My 100th Post...

I can't believe I've reached 100 blog posts. I understand that it is traditional to write 100 Things about Myself for the 100th post, but since books are my thing I decided to write a list of 100 books that have influenced me over the years. This is in no way a comprehensive list. In fact, it is a list of the books that popped into my head as I was writing this post. It might be a different post if I had written it tomorrow.

The books listed include classics, modern, contemporary, poetry, memoir, children's literature, mystery and chick Lit. Anything that has made an impact on me for one random reason or another. I have read all the books that I have included on the list. There is no particular order, or time chronology because I am too lazy to organize it in this way.

Storytellin' Mama's Top 100 Books, Part 1:

1. The Great Gatsby 2. Tender is the Night (I love the Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night may be my all time favorite.) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.The Accidental tourist (This book always makes me laugh and the movie was pretty funny too.) by Anne Tyler

4. The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, 5. Palace of Desire, 6. Sugar Street (A huge undertaking, but definitely worth it for anyone that loves a good family saga.) by Naguib Mafouz

7. To Kill a Mockingbird (Classic criminal law.) by Harper Lee

8. A Wrinkle in Time (My favorite children's book and the reason I named my daughter Madeline.) by Madeleine L'Engle

9. The Transcendent Child (Evidence that there is always hope for the future.) by Lillian B. Rubin

10. The Age of Innocence 11. Ethan Frome 12. The House of Mirth (My obsession when I was in high school.) by Edith Wharton

13. The Sheltering Sky (Another world altogether and one of the best movie soundtracks ever.) by Paul Bowles

14. Bastard Out of Carolina (I cried my way through this one.) by Dorothy Allison

15. Harry Potter Series (What can I say that hasn't been said already... great boy role model, amazing rags to riches story and a female author who is still breaking records.) by J.K. Rowling

16. The Moviegoer (For anyone who as ever had it all, but still felt alienated.) by Walker Percy

17. Persuasion 18. Pride and Prejudice (Novels that stand the test of time, predating chick literature all the way back to the 1800's.) by Jane Austen

19. Bridget Jone's Diary (A hysterical and loose retelling of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice.) by Helen Fielding

20. Failure (Won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry this year.) by Philip Schultz

21. The Bean Trees 22. Pigs in Heaven 23. Animal Dreams (I live in Tucson after all, where all these novels were written and take place.) by Barbara Kingsolver

24. Bird by Bird (A must have for any aspiring writer.) by Annie Lammot

25. Anne of Greene Gables Series (The books I reread the most as a child.) by L.M. Montgomery

26. The heart is a Lonely Hunter 27. The Member of the Wedding (Some of the most lyrical writing I've ever read.) by Carson McCuller

28. The Lovely Bones 29. Lucky (Excellent use of the first person narrator in Lovely Bones and Lucky is an interesting memoir of an often taboo topic.) by Alice Sebold

29. Reviving Ophelia (I love this book and I encourage any mother who has a daughter to read it.) by Mary Pipher 

30. Anna Karenina (Really you can't go wrong with Tolstoy.) by Leo Tolstoy

31. The Kite Runner 32. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Both these books are terrific and give such a glimpse of the experience of racial tension and the complexity of relationships.  I have reread the opening of the Kite Runner so many times and I think it is a masterful and flawless opening to a book.) Khaled Hosseini

33. The Chosen (A book about friendship that transcends religion, isolation, and pain. I loved this book as a teenager.) Chaim Potok

34. One Hundred years of Solitude 35. Love in a Time of Cholera (Marquez is a master at magic realism- using magic to explain real events.) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

36. The Joy Luck Club (Therapeutic in understanding mother-daughter relationships.) by Amy Tan

37. Angle of Repose 38. Crossing to Safety (These novels highlight one of the great voices of the American West.) by Wallace Stegner

39. Little Women (As a kid I was mesmerized by all of Alcott's books, but this is a favorite.) by Louisa May Alcott

40. The Glass Castle (A recent favorite. A memoir of childhood survival and endurance.)

41. The Stephanie Plum Series (Pure fun and fluff.) by Janet Evanovich

42. The Catcher in the Rye (A college must, Salinger writes really good short stories too.) by J.D. Salinger

43. The Year of Magical Thinking (Moving memoir about losing a spouse and understanding grief.) by Joan Didion

44. A Walk in the Woods (Laugh out loud funny and really educational about the Appalachian Trail) by Bill Bryson

45. Interpreter of Maladies 46. The Namesake (Both books have characters that are so engaging and engrossing.) by Jhumpra Lahiri

47. Three Junes (A moving story of family told by three members with differing perspectives.)

by Julia Glass

48. The Devil Wears Prada (A fun career girl story.) by Lauren Weisberger

49. In her Shoes (Sisterhood at its zaniest and most real.) by Jennifer Weiner

50. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (An original detective story riveting in a subtle way.) by Alexander McCall Smith

*This post has gotten really long, so I've decided to do books 51-100 for a continuing post next week.

I'm always looking for new good books to read. Leave a comment if there is a book you love that you think I might enjoy.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!