Monday, March 2, 2009

Some Favorite Reads


No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but February really kicked my butt, thus the absence of blogs for an entire month. I had pneumonia, and everyone in the family (only exception was the dog) ended up on antibiotics for something or other. My daughter with Cystic Fibrosis is having a difficult winter, health-wise, so my posts during March may be few and far between as well. Believe me, no one's wishing for spring more than I am this year!

I thought I'd share a list of some of my favorite reads with you today. This list is of mainstream fiction I've enjoyed. I've got lists for other genres, as well, and maybe I'll share some of those at a later date.

Barbara Kingsolver
Animal Dreams
The Bean Trees
Pigs in Heaven
The Poisonwood Bible

Alice Hoffman
Turtle Moon
Practical Magic
Probable Future
The Drowning Season
Here on Earth
The River King
Blackbird House
Seventh Heaven

Jane Hamilton
When Madeline Was Young
The Short History of a Prince
Disobedience
A Map of the World
The Book of Ruth

Toni Morrison
Beloved
Song of Solomon
Tar Baby
The Bluest Eye

Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees
The Mermaid Chair

Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Tears of the Giraffe
Morality for Beautiful Girls
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
The Full Cupboard of Life
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

Donna Andrews
Murder with Peacocks
Murder with Puffins

Eric Jerome Dickey
Pleasure
Sleeping with Strangers

Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Mary Lawson, Crow Lake

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells

Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True

Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree

Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits

Christopher A. Bohjalian, Midwives: a Novel

John Burdett, Bangkok 8

Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling

Michael Dorris, A Yellow Raft on Blue Water

John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

I'd love to hear what some of your favorite books of all time are. You know, the ones that stay with you for some reason even after you put the book down. The book you'd like to have on a desert island with you. What do you like, and what about the story touched you?