Each year I choose a Book of the Year, my personal favorite. Here they are, going back as far as I can remember.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Fiction by Mary Anne Shaffer 2008
- Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon–and the journey of a generation NF by Sheila Haller 2008
- Zoli by Colum McCann Fic 2007
- Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert NF 2006
- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luiz Zafon 2005
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 2004
- Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst 2003
- Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund 1999
- The God of Small Things by Ayundati Roy 1998
- Evening by Susan Minot 1998
- The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett 1997
- The Last Algonquin by Theodore L. Kazamiroff 1997
- The Power of One by Bruce Courtenay 1989
I’ve forgotten a few years, I’m afraid. I wish I had kept a list. I have a friend who has kept a list of everything she’s read since she was a teenager. She even has a rating system. Here’s an idea; lists of books read could be kept online now at Library Thing.
7 Comments
Jay,
I’d have to put Ahab’s wife at my top ten also. It was a compelling read, full of adventure, spirit, relationships, history. It’s one book that has stayed with me over time.
Nancy
p.s. this web site is great!
How about inviting library patrons to submit their own top ten list
for posting here on the website.
Jeff
Go for it! We’d love to see other people’s top ten lists!
[tags]top ten books, book picks, reader's advisory[/tags]
Thanks Jay, this is a great website,
My top ten so far:
The Tao of Psychology by Jean Shinoda Bolan
Earthly Paradise by Colette
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
The Education of Little Tree by Forest Carter
Artic Dreams by Barry Lopez
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Elizabeth Bishop Complete Poems 1927-1979
Anna Akhmatova Poems
Member of the Wedding by Caron McCullers
Top Ten (From childhood to now)
1. A Day at The Zoo. (I don’t remember the authors name, but this was the book I asked my father to read to me over and over again before I could read.)
2. Homer Price Stories. Robert McCloskey.
3. Harry Houdini (Biography by his wife Bess).
4. A Journey to the Center of The Earth. Jules Verne.
5. Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe.
6. The Artist in His Studio. Alexander Liberman.
7. Collected Poems. Dylan Thomas.
8. The Glass Bead Game. Herman Hesse.
9 The Agony and The Ecstasy. Irving Stone.
10. Stranger In A Strange Land. Robert Heinlein.
[tags]childhood, adulthood, favorite, books, lists[/tags]
I loved those Homer Price stories. I learned to read so I could read what was going on with that greenhouse with all the broken windows. Robert McCloskey is a National Treasure, as far as I’m concerned. His books never grow old and tired. Every generation loves them.
Homer was the best! I can still remember laughing so hard when my second grade teacher would read those stories.
Long live the Doughnut Machine!!