My All-Time Favourite Books

One train of thought leads to another, leads to another, and I find I am not yet in bed, but ruinating - again - about books I have loved.

My favorite book of all time: Fugitive Pieces by Ann Michaels.

Why? The prose. Graceful and elegant as poetry, there is not a trite idea, not a cliché in the book. Real and heartbreaking yet full of redemption, Ann Michael's novel is extraordinary.

To use a phrase I have never before applied to a work of fiction: it is a work of art. I was frantic to see the movie when I learned of it - a rare reaction on my part - generated by my veneration for her book.

Even my husband - who has the attention span of a flea on a hot brick - was entranced. Curious, he picked Michael's book up for a glance, then took it away from me and stole away to read it before I could.

Other books I have loved:

Fiction:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Poetry:
Rilke's Book Of Hours: Love Poems To God by Anita Barrows and Joanna Marie Macy

Non-Fiction:
Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

While I know there were other books I read and "loved," these created feeling memories for me which have endured and these are the ones that come to the surface of the "8-Ball" that is my mind.

For an "entertaining" read, try The Girl In The Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald who wrote "hardboiled" mysteries with far more awareness and social commentary on environmental issues than one might expect.