15 Books

Instructions:
Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Copy the instructions into your own blog, send it along to how ever many people you like, and be sure to tag the person who tagged you.


1. Stay Alive My Son - Pin Yathay: Given to me by my good friend Bryan Reagan; this book changed my life. Set in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. It is an incredible story of survival that made me realize just how much a human can endure.

2. The Giver - Lois Lowry: I read this when I was about 11 and I loved it! It opened my imagination to an alternate universe.

3. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt: Think your life is tough? Feeling stressed out? This book will make you so glad just to have plenty of food to eat and warm clothes.

4. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle: A beautiful fantasy world that I loved as a child.

5. Matilda - Roald Dahl: Dahl is the master of telling children's stories. This one made me laugh a lot.

6. Atonement - Ian McEwan: A fantastic bitter-sweet love story. It will make your heart ache.

7. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway: This book made me drop A.P. Literature my senior year. I finished it but yawned all the way through it. It was boring but I like to brag that I read it.

8. Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King: Oooh, thinking about this just gives me goosebumps. I read a lot of King in High School and this one was my favorite.

9. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky: This story gave me butterflies in my stomach. Could you murder for money and live with yourself? I couldn't.

10. Beowulf - This book was so tough I had to read it out loud just to stay awake. It was written in ancient English and you basically need a translator for it. Unless you're into torturing yourself I would skip this one.

11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl: I LOVE this story!

12. Organic Chemistry: Sophomore year of college, this book changed my life for sure. Understanding O-Chem added another dimension to my understanding of science. Hardest B I ever worked for!

13. A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer: Reading this book is almost masochistic. It's a terrible account of child abuse that is very difficult to stomach. I have to give away the end and let you know it has a happy ending...sort of.

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving: John Irving is hilarious. I've read most of his books and this one is probably his best.

15. Protecting the Gift - Gavin De Becker: (in progress) I'm only part-way into this book and I can already tell this one is going to stick with me. A book about protecting the gift of fear and using it to your advantage. Written by a man for women (especially mothers) about protecting yourself and your children from predators.

Tagged
1. Sandy
2. Valerie
3. Michelle
4. Kimberly
5. Mollie
6. Heather
7. Erin