Below are my favorite novels of ALL TIME! Each of these have been novels that I have read more than once and are novels that I find a newfound love for with each read. Click on the pictures of the novels to find out about the authors works.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Main character: Sethe
“Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my remory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think if, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”
Many times, I have been referred to as "The Beloved Teacher." This book has so richly impacted my life and I use it to do the same with my students. This novel is a part of my conversation on a weekly basis and is one that I believe everyone should read. It is truly a masterpiece that unfolds new discoveries for me every time I read and/or teach it.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Main Character: Melinda Sordino
'Older students are allowed to roam until the bell, but ninth-graders are herded into the auditorium. We fall into clans; Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Furture Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders. I am clanless. I wasted the last weeks of August watching bad cartoons. I didn't go to the mall, the lake, or the pool, or answer the phone. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with.
I am Outcast.'
I initially read this novel in a Young Adult Literature class I took in college. In this class, we had to read 18-20 novels--yes, 18 to 20--and this one by far was one of my favorites. Since I first read Speak, it has been made into a movie, added to the suggested reading list in my disctrict, and taught in some of my English classes. Although not written with my age group in mind, this novel contains powerful themes dealt with people of all ages. Definitely a must read!
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Main Character: Janie Starks
'The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.'
Anyone that is close to me know my deep affinity for this novel. I read this novel the first time as a high school senior and hated it. The language was weird to me, the dialect was difficult, and becuse these things were an issue for me, I didn't allow myself to become involved in the text. It wasn't until the summer before my first year in college that I picked the novel up again and read--closely. Ever since, I have read this novel every summer and have taught it in my classes.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Main Character: Grant aka Teacher
'I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.'
One day while flipping through the television, I stopped on the image of a man sitting alone in a jail cell listening to a small radio. From that moment on, I have been enraptured in this heart-breaking and heart-warming story. After watching the film, I was eager to find the novel and read it to find out what the movie did not capture from the book.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Main Characters: The Buendia Family
'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them was to point.'
A novel that has won the Nobel Prize and has won my affinity is One Hundred Years of Solitude. This epic novel is one that I find something new in with every read. This novel will challenge the reader, not only by it's expansive content, but also by the powerful themes concerning life, love, and faith.