Prize-Winning Summer Reading List
I only wish I could have the pleasure of reading these books again for the first time. Next best would be giving a bagful to someone who has never read them.
I wrote these words preceding the list of books for summer reading I sent in to a contest at bookreporter.com, an online reading club.I read one of the books as long ago as my freshman year in high school and another just recently. The rest I read in the long span of years between. I loved every one of them and I hope you will, too. Here's the list in no special order, complete with links to Amazon.com. Be sure to read the synopsis and reviews at the amazon site if you are not familiar with the books.
- THE THORN BIRDS - Colleen McCullough
- THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH - Ken Follett
- GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell
- ANGELA'S ASHES - Frank McCourt
- TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
- THE PRINCE OF TIDES - Pat Conroy
- JANE EYRE - Charlotte Bronte
- COLD SASSY TREE - Olive Ann Burns
- SAHARA - Clive Cussler - Abe Lincoln in the Sahara Desert? Escape fiction at its best!
- OUTLANDER - Diana Gabaldon - The first in her time travel series.
- LADDER OF YEARS - Anne Tyler - All of hers are good!
- A TIME TO KILL - John Grisham - His first, and best, in my opinion.
Welcome Additions
The trouble with making lists is you always think of some you left out. Here they are:- THE STAND - Stephen King. I am not a Stephen King fan...too scary for me! But this is a good one.
- REBECCA - Daphne Dumaurier
- KANE AND ABEL - Jeffrey Archer. This is one of his early books, and one of his best!
- CHARLESTON - Alexandra Ripley. For those who liked GONE WITH THE WIND. Read this and the one that follows: ON LEAVING CHARLESTON .
- COLD MOUNTAIN - Charles Frazier
- LIGHT IN THE WINDOW - Jan Karon. The first of a series of five books. Refreshing reading.
- THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT - Sidney Sheldon at his best. None of his others can touch this all time favorite of mine.
- THESE IS MY WORDS. The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901: A Novel - Nancy E. Turner. Amazing what our great-grandmothers lived through!
- WINDS OF WAR - Herman Wouk. And the second volume in the series, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE.
- MY NAME IS ASHER LEV - Chaim Potok.
- THE SOURCE - James Mitchner
- THE TREES - Conrad Richter, the first book in a trilogy called THE AWAKENING LAND. The others are THE FIELDS and THE TOWNS. It's about the settling of Ohio in the early 1800 through the eyes of the family that pioneered the land.
- THE SKYSTONE - Jack Whyte. This is the first book of seven in the CAMULOD CHRONICLES. About the events leading up to King Arthur's reign in fourth century England.
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