My Favorite Novels

Books and Reading, Fiction, History, This and That

The Name of the Rose, Humberto Eco.    (I love this book, have read it at least three times, its about a monastery library in the 12th Century.)

Snow Treasure, Marie McSwigan (All-time favorite.   My third grade Christmas present.  About some Norwegian kids and German soldiers.)

The Last Juror, Robert Grisham  (I like Grisham, this is my favorite novel of his.)

Wake of the Red Witch, Robert Rourk (My late husband’s favorite, he read it I don’t know how many times…I read it once, and it is the kind of novel that I didn’t want to end.)

Bad Spell in Yurt, C. Dale Brittain (series)   (I love her fantasy tales, I’ve read the series except for the last couple.)

The Queen’s Fool, Phillipa Gregory   (I enjoy this because although its fiction about Henry the VIII and his carryings-on, there is enough historical fact to justify reading romance fiction so avidly 🙂

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy  (I love this book, intriguing and romantic.)

The Sahir, Paulo Coelho  (Coehlo…anything he writes is wonderful.)

Mistress  of the Morning Star, Elizabeth Lane  (The plot is the very first account of the Aztec empire, Hernan Cortes, and his lady La Malinche.   This is fiction…but it is also my top influence for choosing Latin American Studies as my field.  I tried to use it for a reference once, but that was not well-received by my mentor 🙂

Fahrenheit 911, Ray Bradbury    (All the things I like: firemen, the future, books, crooked governments, and Science Fiction at its best.)

The First Eagle, Tony Hillerman (I have all of Hillerman’s books, and I want to read them again.   I like Navajos, indigenous people in general, Arizona, the Desert, and cops.)

She Who Remembers, Linda Lay Shuler.  (Historical romance again…about native society and a female head-of-state…and Kokopelli! )

These titles are all novels that I have read at least once, have some kind of personal attachment, and plan to read again.

16 thoughts on “My Favorite Novels”

  4. I enjoy John Grisham too. I love his legal fiction, but for really quality writing I’d recommend “A Painted House”, “The Innocent Man” (legal but non-fiction), and “Sycamore Row”. They really are superb.

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    1. I have not read A Painted House, but I have it in my Grisham collection. Guess I’m afraid there won’t be any lawyers in it. 🙂 I also like Lisa Scottoline…a lot!

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      1. I haven’t read Scottoline … I’ll add her to my junk reading list, shall I? I’m nearing the end of both Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series … I do enjoy that kind of reading for relaxation. Does Scottoline have a central character?

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      2. Yes, she does, a woman who heads up an all-female law firm. She has three other chracters that each have their own story line as. I like Scottoline because her plots are good, writing very good, and characters believable. She’s from Philadelphia, and once when I was sitting at a boarding gate at the airport there…so engrossed in her new novel that the gate attendant had to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention. Very proud of the author!

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      3. I also like Peri O’Shaughnessy, pseudonym for two sisters who write lawyer/detective books. Haven’t read Sue Grafton, although I have several of her books. Lee Child is on my list, but just haven’t got to him yet…I checked my inventory but don’t have any of his books, much to my surprise. (I am a book dealer, and have thousands of books.)

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      4. Honestly, Sue Grafton is okay … I’ve become fond of the character, but the writing is pretty clunky. Lee Child’s writing is intense and readable, but he also has some quirks that irritate if you’re sensitive to language. However Jack Reacher is a thoroughly satisfying character – a butt-kicker deluxe – I’m sure I’d loathe him in person, but I do love reading the stories…lol.

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      7. I sell on various book venues, Amazon, etc. and eBay. PadreVenturesLLC. My ebay store is called Gradmama’s Galaxy…its under renovation right now. I sell mostly non-fiction, but also some popular fiction. Have had book shops in a big flea market, and an antique mall. Now I just do business from my house.

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  5. Hit send before finishing my comment – sorry. Just wanted to thank you for posting this list … I’ve read a few on it, but there are a few I definitely want to check out. Yummy!

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  6. When we moved into a little flat after a big vicarage, we were forced to choose which books we had to dump and which to take with us. The main criterion was ‘books we will re-read’. It’s an interesting exercise! Very occasionally I’ll read one that I want to keep, and then it’s a question of ‘have we got enough bookshelf???’ One book I return to every so often is Kipling’s ‘the Light that Failed’. Kipling gets a bad press sometimes because of his Victorian outlook – but I think he’s a genius storyteller, incredibly creative with the way he uses words and rhythms – eg the Just So stories.

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    1. I haven’t read much Kipling, I’m afraid. Some authors though seem so familiar even though we have read only passages or snippets of literature. Also over a lifetime many conversations and research books and second-hand references.

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