Thursday Thirteen

This blog is in response to Elisa's blog. I'm listening thirteen books I like. For those of you that don't know, I have a terrible memory. I have to keep a list of every book I read if I want to keep from accidentally rereading it. That doesn't always work. I started reading East of Eden and it didn't take long for me to realize I'd already read it. I did reread a Holocaust memoir, but the title was different here in the States than it was in Europe, so it was an easy mistake. So I'll only be listing books since I started keeping a list in college.

1. Best Purposeful Reread - Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is about a missionary family in the Congo. I wouldn't classify it as a religious book, but it does have religious themes. Every chapter is written from the perspective of a different daughter in the family, and they each have a unique voice.
2. Best Autobiography - Personal History by Katharine Graham. Graham was the editor of the Washington Post Co. during Watergate and the Pentagon Papers scandals. If you like journalism, it's a great read. Very well written and she talks about being a woman in a man's world.
3. Funniest Book I've Ever Read - Lamb by Christopher Moore. I love to read and love to laugh but very rarely do books make me laugh. I laughed out loud all the way through this book. This is a religious satire, so if you can't handle reading about Jesus doing "sacrilegious" things, don't try it. To me, that is what made it so funny. And because I read this book, I had a conversation with a stranger exploring Christianity about religion and politics, separation of church and state, Christians and Bush, abortion and homosexuality
4. Best Series - The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten) I've heard this compared to an adult Harry Potter series. Kind of sci-fi meets literary allusions. Thursday Next is a literary detective in England in the future. Silly, but fun and smart.
5. Best Religious Books - Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner. I don't read many religious books and really liked both of these.
   
6. Best John Grisham - A Time to Kill. This is the first book he ever wrote, and was made into a movie after the success of The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client.
7. Best Written - The Hours by Michael Cunningham and All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg. The Hours is emotionally draining but so well written I've read it twice. Shoutin' is a written by a journalist that won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. It's more about his childhood than the journalism stuff.
8. Best Travel Book - McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy. It's about a man with Irish heritage stopping at ever bar with his name on it with Ireland. I wonder if I would like this book so much if had read it at a different time in my life. I read it after spending four months in Ireland.
9. Favorite Childhood Books - A Wrinkle in Time and Bridge to Terabithia. I've reread Wrinkle recently, but not Terabithia. I don't feel like crying.
10. Best Page Turners - The Bourne series by Robert Ludlum. If you've seen the movies, the books are completely different. The movies took the premise of the books and created their own story. Once you start reading, you can't put the book down. Too much suspense!
11. Book I Really Want to Read but Can't Get Through - Anna Karenina. I just have trouble with this genre of book. All the characters, all the history and description. I've almost finished it once and started it three times.
12. Where the Heart is by Billie Letts. I don't know what category to put this is. Easy read, uplifting Oprah book.
13. Worst Book - Acherlitz by WG Sebold. I don't even remember what this book is about, but it was a pain to finish. When I was done, I actually threw this book away. When you are traveling through Europe, you leave books and swap books at hostels, and I knew if I left it somewhere, someone else would pick it up. I didn't wish that torture on anyone.
14. Book I'm Currently Reading - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It's very good and I want to finish it, but tennis watching got in the way.

Your turn!