Doug's Top 51 Preferred Books Of All Time (...so far!)

Doug, my wonderful and charming fiance (brownie points), reads significantly more than I do.  So I asked him one day when we were on the 5 1/2 hour drive to our cottage if he would let me post a list of his favourite books on my blog.  When he agreed, we started drafting his list right away.  That was 5 months ago.  We forgot to finish it, and when I was going through some papers a few days ago I found the list we started making.  So today he finally finished it for me, and I am now presenting it to you.  The list is in no particular order and it is 51 because Doug has a slight case of OCD when it comes to even numbers (he can't even set his alarm clock to an even number!).

So finally, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...


Doug's Top 51 Preferred Book Of All Time (...so far!)

1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
3. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. All My Sons by Arthur Miller
6. The Adventures of David Simple by Sarah Fielding
7. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
8. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
9. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck
10. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
11. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
12. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
13. The Europeans by Henry James
14. The Americans by Henry James
15. All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren
16. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
17. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
18. Animal Farm by George Orwell
19. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
20. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
21. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22. Silas Marner by George Eliot
23. Persuasion by Jane Austen
24. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
25. Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
26. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
27. The Odyssey by Homer
28. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
29. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
30. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
31. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
32. Native Son by Richard Wright
33. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
34. Deliverance by James Dickey
35. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
36. Poison Wood Bible by Barbare Kingsolver
37. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
38. Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Series) by Sue Townsend
39. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
40. A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt
41. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
42. Utopia by Thomas More
43. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
44. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
45. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
46. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
47. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
48. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
49. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
50. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
51. Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge is a harsh, opinionated, stubborn woman... alive only through the 13 short stories being told by those around her. She is a retired schoolteacher, a mother, an unaffectionate wife, and a friend to almost no one. While Olive's involvement may only be minor in some of the stories, each still serves a purpose in allowing the reader to know and understand Olive and the small town of Crosby, Maine. Olive Kitteridge is about the intricacies of life; how everyone is connected in ways that seem unexpected, but believable. It's also about growing up, getting old, and the joys and heartaches that come with both. The book looks at the consequences of opening your mind too late and how fateful and tragic that can be. This book also shows that there really are two sides to every story and the necessity of seeing things from all sides. While some parts of the story are overly dramatic, everyone can relate to some or many of the story's characters. All families - and towns for that matter - have skeletons hidden away, only to be revealed by those who are willing to share. This book is about how the picture perfect can be anything but and to stick to your guns, as Olive does. It encourages acceptance of one’s own skeletons and the idea that imperfection really can be beautiful.

Book Information
Year of publication: 2008
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 270
Awards: 2009 Pulitzer Prize - Fiction
Purchased at: Bryan Prince Bookseller
Reading Time: n/a
Rating: 4/5