Favourite Books
Following is a list of favourite books (in alphabetical order) compiled by my online group of writing and publishing friends. We each contributed top 10 titles and this list is the result. Great if you’re looking for a suggestions of what to read next. When a book was nominated more than once, the number of nominations is listed in parentheses. If readers of this blog have any favourite titles to add to this list, please mention them in a comment below and I will include them in future revisions.
Abra by Joan Barfoot
Absalom, Absalom! By William Faulkner
Alexander The Great by Robin Lane Fox
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (2)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Anna Karenina by LeoTolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude-Montgomery
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan (2)
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
Away by Jane Urquhart
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
Bel Canto by Ann Patchet
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (2)
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Blueback: A Contemporary Fable by Tim Winton
Bride Stripped Bare by Anonymous
Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding
Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (2)
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Children of the Day by Sandra Birdsell
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (2)
Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (2)
Concubine’s Children by Denise Chong
Congo Journey by Redmond O’Hanlon
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (2)
Dancing At the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo
Degrees of Nakedness by Lisa Moore
Disgrace by J.M. Coetze
Diviners by Margaret Laurence
Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternek
Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
English Creek by Ivan Doig
English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (5)
Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Fall on your knees by Anne Marie McDonald (2)
Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy (2)
Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (4)
Foe by J.M. Coetzee
Folded Leaf by William Maxwell
Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
Girl by Blake Nelson
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Hours by Michael Cunningham (2)
How to Be Good by Nick Hornby
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
In Trouble Again by Redmond O’Hanlon
Independence Day by Richard Ford
Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O’Hanlon
Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (3)
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill
Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
Mouthing the Words by Camilla Gibb
Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (2)
Music for Torching by A. M. Homes
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2)
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (2)
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (2)
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Querencia by Stephen Bodio
Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker
Romantic by Barbara Gowdy (2)
Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Runaway by Alice Munro (2)
Running In The Family by Michael Ondaatje
Rush Home Road by Lori Lansesn
Russlander by Sandra Birdsell
Sea by John Banville
Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Simple Recipes by Madeline Thein
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Song Beneath the Ice by Joe Fiorito
Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani
Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (3)
Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay
Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (2)
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb (2)
This House of Sky by Ivan Doig
Three Dark Days by Kenneth MacDonald
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Time Traveller’s Wife by Niffenegger
Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (2)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Wave by Virginia Woolf
Way the Crows Flies by Ann-Marie Macdonald
White Album by Joan Didion
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell
Would You Please Be Quiet Please? by Raymond Carver (2)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (2)
