I know a lot of you out there read voraciously; I know that because
we've connected through Voracious Readers Only. I'm afraid I don't have
near enough time to try many new books or even keep up with the latest
best-sellers--too busy with my own writing, my editing work and
marketing. However, I do have some favorite books that I highly
recommend, and if you're not familiar with them, you might check them
out.They're not new, but I definitely think they'll be worth your time.
Speaking of time, two of my all-time favorites are time travel stories. I
love time travel, as you may have noticed from my back list. Both my #4
and #3 favorites are time travel novels, done so superbly that I often
re-read them and they inspire me in my own writing. Let's dive in.
#4 - The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
I first read this at a time when I had tried numerous books--too many to
count--that failed to grab me or pull me into their stories, and I was
beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me. If I had
become jaded, or immune to the stories that other people were touting.
For some months, this really bothered me. But then I read The Rose Garden. Ha! Here was a book that grabbed me. Here was a story that compelled me to keep reading. Yippee! It wasn't me!
I think the most marvelous aspect to this book is the sense of time and
place. Kearsley does an excellent job of setting the stage, describing
the old English home so that you can feel it, almost smell the age. I
was so deeply engrossed in the book that, after I'd read a while and
returned to life around me, I almost felt like my daily life was the
fiction, and the story of the book was the real thing. It's a wonderful
story, very well done, and something I can read again and again.
#3 - The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
The Mirror might
be the first time-travel novel I read that made me fall in love with
the genre. It's a story done in three parts, following three generations
of a family that interlock in surprising ways. The time-travel
mechanism in this case is an ugly magic mirror that swaps present-day
Shay Garrett with her own grandmother, Brandy McCabe. While Shay must
come to terms with living in a past that she's heard about but never
experienced, Brandy must figure out where (and when) she is with
absolutely no foreknowledge of how the future (to her) evolves. In the
middle is the story of Rachel, Brandy's daughter and Shay's mother, and
how she copes (or not) with the unbelievable stories of her mother and
daughter. I'm sure I've read this book 20, 30, maybe 40 times, and I
still read it occasionally.
#2 - Six of One by Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae Brown broke into the reading public's attention with her infamous Rubyfruit Jungle, a groundbreaking novel that brought the subject of homosexuality to light. I'm guessing when Six of One
was released, the shock value had worn off, and besides, this novel has
an entire ensemble of quirky, memorable characters of various sexual
persuasions. So while this book seemed to fly under the radar for most
people, it's an absolute gem of a story. It's about a rather
schizophrenic town of Runnymeade, which is perched directly on the
Mason-Dixon Line between Maryland and Pennsylvania and so half of the
town lies in one state, half in the other. As you might imagine, the
North and South are still debating the Civil War, even as they move into
modern times, often with hilarious results. The story concentrates
primarily on Julia (Juts) and her sister Louise (Wheezie) as they grow
up and find their place in the world, all the while fighting with each
other like only sisters can. Their vicious efforts to get back at each
other will leave you chortling with delight, while the times they unite
for a common cause will bring a tear to your eye. This is a marvelous
book: funny, heartbreaking and oh so human.
#1 - A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Most people know John Irving from The World According to Garp, but I believe A Prayer for Owen Meany is his absolute masterpiece. If you've seen the movie Simon Birch,
you may know that it's based on this book, but it only tells part of
the story. The full story is much richer, more complex, and absolutely
stunning. It's difficult to describe this book. It might be easy to call
it a coming-of-age story, but it's so much more than that. It's
hilarious and heart-breaking, full of human foibles and divine
intervention. It follows the lives of two boys, Johnny Wheelwright and
Owen Meany, as they struggle to understand the vagaries and mysteries of
life. It's at once a very earthbound story, full of the weaknesses that
lead to human tragedy, but at the same time, it reaches for the
absolute apex of the divine in all of us.
So have I whet your appetite for any of these great books? I hope so.
These books continue to inspire me, even decades after my first reading.
I think, because they are older, they are badly underestimated. I'd
love to hear what you think of them.
