A List of Books I Love

I just passed the 18 year mark in my sobriety last week, and while I was in Lubbock visiting Nick for his 13th (!?) birthday, I visited with Tammy (hi Tammy!) who is like the only person outside my family who has known me since the beginning. Needless to say, it was great seeing her, and to make a long story short, she's a kindred spirit. We had a lot in common back then, and still do, so I told her I would compose a list of my favorite books for her. This is that list. I will try not to go overboard, because if I put every book on here that has been important to me, the list would be way too long.

I guess I should start by dividing the books into categories.

Group One: Fiction for the Fun of It

These are the only series I'll list. I love fantasy fiction, and these are my favorites.
1. Game of Thrones (and the rest of the series) by George RR Marrtin. This is by far the best fiction I have ever read. It stands in a class by itself.
2. Preacher is a graphic novel series, and it pushed me into the graphic novel genre, which I now can't get enough of. Probably my 2nd fav story of all time.
3. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, especially the 1st four books
4. Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman



Group 2: Books I've read as a Teacher


These books are ones I've read since becoming a teacher. They are typically award winners, and their target audiences are children and adolescents. Don't let that fool you though... These are the books that can change lives, even in adults. I'm a believer in the idea that characters in books are real role models, and that they can influence a person as well as real people, sometimes even more so. I have dozens of favorites in this group as well. However, if you like the genre, you cannot go wrong w/ anything that has won the Prinz Award or any of the Newbery winners from about 1988 on up. The older ones are good too, but not all of them are great. You decide.



Fat Kid Rules the World by KL Going
The essence of true punk rock? Could be...




Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli ( I love her!)




House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer won the National Book Award, a Newbery honor and a Printz honor. Wow.




OK, I'll continue my post in a later entry, as I am a total Blog-tard, and am tired of typing.