Favorite Books
These lists are not even remotely exhaustive, but they're reasonably representative. I tried to limit myself to five books in each category, but... apparently I didn't try very hard. Hey, at least I kept it under twenty!
Novels
- Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
- Jane Austen, Persuasion
- A.S. Byatt, Possession
- Michael Cunningham, The Hours
- Emma Donoghue, Hood
- George Eliot, Middlemarch
- William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!
- Keri Hulme, The Bone People
- Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
- Matthew Lewis, The Monk
- Robin McKinley, Spindle's End
- Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
- Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Creative Nonfiction
- Mark Doty, Heaven's Coast: A Memoir
- Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
- Rob Nixon, Dreambirds: The Strange History of the Ostrich in Fashion, Food, and Fortune
- Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
- Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
- Patricia Williams, Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons, and the Search for a Room of My Own
Poets
- Olga Broumas
- Mark Doty
- Louise Glück
- Marilyn Hacker
- Jane Kenyon
- Dorianne Laux
- Li-Young Lee
- Cate Marvin
- Naomi Shihab Nye
- Sharon Olds
- Adrienne Rich
- Kevin Young
Plays
- Jean Anouilh, Ring Round the Moon
- Alan Bennett, The History Boys
- Margaret Edson, Wit
- Tony Kushner, Angels in America
- Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
last updated: Wednesday, 26-Aug-2009 10:36:18 CDT