Favorites

I love looking at the 100 Best Books lists that you can find anywhere by just googling it.  There are always lots of books that I agree are great, a few that I scratch my head over and ones that I just don't get...sorry Harry Potter (while a great phenomenon and good story, not a top 100, my opinion only).  So, obviously, recommending a great book is like naming art.  The beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

My favorites change all the time, but there are definitely some books that stand out.

1.  East of Eden by John Steinbeck

2.  The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

3. Flags in the Dust by William Faulkner (also As I Lay Dying)

4. My Antonia by Willa Cather

5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

6. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

7. All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

9. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

10. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

There's more, but those top the list and I have to say one thing:  One day, long ago, my husband asked me what made a book a good book and I handed him Les Miserables (not in real time of course, I had to think about it for a minute or two).  His exposure to reading was mostly the back of movie boxes for he had "seen the movie" of lots of great books...and that didn't cut it in my snobby opinion.  With Les Mis, he started waking up at 5 am to make sure he got to read and read each moment he could fit it in and when he put it down, he got it.  Good books are not daunting, they are not difficult, rather they are transporting.  You begin to think about the characters, dream you are in the story at night, and most of all, the story becomes a part of you.  That is a good book, that is my definition of a good read.