Top Fives (Books)

[rsadelle]

icanbreakthesky had no computer when I did these, so I told her she could ask me one. She put this as an or, but I'm doing it as an and. Both lists are in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Top Five Desert Island Books

1. Dancer of the Sixth, Michelle Shirey Crean - I love this book. It's one of my all-time favorites. Kick ass female protagonist, interesting structure and plot, lovely reveals of information.
2. Bet Me, Jennifer Crusie - I have mostly gotten over feeling guilty about the things I love, but sometimes the fact that I love Jennifer Crusie's romance novels still hits up against the part of me that still thinks I should be a serious intellectual. But let's be honest here: when I want comfort reading, Bet Me is the first book I reach for.
3. Tam Lin, Pamela Dean - I usually think about loving this book for the plot, which is wonderful - it's a fairy tale retelling - but the last time I reread it, I realized how amazing the writing itself is.
4. Spindle's End, Robin McKinley - For years I've said Deerskin is my favorite Robin McKinley book, but in the past couple of years, I've been rereading Spindle's End somewhat regularly. This is another fairy tale retelling (Sleeping Beauty), and I love her worldbuilding and the relationships that she builds over the course of the story. (I should probably buy myself a copy. I used to have one, but that was before I was reading it fairly regularly, and now I could have a copy that's not a giant hardback.)
5. Impossible Things, Connie Willis - I think Bellwether is still my favorite Connie Willis book, but for a desert island, I want more variety - and Impossible Things, as a short story collection, has that. And it would definitely meet my need for screwball romance.

Top Five Books That Have Stuck With Me

1. The Rising of the Moon, Flynn Connolly - This is very femslashy sci fi, but what's stuck with me the most is the portrait of how a theocratic (Catholic, in this case) society affects the lives of women, and the way the women rebel.
2. Tam Lin, Pamela Dean - This has been one of my favorite books for years and years, but only last time I read it did I realize just how much it had influenced my life. I was startled enough to write about it.
3. City of Diamond, Jane Emerson - One of my maybe someday I'll write that stories in my head is a novel that I think of as being very influenced by this book, although the last time I read it, I thought, "My story is so very different."
4. Sable, Shadow, and Ice, Cheryl J. Franklin - I can't explain why this book has stuck with me. I don't think it's great literature, and yet every time I look at it on my shelf, I know that I can't get rid of it. I think there's something about the underground resistance plus the love story plus the sci fi/magic that keeps me coming back to it.
5. The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell - The religion in this book is nothing like my religious/spiritual beliefs, and yet I found it one of the best examinations of religion I've ever read. It's also an excellent piece of sci fi, and I would recommend it just for that. This is another one I wrote about (minor spoilers). (I also wrote about the sequel, with way more spoilers.)