top ten books (in no particular order)

• The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. I've read all of Tolkien's legendarium that is available at my local library. If you have a pirated version of Morgoth's Ring, I desperately need to read Fëanor's Shibboleth. Yeah, I know if you're stumbling upon this, you probably won't be able to contact me. Still!
  
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. My favourite nonfiction book I've ever read. Not that I've read a lot, but you know. Only nonfiction book to make me cry.
  
• Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. It's very heartwrenching and I love the way Atwood writes.
  
• Obasan by Joy Kogawa. Also heartwrenching. Genuinely one of my favourite books. The last scene leaves you feeling empty in a way that all good media does (although I suppose that is true of all of the books listed).
  
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Beautiful, well-crafted prose and thoughtful insight on politics, family dynamics, and the individual.
  
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is reccomended highly by me. Won a Pulitzer (so it's not just me!). Also, the only fiction book that's ever made me cry.
  
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. These are in no particular order, but Obasan, The God of Small Things, and The Blind Assassin are all on a level above the rest of these. You know I love nonlinear storytelling (for those not in the know: nonlinear storytelling is a feature of all three of these books). In my opinion, Atwood is at her best when she is not writing about men and when she is writing nonlinearly. Guess what The Blind Assassin and Cat's Eye have in common.
  
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Unlike The Road, this didn't win a Pulitzer - but it was a finalist! Very long, but deeply enjoyable. The themes can be a little heavy-handed, but I think that's not a huge issue.
  
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. My favourite Jane Austen, which is high praise, given that I adore Jane Austen. I think this is because, unlike the other Jane Austens which are primarily satires of the social life of the gentry class, Northanger Abbey is also a satire of gothic literature, which was, I suppose, the 'romantasy' of Jane Austen's time - highly popular and highly scorned by 'intellectual' men. There are several heavy-handed points at which Austen criticizes the fact that these 'intellectual' men look down on not just gothic literature but novels as a whole. Our world changes so much, yet so little.
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I promise I'm not an English teacher (ignore everything on this list except perhaps the Silmarillion). I didn't read To Kill a Mockingbird for English class, I read it for fun - and stayed up all night to finish it. I did not expect to like this book. I came away loving it.
  

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