Hello, and happy Sunday! Three years ago today I published my very first blog post, and I never expected how much I would end up doing with Book Nook Bits. I’ve made blogging friends from all over the world, and I’ve gotten to be a part of an incredible community.

Over the last three years, I have read hundreds of books, and discovered tons of new authors. Today, I picked ten books and authors that have all made a huge impact on my life, and I’ve written about what they all mean to me!

1. Roshani Chokshi

It’s hard to pick a single favorite book. But if I had to pick one, it would be The Gilded Wolves. I discovered The Gilded Wolves in 7th grade, a few months after I turned 13 and a few months before the pandemic started. Roshani Chokshi’s writing is magical, and I immediately fell in love with the world of The Gilded Wolves. Unfortunately for me, the next two books in the trilogy weren’t out yet, and I had a lot of waiting to do. The Bronzed Beasts, the third and final book, came out almost a year ago, but for a while waiting for the next book was a big part of my reading, and my life.

2. The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar

I first read Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar in May 2020, just a few weeks after it came out. I saw a ton of bloggers posting reviews about how much they loved it, so I picked it up. It really changed my reading tastes, and also opened me up to a whole new world of amazing queer YA books. The Henna Wars was the first sapphic book I’d read with a positive message and a happy ending, and that was so important for me to read!

3. Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo doesn’t just write books about magic. Her books are magic. I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom about halfway through seventh grade, and I will admit that was probably a bit too early for me to be diving into all the complexities of the Grishaverse. But I still loved the books, and when I dove back into the series a year later, I fell in love with the Crows all over again, and that time I read Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy and the King of Scars duology as well.

4. These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong

These Violent Delights was everywhere when it came out, and after hearing so many great things, I knew I had to pick it up. Chloe Gong is a fabulous author, and is such an amazing inspiration! These Violent Delights is a really unique and interesting book, and is very well written.

5. Rick Riordan

I read all of Rick Riordan’s books when I was twelve, in the months leading up to when I started my blog. Then, when covid hit, Percy Jackson became my main obsession during the time I was stuck at home. I reread the books over and over, and wrote a ton of blog posts about the series. The books have also inspired a lot of my own writing, especially a lot of my projects from 2020.

6. Heartstopper

Heartstopper had been on my radar for a while before I finally got around to reading it, but once I picked up my school library’s copy of Volume 1, I couldn’t put it down. The characters are all absolutely amazing, and the story is so heartwarming! The show is also an incredible adaptation, and I really enjoyed watching it.

7. The Hunger Games

I read The Hunger Games the summer I was 13, and I instantly fell in love with every part of the series. That was during the summer of 2020, when I was still doing very little outside of my house, and it became another thing that gave me sometime to focus on.

8. Little and Lion, by Brandy Colbert

Little and Lion, by Brandy Colbert, is a beautiful book, and is one that I think is really important for both teens and adults to read. Brandy Colbert does an amazing job of talking about mental health, race, and LGBTQ+ issues all in an engaging story that is interesting for people to read.

9. Emma Lord

Everything written by Emma Lord is a chance to smile. Her books are happy and fun and I always look forwards to reading them. I read Tweet Cute, her debut, in Fall of 2020, and since then she’s been one of my favorite contemporary authors!

10. Sophie Gonzales

Sophie Gonzales’s writing is so immersive, and it really just pulls the reader in in amazing ways. I’ve read three of her books: Perfect on Paper, Only Mostly Devastated, and If This Gets Out (which she cowrote with Cale Dietrich) and all three have been incredible! Perfect on Paper has really stuck with me since I read it, and I feel like the story is just so important, but also fun.

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Have you read any of these books? How long have you been blogging? Chat with me in the comments below!