Join The Great American Read

-

Join The Great American Read

On May 22, 2018, I watched the two-hour launch of “The Great American Read” documentary TV special hosted by Meredith Vieira. PBS had conducted a poll in which over 7,000 Americans named their most beloved novels.  In the two-hour premiere that aired in May, the top 100 best-loved novels were introduced by celebrities, authors, and other notable people urging the audience to vote for their favorite book on the list.  The books are not necessarily novels written by Americans, just novels Americans voted for. This is an eight-part series which will continue throughout the summer, with the winner of the best-loved novel that the public elects to be revealed in October.

For more information visit their website https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/ 

1984 by George Orwell
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Alex Cross Mysteries (series) by James Patterson
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – Click to read review 
Anne of Greene Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery – Click to read review
Another Country by James Baldwin
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Beloved by Toni Morrison – Click to read review
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – Click to read review
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Click to read review
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – Click to read review
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Don Quiote by Miguel de Cervantes
Doña Bárbára by Rómulo Gallegos
Dune by Frank Herbert
Fifty Shades of Grey Series by E.L. James
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Click to read review
Game of Thrones Series by R.R. Martin
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – Click to read review
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – Click to read review
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Click to read review
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Hatchet Series by Gary Paulsen
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Click to read review
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – Click to read review
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Lord of the Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Martian by Andy Weir – Click to read review
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Mind Invaders by Dave Hunt
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville – Click to read review
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – Click to read review
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – Click to read review
The Shack by William P. Young
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Sirens of the Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Stand by Stephen King
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Tales of the City Series by Armistead Maupin
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Twilight Saga Series by Stephenie Meyer
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Watchers by Dean Koontz
The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë – Click to read review

Join the fun!  Join The Great American Read!

Happy Reading!


Annette

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

-
Image
  You Go, Girl! Pure love—that’s what I felt about this book!  It’s smart, witty, and emboldening! I don’t know how many countless times I cheered or chuckled.   A female chemist struggles to rise above the chauvinistic male domination of the 1960s and live life on her terms despite ingrained oppression of women.  Hooray for this feminist heroine who points out that just because women’s bodies are smaller than men's doesn’t mean their brains are!   I fell in love with brilliant Elizabeth and her support system:  her impressively  smart daughter Mad; her straightforward neighbor Harriet; her kind-hearted producer Walter, the irreverent Reverend Wakely; and her obstetrician/rower Dr. Mason. Oh, and let’s not forget Six-Thirty, her beloved dog!   I would definitely be one of Elizabeth’s devoted fans of her show,  Supper at Six !  If my kids were still at home, I’d mimic Elizabeth and tell them, “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.” (Even though I’m not the
Read more

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

-
Image
Italy: Just What the Doctor Ordered   This book is a sweet ray of sunshine (with a few stabs to the heart)! A group of grief-stricken people find solace in Italy and each other.   After a husband leaves his self-help radio talk show wife, she invites four random listeners to join her on what would have been her 25 th  wedding anniversary trip to Italy.  On this healing retreat, they each face their own grief in an old-world charming hotel where the innkeeper is stuck in the past and faces his own challenges.    I loved everything about this book:  the setting, the side trips to Florence and Venice, the delicious homemade food the hotel owner whips up, and the friendships formed through bonds of sorrow.   Charming and uplifting!    Pub date: June 6, 2023 If you like books set in Italy you may want to check out: One Italian Summer  by Rebecca Serle The Seamstress of Sardinia  by Bianca Pitzorno Beautiful Ruins  by Jess Walter Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions  by Mario Giordano A Room
Read more

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

-
Image
  Guilt and Consequences. Oooh this book knocked me off my feet!  I have read a lot of good books, but this one was one of the best I’ve read in a long time!   It’s about guilt, conscience, our role in society and as humans.  It was such a well-crafted slow burn, I had a difficult time putting it down.     In this riveting narrative, we are pulled from one page to the next edging toward a 91-year-old woman’s secret from WWII.  At the same time a drama plays out in current-day London, with both culminating to a jaw-dropping moment.   So good!!    Here are a couple lines to give you a taste of the book.   “I told myself that none of it had been my fault, that I had been just a child, but there was a small part of my brain that asked me, if I was entirely innocent, then why was I living under an assumed name?”   –pg 29   Gretel thought the sparkle had left her eyes—her best feature. “Now they were the color of barbed wire, of rusty ovens, of smoke and ash.”  –pg 98   “My wife belongs to m
Read more