Apryl’s Favorites

Books are a huge part of my life.  I love to get lost in a book, to have my own personal awakenings while reading books, and to be transported to a different time and place.  I started keeping a book journal in 1996. Though I have always been an avid reader, my true love for literature began in high school.   Mrs. Dunlap was my English teacher and became a confidant, mentor, and long-time friend.  She was instrumental in my life in many ways and she always believed in me as a writer.  And here I am, falling in love with writing all over again.

In college, I was required to take several upper level distribution courses and I chose literature courses and was one course shy of a minor.  I wish I had the titles of the books I read in my Women in American Literature course in college.  Those books challenged my thinking and stretched me in so many ways.

Here, I want to share a list of my favorites of all time through 2019. The list is LONG!!!! Many more have been added in 2020 and I know more will will be included in the months and years to come.  I will save those for “Books of the Year” posts!

Here goes – I hope you enjoy!

• The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (where my love for literature began)
• The Awakening, Kate Chopin
• Sleepers, Lorenzo Carcaterra
• Family Linen, Lee Smith
• Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
• Helen Keller, A Life, Dorothy Herrmann
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
• Saving Grace, Lee Smith
• Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
• Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can, Caroline Myss, PhD
• False Memory, Dean Koontz
• Mitford Series, Jan Karon
• Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, Rebecca Walker
• One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
• A Child Called “It”, Dave Pelzer
• Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
• Bailey’s Cafe, Gloria Naylor
• White Oleander, Janet Fitch
• A Love Worth Giving, Max Lucado
• The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
• The Bone Collector, Jeffrey Deaver
• Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
• Skinny Dip, Carl Hiaasen
• The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd
• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards
• The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer
• eat, pray, love, Elizabeth Gilbert
• She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
• The Dance of Anger, Harriet Lerner, PhD
• The Interruption of Everything, Terry McMillan
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Steig Larsson
• Nature Girl, Carl Hiaasen
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett
• Room, Emma Donoghue
• Star Island, Carl Hiaasen
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• Onward, Howard Schultz
• Velocity, Dean Koontz
• Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, Ann Patchett
• Run, Ann Patchett
• Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
• Folly Beach, Dorothea Benton Frank
• Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
• Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
• The Dinner, Herman Koch
• The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
• Dark Places, Gillian Flynn
• Glitter and Glue, Kelly Corrigan
• The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
• Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• A Train in Winter, Caroline Moorehead
• The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
• Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough
• Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
• Swimming Lessons, Claire Fuller
• The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
• Calypso, David Sedaris
• Crazy Rich Asians series, Kevin Kwan
• The Swans of Fifth Avenue, Melanie Benjamin
• The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway
• Euphoria, Lily King
• The Sinner, Petra Hammesfahr
• Feminist Fight Club, Jessica Bennett
• The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clementine Wamariya & Elizabeth Weil
• Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty
• Then She Was Gone, Lisa Jewell
• Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, Kathleen Rooney
• Good as Gone, Amy Gentry
• Eight Hundred Grapes, Laura Dave
• Before She Knew Him, Peter Swanson
• The Shack, W. M. Paul Young
• Goodbye, Paris, Anstey Harris
• I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb
• Beyond the Point, Claire Gibson
• The Universe Has Your Back, Gabrielle Bernstein
• Wild Game, Adrienne Brodeur
• The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer
• The Coffin Dancer, Jeffrey Deaver
• Midwives, Chris Bohjalian
• Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan
• Judgement Detox, Gabrielle Bernstein
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erika L. Sanchez