Top 20 Meme

Picked this up from Becky:

The rules: Top twenty favourite books in no particular order. Don’t think about it for too long. Take twenty minutes only to compile your list. Bold the ones you’ve read, or reread, since you’ve started blogging. Include novels, non fiction and plays.

1. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
4. Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
5. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
6. Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
9. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
10. Asylum by Patrick McGrath
11. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
12. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
13. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

14. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
15. Private Demons by Judy Oppenheimer
16. Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott
17. The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
18. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
19. The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler
20. Birth at Home by Sheila Kitzinger

Highlights (Booking Through Thursday)

From Booking Through Thursday:

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

It was a good year, reading-wise. Here are my highlights, with links to my reviews.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer

The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Joel Carmichael)

Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell

And a few series:

Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word and A Handful of Men

Megan Lindholm’s Ki and Vandien Quartet

Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer

Synopsis:
A biography of Shirley Jackson, author of the short story “The Lottery,” and one of my favorite authors.

Review:
I was inspired to read this thanks to an email I got from Chaucerian Girl. She expressed an appreciation for Private Demons, Judy Oppenheimer’s biography of the woman I believe to be one of the greatest American writers of the mid-20th century. Continue reading