All About Books discussion
What Have You Read?
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10 books that have inspired or have stuck with you
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1. The Edge of Never2. Lovely Vicious
3. Something Witchy This Way Comes
4. Don't Look Back
5. The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window
6. Beautiful Disaster
1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank2. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
5. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
6. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
7. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
8. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
9. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
10. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
A mix of both books that have inspired me and books that have stuck with me, not in any order.
Anna Karenina Started a love for Russian literature for me.Roots: The Saga of an American Family The history in this book along with the storytelling, made this a very memorable one.
The Fountainhead The concepts in this book, along with the significance of individuality led me to think in a whole new way about life.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption The fascinating story of Louis Zamperini made me realize that humans can overcome tragedy and have successful lives, no matter what the circumstances.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America The historical nature of this book along with the pure evil of a madman made this a truly unforgettable book.
The Count of Monte Cristo One of the classics that will always be a favorite due to it being such a magnificent story.
The Diary of a Young Girl My first taste of the WWII when I was a teenager, that left a hole where I thought the universe was only love.
The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity The only book I have ever read that encompassed all of spirituality, eastern and western theology.
The Sun Also Rises The first book of literature that I absolutely fell in love with the story and characters. Beautifully written.
The Grapes of Wrath My introduction to the Great Depression. Memorable and haunting, due to the suffering.
Although I read a lot, this was a difficult choice for me to make. My choices reflect love of truth and literature.
Wow, Mari that is an awesome list! I've read all except the country of Monte Cristiano. You have brought back some wonderful reading experiences to me!
omg the stupid auto correct and that fact I can't edit in the Goodreads app on my phone makes me crazy!!
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone2. Animal Farm
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Three Comrades: A Novel of Germany Between the Wars
5. Lord of the Flies
6. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
7. Matilda
8. Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country
9. The Enchantress
10. Shadow Prowler
List is not in a particular order.
Mod
Terry, I so agree - the first thing I did with my phone was to turn off auto-correction. On Android, it is amazingly faulty, just horrible!
It's interesting to see the same few favourites crop up and also to get ideas from others I've never heard of. Mari, I've recently finished The Sun Also Rises and really liked it too :)
Piret, Animal Farm was one of my choices, it's a great great book.
Terry, your auto corrected comment did make me laugh!
Mod
I struggled a bit making my list. A "15 best books I've read" would be a completely different list, probably only 4 or 5 books in common with what I've given below. Here are the 15 books that most profoundly affected my world view, that have most "inspired, stuck with," or affected me, a highly personal list:
1. Dreams by C.G. Jung
2. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
3. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
4. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by Bell Hooks
5. Holy Sonnets by John Donne
6. Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
7. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
8. The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
9. An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
10. The Charioteer by Mary Renault
11. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
12. The Jacob's Ladder by Denise Levertov
13. The Saga of the Renunciates by Marion Zimmer Bradley
14. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
15. The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt
1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. You can find everything in this book, the whole world, the beauty and the ugliness, the greatness and pettiness human beings are capable of. 2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. His characters are so intense, complex...
3. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I don't know why, but it left something in my soul, echos of images, of sorrows...
4. The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges. When I read Borges, I feel like he's talking to me, talking to my soul of things I have always known but I've just discovered in myself again.
5. Dubliners by James Joyce. Raw and hard as life.
6. 1984 by George Orwell. So sad, it made me love dystopian stories.
7. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I'll just say this: "It has done me good because of the color of the wheat fields".
8. Atonement by Ian McEwan. Tragic, sometimes harsh, sometimes so delicate...
9. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's my first love and you can never forget your first love. It sang to my soul.
10. The Call of the Wild by Jack London. So evocative.
Hi Greg, I have an android phone... I'll have to figure out how to turn off auto correct.My nephew somehow changed the auto correct on his mom's phone so whenever she typed her husband's name , it came out as "Fatty" - she didn't realize it until sent a group email out that way!
Mod
Mod
On my phone (Samsung Galaxy), you click on the settings icon (a little gear picture with the word "Settings" underneath it). Then, you swipe down to where it says "Language and Input". Tap "Language and Input". Then a new menu comes up, swipe down to where it says "Samsung Keyboard". Click on the little gear to the right of the words "Samsung Keyboard". Then you will see some different boxes. Uncheck the boxes next to "Auto Spacing", "Auto Capitalize", and "Auto Punctuate". Also click on "Auto Replace" and then tap the On/Off switch until it says "Off" and turns grey. A gruesome number of steps, but that shuts off all the miserably faulty auto-correction stuff with the Samsung Galaxy. Hope that helps!
@ Terry... Thanks! I've not ever encountered until now someone like you who'd read most of my list. Funny, the little trick your nephew pulled on Mom & Dad. @ Greg... You've certainly given me ideas on interesting reads... I have Cry The Beloved Country that I haven't had a chance to read yet. Excited now!
I agree with everyone... I love these lists!
Greg, I haven't read any of your choices, so I'm intrigued to check them out now. I've only read one book by Bell Hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism which was fantastic, so I should probably read some more of her. Terry, my children had a wonderful time when they discovered they could make a shortcut on my iPhone, to change any word they liked to something else. They changed 'ok' to say 'I love you' which got me into a couple of sticky situations before I noticed!
Desiree, I've read a few from your list, I love Orwell, but Joyce not so much! I still haven't read any Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, so I really need to change that one day :)
Pink wrote: "Terry, my children had a wonderful time when they discovered they could make a shortcut on my iPhone, to change any word they liked to something else. They changed 'ok' to say 'I love you' which got me into a couple of sticky situations before I noticed! "Lol
This is one of the many reasons why my son (or anyone else) isn't allowed to touch my mobile and I have added also a password so he can't do anything with it.
Mod
I didn't know it was possible!!! I'll have to pay attention to my kids!
This will mostly be my childhood favorites, with some new discoveries mixed in. In no particular order (and with lots of Tove Jansson):1. Sculptor's Daughter
2. A Wizard of Earthsea
3. Moominland Midwinter
4. Moominpappa at Sea
5. Inkheart
6. Who Will Comfort Toffle?
7. Momo
8.The Little Prince
9. The Orange Girl
10. The Diary of a Young Girl
Mod
@ Greg... You've certainly given me ide..."
Mari, the four of yours that I've read I quite liked!
As far as Cry, the Beloved Country, it has some flaws including some occasionally too didactic exposition on the south African situation of apartheid, but the human story at the heart of that book is incredible - the story between the two sets of parents. I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it. I'll just say that the story between the parents is probably the most affecting thing I've ever read - so achingly lovely and pure at its heart.
Mod
A Separate Peace is such a wonder of a book, so short for the amount of power it packs, a devastatingly fine psychological study
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a short story & a quick read. Much as Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," it raises serious and far reaching questions by depicting an alternate society - almost in the manner of a fable. This little story crystallized one of my most central ethical beliefs, a central core that everything else I am rests upon. As an adolescent, I did metaphorically walk away from Omelas, and I hope I always, always will.
Thanks for the recommendations Greg, I'll check those books out. I know what you mean about some of our choices being personal. It makes quite a difference list to our favourite books doesn't it.
Mod
By the way, you're the first person I've run across that's mentioned reading Bell Hooks. It made me smile!
Ah Bell Hooks is brilliant, more people should read her work, in fact I'm going to have a look and see what else my library has by her.
This felt like a really,tough choice, but in the event it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be. Plenty of books I love, or that have stayed with me that aren't here, but except for one these are all books I consistently return to. Great thread BTW - I shall definitely be looking for Bell Hooks.East of Eden by John Steinbeck - so beautifully written, so moving. All life is here.
Cider House Rules by John Irving - a slow burner, but another which is so beautifully written, so profoundly moving and a lesson in life.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - don't usually do real crime - but this is a stunning exploration of good and evil, how ordinary people commit appalling crimes, and a terrific and under-stated exploration of how murder by the state, euphemistically called capital punishment, diminishes us all.
The Secret History by Donna Tart. There's not a single redeeming character In it, the reader knows 'whodunnit' from the first page, and, with the best will in the world Tart can be a little,ponderous. Yet I go back to this book time and time again and I still can't work out what it is about it!
The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling, which, whilst they may not have changed my life have given and do give me great, joyous and uncomplicated pleasure!
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee. On the whole I'm not Lee's greatest fan, but this stopped me in my tracks and I read it often. Speaking as one to whom walking is anathema this novel persuaded me that the thing I most wanted to do in the whole wide world was walk across Spain. A lyrical book that captures the spirit of a country and its people at a particular moment in time with great skill. Highly recommended.
The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. Yes, I know she's controversial. I know she is now seen as a racist, anti-feminist, and I know that she wasn't a particularly lovely person. However, it is thanks to Enid Blyton that I became a childhood bookworm, a habit that has stayed with me all my life and for which I thank her.
Kidnapped by R L Stevenson. Truthfully not because I have a great love of this book, but as a single parent on a low budget I picked up a battered copy in a charity shop when my son (now in his 30s) was very small, and it was the first novel I read to him - chapter by chapter usually at bedtime. It was a bit of precious uninterrupted 'close' time, so It just means a lot to me.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens. My favourite of Dickens' novels and such a huge, expansive tale. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me think - what more can a reader ask?
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Is this a cheat - do these have to be books? Ibsen has been an enduring influence for me. A feminist and a man who was not afraid to expose the hypocrisy of the society in which he lived, his work is as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago.
So many left unremarked in this list: Shakespeare, Trollope, Hemingway, Zola ....
Surprised (and pleased) as an English reader, that four of these texts are American authors - obviously not as parochial as I thought!
Also pleased that women are well represented.
There are some great lists here. I had trouble limiting to 10A Fine Balance
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
The Poisonwood Bible
Lord of the Flies
The Book Thief
Wool Omnibus
The Signature of All Things
1984
The Scarlet Letter
The Pillars of the Earth
Matthew Flinders' Cat (most of his books still resonate with me)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (millenium series)
The Princess Bride
My list of top 10 books I find inspiring and just can't have enough of.Top 10!
1.Alice I Have Been
2.Intensity
3.Jane Eyre
4.Blink Once
5.Hawksong
6.Born to Rock
7.Angels & Demons
8.The Third Gate
9.Demon Seed
10.Night Chills
In no particular order:The Phantom of the Opera
The Lord of the Rings
Wuthering Heights
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Frankenstein
Schindler's List
I, the Sun
Beyond Sanctuary
A Criminal History of Mankind
Watership Down
The War of the Worlds
The Count of Monte Cristo
@Joshua -- I have two from your list on my TBR:Cry, the Beloved Country and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
I'll have to move them up (and I think I might have to add The Cloak!)
Not sure of the exact order but:The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Animal Farm by George Orwell
My Place by Sally Morgan
Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman
All bar two of them I read while still at school, which was a long time ago but they really have stuck with me and/or changed me. There are probably other books that have as well, but these are ten of the ones I think about a fair bit for various reasons and feel I have been formed as a reader, writer, person by
Noorilhuda wrote: "I'm more of a non-fiction reader and buy non-fiction more than any fiction but the following is stuff I grew up on in terms of paperbacks (not film, magazine and Pakistani literature):Everything A..."
I like a lot of non-fiction now as well. We ought to compare notes on that as well! But as for the kid's book, I think that is perfectly valid (and have a couple in my list). As kids we were all so ready to be influenced that OF COURSE children's books formed us!
Can't resist this list. Made me think back in time to what really made a difference in my life. Not necessarily my favorite authors, but really pivotal books.1. The Wish-Tree--a magical children's book I am so glad was in my house growing up.
2. Little Women--practically memorized it as a girl.
3. Dandelion Wine--Since first reading this at about the main character's age, I used to re-read it every summer, just to get that great summer feeling.
4. The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories--Read it before I understood it, but I grew into it and it became my favorite.
5. The Once and Future King--I just loved Merlin.
6. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice--simplest intro to Zen.
7. Becoming a Writer--an old one, but still the best.
8. All the Dogs of My Life--just the perfect way to frame life.
9. Middlemarch--it's like a bible for what you can learn from it.
10. Their Eyes Were Watching God--for pure joy of reading. Delicious.
Mod
1. The Wish-Tree--a ma..."
I loved Their Eyes Were Watching God Kathleen!
Greg wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Can't resist this list. Made me think back in time to what really made a difference in my life. Not necessarily my favorite authors, but really pivotal books.1. [book:The Wish-Tre..."
Glad to hear it, Greg! I enjoyed it SO much.
I had a difficult time with reading. It just didn't come naturally to me. It was slow and difficult. I wished i could read, but keeping up with homework was a chore that became "reading". For the most part i prided myself on getting through high school with out reading a book. (Which want entirely true, i read The Mouse That Roared which i enjoyed, but knew it was exceptional and not like other books. I had a lot of opinions about reading!) I was in a conversation with someone and they said, "You must read a lot." I had a lot of opinions you see. I told her, "No, actually i hate reading." But that stuck with me. I wanted to "smart" and being well read was my ticket to deceive everyone, without going into debt. Lol
So after I got married I decided to become a reader.
The first book i picked up was
Nicholas and Alexandra
I learned how to read from reading this book. I learned that I didn't have to know or pronounce all the words (how cou poo d i when so many were Russian?) I wanted to read this book because I was interested in the character Rasputin. I have a thing for trying to understand narcissistic psychopaths.
The next lesson i was to learn don't judge a book by its title. When I was in high school one of the assigned books Lord of the Flies. I didn't take that class so I didn't find out what the book was about. Unfortunately i imagined it was something sacrilege. I was an Asperger, and took things literal. I was also suspicious of schools. I mean they had all this power to put facts in kids heads. I decided that one of the consistent sets of "facts" we're the classics. Being suspicious, and wishing to prove i was i read Lord of the Flies. I was dumbfounded! It was not God being reduced to a fly. (My original theory) To me it was about school and institutions that replaced the family. The further this connection from the family was the more police or military power you would need. I haven't seen this explanation, but to me this book affirmed my belief in the Family over the Village.
I decided to homeschool when i I was 17, back in 1979, before it was popular. I saw a family that homeschooled and i wanted that kind of a family. The education was better because it was integrated into the life of the life of the family. Two books made a huge difference in my education of my children Child's Work: Taking Children's Choices Seriously and Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education (whose workshop I attended in 1995). From there i spent a lot of time creating my own philosophy of education. My children did not fit the mold, just like I didn't.
I used to have a list of classics that i would mark as read. I didn't see the value of re reading a book, after all there were so many books to get through. One day i asked a friend to suggest a book that had a drama queen character. She suggested I thought i haAnna Kareninad already read that book, till i read it again. Then i wondered what would happen if i read it again. Each time i read that book on different levels. I was amazed all the philosophy an and ideas that were contained in this book. Not just about families, but also about governments, social structure, religion, welfare and education.
One year we had an unscrupulous landlord that we brought to suit. I read Bleak House. I gained a lot of sympathy and insight from this book. You don't win or lose based on justice, but "just us".
I had made a rule that my children were going to read a book before they watched the movie. But like most rules i had to make an exception. We were at a friend's house...and to make a long story short my children watched Bambi. So reluctantly, because i had never seen the film, i checked out out of the library (i didn't want to own the book.) I read it to my boys. At first it was a little slow and i wondered if we would get through it, but i was determined. Then i got curious. This book seemed to be a political allegory. After i read i was totally enthralled with this discovery. I talked to a friend about the characters in the book."..Gobo, Faline's brother." She told me she didn't remember that character in the movie. It is one of the main characters, and without him the story is radically different. I learned more on wiki, years later. Walt thought the story too adult and so he rewrote it for children. Hitler banged this book. If you are into reading banned books i highly recommend this book. Written after WW1 and the fall of the German economy.
Why did i wait so long to read Gone with the Wind. Probably because i had seen the movie. I can engender my mother asking me, after we watched Great Expectations together if i would like to read the book. I told her no. That i had figured out that if the book is good they will make a movie of it. It takes me two hours to watch the movie (four i believe for this one ) and it would take me forever to read the book. Well not quite forever because i read it this summer!
J.D. Salinger gave me an education! I knew he had been privilege to have gone to Valley Forge Academy. He had had a classical education. It was different from the one i got. So when i first read The Catcher in the Rye i was highly disappointed. I keyed waiting for him to define "ducks". I was relieved when i finished it that i could mark it off my list. Then some friends came to visit, and i asked if they had read The Catcher. One said yes, that he liked it and would definitely read it again. I started to re read that immediately (i knew it would never happen if i didn't do it right then). At the end i read the carousel was "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" an unlikely tune for a carousel. I later learned, through studying this book like The Art of X-Ray Reading suggest, that Glenn Miller had produced an album to play to the Germans. He recorded this album art Abbey Road Studios before his fatal crash. In the carousel, i saw the stock market crash and the war.
I really like the book My Several Worlds. One of the things that i think about is right in the beginning of the book, about how the Chinese created The Forbidden City and the entertainment and then they, the Chinese, ran the government for the dynasty. Also she talks about how the missionaries helped to bring about communist China. Very insightful.
I have enjoyed reading everyone's list.
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:this was one of the first times that I read a somewhat more challenging classic of my own free will and I absolutely fell in love. As a result I started to read a wider variety of books and I would even say it changed the way I read. Currently, I would probably say that I enjoyed The Brothers Karamazov even more (My Review), but The Idiot was my first Dostoyevsky and a first love, so it will always hold a special place in my heart and mind.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (My Review):
another surprise that taught me to appreciate classics and beware my own assumptions when it comes to literature. I recently reread this book and it was just as lovely and endearing as the first time.
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor (My Review):
these short stories may seem dark, twisted, even depressing, but they are also thoughtful and intriguing. The reader is being shown some of the worst of ourselves and our own culture and asking us to reckon with it.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof (My Review):
educational and inspirational, this book should be required reading. A thought-provoking read that is at times difficult emotionally difficult, but also reassuring when it comes to what individuals can and are doing to right wrongs and fight oppression.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut:
as an early lover of science fiction and fantasy, this was my first foray into something within that fit within that genre that also seemed truly clever and thought-provoking. Another first love that inspired my grabbing of more books along the line of this first and beyond.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (My Review):
unlike anything else I have ever read, this was not a book I instantly became infatuated with, in fact at one point I think I loathed it. This was a rich, complex, and complicated book for me, largely I am sure credit goes to Kundera's brilliance, but also partially due to the point and time in my own life in which I read this book.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling:
a reminder that a book can be fun, imaginative, and escapist while still being really excellent writing. This series, due to it's popularity, became something of a social phenomena; I found myself talking about these books with people that I had little else in common with. I always credit this series with being a bit of a reading gateway drug for so many people.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls:
a physically light book that was heavy in emotional content. This memoir was really beautiful and, for me at least, has a profound staying power.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (My Review):
a modern novel that is in no hurry to win the reader over, you need to steep in the story and take in the readers for who they are and what they represent. This is yet another excellent representation of fiction that seems honest and makes the reader confront both themselves and their culture.
Different Seasons by Stephen King (My Review):
long have a had a bit of a King habit, but this for me is probably the pinnacle of his writing. These novellas justify every book I have read by him that didn't pan out. These stories are not overly wrought, the answers are not all there, and the darkness is most disturbing because it is largely within the realms of possibilities. For me King was an entry point to reading, his writing lead indirectly to all the others.
Jason wrote: "The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:this was one of the first times that I read a somewhat more challenging classic of my own free will and I absolutely fell in love. As..."
Yay for The Idiot! My favorite by Dostoyevksy though I fell in love with him thanks to The Insulted and Humiliated.
dely wrote: "Jason wrote: "The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:this was one of the first times that I read a somewhat more challenging classic of my own free will and I absolutely fe..."
This is one that I have to go back and reread at some point. Absolutely loved this book. On a sode note: I tried to convince a friend to name their dog Myshkin - he was extremely sweet, but sadly epileptic.
Jason wrote: "dely wrote: "Jason wrote: "The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:this was one of the first times that I read a somewhat more challenging classic of my own free will and I ..."
Did they really call him Myshkin? Yes, it would have been the right name for that dog.
Top Ten All TimeUlysses by James Joyce
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Thomas Hobbes, tr.)
Dubliners by James Joyce
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The White Goddess by Robert Graves
I read Thucydides earlier this year (The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War (Crawley translation) and loved it! Haven't read the Hobbes translation though.
I read the Hobbes (1629) because it was a gift. I have heard good things about the Landmark Series, lots of good maps, I think. I loved it too. For me it was like reading the NY Times. Not the writing, but the whole story seemed so modern! We've hardly changed at all. War and politics. Thanks for writing! - )
Mod
Ulysses by James Joyce
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Thomas Ho..."
A great selection Mark - I've read about half of those, and I think Dubliners is my favorite of the ones I've read. Definitely 5 stars, some of the best short stories I've ever read. I liked Wise Blood quite a bit too, and The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, Amended and Enlarged Edition is fascinating. Graves is quite a character - I liked his translation of The Golden Ass too as well as some of his poetry!
Thank you, Greg! - )Kind of you to say. It's always cool to meet a fellow Wise Blood fan! And your description of Graves as "quite a character" is perfect! (My wife enjoys is novels and his Greek Mythologies.) Yes! Dubliners. It gets better each time I read it!
Mod
Kind of you to say. It's always cool to meet a fellow Flannery O'Connor fan! Your description of Graves as "quite a character" is perfect! (My wife enjoys is novels and his Gre..."
Oh yes, O'Connor is so great! I've liked everything I've read by her: Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories, Wise Blood, and A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories so far.
It was the first group read book I did at GRs. It's a very good book!Strong stuff and very well written! - )
Only just found this thread - interesting to read other people's choices and to try to decide my own Top 10, which was hugely difficult but here goes (but not in order):1) The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
2) Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
3) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
4) The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
5) One Day by David Nicholls
6) The Passage by Justin Cronin
7) The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
8) The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
9) Dune by Frank Herbert
10) The Five People We Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles2. The Yearling by Marjorie Kennan Rawlings
3. The Shack by William Paul Young
4. The Homecoming by Dan Walsh
5. The Running Foxes by Joyce Stranger
6. Praise The Human Season by Don Robertson
7. The Cross Gardener by Jason F. Wfright
8. Tryst by Elswith Thane
9. Shibumi by Travanian
10. The The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper
This is really hard to limit to 10. I'm going to stick with novels, which is still impossible--The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Ambassadors by Henry James
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
So many others- The Glass Bead Game, Bleak House, Musashi, Kafka on the beach, Of Time and The River, The Last Puritan, etc, etc., etc.
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)
Nicholas D. Kristof (other topics)
Flannery O'Connor (other topics)
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2. Ironweed
3. Grapes of Wrath
4. Fareheit 451
5. King Lear (a play I know)
6. Razor's Edge
7. The Confabulist
8. The Stand
9. The Stranger
10. 11/22/63