Top Ten Book Recommendations
I love recommending my favorite books to fellow book lovers. Not only do I get to share the joy these books bring me with others, but I also get to bring the books the love they deserve. I don’t have any one favorite book so this list is in no particular order.
1. Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey. This is a nonfiction book about the great white sharks of the Farallon Islands, off the coast of California. I had no interest in sharks when my mom loaned me this book, but I will read any book given to me. I’ve probably reread this book more time than I have reread any other book, and my mom and I constantly pass this book back and forth. There is magic in this book.
2. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. I read this for my AP English class in the 11th grade. Every time I reread it, I feel differently about the characters and the story. No other book has done that to me before. The cover of my paperback copy recently fell off because I’ve read the book so many times
3. Chocolat, The Fifth Quarter of an Orange, and Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris. Okay, that’s three books—I’m cheating. I’m a huge Joanne Harris fan and these are my favorite books of hers. Magic, food, and adventure, that’s what these books are all about.
4. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. There’s a reason why this book is a classic.
5. Pretty much anything by Margaret Atwood. (The Edible Woman, Alias Grace, and The Handmaid’s Tale, are probably my favorites.)
6. The Lady and the Unicorn: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier. This is a historical fiction book based on the famous tapestries of the same name. These are also the same tapestries that hang in the Gryffindor Common Room in the Harry Potter movies.
7. The Lost City of Z by David Grann and Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard. Both of these are non-fiction books. I put them together because they’re both about explorers and I read them back to back so they’re always linked in my mind.
8. A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. My husband and I are both animal lovers and we both come from families of animal lovers. Growing up, we’ve had special dogs that really touched our lives and last year adopted our very own mutt, Arya, who is hands down one of the best dogs either of us have ever had. I’m not usually one to cry over books or movies, but this book had me. If you love dogs, you have to read this book (and Cameron is from my home state of Michigan!)
9. The Last Season by Eric Blehm. I get my love of reading from my mom. She is particularly fond of nonfiction, especially adventure nonfiction. So all the nonfiction books on this list were given to me by her. I’ve read countless books about our country’s national parks, but out of all of them, this one always stands out. If you love nature and mystery, this book is for you.
10. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway. I have a love-hate relationship with Hemmingway. I generally don’t have much interest in the topics he writes about. And while I don’t really like his lean style of writing, I am fascinated by it. However, I absolutely love his memoir. It not only gives you a window into the great writer himself, but also into many of the other writers of the time such as Fitzgerald, Stein, and Pound. (If you’re interested in Hemmingway, I also recommend The Crook Factory by Dan Simmons, it’s a historical fiction novel about Hemmingway’s time in Cuba in the 1940s and his foray into espionage.)
Honorable Mentions: Ethan Frome and Summer by Edith Wharton, Lust for Life by Irving Stone, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagon, The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell, and The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury.