kelleytjansson

I wrote last month about my boredom with the ALS ice bucket challenge, so thought that I should devote equal attention to a different social media challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed.

My friend Joanne E. posted on her Facebook page, “Here’s the idea: In your status list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. It won’t take more than a few minutes, and don’t think too hard. They do not have to be the “right” books, or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way. Last, tag 10 friends, and me, so I can see your list too!”

Joanne’s list consisted of the following:
1. A Walk to Remember
2. Fahrenheit 451
3. Of Mice and Men
4. I can pray to God
5. Memoirs of a Geisha
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. The Diary of Anne Frank
8. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
9. Little Woman
10. Homecoming

Books!  Now, that’s my kind of challenge.  🙂  I’d like to announce my list below and thank Joanne for nominating me for the challenge.  I’m sticking with fiction at the moment and may post a nonfiction list in the future.  As shown below, I could not limit myself to ten books.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck – Laughed out loud when I was reading this short novel.  It’s a lot funnier after visiting Monterey as Steinbeck’s humor tickles anyone familiar with the area.

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy – Soames is one of the most captivating characters in all of literature and his plight is tragic.

Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – “This is the forest primeval,” is so gripping that Longfellow had me on the first line.  It doesn’t hurt that he was from Maine!  🙂

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – Think about what you do, or not, amidst the Prague Spring.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – As a tomboy myself, I can’t help but to admire the chapter when Huck dresses as a girl and is found out.  Hey Huck–girls don’t throw underhand anymore.  🙂

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – I read this classic as a young adult and was so struck by the writing that I worried I would ever read anything as compelling again.  Oh, the secrets of Manderley…

Crabwalk by Gunter Grass – It’s no surprise that a Nobel Prize winner makes the list.  This is the only book that’s ever reduced me to tears for its beautiful prose…and I read it in English!  Grass explores influence of one generation upon another, a theme which should resonate with anyone interested in their ancestors.  How do we become who we are?

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley – With all the nonsense in today’s world about restricting birth control, I wonder when the time will come when women really can control their own bodies.  It may take a braver world after all.

The Sea Wolf by Jack London – The description of a foggy San Francisco Bay adds to the haunting allure of this sea-going drama between a shipwreck survivor and the brutal intellectual who is his rescuer.

The Trial by Franz Kafka – I think of this novel as a perfect reflection of politics.  How better to undercut your competition than to cast an accusation without specifics?

10,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne – It’s a wonder that Verne didn’t spawn an entire generation of oceanologists with this masterpiece.  We have a lot more to learn about our blue planet…

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham –   A believable life when realism sets in after many triumphs and challenges.  The master storyteller intermittently pauses to share his profound thoughts.

The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham – Perhaps the most haunting reminder that we all have an inner compass in which to guide our path in life.