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| Image: David Orr / Libri series - www.david-orr.com |
Of course they're not in order (unless it's autobiographical); I'm chuffed I managed to even break them into a few categories. I tried very hard not to have more than one book by an author, even when their whole cannon is significant to me. So I may not have picked the most obvious book by an author, but the one that for me is the most elegant and representative of her unprecedented gifts and skill, the one that may surprise, or the one that will make you read all the other ones.
I could say something about each one, and maybe I'd even like to, but they all speak so much better for themselves.
FICTION
1. Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Zora Neale Hurston
2.Family
- J. California Cooper
3. The Little Prince
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
4.The Lonely Doll
- Dare Wright
5.Jazz
- Toni Morrison
6. Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)
- Neal Stephenson
7. The Golden Notebook: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
- Doris Lessing
8. Nine Stories
- J.D. Salinger
9. Winesburg, Ohio
- Sherwood Anderson
10. Pride and Prejudice (Dover Thrift Editions)
- Jane Austen
11. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)
- Charlotte Bronte
12. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (A Harvest/Hbj Book)
- Flannery O'Connor
13. Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson
- Shirley Jackson
14. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories
- Grace Paley
15.The Hobbit: 75th Anniversary Edition
- J.R.R. Tolkien
16.Siddhartha
- Hermann Hesse
17. Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition)
- Ayn Rand
18. Jitterbug Perfume
- Tom Robbins
19. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Vintage International)
- Patrick Suskind
20. White Oleander
- Janet Fitch
21. The Secret History
- Donna Tartt
22. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- Susanna Clarke
23. The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
- John Connolly
24.The Book of Dead Days
- Marcus Sedgwick
25. Absurdistan: A Novel
- Gary Shteyngart
26.The Things They Carried
- Tim O'Brien
27.Dispatches (Vintage International)
- Michel Herr
28. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel
- Michael Chabon
29. The Stand Complete and Uncut
- Stephen King
30. No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
- Miranda July
31. The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- Donna Tartt
32. The God of Small Things: A Novel
- Arundhati Roy
33. The Diamond Age (Bantam Spectra Book)
- Neal Stephenson
34. The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics)
- Henry James
35. The Mistress of Spices: A Novel
- Chitra Divakaruni
36. Holder of the World
- Bharati Mukherjee
37. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Vintage)
- Hunter S. Thompson
38.The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
- Tom Wolfe
39. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories
– Nella Larson
40. Tropic of Capricorn
- Henry Miller
41. The Painted Bird
- Jerzy Kosinkski
42. Geek Love: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
- Katherine Dunn
43. Hawthorne's Short Stories (Vintage Classics)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
44. The Sun Also Rises
- Ernest Hemingway
45. NP
- Banana Yoshimoto
46. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Douglas Adams
47. Parable of the Sower
- Octavia Butler
48.Dubliners (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)
- James Joyce
49. Empire of the Senseless: A Novel
– Kathy Acker
50. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
- Carson McCullers
51. The Girl Who Played Go: A Novel (Vintage)
– Shan Sa
52. Alias Grace: A Novel
– Margaret Atwood
53. Possession (Vintage International)
– A.S. Byatt
54. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harperperennial Modern Classics)
– Harper Lee
55. Things Fall Apart: A Novel (African Trilogy Book 1)
- Chinua Achebe
56. The House of Mirth (Penguin English Library)
- Edith Wharton
57. Maru
- Bessie Head
58. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel
– Milan Kundera
POETRY
59. The Gift (Compass)
- Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky trans.)
60. Selected Poems
- Gwendolyn Brooks
61. The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems 1950-2001
- Adrienne Rich
62. The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa (Essential Poets)
- Robert Haas
63. Refusing Heaven
- Jack Gilbert
64. Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (A Far Corner Book)
- Naomi Shihab Nye
65. E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition)
- e.e. cummings
66. Selected Poems 1947-1995 (Perennial Classics)
- Allen Ginsberg
67.The Soul of Rumi
– Coleman Barks
68.The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (Vintage)
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell translation
69. Slouching Toward Nirvana
- Charles Bukowski
NON-FICTION
70. Blood Memory: An autobiography
- Martha Graham
71. A Rap on Race
- James Baldwin and Margaret Mead
72. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
- Georgina Howell
73. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
- Cari Beauchamp
74.An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
- Neal Gabler
75. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- Malcolm Gladwell
76. It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book
- Paul Arden
77. Miles
- Miles Davis/Quincy Troupe
78.On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft
- Stephen King
79. Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
- Alain de Botton
80.Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out
- Bill Graham
81.Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (Shambhala Classics)
- Chogyam Trungpa
82. A Natural History of the Senses (Vintage)
- Diane Ackerman
83. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (Random House Reader's Circle)
- Ruth Reichl
84.A Brief History of Time
- Stephen Hawking
85. The Power of Myth
- Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
86.Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion
- Mickey Hart, Jay Stevens and Fredric Lieberman
87.The Tao of Nature (Penguin Great Ideas)
- Chuang Tzu
88. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
- Christopher McDougall
89.Strasberg's Method As Taught by Lorrie Hull: A Practical Guide for Actors, Teachers, Directors
- Lorrie Hull
90. The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
- M. Scott Peck
91. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Revised Edition
- Alice Miller
92. Island Possessed
– Katherine Dunham
93. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
– Zora Neale Hurston
94. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- Mike Davis
95. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (City Lights Pocket Poets Series)
- Jack Kerouac
96. Tao Te Ching
– Lao Tzu, Stephen Mitchell translation
97. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
– Malcolm X, Alex Haley
98. Edie: An American Biography
– Jean Stein, George Plimpton
99. The Varieties of Religious Experience
- William James
100. In Cold Blood
– Truman Capote
101. The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction 1909-1959
- Raymond Chandler; Tom Hiney, Frank MacShane eds.
102. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His Writings
- Alfred Adler; Ansbacher/Anscbacher eds.
Well, looking over this list, I can see already that I'd like to make it longer (where's Jung? where's Civilisation and Its Discontents?), but no. I like 101 +1. It's a good number.
(Main image comes from David Orr's Libri series - check them all out here.)
FICTION
1. Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Zora Neale Hurston
2.Family
- J. California Cooper
3. The Little Prince
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
4.The Lonely Doll
- Dare Wright
5.Jazz
- Toni Morrison
6. Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)
- Neal Stephenson
7. The Golden Notebook: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
- Doris Lessing
8. Nine Stories
- J.D. Salinger
9. Winesburg, Ohio
- Sherwood Anderson
10. Pride and Prejudice (Dover Thrift Editions)
- Jane Austen
11. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)
- Charlotte Bronte
12. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (A Harvest/Hbj Book)
- Flannery O'Connor
13. Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson
- Shirley Jackson
14. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories
- Grace Paley
15.The Hobbit: 75th Anniversary Edition
- J.R.R. Tolkien
16.Siddhartha
- Hermann Hesse
17. Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition)
- Ayn Rand
18. Jitterbug Perfume
- Tom Robbins
19. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Vintage International)
- Patrick Suskind
20. White Oleander
- Janet Fitch
21. The Secret History
- Donna Tartt
22. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- Susanna Clarke
23. The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
- John Connolly
24.The Book of Dead Days
- Marcus Sedgwick
25. Absurdistan: A Novel
- Gary Shteyngart
26.The Things They Carried
- Tim O'Brien
27.Dispatches (Vintage International)
- Michel Herr
28. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel
- Michael Chabon
29. The Stand Complete and Uncut
- Stephen King
30. No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
- Miranda July
31. The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- Donna Tartt
32. The God of Small Things: A Novel
- Arundhati Roy
33. The Diamond Age (Bantam Spectra Book)
- Neal Stephenson
34. The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics)
- Henry James
35. The Mistress of Spices: A Novel
- Chitra Divakaruni
36. Holder of the World
- Bharati Mukherjee
37. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Vintage)
- Hunter S. Thompson
38.The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
- Tom Wolfe
39. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories
– Nella Larson
40. Tropic of Capricorn
- Henry Miller
41. The Painted Bird
- Jerzy Kosinkski
42. Geek Love: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
- Katherine Dunn
43. Hawthorne's Short Stories (Vintage Classics)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
44. The Sun Also Rises
- Ernest Hemingway
45. NP
- Banana Yoshimoto
46. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Douglas Adams
47. Parable of the Sower
- Octavia Butler
48.Dubliners (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)
- James Joyce
49. Empire of the Senseless: A Novel
– Kathy Acker
50. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
- Carson McCullers
51. The Girl Who Played Go: A Novel (Vintage)
– Shan Sa
52. Alias Grace: A Novel
– Margaret Atwood
53. Possession (Vintage International)
– A.S. Byatt
54. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harperperennial Modern Classics)
– Harper Lee
55. Things Fall Apart: A Novel (African Trilogy Book 1)
- Chinua Achebe
56. The House of Mirth (Penguin English Library)
- Edith Wharton
57. Maru
- Bessie Head
58. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel
– Milan Kundera
59. The Gift (Compass)
- Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky trans.)
60. Selected Poems
- Gwendolyn Brooks
61. The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems 1950-2001
- Adrienne Rich
62. The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa (Essential Poets)
- Robert Haas
63. Refusing Heaven
- Jack Gilbert
64. Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (A Far Corner Book)
- Naomi Shihab Nye
65. E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition)
- e.e. cummings
66. Selected Poems 1947-1995 (Perennial Classics)
- Allen Ginsberg
67.The Soul of Rumi
– Coleman Barks
68.The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (Vintage)
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell translation
69. Slouching Toward Nirvana
- Charles Bukowski
NON-FICTION
70. Blood Memory: An autobiography
- Martha Graham
71. A Rap on Race
- James Baldwin and Margaret Mead
72. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
- Georgina Howell
73. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
- Cari Beauchamp
74.An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
- Neal Gabler
75. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- Malcolm Gladwell
76. It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book
- Paul Arden
77. Miles
- Miles Davis/Quincy Troupe
78.On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft
- Stephen King
79. Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
- Alain de Botton
80.Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out
- Bill Graham
81.Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (Shambhala Classics)
- Chogyam Trungpa
82. A Natural History of the Senses (Vintage)
- Diane Ackerman
83. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (Random House Reader's Circle)
- Ruth Reichl
84.A Brief History of Time
- Stephen Hawking
85. The Power of Myth
- Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
86.Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion
- Mickey Hart, Jay Stevens and Fredric Lieberman
87.The Tao of Nature (Penguin Great Ideas)
- Chuang Tzu
88. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
- Christopher McDougall
89.Strasberg's Method As Taught by Lorrie Hull: A Practical Guide for Actors, Teachers, Directors
- Lorrie Hull
90. The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
- M. Scott Peck
91. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, Revised Edition
- Alice Miller
92. Island Possessed
– Katherine Dunham
93. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
– Zora Neale Hurston
94. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- Mike Davis
95. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (City Lights Pocket Poets Series)
- Jack Kerouac
96. Tao Te Ching
– Lao Tzu, Stephen Mitchell translation
97. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
– Malcolm X, Alex Haley
98. Edie: An American Biography
– Jean Stein, George Plimpton
99. The Varieties of Religious Experience
- William James
100. In Cold Blood
– Truman Capote
101. The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction 1909-1959
- Raymond Chandler; Tom Hiney, Frank MacShane eds.
102. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His Writings
- Alfred Adler; Ansbacher/Anscbacher eds.
Well, looking over this list, I can see already that I'd like to make it longer (where's Jung? where's Civilisation and Its Discontents?), but no. I like 101 +1. It's a good number.
(Main image comes from David Orr's Libri series - check them all out here.)
