Top 15 "Books"

Okay, so Marissa and I challenged each other to come up with our favorite books. I said I could do it in 15. I was incorrect. I suppose I could whittle it down a little more, but if you asked me today what my favorite books were, this is what I would have to tell you (I ended up having to make a spreadsheet to make this list!):

Attempted Favorite Books List, done by author

(most of the authors have additional works to their name, but in the interest of attempting to scale back, I've tried to choose my favorites within the authors :)

1. Louisa May Allcot - ALL of her novels, but especially Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, and An Old Fashioned Girl
2. Francine Rivers - Mark of the Lion Trilogy
3. Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy & The Tawny Man Trilogy
4. Charles Martin - ALL, but especially When Crickets Cry, Unwritten, and The Mountain Between Us
5. Amy Harmon - most, but especially Running Barefoot and A Different Blue
6. Rainbow Rowell - most, but especially Eleanor & Park, Fangirl, and Attachments
7. L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables series (all of them, but especially the first 3)
8. Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
9. Julianne Donaldson - Edenbrook
10. Jane Austen - especially Emma and Pride & Prejudice 
11. J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter series
12. Tamora Pierce - Song of the Lioness series, Wild Magic series, and Protector of the Small series
13. Jandy Nelson - I’ll Give You the Sun, and The Sky Is Everywhere
14. Susanna Kearsley - Desperate Fortune and The Winter Sea
15. Ron Hall - Same Kind of Different As Me

If I had to limit myself to packing only 5 books with me to read in an insane asylum (which I still occasionally think may happen to me), and they said no Kindle (ah!), I would pick of the above:

- An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Allcot

- Running Barefoot by Amy Harmon

- I'll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson

- Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

- And buy a volume that combined all 3 of the first Anne of Green Gables :)

There are so many other books I just absolutely adore and read regularly (Marley and Me, Perks of Being a Wallflower, etc), but I've attempted to claim what I enjoy to read the most.

Note: As I work on a longer work of fiction that may one day be published (hmm, we'll see), I'd like to note that Amy Harmon, Rainbow Rowell, and Jandy Nelson above are some of my biggest inspirations when I sit down and write. There are several other authors I follow and like too, but I so appreciate the direction they gave me in creating my own writing style.