---

Top 10 Books

---

Ah, traffic jams. They can bear such interesting fruit. So, Karen and I were stuck in traffic. People, people, people, fender benders aren’t that interesting. Stop looking at them. To entertain ourselves, we decided to try and list our current (list subject to change with the next whim or book) top ten books.

But before we begin, I hereby apologize to all those books who did not make the list (which is alphabetical, not in order of preference). Many books are loved, but only a few are read and re-read, shape the reader according to word or line. Comforting or thrilling, here’s our favorites at that crawling moment in time.
 

Crystal’s List

Beauty by Robin McKinley
A beast, a girl nicknamed Beauty (her real name is Honor), a magical castle in the woods. It’s beautiful, elegiac and the Beast has the coolest library in the world, which contains all the books ever written and all that ever will be.

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers.
You might get the impression that I like payoff books. And you’d be right. After three books of wooing and hurting healing hearts, Lord Peter and Miss Harriet Vane wed and begin their lives together. Yes, there’s a mystery. But the true mystery is about learning to become a unit. That strange thing that is a married couple. Not he and she, but we. I’d love it just for the literary reference scene alone.

(A) Civil Campaign  by Lois McMaster Bujold (for a Lois review see Warrrior's Apprentice)
By a nose, this is my favorite in this excellent series. It’s the payoff book. After books of struggle, we get a comedy of manners and biology. It perfectly balances five viewpoints, five people at different points in their lives. My favorite, my crush, is Miles Vorkosigan. He woos, he messes up, he learns some lessons. This book  contains the best apology letter ever written. Sometimes, I just read the letter. Then I read the conversation between Miles and his father (words like incendiary bombs). Then I read the end sequence. Then I give in and just re-read the book.

Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri
Not really a peckish, I think I’ll just pick up and read it book. However, no list of favorites would be complete without it. The imagery, the metaphors, the emotions. There’s a reason it’s one of the great classics. “Halfway through the journey of our lives, I came to myself in a dark wood and found that I had lost the true way.” To live in the world is to find yourself lost in the dark wood. The eternal quest is to find your way back into the light. Those who just read Inferno do themselves a disservice. Read the whole thing. It really is a Comedy. A story beginning in sorrow, which ends in Joy. 

Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman (for aGaiman review see Coraline)
Ibsen, shmibsen, give me Gaiman. Not technically speaking a novel, a comic. Or rather a graphic novel for the snobs among us. It’s the second arc in the Sandman series and contains many of my favorite characters.  It’s literate, contains some truly beautiful images, and I think the serial killers convention is just hilarious.

Last Herald Mage by Mercedes Lackey
Okay, not actually one book, it’s a trilogy. Whatever. A wonderful epic fantasy. I cry every time I read the first book. I sigh when I reach the end of the third. Vanyel grows from a spoiled broken boy into a hero. There’s tragic lovers separated by fate, sacrifice, honor, magic, new love found and a nice elegant conclusion.

Ravished by Amanda Quick
There are books that pierce my heart with their essential truths. This really isn’t one of them. Sometimes you need a cup of hot tea, ice cream, a warm fuzzy robe, or a book like this. On one hand it’s a paint by the numbers romance. Plucky girl. Brooding tragic man. But come on, she’s a glasses wearing, mallet wielding, proto-paleontologist. He’s jealous of fossils (literally). There are smugglers and angel faced cads and she gets into a fight with a minister at a ball. It’s hilarious and I’ve read it a billion times. One of my favorite books to grab just before going to bed. Open it up, read for 10 minutes. Relax. Go to sleep. Have nice dreams.

Requiem for the Devil by Jerri Smith Ready 
One of those books that I can just pick up and read over and over. Every part leads to an inevitable conclusion. The sun will rise and I will reach the end of the book and say, “Of course.” The only thing that I can really compare it to is that moment at the end of Dante’s Comedia when the writer sees God and to express his exaltation, language stretches and trembles to reach the divine. Spiritual without all the treacle.

(The) Silver Devil by Teresa Denys
This book is not pc, it’s not terribly feminist, the hero is not a nice guy. He starts the book messed up and he pretty much ends the book messed up and yet I love this book. The descriptions have texture. I believe in this Renaissance. In these who needs to read Machiavelli or take baths, perfume wearing, painted, vicious, backstabbing, religious, irreligious, cruel, kind, capricious, people. They might as well be in a history book as a romance novel. And like the heroine, I find myself horrified that I love the hero too.
 

Karen's List

And of course I like happy endings. I don’t like angst. I don’t do horror. Possibly because in some small way, I live each book that I read. These are lives that I am glad to have lived. 

(The) Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
I never actually read the Blue Sword without reading the Hero and the Crown as well, but I like Blue Sword better because Harry (Hari-mad) is a person who comes to a strange land and finds out that she belongs there. At home, she was half-alive. In the new land, she is encouraged to grow and finds that she is deeper, more complex, and more powerful than she ever thought possible.

(A) Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (for a Lois review see Warrrior's Apprentice)
Because it’s Lois. All of her books are character-driven. She creates people that you believe in, fall in love with, and want to know better. And because I suffered and cheered and cried for Miles through so many books and this is the payoff. Miles deserves Ekaterine. He has to work for her and show true devotion and not just his usual tactics. But when he does, it’s totally worth the wait. And *sigh* the letter.

Deception by Amanda Quick
Amanda Quick was the first romance writer that I ever read. And this is my favorite of her books. What’s not to like? You have pirates, mistaken identity, cute kids, an intelligent heroine, and a wealthy, charming, and accommodating suitor. I read it whenever I need to smile. 

(The) Far Pavillions by M.M. Kaye
The Far Pavilions is one of the first really big books that I ever read. And it made me fall in love with India. Kaye brings the India she knew in childhood and through stories into brilliant life. There are so many lines from the book that I quote to myself about justice, about faith, and the power of love. “It is a lovely thing to live with courage and to die leaving behind an everlasting renown.” Ash, the main character, is torn between two worlds and therefore sees everything from a unique point of view. As he and Juli struggle to build a life together, I feel that anything is possible with love and courage. It’s a classic story told really, really well.

Reunion in Death by J. D. Robb (for a Robb review see Naked in Death)
This is another payoff book. Because of a horrific childhood, Eve has thick emotional scars and a penetrating insight, which she uses to catch the bad guys. Throughout the series, Eve must slowly rebuild herself and grow her relationship with her husband, Roarke. In this book, they both reach new levels of cohesion. Makes me want to stand up and cheer. Plus Eve gets to kick some more ass, which is always cool.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I want to be Elizabeth Bennett when I grow up. It’s never going to happen, but I can always s read this book again and again and dream that it is possible. Also, Jane is perfection - her use of language, her characterization of everyday people, and her insight into the society that she lived in, really the society that we continue to live in, is just incredible. And (again) I love the letter. 

O' Jerusalem by Laurie King  (for a Laurie King review see A Darker Place)
I love all of the Russell and Holmes books, but O’Jersualem spoke to me the most. When Mary comes to see Jerusalem for the very first time and sits in the cemetery for a full night, I felt that connection with her. There’s a sense of place and time. There’s a pilgrimage of spirit as well as their necessary journey over land and the inevitable mystery. And of course the relationship between Russell and Holmes is priceless.

Requiem for the Devil by Jerri Smith Ready
How do you describe perfection? My previous benchmark for reading a book often was every six months. This book I read every few weeks. I keep it with me always (in my PalmPilot) and I bought another copy (paperback) so I could give it to friends. This is a book of character and redemption and hope. No matter how far down you go, forgiveness is always possible. The characters and emotions are so sharply drawn that they cut me to the heart every time I read the book. Plus the devil is way, way cool.

(The) Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence
It took me forever to read this book, but once I did I was so very, very glad. This is a snapshot of a moment in time – a fascinating portrait of a people (the Arabs), a place (Arabia), and a man in love both (Lawrence). Lawrence was clearly insane, but in a really cool way. He basically invented modern guerilla warfare and couldn’t stand to be touched, but he loved people, immersed himself in the culture of the Middle East, and did his best to preserve their independence and way of life. This is a book that led to other reading in tactics, history, and Lawrence himself.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
I love Connie Willis because she makes me laugh and she makes me think. This is one of her lighter books. I like the fusion of incredible technology (time travel) and annoying bureaucracy/politics (finding a lost item to appease a wealthy donor). All the characters must work through extraordinary circumstances to achieve very mundane goals and in doing so learn all about time, love, and the bishop’s bird stump. After I read To Say Nothing of the Dog, I read Three Men in a Boat (trust me they are related), which was also hilarious. I love reading books that lead me to read other books.