Top Ten: Book Edition

In no particular order...and only at this moment, of course.   Keep in mind that this list took me .34 seconds to come up with so it's hardly extensive.  Yes, others should be here.  I know.  I'll think of so many other books that have changed my life as soon as I hit Publish.  But these are the ones that sprang to mind instantly.  These are the ones I'll never forget.   Like a song perhaps, they bring to mind a certain time in my life - maybe that's why I love them so.  Maybe it's because they're great literature.  But maybe not...  

Outlander.  Not for the faint of heart.  Not for people who will panic at the fact that it's only the first in a series of gigantic, enormous novels.  Words, words, words.  Also not for people who can't handle a huge amount of violence and sex.  But if you are over 18...oh my, these books are addicting.  They're like a guilty pleasure with the heft of a Tolstoy novel.

I love Sara Donati.  Probably because they take place in my favorite time period.  These books take up where The Last of the Mohicans ended.  They're yummy.

My favorite book as a teen (next to Jane Eyre) was Jamaica Inn.  Daphne du Maurier is lovely and genuine and smart and dark and creepy.  I loved the tragic scariness of this book and used to read it in the dead of night with a flashlight... so very good.

My favorite book of the last few years.  When will she write another, for crying out loud???  Come on, Diane, you're killin' me!

It's been a while since I've read Francine Rivers and some of her books are only sorta okay, but this one...oh boy, this one just got under my skin.  I heard they made a movie but I missed it.

When I was about 12 or so my mom told me to read up on the Civil War.  This was my textbook.

Sometimes you just gotta read for fun, you know?  I mean, you don't come to this blog for the philosophical theories, right?  You come for the silliness and to laugh a little.  That's when I crack open a Pat McManus.  No one else can make slide to the floor in breathless giggles.  He's our go-to campfire read and he will quite possibly make you pee your pants.  Consider yourself warned.

Ahhh, Jane...how I love thee...let me count the ways:  creepiness...romance...thought provoking story lines...orphans...nasty relatives...crazy wife hiding in the attic...  Except for the middle section with boring ol' Whatshisnamepreacherman, this book is perfect.  Flawless.  I will always think of little Liz Taylor as poor dying Helen.  There are forty-eleven movie versions and it's hard to pick a favorite... they're all pretty dang good... I liked the one from just a few years back...and the William Hurt one (because he's the best actor in the known universe and I would follow him to the ends of that said universe) and the Mia Aliceinwonderland one was okay but left out Grace Poole which was ridiculous and - oh dear, the Jane Eyre movie debate is probably a whole 'nother blog.

What a crazy amazing, good book this is.  Beautiful and flawless.  That's really all I can say. 

I love Dean Koontz.  Really.  I do.  He's fanfreakintabulous.  So stick that in your literary pipe and smoke it.  Some of his books may be a little forgettable...but then there are some others that just are not.  You won't forget them.  You won't forget Odd.  I promise.  Unless you are my dad who keeps getting this novel as a gift and still hasn't made it past the first chapter.  I think he's trying to kill me.  He now owns several copies because I keep sending them to him.  The movie is coming out and I am sooooo not taking him, the ungrateful ingrate.