My 100 Best Novels. With a Few Memoirs. Plus Other Things.
Okay, Nathan Bransford said this was hard, and I believe him. But it was also fun. It has made me very clear that there are some books I want to go back and reread and some books I should be putting on my never-read-and-whyever-not? list.
Nathan had his caveats, and I’m going to have mine. They are:
- The books will be ones I’ve actually read, all the way through. There are probably many books out there that I have never picked up that would totally qualify.
- Some of these books I literally haven’t read in decades and are on the list because of the impact they had on me when I did read them. If I reread them today, they might not make the list. Others are recent reads that are foremost in my memory–in 10 years, they might not be here. Some are books that I know I won’t choose to read again, because they were brilliantly written, but I don’t want to repeat the experience of being in the world they portray.
- As I look at the list developing, I realize that it is a very white, heterosexual list. I am working on this, trying to read more widely and more diversely. But these are still books I fell in love with or was at least blown away by, so–for now–they make up my “best.”
- They are in alphabetical order, obviously, not order of favoritude.
- I’m not going to argue about this list. I welcome all comments and discussion, but I won’t be defending anything I’ve put here. That’s why it’s my list. You should definitely make your own and, if you want, leave a link in the comments!
- Because some of my favorite books are memoirs, I’ve included some of those. And I cheated a couple of other times, to get in some other books that are short stories or, in one case, long essays. Because these books are The Best.
Here we go.
NOVELS
- 84 Charing Cross Road
- All Creatures Great and Small
- Anne of Green Gables
- The Ark
- Artemis Fowl
- The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
- Between, Georgia
- The BFG
- Bitterblue
- Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
- Breakup
- The Brothers Karamazov
- Bluecrowne
- The Bluest Eye
- Busman’s Holiday
- Caddie Woodlawn
- Captains Courageous
- Charlotte’s Web
- Cheaper by the Dozen
- Cloud and Wallfish
- The Color of Water
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- The Flame Trees of Thika
- Flygirl
- Frindle
- A Good Man is Hard to Find
- Great Expectations
- Half Magic
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- High Hearts
- The Haunting of Hill House
- The Hobbit
- Holes
- A House with Four Rooms
- I’ll Give You the Sun
- Inkheart
- Island of the Aunts
- Jo’s Boys *
- The Jungle
- The Left-Handed Fate
- Life of Pi
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Lionboy
- Little Men *
- Living with Jackie Chan
- The Long Winter
- The Magician’s Elephant
- Matilda
- The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- The Metamorphosis **
- The Mouse and the Motorcycle
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- My Antonia
- My Father’s Dragon
- My Most Excellent Year
- Not a Genuine Black Man
- Okay for Now
- The Only Ones
- The Boy Most Likely To
- Persuasion
- The Penderwicks
- The Penderwicks in Spring
- Perverse and Foolish
- The Phantom Tollbooth
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
- Pippi Longstocking
- Pride and Prejudice
- The Princess Bride
- And Quiet Flows the Don
- Reflecting the Sky
- A Ring of Endless Light
- A Room of One’s Own
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
- The Secret Garden
- The Shepherd’s Crown **
- Speak
- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
- Tea with the Black Dragon
- The True Meaning of Smekday
- The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode
- The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
- Travels with Charley
- Villette
- War and Peace
- The Water is Wide
- The Watsons Go to Birmingham
- We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea
- The Wee Free Men **
- When We Rise
- Wintergirls
- Winnie the Pooh
- Travels with Charley
- The Water is Wide
- The Wolf Wilder
- The World According to Garp
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Wuthering Heights
- Zooman Sam
* Little Men and Jo’s Boys reach “best” status when you read them both, in order.
*** Make sure you read all the Tiffany Aching books after The Wee Free Men BEFORE you read The Shepherd’s Crown (the last in the series).
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[…] Bransford did it. So did Becky Levine. I’m going to do it, too, and pop on to my blog long enough to post it, so you can think […]
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