Favorite Books

I recently finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I had not read the reviews prior to picking it up. I had not had any input from friends or my book loving mother. I just thought it looked interesting. I don't deign to give you a run-down of the book because I think it needs to be experienced in that manner, without input.

This book led me to think about a lot of things. Upon finishing it, I was interested in what other people had to say about it. I wanted to know if this French, translated into English, novel was just another "quaint" foreign item, or if actually received the acclaim it rightly deserves. So, I looked up some reviews. There a quite a lot if you are interested.

It made me think of my favorite books. They are the books that when you finish you feel as though a friend has gone. I would probably have to go back and reread some, but I came up with a few:

(1) Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor;
(2) The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery;
(3) Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger;
(4) The Color Purple, by Alice Walker;
(5) Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston (I've read this book six times...);
(6) Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden (I read this book after the hullabaloo thinking that it was probably all hype, and truly love it;)
(7) Like Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen;
(8) Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns (I read this book as a teenager - sixth or seventh grade - and I think it was one of those first book experiences where a book truly touched me;)
(9) For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway (I read this while living in Spain, and Hemingway really is a master of his craft;)
(10) The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay.

The characters in each of this books are still so vivid to me. There are so many more, but I thought I would share some.