

Best Short Story: A Sound of Thunder by my favorite science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, an interesting tale about a company that uses time travel as a means of sporting entertainment, and it is with this story that it introduced me to the concept of the Butterfly Effect.

Best Novella: Who Goes There? by John Campbell, this novella served as the inspiration for John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Best Western Book: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty. The life and troubles of ranchers of the Old West. Be warned, this novel is extremely long (at least 100 chapters total).

Best Book You Probably Haven’t Heard Of: Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie, a great book about life on an Indian Reservation.

Best Young Adult Novel Series: The A Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket. Three miserable orphans being hunted by greedy man named Count Olaf.

Best Nostalgic Books: Holes by Louis Sachar and Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. I mean who hasn’t read these books when they were young?

Best Non-Fictions (that I recommend you should read): Tears of Rage: From Grieving Father to Crusader for Justice: The Untold Story of the Adam Walsh Case by John Walsh and Susan Schindehette, Man-Eaters of Tsavo by John Patterson, and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Stephen L. Brusatte

The truly worst book that I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading is definitely Twilight by Stephenie Myer. Never have I read something so disinteresting, so bland, and so moronic in my entire life. What’s worse is that it spawned a horrible film series and a even more horrible rip-off series called 50 Shades of Gray.

Best Nonfiction: The Fairy Ring - the story of two girls who fooled the whole world. While I was reading this, I was halfway through before realizing it was nonfiction. I loved this and it held my interest unlike any other nonfiction book I have ever read.

Best Series: every book by Rick Riordan. Technically, there are a lot of different series', but they all connect in subtle ways. His characters are so diverse and the plot is unique. My favorite book in the series is The House of Hades.

My other favorite series is called The Enemy Series by Charlie Higson. It is a story following a post-apocalyptic world. The Enemy is the first book in the series, but I recommend reading The Dead first. It's a prequel and I felt like The Enemy was confusing without it. The Dead is my favorite book in this series.

Best Historical Fiction: I read this book in first grade. It is a young adult novel called Fever 1693, and it is about the yellow fever epidemic. I loved it then and I still love it now. It was also the first young adult novel I ever read.

Best Stand Alone Book: Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich. It's the story of a girl with split personality disorder. It's a psychological thriller and the best one I've ever read. Here is the description on GoodReads: Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High burned down. Three people were killed and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. Now a diary has been found in the ruins of the school. The diary belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly’s identical twin sister. But Carly didn’t have a twin... don't read this if you are sensitive to mental illness and stuff like that. I thought it was very illuminating into the world of mental illness. It also inspired my longest novel, Seeing Red, which was available on my website but is currently closed for editing.

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I do! Maybe they will inspire you, too!

Worst books:

The Twilight Saga

Fifty Shades Of Grey

Awful writing, cliche plot, the works. I can find no redeeming qualities in either. Stephanie Meyers doesn’t know the meaning of a well placed semicolon. She doesn’t use it where it’s needed and over uses it where it’s not.

Also, E.L. James, the author, actually based 50 shades on twilight. It started as a fanfiction for it. Maybe that’s why it turned out so bad....

The Good: Robinson Crusoe. A marvel of classical literature. A deep look into solitude, relaigion, and endurance. Follow the lonely years of a man cast away on a deserted island. Wild beasts and tribes of men will test the strength and resourcefulness of Robinson and you'll be with him all the way. A great look into how humanity compensates for disaster and rationalizes the experience of utter solitude.

The Not-so-good: Peter Pan. It is possible that this is a fun and well written piece. I wouldn't kow since I lost interest on page 10. The writing style is uninteresting. Maybe I'll try again later.

Best: In fifth grade, I was recommended this book called This is Not A Test by Courtney Summers. To those who haven’t read it, it’s about six high school students taking shelter in their abandoned high school during the zombie apocalypse. Its narrator is suicidal and abused teenager Sloane, who plans to end her own life once she knows everyone else gets to safety. People die in this book, and the climax itself has stuck with me for over 10 years. While I’m tempted to put Age of Innocence or the Great Gatsby as the best book, This is Not a Test scarred me as a child and it’s the only book that has had such an effect on me, so for personal reasons I call it the best book I’ve ever read.

Worst: Don’t get me started, Light As A Feather was just a waste of time. I was looking to read something that would scare me, and this was every uninteresting cliche shoved into 384 pages. It’s advertised as horror fiction, and its concept sounds creepy on it’s own: A mysterious new girl during a sleepover predicts all of her friends’ deaths, and then they start coming true. Our protagonist, McKenna, however, is removed from any of the danger and fun because for some “mysterious reason” her death can’t be read. McKenna also clarifies her lack of closeness with all of her friends, so as readers, don’t expect to relate or worry for any of these characters’ safety. Also, every person is unlikeable, the explanation is illogical, the red herring thrown halfway through was very obvious and yet no one fell for it based on its 98% approval rating? Please, do not waste your time on this book if you have a braincell.