At the suggestion of a comment on here (left by a guy named Tom. Sorry I don’t have a way to reference you further!), I’m going to start trying to post lists of books I like or recommend. But I’m not just going to post popular NY Times Bestsellers, though some that I post may come up as such. 
So my first list is just my personal favorites.
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
This one is probably obvious, thanks to my banner. I love this book so much! It’s incredibly well written, and as a born and bred Notherner, it’s interesting to see another perspective on the Civil War. History always tells us that the slave masters were all horrible, hurtful people, and that the slaves were all treated badly. I’d be a fool to say that’s not true, but in GWTW, you see some families who yes are slave owners, but they’re not the horrible kinds. In fact, there’s a scene where Scarlett’s talking to some Yankee ladies (this is one of the things not mentioned in the movie, sadly) and they ask her about the bloodhounds, the switches used for beatings, and branding irons that are used on slaves and where they all are, and Scarlett just looks at them in disbelief. She NEVER would’ve considered doing things like that to her slaves, and was wondering what person was spreading such lies. But, the O’Haras and the Wilkes’ are both portrayed as more genteel land/slave owners than normal. What I like about that is, not that it condones slavery, but that you realize that not all the slave owners were bad. And then, there are people who are like Mammy and Uncle Peter who’ve “Diapered three generations of this family’s girls” and “held [Charles’ and Melly’s] father in my arms when he died during the Mexican War.” Slave of free, they were bound to their respectful families that it went beyond war and laws, and they stayed there out of true honor and devotion. You have to respect that kind of committment.
It also reminds me a lot of my own life. Scarlett, and especially Ashley, talk a lot about how they feel like they were meant to grow up and have “pretty”, simple lives, but the War tore them apart. I could write you a novel on how I feel that same principle applies to me. But as it is, I’ll just say that everything Scarlett did, everything she managed so she and hers could survive, reminds me of my own life. And Scarlett loosing her mother, I can sympathize with, because of loosing my own in such a similar fashion. And I’m a carbon copy of my father. 
“Mother was–Oh Rhett, for the first time I’m glad she’s dead, so she can’t see me. She didn’t raise me to be mean. She was so kind to everybody, so good. She’d rather I’d have starved than done this. And I so wanted to be like her in every way and I’m not like her one bit. I hadn’t thought of that–there’s been so much else to think about–but I wanted to be like her. I didn’t want to be like Pa. I loved him but he was–so–so thoughtless. Rhett, sometimes I did try so hard to be nice to people and kind to Frank but then the nightmare would come back and scare me so bad I’d want to rush out and grab all the money I could.” ~Scarlett O’Hara
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Just like GWTW, Jane Eyre reminds me so much of my own life. The ways Jane struggles as an orphan living on charity (according to the logic in the book, house servants have a higher standing than Jane does in the household because at least they work for their keep) from her family, and how her cousins are treated in comparison to her, reminds me of how my family was after my dad remarried the first time. I was basically treated as the Cinderella of the family, criticised for everything I did–even the good I did–and just like Jane, going to school was my way to get away from it all.
But it’s not some random schmoozy love story. It’s…real. Jane is no extraordinary beauty, and she knows that, but she doesn’t pity herself for it. She realizes it as truth and makes the best of it. She does well in her studies, works in school for a while then wants out (she’s 18 by this point, and has the same normal itch for freedom all 18 year olds get ;)). So she “prays for another burden” and is instituted as a governess.
I won’t do an entire plot summary, but from there she meets Mr. Edward Rochester (her employer) and they fall completely in love with each other. But it’s not some wild fantastic love story. There are the fantastic moments–such as him keeping his insane wife locked in the attic–but the story overall is something everyone can identify with: you fall for someone you believe you can’t have, just to have them say you’re wrong. You’re all wrong. I love you because you’re who you are, and not some pretty plaything. There’s even a part where Mr. Rochester says he’ll buy Jane all the finest clothes his money can buy, and all the jewels in the family lockbox are hers, and yet she doesn’t want to be “dressed up like a doll”.
It is a happy ending, and I love how the ending was written. It’s so absolute and such a happy ending, but it’s not overdone. In the end, 2 people who had never received what they wanted, and finally they found each other
“‘I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you–especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you–you’d forget me.” ~Mr. Edward Rochester
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
My German teacher recommended this book to me a year ago, saying I would like it as it’s so descriptive. He was absolutely right! It’s one of the craziest most bizarre books you’ll ever read, and yet, you can’t be disgusted or offended by it.
The main character, Grenouille, is born in pre-Revolutionary France with an inhuman sense of smell. He puts bloodhounds to shame. He ends up being an apprentice perfumer, and works with one of the most skilled perfumers in Paris. Sadly, his skill is loosing to his more popular and less skilledcompetition, and Grenouille is his salvation. From there he gets his journey man’s papers and spends 8 years living in I believe the Alps (he talks about evergreen forests, and those aren’t near the Pyrennes as far as I know). How does he get there? He uses his sense of smell to gauge how close people are, and as soon as he can’t smell humans anymore, he settles.
He spends 8 years in this cave, and this is when he realizes he has no scent of his own (or at least he thinks as much. We can’t smell ourselves unless we’ve gone a few days without a shower). He gets angry, and finally leaves, realizing he needs to find his own scent. This drives him to find the perfect scent, and he understands how smells and scents influences people. He exploits that to his own ends, and it even drives him to murder to find the perfect smell. This is where it becomes the story of murder. *dun dun dun*
He still had enough perfume left to enslave the whole world if he so chose. He could walk to Versailles and have the king kiss his feet. He could write the pope a perfumed letter and reveal himself as the new Messiah. He could do all this, and more, if he wanted to. He possessed a power stronger than the power of money, or terror, or death - the invincible power to command the love of man kind. There was only one thing the perfume could not do. It could not turn him into a person who could love and be loved like everyone else. So, to hell with it he thought. To hell with the world. With the perfume. With himself.
Beowulf
In my opinion, Beowulf is the foundation of the modern superhero. He sailed over deep, treacherous oceans, dove and swam through deep lakes, defeating monsters, ruled justly for 50 years (quite a feat at that time), and put his life on the line fighting a dragon. How humanly impossible is that? haha! And the fact he is always fair, just, noble, and a truly good and brave man is completely the basis for Superman or Batman. ESPECIALLY Batman. Sure, it’s a hard read, as it’s written as a poem and Modern English doesn’t read like Old English does. But it’s a true story of good versus evil, and good overcoming. Yeah, yeah, yeah the movie tried to make you feel bad for Grendel, but let’s face it: the movie sucked. And in the book Grendel was quite literally the spawn of Satan. Well of Cain, but that was basically as bad as being of Satan. So his attacks, while yes were him finding food, they were still purely out of and for the sake of terror.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I LOVE stories that depict other, broader ideas, and that’s just what Narnia does. As someone I once knew said, Lewis used an extraordinary setting to describe such a huge thing (Christianity). And it’s not just some boring religious blah blah blah beat you over the head skulldrudgery. It’s fascinating, and Lewis devised his own unique world, making the stories new. There is one point in I believe book 3 (Well if you read The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe as book one) where Lewis kind of voices that he doesn’t like the fact schools were becoming more secular (at that point in time it was a new idea to take religion out of education). But really other than that it was reinvigorating the stories of the Bible. I really enjoyed seeing the correlations, and explanations to theology, put it a way that’s not as hard to digest.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Sadly, I’ve never read The Wizard Of Oz, but now I must! haha! My fiance tells me I’m just like Elphaba (AKA the Wicked Witch of the West). In Oz, she’s just portrayed as an evil soceress, but in Wicked, she’s not even a sorceress, nevertheless not evil. She’s not very religious (her dad is super hardcore religious nut, and I guess he’s known as the Eminent Thropp, which was a big deal in her neck of the woods), but she’s very philosophical and concerned with doing the right thing. It has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. One of the hardest too. But not in a bad way. It’s a good kind of hard read; one that challenges you. And it’s a page turner. You have to know what’s next.
It’s admittedly dark. Not too dark, not to me anyway, but it is. A lot of people who like the musical didn’t like the book, because the musical isn’t as dark as the book.
Watchmen by Alan Moore
The ending is CRAZY! Good crazy, but crazy nonetheless. You don’t see it coming, to say the least. But it’s good. I say the movie The Incredibles probably was largely inspired by Watchmen. But it’s such a unique spin on superheroes. And they’re not supernaturally blessed superheroes, these are every day typed people who wanted to go out and do some sort of good. Each character though has their unique background, and not only is this story unravelling, you’re learning about who these people are and what shaped them.
As far as the logistics, the story takes place as Russia invades Afghanistan in 1985. Looks like the end of the world, but that’s why the ending is so crazy.
- Dan Dreiberg: Maybe this was a political killing?
- Rorschach: Maybe. Or maybe someone’s picking off costumed heroes.
- Dreiberg: Um. Don’t you think that’s maybe a little paranoid?
- Rorschach: That’s what they’re saying about me now? That I’m paranoid?
- …
- Rorschach: Used to come here often, back when we were partners.
- Dreiberg: Oh. Uh, yeah… yeah, those were great times, Rorschach. Great times. Whatever happened to them?
- Rorschach: [exiting] You quit.
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
First off, the movie is a far cry from the book. The points and motives remained the same, but the way it unfolds is so different. My favorite diffrence is in the book, Prothero didn’t die, he was simply drive insane. To me that’s better though…more sadistic. *queue evil laugh*
But, the greatness of that book is that it makes you question and re-evaluate everything you think and feel. It encourages you to be free of the bonds you’re living in. Look at London at that time: a totalitarian state. But yet, V and Evey manage to live free of that. Eventually anyway. And V, in his sort of freedom, brings their society to its knees and makes everyone question and think again, and take back what is theirs.
- Evey: You say you want to set me free and you put me in a prison…
- V: You were already in a prison. You’ve been in a prison all your life.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
I have never understood the hoopla about Pride and Prejudice. I read 30 pages of it in high school, fell asleep, then did the book project off of some booknotes site. Even worse, it was a group project, I was the only one who didn’t read it, I BS’d my project, and my individual grade was an A-, while the others in the group read it and all got C’s. Way to go me.
So that said, I rather enjoyed Sense and Sensibility. Why? It made me think, and it made me question things. I’m JUST like Marianne: loud, passionate, opinionated, artistic (I think she is in her own way), and emotional. Elinor is much more quiet and sensible and keeps a lid on it so to speak. So reading this book aggravated me at times, ESPECIALLY when it was made to seem that Marianne was bad for being how she was.
BUT, I did learn a lot from Elinor’s example, and Elinor in her own way was right. She was concerned with behaving appropriately in society, and keeping to herself, not for the sake of appearances but for the sake of the people she cared for and who trusted her. Not that I’m saying I side with the ideology that Marianne was wrong, but Elinor was definitely a respectable character, And because of that in the end she got what she wanted. Good things come to those who wait.
The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
First off, I refuse to call it the Twilight Saga. Saga is the biggest misnomer I’ve ever heard. A saga is oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. Twilight has been written down from the get go.
Ok now that that rant is over.
I won’t say too much as I’ve already consecrated some of my blogs to this series. But I will add in that I thoroughly enjoy it. It’s not admittedly the best book I’ve ever read, but it has its own charm. It’s about the deepest, most passionate and sincere love a person can have towards someone else. It’s about wanting to die and put your hide on the line for the one you love. And it’s about fighting for that love. To me, that’s pretty amazing.
About three things I was absolutely positive:
First, Edward was a vampire;
Second, there was a part of him — and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be — that thirsted for my blood;
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
