This year I’ve made a commitment to return to my junior high roots and read 50 books. When I read a book I pull myself into that world and learn and grow and return a better person. Books help me to visit places I otherwise may not and to see a side of humanity and gain a deeper knowledge of humanity as a whole. I typically read speculative fiction, or fantasy. I also enjoy self develop/discovery books, and the classics.
“My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.”
— Abraham Lincoln
This page will showcase the books I’m reading or plan to read this year and recommendations given by you. What I’m looking for in a recommendation is a book that I would enjoy or fits the genre of books that I like, but may not have found on my own or books that challenge my mind, viewpoint or reality itself. I’m not afraid of reading young adult books (and have been encouraged by authors of this genre to read them).
Books I’ve read previously:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Go Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Berg
The Harry Potter Series by J.K.Rowling
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
Please give me your recommendations in the comments below. My only requirement is good writing as I am trying to expand not just my vocabulary, but my knowledge in good usage of language, especially in storytelling.
Atlas Shrugged
I’ve been wanting to read this…by Ann Rand I believe.
I’ve listed a few on facebook but I’ll add them here…
Mark of the Lion (3 book series) by Rivers
Hadassah: One Night With the King by Tommy Tenny
The Princess Bride (only because its an amazing book)
Pride and Predjudice
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abby
Emma
Chronicals of Narnia (that counts as 7 I think)
You could always finish of the Wicked Series with “Son of a Witch” and “A Lion Among Men”
Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister
Mirror Mirror
LOST (all three by the same author of WICKED)
I can also recomend The Count of Monte Cristo, but that one takes a while.
If you want brainless reading for no other reason than its a book on a list “The Twilight Series” but fair warning they are brainless reads, predictable, and not the best.
Enjoy reading, that’s my favorite thing to do ever!
Whitney…I love you! I’m thrilled that you left me several recommendations…I think I will pick up a lot of them (looking forward to finishing the Wicked series)
The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning. Just finished it and it’s pretty amazing!
You are definately someone who’s book opinion I hold in high regard. I will add this to the list.
These 2 books are awesome reads and drew me closer to God. Crazy Love by Francis Chan is a deep look into the Christian life and is by no means sugar-coated. It’s raw and real…and exactly what I needed when I read it. The other book I’d fully recommend is Hinds’ Feet On High Places by Hannah Hurnard. It’s an allegory about our walk with the Lord…the happy times and the hard times where we can’t see anything but a mist in front of our faces. It’s real and I couldn’t put it down and finished it in one day.
Most of what I read is in preparation to teach my “class” of 4 homeschoolers. But this is my list of what I remember from reading in the past:
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Born Again by Chuck Coulson
Christy by Catherine Marshall
Automatic Mllionaire (about investing by paycheck or
automatic check withdrawal)
Multiple Streams of Income
Success, Motivation, and the Scriptures by William H. Cook
Small Miracles for Woman by Yitta Halberstam and Judith
Leventhal
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for asking for my opinion about books. I love the quote from Abraham Lincoln – so true.
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. An 11-year-old boy , Ender Wiggin, is recruited to train at an elite Battle School run by a future Earth, expressly to find “the one” that will lead the world’s armies into battle against an alien race bent on destroying the planet – or is it?
The story is deceptively simple, the issues are profound: Exactly how far does an individual’s duty to society extend? Who, or what, has the right to mislead one person for the “good” of that society?
I ran across “Ender’s Game” while wandering through a college bookstore. It was required reading for a sci-fi English department course. I bought it to see what the shouting was about, and finished it, bleary-eyed, at 3 the next morning. I plowed through four of its sequels, nearly 1,100 pages, in the following six days. Great stuff! Pick it up and see for yourself.
Good books, you say?
Good books are something I know a bit about!
Here are some of the ones that I love:
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (best read during the middle of summer)
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle (memoir)
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (also Spindle’s End–or any Robin McKinley, actually, although I wouldn’t start with Deerskin. It deals with difficult subject matter–not a good introduction!)
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (you may pick up a copy, take one look at the cover art, and write it off as a generic fantasy dime-a-dozen sort of book, but it is so much more!)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Any of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers–while it’s not the first chronologically, I like to recommend Murder Must Advertise as an introduction to the character.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (when I’m sad, I wrap up in this book like a blanket. It makes me laugh. One rough semester I re-read it seven times)
The original Oz books by L. Frank Baum–all fifteen of them!
The Tale of Desperaux by Katie DiCamillo
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander (they start with The Book of Three)
The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White
Baby by Patricia MacLachlan
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (everyone should read it once!)
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Dealing with Dragons (and the rest of the series–they’re light, entertaining, and really fun) by Patricia C. Wrede
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, followed by The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia–these were my favorites out of all the books that I read last year
The Liberation of Gabriel King by K. L. Going
The Princess and the Goblins by George MacDonald
I second the recommendation of Jane Austen (my three favorites are Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion), the Chronicles of Narnia, The Princess Bride, Gregory Maguire (I liked Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister best, followed by Mirror, Mirror–I’m afraid I didn’t love Wicked as much).
Hi Michelle,
Terry and I commend your goal. Both of us are avid readers and always have to have a book close by.
One of the most riveting books Terry and I’ve read in the past year was “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen. A friend of our recommended it and neither one of us was disappointed. It’s a “page-turner” with a wonderful story threaded through it.
I’ve also been intrigued by the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. I’m going to start it very soon after I finish my current book “Boom – Voices of the Sixties” by Tom Brokaw.
Chuck
I love the narrative non-fiction and my favorite authors are Pulitzer Prize winning author James Stewart and Kurt Eichenwald. Some of the books by Stewart that are great:
Den of Thieves
Blood Sport
Blind Eye
By Kurt Eichenwald:
Serpent on the Rock
Atlas Shrugged
Gravity’s Rainbow
Angle of Repose
The Hiding Place
Home by Julie Andrews
The Hot Zone