This was possibly the most difficult post to write ever, simply because narrowing all the books I've read down to 10 of my favorite is a close to impossible feat. I've done it, and hopefully, you'll find a new book to devour! This list is in no particular order, promise.
1) Oy Joy!
I've read this book close to a hundred times, if not more. I've probably owned it for close to five or six years. It's a great little story about a girl who's trying to figure herself out while everyone around her is changing and telling her she needs a boyfriend. Her great-uncle moves in with her family, turning her life upside down. But it's perfect! He teaches her so many things and in the end, she finds what she's looking for and her great-uncle Max falls hopelessly in love.
2) Looking for Alaska
John Green is an amazing writer and my favorite book by him is Looking for Alaska. It's so raw and real. A young boy deals with a new friend's suicide and spends the rest of the book trying to figure life out. He's obsessed with last words, giving a morbid touch to her death. Read it and weep.
3) The Secret Life of Bees
This book will touch your heart and possibly rip it out. You follow an abused young girl travel with her maid (this was back when black people weren't allowed to vote) and find a place where they belong. She goes from having no mother in sight to four. We fall in love with characters and watch as their lives are torn apart. Read about prejudice, abuse, love, suicide, and bees.
4) Wuthering Heights
Settle in for a lengthy but beautiful trip. This book is so full of drama, it's entrancing and captivating. We witness characters meeting again, love, affairs, and so much drama! This is a classic that you must read.
5) Johnny Tremain
I remember my mom reading this to me in fifth grade and I fell hopelessly in love with Johnny. He works as a blacksmith until a terrible accident when his hand is mamed. This story takes place during the revolutionary war and my goodness is it amazing! We are allowed to watch as Johnny grows and changes by the hands of the world. He meets people who give him opportunities he wouldn't have dreamed of. This book has a hearty dose of politics, life, and again, drama. It's not a very hard read, but the depth is amazing.
6) 11/22/63
Stephen King writes a book that describes time travel. It's not scary, if you're concerned about reading his works. This is a very long read, as most of his are, but it is so worth it. Our main character is a teacher who is left with a time-traveling closet and he goes back in time, living life before JFK's assassination. It is up to him to stop his neighbor, Lee Harvey Oswald, from committing the terrible act history knows him for.
7) Any of the Harry Potter books
I highly doubt I need to explain these to anyone, but read them. Read them again. I grew up with these books and I strongly think that they influenced my creativity to this day.
8) The Giver
This book is actually making it to the silver screen! Do yourself a favor and read it before you go watch the movie. We follow a young boy, Jonas, who has decided that the perfect, boring world he lives in is not quite right. He sets out to find the Giver and learn the truth about the world he lives in and the emotions he has never felt.
9) Inkheart
I actually own the UK version and the US version of this book because when I was younger, everyone wanted to buy it for me. That's how much I loved that book (the movie was terrible, the ending made me want to punch a wall, etc). We follow Meggie (oh the irony) and her father as they travel through a world her father read out. She learns that she too can read from books and make things come to life, but there is a price. A price that her mother paid when Meggie was a little girl.
10) Night
Elie Wiesel writes this non-fiction book about his family's lives while imprisoned in a concentration camp. The terrible things he sees and the hardships he and his father face really open readers' eyes to the reality of life for Jews during Hitler's reign. It is very graphic, I wouldn't recommended it to younger readers. But if you can handle it, this book is a must read.
What are your top 10 favorite books?
