Book Meme
I saw this on
chibi_rei 's LJ and decided to go for it. Hop below the cut to read the 15 books that have had the most impact on my life... or that I simply like. Here's the actual meme prompt - Pick 15 book titles you've read and you feel an emotional bond with. You have 15 minutes to write down the first 15 titles that come to your mind.
Going in order of when I first read them (ie. oldest to newest) with an accompanying blurb of why they made the cut~
1. "Matilda" by Roald Dahl - My sister liked this book and handed it down to me when I was about 7 or 8. I always have loved reading, and I think once upon a time I imagined that I was Matilda. Looking back on it, I don't really see where those connections were made past the bookworm aspect. Great author, though, and even the movie version wasn't that bad.
2. "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin - It had intrigue and mystery, and admittedly, everyone else was reading it at the time. I might've been about 10 or 11, and fads in grade school absolutely had to be followed LOL
3. the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - I have a distinct memory of reading book 1 when I was in eighth grade, meaning I might've been 13 or 14. I have read all the books and even took a class in college that focused solely on them. I'm not a die-hard fan, but they are really engaging and entertaining. I would argue, however, that the second half of the series isn't geared towards children generally... which is probably why I like them more.
4. "Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime" by John Dunning - A murder mystery set on both coasts of the U.S. in the 1940s? Pretty much my version of a dream come true. If a time machine is ever invented, you can bet your bottom that I'm sending myself back to that decade. The novel is a bit lengthy but very interesting, and although there are many characters, they play off each other well enough to make the reader remember distinctly who they are. I haven't read this in years... I should find it.
5. "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks - Most people think Mr. Sparks is a sap who writes equally sappy novels, and sure, he does oftentimes. However, this book was freaking fantastic, and I can safely say that the movie did it justice. Oddly enough, my mom, sister, and I all own a copy of it LOL
6. "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri - We had to read this collection of short stories in high school, and it was the only book I didn't buy, a fact I now kick myself over. Lahiri's writing is fluid and believable, and I particularly like the story titled "A Temporary Matter". I highly recommend her work in general, but this piece is possibly the best.
7. "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan - I had to read this for a women's History course in college for a project/paper and really liked it. Sure, it does get a bit redundant after a while, but she raises some really interesting and valid points. Plus, it's neat to read about women's lives in the 40s-60s in comparison to how things are today. On the same note, though, it's sad how some things have in fact not changed as much as they rightfully should have.
8. the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris - We were assigned this in my Vampires in Literature course my sophomore year of college. After reading it the first time, I didn't like it to be perfectly honest. However, I read it again and couldn't put it down. Then came the next 8 books and I've been hooked ever since. They're quick to read, humorous, and smutty. It quite possibly helps that they inspired "True Blood" on HBO :) Go team Eric! (P.S. Book 10 comes out October 6th.)
9. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky - For any teenager who doesn't feel like they fit in, this is the book for them. The tale the protagonist weaves and the information divulged at the end make it a wonderful (yet sometimes depressing) read.
10. "Improper English" by Katie MacAlister - I actually struggled to pick her best novel. I read this one first, and it definitely is one of her best ones. It's a tale about a man and a woman both named Alex, and the woman is a beginning author who moved from Seattle to London to get inspiration to write. It's really adorable, and yes, it's also smutty. Most of her novels are, which might be why I like her so much :) They're also witty and funny as hell. Plus, her novels range from Victorian era stuff to vampire hijinks to modern-day romances. Great reads! I should send her a note on Twitter that I'm pimping the bejesus out of her...
11. "The Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman - Similarly to Katie Mac, it was hard for me to choose her best novel, but this one was also the first I picked up and hits home a bit more because it's set in an all-girls school (like my high school back in the day). Her stories are always mysteries, and the crazy twists she incorporates blow my mind every time. She's the author I recommend most to people, for that matter. She's also a Creative Writing professor at The New School in New York, so clearly she knows her stuff. I do find it peculiar, though, that all of her novels focus on things like foreign languages, water, and the East Coast, particularly New York and Pennsylvania. "The Sonnet Lover" and "The Night Villa" ended up in Italy and Greece, though, which were pretty rad.
12. the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer - First off, I really do like the books. They're easy to read, and the love story aspect is really quite adorable. However, these books are meaningful to me because they've shown me that if a mediocre writer like Mrs. Meyer can make millions, then so can I. I get that they're aimed at teenagers, but that age group isn't dumb - don't write as if they're 5 year olds, lady.
13. "P.S. I Love You" by Cecelia Ahern - Yes, I bought this book when I found out that James Marsters would be in the movie. I'm pleased to report that it surpassed my expectations and then some, although the ending was NOT what I expected/wanted. It's the only book that made me cry sob repeatedly. It's romantic in an entirely depressing way while being uplifting at the exact same time, and that takes massive skill on the author's part.
14. "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt - I was recommended this on Amazon.com after buying Carol Goodman's books and it was entirely worth it. It starts off with a murder and then reverts to the past when the plotting began. It then jumps forward to what becomes of the people behind the murder and how their lives spin out of control. It's fantastic!
15. "Something Borrowed" by Emily Griffin - The story follows a woman nearing 30 who finds herself single with absolutely no prospects. Her best friend is super fortunate and is getting married... to a guy that the protagonist liked once upon a time. They end up hooking up right away in the book (that's not a spoiler, it says it on the back of the book), and the novel shows how the affair progresses and how things eventually implode. It also has a sequel titled "Something Blue" that is pretty worthwhile, too. This book was read by nearly all of the girls I work with and we LOVE it!
Novels with Honorable Mentions:
- "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova - Off the bat, I'm going to say that I never finished this book. However, it's nearly a thousand pages (not an exaggeration!), and I gave it a good try before stopping at about page 850. It's basically a novel tracing the lineage of Dracula and a girl's journey to learn more about it/him while trying to find her father, who went missing doing the exact same thing. It's really interesting, but like I noted, it's really long.
- "Whores on the Hill" by Colleen Curran - The setting of the book is actually based on the high school I went to. The writing isn't amazing (although it's better than Stephenie Meyer's), but it's a really cool story about 3 teenagers branded "the whores on the hill" (in reference to their high school being on a hill) and how they start off as friends but go their separate ways after their hard-partying ways end up affecting them too much.
- "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I like the 1920s, what can I say? Plus it has intrigue and drama, which always amuses me.
- "The Realm of Possibility" by David Levithan - The whole novel is actually comprised of experimental writing pieces, told through the eyes of a handful of teenagers at a high school who are all complete opposites. As it turns out, though, they're all linked somehow. It's pretty nifty.
- "Trash" by Dorothy Allison - Some people call her an angry feminist/lesbian, but mostly people label her as white trash. She details her upbringing in the novel through short stories (in chapter form), and her background is incredibly fascinating (although quite sad at the same time). "Two or Three Things I Know For Sure" by her is also a great read.
- "Memoirs of a Beatnik" by Diane DiPrima - This novel stands out because my late (and f'ing fantastic) professor James Liddy made us read it for class and it was ridiculous. The novel covers the author's life throughout the Beat years while going into some fairly descriptive (and sometimes disturbing) sexual experiences. The novel is supposedly a memoir, but at the end, she reveals that most of the sexual parts were fictionalized because either she couldn't remember exactly what happened at the time or if they happened at all. Pretty genius, if you ask me. Rough topics to discuss in a class setting, though.
- "Hell's Angels" by Hunter S. Thompson - I love the motorcycle culture in general, mainly because it's been a part of my life since birth. It's incredibly interesting to read about outlaw motorcycle clubs, especially the most infamous of them all. The fact that the author followed them around for a long portion of time and lived to tell the tale is amazing to me. It is a bit repetitive, but I'm reading it for the 3rd time as we speak.