Tag: Books

Books and More Books

I need a dedicated bookshelf for the books I’ve not read. I scanned my home in search of them, pulling them from nightstand stacks and windowsills and the top of my desk. There are more boxed up from my classroom collection. Some were highly recommended and some were gifts. Some I bought and some were free. Meanwhile, I’m finishing two. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (historical fiction) and The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer (spiritual nonfiction). I’m enjoying my time with both. I don’t read fast.

Eenie meenie minie moe.
I read half of Ducks, Newburyport long ago.
(Stream-of-consciousness and a single long sentence.)
Would you give any of these books a go?
Maybe you can judge a book by its cover.
In brown paper, this one said, “Yo!”
Lavender didn’t match my stacks.
If I ever publish, good to know.

Yesterday I stumbled across a list of “600 Books to Be Considered Very Well-Read.” If you’ve read 600 books, in my humble opinion, you’re well-read. I’m working toward that, but I counted 120 books read from the list and many authors I want to read— like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and William Faulkner, E. M. Forster and Neil Gaiman, Kazuo Ishiguro and C. S. Lewis. I want to read more Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, Sylvia Plath, Markus Zuzak, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Dickens, Bradbury, and the Brontë sisters. Then there are those times when people say, “You’ve got to read this.” And a new book usurps them all.

Let’s Talk about Books, Baby

I wish I could remember the specifics of all the books that follow. The details now blur in my mind, lucky for you. This could have been an extra long post. In short, I LOVED them all. In my perfect hypothetical library, these books would stand proud in my bookcases waiting for someone like you to flip their pages and escape to another time and place.

Top Favorite Books of My Life on Earth by Crystal Byers

  1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett*
  2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini*
  3. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry*
  4. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant*
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  6. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  7. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden*
  8. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls*
  9. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt*
  10. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
  11. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides*
  12. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
  13. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  14. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
  15. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
  16. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou*
  17. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  18. The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra King
  19. Circling the Sun by Paula McLain*
  20. Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton*
  21. Me Before You (#1) by Jojo Moyes
  22. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
  23. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
  24. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

I gravitate toward historical fiction and female perspective and memoir and young adult fiction. Anyway, I typed the list in random order, so #1 means nothing other than the beginning of my list. I can’t answer the “What’s your favorite book” question. I can only give you my top 24 and let you know I have trouble cutting my list short. On a second look, I asterisked the ones that truly star in my top ten or twelve, so if you’re looking for a MUST-READ, start there and Google to help you find your next favorite book. Oh, and I left off the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series, which I LOVE, as well as some classics because I’m nerdy, but I have to shout out my all-time favorite character Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities. You see, my list could’ve gone on and on, so I just stopped at #24.

Your turn. Summer approaches, and I'm a teacher. What's my next MUST READ?