Favorite Books

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What qualifies as a best book? A book that blows you away, that transports and transforms--the kind of book that creates an alternative universe and keeps you there for days after reading. Unfortunately, these kinds of lists tend to be intensely personal. But here's mine:

Contents

[edit] Fiction

  • Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart. Such a great book--mysterious, rich with allusion and mythology, and so tragic. I choke up still whenever I read that last chapter to my students--even though I've been teaching this one for years.
  • Anon. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is the book that made me want to become a medievalist. The quest itself is so simple and heartbreakingly straightforward. But its ethical issues are complex, and the sophisticated poetry that carries the narrative has never, in my opinion, been outdone.
  • Robert Browning. ChildeRoland. My favorite work by one of my favorite poets. I read this epic quest rather late, but its impact was still vivid. The story itself is visually intense, and the journey itself is gripping. But even more powerful is the sense of psychological angst that permeates the poem. This work speaks as much to the modern self as Hamlet.
  • Italo Calvino. The Baron in the Trees. There's a wonderful, almost fable-like quality about this one. It's about a boy who becomes so annoyed at his father that he climbs a tree and vows not to come down until he gets an apology. He ends up spending his entire life up in the trees. A great plot, but also really funny and full of wicked descriptions.
  • Michael Chabon. Wonder Boys. I love all of Chabon's books, but this is my favorite. It's about a philandering professor who's never particularly had to account for his actions, until things suddenly start to go hilariously wrong. You do have to have a very black sense of humor to really appreciate this book, but the poignant realization about life and the consequence of choices at the end make it one of the best I've ever read.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer. Canterbury Tales. OF COURSE SHE'D PUT THAT ON HER LIST, you say. But CT really is one of the great literary works of all time--so funny, so insightful, so variegated. There's something there for everyone. And it proves one important point: people are their stories.
  • Susanna Clarke. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I absolutely loved this historical fantasy novel about the nineteenth century. A perfect book.
  • Daphne Du Maurier. The Scapegoat. Du Maurier is one of the most underrated novelists of the twentieth century. This book is creepy, painful, mindboggling. It's about who we are vs. who we think we are: our relationship to the past, our inaction as being as atrocious as action. One of those books where you think you know what's going on, but of course, you're human, so you actually don't.
  • George Eliot. Middlemarch. This is probably one of the best books ever written. It's a monumental read that follows lots of different characters and places. But somehow it all fits together in the end like a big phenomenological puzzle.
  • E. M. Forster. Howard's End. An amazing book, totally uplifting. Lots of philosophical descriptions that make you think about culture, current civilization, and whether progress is really a good thing. It's nothing like the movie, either!
  • Neil Gaiman. Sandman Series. I loved these. The books start as part of a horror series, then turn into a highly literary synthesis of mythology, legend, and fantasy surrounding the God Morpheus (who is easily one of the best characters of all time). The first is Preludes and Nocturnes.
  • Rachel Ingalls. Binstead's Safari. A work of magical realism about an unhappily married woman whose life changes when she visits Africa. I think this one is out of print now, which is a pity.
  • Kazuo Ishiguru. Remains of the Day. One of the most poignant novels I've ever read. It's all about memory and nostalgia, and how we create meaning in our lives that quite possibly is only illusionary.
  • Haruki Murakami. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. A dreamlike and mystical work, thoroughly postmodern, that blends western and eastern folklore and history into a poignant commentary on contemporary life and culpability.
  • Richard Russo. Straight Man. An academic satire that has so much insight into the university and its politicos. I loved this book. It's about the loose-canon chairman of an English department who's suffering through his insufferable colleagues amid the ever-present budget-cuts. This one really touches home.
  • Shakespeare. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello. "'Tis in ourselves we are thus or thus." So many psychological enigmas are illuminated by Shakespeare. The character of Iago doesn't explain why malice exists, but it sure goes a long way toward showing how malice is enacted, and by what sorts of people.
  • Muriel Spark. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. One of those books that turns reality completely around on you at the end. It's about a lot of things--who we are, how we make meaning out of life--and how a single betrayal can wreck it all.
  • Dodie Smith. I Capture the Castle. A pointed and piercing story told from the perspective of a teenage girl living in a castle with her impoverished and wacky family. The narrative voice is wonderful. Even though it's a quiet book (almost a romance), it's a page-turner. I couldn't put this one down.
  • Tom Stoppard. Arcadia. This is probably the best play written in the 20th century. It's vintage Stoppard, with lots of witty literary references, logic games, and good history. But the plot is just killer--it will have you weeping in the end. It traces a modern day historian and the past she researches at the same time.
  • Barry Unsworth. Stone Virgin and Morality Play. Unsworth is always devastatingly good. But be prepared to wander around in a funk for days after reading him--he just wipes you out. His characters always have such dark sides to them.
  • Roger Zelazny. Amber Chronicles. If you like Gaiman, you'll like Zelazny, who is one of Gaiman's chief influences. All Zelazny's books are good, but start with the Amber Series to really get his sense of how the worlds interlock and relate to one another. The first is Nine Princes in Amber.
  • -----Doorways in the Sand.
  • -----Jack of Shadows

[edit] Children's Books

  • L. M. Boston. Nothing Said. A work of magical realism about a little girl who stays for a while with a mysterious aunt in the English countryside. I can't really say any more than this--but it's a wonderful book.
  • Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass. All about perspective, logic, and the absurdity of life. But also, if you think about it, it's about finding your way in life: meeting strange and sometimes difficult people, coming to terms with them, moving on on your own, and the like.
  • Grimm's Fairy Tales. I read these when I was about eight and they gave me nightmares. Now I think of almost everything that happens in terms of these primal narratives. My favorites are "Brother and Sister," "The Juniper Tree," "Allereirauh," "Godfather Death," "The Water of Life," and "The Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was."
  • Rudyard Kipling. Just So Stories. I can't overestimate the impact these had on me. These are origin myths for a more modern age.
  • C. S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia. These are great books for a budding medievalist--all the creation myths of the world are retold here.
  • L. M. Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables. I read and re-read this book. It's about a girl with imagination and optimism, whose love of literature and life transform everyone around her.
  • Philip Pullman. His Dark Materials. The great Milton cycle retold for a modern age, with some of the most compelling female characters I've found in recent fiction. But I didn't like the third in the series.
  • J. K. Rowland. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--and the whole series. I love these books. And you can see why this book in particular has had so much appeal for so many people. It's a version of the Cinderella story for modern children. From there, the series becomes an almost epic cycle about courage, personal morals, and your ultimate integrity. And the humor and imagination are, of course, phenomenal. This series is destined to become a classic along the lines of the C.S. Lewis or Tolkien books.

[edit] Nonfiction

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