At one point much earlier, I said that while I had a top ten list of books, I could probably stretch that out into fifty. Done. In no particular order (except for perhaps the top five, which are genuinely top five material), here they are. I have pretty eclectic tastes, so not everything is going to appeal. Feel free to email me (joy@laughatlantis.com) and ask me why anything is on the list, why things aren't on the list, aand why I didn't put explanations on this list. (The answer to that, by the way, should be pretty frickin' obvious.) I've been working on this list off and on for eight hours.
The Stand - Stephen King
Beach Music – Pat Conroy
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
Battle Royale - Koushun Takami
Archangel – Sharon Shinn
The World According to Garp – John Irving
For Better, For Worse – Carole Matthews
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
Danny, The Champion of the World – Roald Dahl
Last Chance Saloon – Marian Keyes
The Eyes of the Dragon – Stephen King
Genesis Code – John Case
The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
Marley & Me – John Grogan
To Say Nothing of the Dog – Connie Willis
Midwives – Chris Bohjalian
Pope Joan – Donna Cross
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Alienist – Caleb Carr
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
True Love (and Other Lies) – Whitney Gaskell
Moo – Jane Smiley
My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
The Lords of Discipline – Pat Conroy
Light a Penny Candle – Maeve Binchy
Misery – Stephen King
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
The Eight – Katherine Neville
Plain Truth – Jodi Picoult
The Burg-O-Rama Man – Stephen Tchudi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
A Time to Kill – John Grisham
Light on Snow – Anita Shreve
Hominids – Robert J. Sawyer
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore
Lucky – Anna Sebold
The Source – James Michener
Zulu Heart – Steve Burns
Girl With a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
Microserfs – Douglas Coupland
High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
Broken for You – Stephanie Kallos
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Heart of Gold – Sharon Shinn
The Once and Future King – TH White
The Anatomy of Motive – John Douglas & Mark Olshaker
The Inn at Lake Devine – Elinor Lipman
Ta-da.