Seems like a blog on books should include the blogger’s favorite books. These are the ones that come to mind right away. Even though I have read many great books, my favorite books are the ones that I would like to mimic in my own writing or books that I enjoyed and wouldn’t mind reading again.

• The Thousand and One Nights—The stakes are high: tell a great story or die tomorrow.
• Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins—Tom Robbins can be a potty mouth, but his story is well researched and incredibly far-fetched. Very entertaining if you can get passed some of the things he says.
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid—I love the structure and voice of this book, but there were a couple of slow parts for me.
• The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin—Took me back to the streets of Moscow. Grushin really captured the feel of the city the way I remember it.
• The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Mourier—This was a cool book. I read it a long time ago and want to read it again.
• 1984 by George Orwell—I wish I had never seen the movie!
• Animal Farm by George Orwell—Very interesting; need to read this again!
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury—The book, not the movie.
• Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk—Palaniuk is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. I love his creativity.
• Flying at Night by Ted Kooser—Ted also has a strong command of language.
• Where River Turns to Sky by Gregg Kleiner—An unlikely protagonist does an unlikely thing. I kept thinking: how is he going to make this work? Also, presents a very Oregonian perspective, which I really like.
• The Compromise by Sergei Dovlatov—Great satire. I wish I could have a cup of tea with this guy.
• The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard’s Story by Sergei Dovlatov—Interesting, honest, funny.
• Beloved by Toni Morrison—A horrific work of art. I’m not sure I want to read this again, but it was a real masterpiece.
• Aztec by Gary Jennings—Jennings does an amazing amount of research to pull his historical fiction together. Beware, he is warped. Otherwise, he is a genius.
• New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver—Oliver really loved nature. A good slow read.
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes—Broke my heart and you have to love that.
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy—Yeah, it’s long, but even so, it is amazing for its depth of understanding of human nature.
• Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng—A great read to find out more about the Chinese Cultural Revolution; very important; after reading the dedication, I am in tears.
• A Hero of Our Time by M. Lermontov—Every girl should read this before graduating from high school. Deconstructs the “bad boy” beautifully.
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert—The story of a woman who claims ownership of her own existence as she explores herself in three foreign cultures. And enjoyable thought-provoking read.
• The Upanishads translated by Eknath Easwaran—A classic if Indian spirituality
• The Bhagavad Gita translated by Eknath Easwaran—A classic of Indian spirituality