It's so cold today that I can tell summer is officially over. I do love autumn--in fact, it's my favorite season! I love the crisp air, snuggling by the fire in the chilly evenings, pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc, but it's sad to let go of long, sunny days, hammocks, and more time to read. I came across NPR's "100 Best Beach Reads Ever," and though some don't really meet my idea of a "beach read" (light, fun, you don't have to concentrate too hard on it, not exactly
Anna Karenina, much as I love it--but then again, I took a massive bio of Bess of Hardwick with me to Hawaii once, and enjoyed it very much on the beach...)
To say good-bye to summer, I've highlighted the books I've read in red, the ones I want to red in blue, with a star by favorites. What are your faves from this list? What else would you add?
*1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling*2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee*3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini*4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding*5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen*6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells*7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald*8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams*9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg*10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
11. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
*12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
*13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
*14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
*16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
*17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
*19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
*20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
*22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
*23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
*27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler
*30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
*31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
*35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
*41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
*42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice
*44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
*46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
*47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
*51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand, by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
54. Dune, by Frank Herbert
*55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
*56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
*61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]
*76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
*78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett
81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
81. The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
*87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun, by James Clavell
89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
96. The Shining, by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
I just saw this blog post about Nancy Drew's 80th anniversary in print! Wow, that really makes me feel nostalgic for my childhood reading. (Not that I read it 80 years ago or anything, LOL). I loved the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid, mostly for the characters and the historical details like Nancy's little roadster and her chic clothes (the mysteries were pretty easy to figure out...). My parents would buy me a copy of a Nancy book when we went on road trips, and would get mad when I read it in the first hour and then demanded another! Good times. :)
When I was very small, some of my favorite books were the Eloise stories. I wanted to live in a hotel and wreak havoc among the guests! I also had a great fondness for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (the book was totally different from the creepy movie--I still have nightmares about that child chaser!), though my mother hated it because it was very long to read aloud. I remember a book about princesses with massively long hair and a Sesame Street scratch-and-sniff with a very stinky Oscar the Grouch page.
Later I found the Noel Stretfeild "Shoe" books--Ballet Shoes, Skating Shoes, Theater Shoes, etc and dove into their very English world. It gave me a real love both for English history and culture and the world of the performing arts. (I recently came across a not-too-bad adaptation of Ballet Shoes on Netflix, starring Emma Watson and Emilia Fox. If your kid also loves these books you might want to check this out!). There were also the usual books beloved by bookish girls--Anne of Green Gables, Little Women (though I was appalled at their prissy attitude toward fun things like clothes and parties!), Little House on the Prairie, etc. I was also crazy about the Betsy-Tacy books (I've been seeing these around a lot lately!)
A little later, I discovered Barbara Cartland novels and devoured every copy I could find! (And there were a lot of them). They gave me a real gift in introducing me to a wide variety of historical settings--Regency ballrooms, Lily Langtry's theater, India during the Mutiny, an Elizabethan pirate ship, a gypsy camp--and sending me to the library to check out non-fiction books to learn more. However, they did me a real disservice in my high school dating life when I found out there were NO sardonic dukes among the boys there. Not one.
I also found the "Sunfire" YA historical romances. (I bypassed "Sweet Valley High" entirely, thankfully!). These were American-set books, but they also featured a wide variety of settings and character types--Revolutionary Philadelphia, the Mayflower, Gilded Age New York, 1812 New Orleans, wagon trains, the Triangle factory fire, the Titanic. Each featured a girl (whose name was the title) who had to discover herself and choose between 2 suitors. They were a wonderful gateway to "adult" historical romance!
What were your favorite books growing up???
