Insert Clever Line Here
This week, I'm doing what I feel are the ten best books I've ever read. It's hard to put them in order really, but I tried.
Top Ten Books
1. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice- DUH. How could you even THINK Brett would do a book list without an Anne Rice Vampire Chronicle book? This book was one of the most defining in my love of the Vampire mythology. It was after the movie, but I refused to watch it til I had finished the book. I loved it because of Louis, the lead character. He has such humanity and a yearning to maintain it in the face of all the things that happen to him throughout his life.
2. The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath- the story of a young woman who has a wonderful life but gets depressed while away at college. She ends up trying to commit suicide, and is hospitalized in a rehab-like facility afterwards. It's dated of course, written in a time when depression and suicide were not widely acknowledged at illnesses.
3. Memoirs of a Geshia by Arthur Golden- long before the movie ever came out, I read the book and thought how amazing it would be as a movie. The movie is not nearly as good as the book, mind you. It was so violent and vivid when I read it.
4. Ladylord by Sasha Miller- it was the first "grown-up" book I ever really read; a fantasy novel about a woman who challenges the fuedal system of her fictional nation. It's no longer in print, I think, and it took my years to find a copy of it, but I finally did, so I'm currently rereading it.
5. Mick Hart was Here by Barbara Parks- a younger book, but it made a huge impression on me. It's about a very average family that loses their son in a bicycle accident.
6. The Once and Future King by T.H. White- one version of the complete Authurian legend, from boyhood on. It's a good fantasy read. It's also the basis of the Disney "Sword and the Stone".
7. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury- I love Bradbury's works, but this is one of his less serious. It's about a journey through time and space a few friends take on a Halloween night with a creepy old man. They go and experience the history of Halloween from different places in a desperate effort to save the renegade soul of their best friend, which whom they are chasing after the whole time.
8. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews- yes, one of those books. When I first started college, my friends and I would go to this bookstore we loved at least once a week and I would buy all these cheap, old books. That's how I ended up reading 'Flowers'. I had always heard it was weird and controversial, so naturally, I wanted to read it. As I read it, I was shocked even now by some of its' content, and even more so how I felt the lead characters really were innocent in the end, despite their relationship.
9. Born Confused by Tanju Desi Hidier- a young Indian American woman deals with the pressures of her family and culture in the modern world. It's hilarious.
10. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- even though it ended rather anticlimatically, it was a good read for kids and adults. It was highly entertaining.
Top Ten Books
1. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice- DUH. How could you even THINK Brett would do a book list without an Anne Rice Vampire Chronicle book? This book was one of the most defining in my love of the Vampire mythology. It was after the movie, but I refused to watch it til I had finished the book. I loved it because of Louis, the lead character. He has such humanity and a yearning to maintain it in the face of all the things that happen to him throughout his life.
2. The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath- the story of a young woman who has a wonderful life but gets depressed while away at college. She ends up trying to commit suicide, and is hospitalized in a rehab-like facility afterwards. It's dated of course, written in a time when depression and suicide were not widely acknowledged at illnesses.
3. Memoirs of a Geshia by Arthur Golden- long before the movie ever came out, I read the book and thought how amazing it would be as a movie. The movie is not nearly as good as the book, mind you. It was so violent and vivid when I read it.
4. Ladylord by Sasha Miller- it was the first "grown-up" book I ever really read; a fantasy novel about a woman who challenges the fuedal system of her fictional nation. It's no longer in print, I think, and it took my years to find a copy of it, but I finally did, so I'm currently rereading it.
5. Mick Hart was Here by Barbara Parks- a younger book, but it made a huge impression on me. It's about a very average family that loses their son in a bicycle accident.
6. The Once and Future King by T.H. White- one version of the complete Authurian legend, from boyhood on. It's a good fantasy read. It's also the basis of the Disney "Sword and the Stone".
7. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury- I love Bradbury's works, but this is one of his less serious. It's about a journey through time and space a few friends take on a Halloween night with a creepy old man. They go and experience the history of Halloween from different places in a desperate effort to save the renegade soul of their best friend, which whom they are chasing after the whole time.
8. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews- yes, one of those books. When I first started college, my friends and I would go to this bookstore we loved at least once a week and I would buy all these cheap, old books. That's how I ended up reading 'Flowers'. I had always heard it was weird and controversial, so naturally, I wanted to read it. As I read it, I was shocked even now by some of its' content, and even more so how I felt the lead characters really were innocent in the end, despite their relationship.
9. Born Confused by Tanju Desi Hidier- a young Indian American woman deals with the pressures of her family and culture in the modern world. It's hilarious.
10. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- even though it ended rather anticlimatically, it was a good read for kids and adults. It was highly entertaining.