RTW: Favorite Book of the Month

Asking me this question is like asking me who my favorite author is, or what was my favorite childhood book. The answer is there are too many. I can't pick just one!
Luckily for me, it seems like most people participating in this week's Road Trip Wednesday couldn't pick just one either. So I'm not alone?
First and foremost, I must state the obvious:

Mockingjay. How could I not love it? Sure, I had some personal issues with it. For example, even though most people say they wished for a happier ending, I actually thought the ending was unrealistically happy-go-lucky - the epilogue bit, anyway. I also thought the climax was a cop-out, and a lot of the story was hastily explained away when there was room to do so much more with it.
Nevertheless, the book gripped me from start-to-finish, and provoked thoughtful discussions with a few of my friends. I think this book would make a great addition to senior-level English courses in high school, since it deals with war in a gritty, realistic way that's accessible to modern teens. It really makes you stop and think about the value of life.

Next favorite is Heist Society. Technically, I'm only part-way through this one, so I didn't finish reading it in August, but whatever. It's AWESOME so far. True, I have jealous tinglies about this book, since I just started a new WIP with a similar concept, and then stumbled across Heist Society in the book store and had an OH CRAP moment... But that's okay! The best books always make writers a little jealous, methinks. And Ally Carter's writing is so fabulously clean and gripping that I can't begrudge her too much. Hehe.
But I'm having trouble finishing this one in a reasonable amount of time, since I'm also reading The Girl Who Played With Fire, Naughts and Crosses, Going Bovine, and Lasher.
August seems to be the month where everyone I know plied me with a stack of books and said YOU MUST READ THIS. So I bounce back and forth between them, feeling guilty whenever I see the people who's books I haven't finished.

I blame The Witching Hour for much of this delay - it's a big-ass book. Took me most of the month to get through, and I still can't decide how I feel about it. There were parts that gripped me and kept me up late wanting to know more. There were parts that made me cringe and gag. There were parts that made me fall asleep (literally, since I read it at night by lamplight). There were parts that had me curled under the covers freaking out (which again might be caused by the whole reading alone late at night in my creaky apartment thing...). I guess ultimately I have to add it to the favorite-of-the-month list, because few books elicit that many varied emotional responses from me. But we'll see how long it takes me to get through Lasher (the sequel).

P.S. - For some reason the cover of Mockingjay is gigantic in comparison to the rest. But I've decided this is appropriate, given its degree of awesome. :)