Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Introducing "Series 35"

Installment #1
In honor of my fast-approaching 35th birthday (I just choked a little typing that), I'm going to write 35 lists of 35 items each.  Some will be fun, and some will be serious, but all will be random, as I haven't the time to write anything altogether circumspect these days. 

In casting about for how to inaugurate "Series 35," I looked no further than my good friend, the Shabby Princess, for inspiration...her post today is a celebration of books (hello, kindred spirit, SP!).  Thus, here's my Series 35 on favorite books (fiction/literature; I might do another list on non-fiction) and favorite authors (if I couldn't narrow it down to just one offering from a particular author):
  1. Gotta start with the cream of the crop:  Jane Eyre by the inimitable Charlotte Bronte
  2. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
  3. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)
  4. Elizabeth Berg
  5. Beowulf (uh, the Anglo-Saxons?)
  6. Chris Bohjalian
  7. The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgson Burnett)
  8. Michael Crichton
  9. Agatha Christie
  10. Jennifer Donnelly
  11. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
  12. Silas Marner (George Eliot)
  13. Bridget Jones' Diary (Helen Fielding)
  14. Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
  15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
  16. Philippa Gregory
  17. Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
  18. Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)
  19. The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
  20. Ernest Hemingway
  21. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
  22. Barbara Kingsolver
  23. Sophie Kinsella
  24. Stephenie Meyer (that's right, I'm a Twi-hard and I don't mind admitting it!)
  25. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
  26. Love Comes Softly (series by Janette Oke -- the best books you can give an adolescent girl, in my opinion)
  27. Nancy Pickard
  28. Francine Rivers (I almost put Redeeming Love but her other books are really just as good)
  29. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
  30. Anita Shreve
  31. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
  32. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
  33. The Hobbitt (J.R.R. Tolkein)
  34. Jennifer Weiner
  35. Little House on the Prairie (series by Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Note:  Some of these books I love so much I could cuddle them, while others I love because they really moved me (Tess) or changed my thinking in some way (Catcher).

So -- please leave a comment telling me what book(s)/authors I may have missed in a list of top 35!

5 comments:

Becky said...

I knew I would think of one as soon as I posted the list -- "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant is an absolute favorite -- maybe could replace one of these 35?

Anonymous said...

Dare I mention Chataine's Guardian? It's certainly not literature, but it's some pretty awesome fiction! :) Nice nod to Barbara Kingsolver. She's my favorite current author. Were you ever able to read The Bean Trees? -Katie

Becky said...

Katie (seems weird to call you that!) -- Yes, "Bean Trees" is what puts Kingsolver squarely on my list. I really enjoyed some of her other books but that is by far one of the best books I've ever read!

Kate said...

Hey, you should try lists like Top 35 Favorite Memories so far, that kind of thing...that'd be a fun trip down memory lane for you. And if bashing around England (bedbugs and all) doesn't make the list, I'll be disappointed.

Becky said...

If our trip to England wouldn't make such a list, then I've no right to call myself an Anglophile or even "Becky" any longer. That's a good idea!!! (My BIG one is 35 lessons learned in 35 years -- I've actually been working on it for a month or so. You can imagine...)