I agree with almost none of the books on “greatest books of all time” lists. I may have read them, but they aren’t MY favorites. Books made this list if: they’re MY favorite, I’ve read the book more than once, there is a physical copy on my shelf, and I think about it on a regular basis. Series are represented by the first book.
*There are a number of books that floored me with their beauty and intensity, and that are culturally important and thought-provoking, like The Bluest Eye, and Midnight’s Children, but are not on my list because while I learned a lot, I didn’t exactly enjoy them.
Stats:
Women authors: 60% (Surprising! I thought it would be almost all women.)
Sci-fi: 20%
Fantasy: 26%
Children’s: 20%
Non-white authors: Yikes, I need to expand my reading! I’m sure I’m missing gems.
A Court of Mist and Fury/ Bat-boy and traumatized unskilled pretty lady get their rocks off
A Horse Called Wonder/ Teenager has super speschul bond with sickly foal and they go on to triumph in everything
A Little Princess/ Bitches get what’s coming to them
A Memory Called Empire/ Colonialism is insidious; rise anyway
A Wrinkle in Time/ Teenager saves her father and brother from aliens, tries to describe light without using the word “photon”
Alanna: The First Adventure/ Magical teenager cross-dresses to join the army
Black Beauty/ Gorgeous horse lives a beautiful and tragic life
Charlotte’s Web/ Spider saves the life of a farm pig
Children of Time/ Humans figure out how to get along with aliens
Dead Until Dark/ Telepathic waitress gets a vampire boyfriend
Dealing with Dragons/ Annoyed princess becomes a dragon’s librarian; the dragon is kind of sexy
Dragonflight: The First Chronicle of Pern/ Pissed off lady bonds with a dragon, saves entire planet of people
Ender’s Game/ Child soldier with really good grades made to commit xenocide
Foundation/ Predictive modeling says humanity is doomed, no one cares
Fourth Wing/ College kid forced into a major she doesn’t want, unexpectedly excels AND gets the Sexiest Man at School to bang her
Going Postal/ Con artist forced to revive post office to avoid punishment of death
Good Omens/ An angel and a demon prevent the apocalypse
Goodnight Moon/ Go the fuck to sleep
Here One Moment/ Predictive modeling is scary; friends make life good
Island of the Blue Dolphins/ Girl is stranded on an island and survives
Jonathan Livingston Seagull/ If you ever want to understand the unique mental profile of a trail ultramarathoner, read this book
Little Women/ Life under patriarchy
Modoc/ Boy grows up with an elephant and it’s hella cute
Matilda/ Girl uses mental powers to fuck shit up
My Side of the Mountain/ Boy runs away to the mountains and befriends a falcon
Night/ The Holocaust sucked
Pride and Prejudice/ The OG Romance; all other books are posers
Shadow and Bone/ The dark and mysterious magical leader turns out to be the villain and it’s terribly delicious
Small Great Things/ Racism is endemic; individual courage matters
Spin/ Earth is put in a bubble of slo-time by aliens and everyone is like oh shit!
Station Eleven/ Most of the population of Earth is killed by a flu pandemic, but it’s not actually about that
The Clan of the Cave Bear/ The most speschul perfect woman to have ever lived almost dies a bunch of times but is rewarded for surviving with a horse, a lion, a wolf, a matriarchal society, and a dude with an absolutely ginormous dong
The Fifth Season/ Causing earthquakes, giving and receiving trauma
The Fellowship of the Ring/ The OG fantasy, no notes (well, okay, add women)
The Hatchet/ Teenager survives plane crash in remote wilderness and has to keep surviving for a while until rescued
The Handmaid’s Tale/ What if the Republicans win everything?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy/ Only man to survive destruction of Earth travels the galaxy; somehow it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read
The Hunger Games/ Teenager volunteers to compete in death tournament to save her sister, also has to deal with two boys whining for her attention
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue/ Women bargains with the Devil to live forever; it actually goes pretty well
The Joy Luck Club/ Chinese immigrant mothers and daughters, nuances of being human and whatnot
The Magician’s Guild/ Ooo an MMC so dark and villainous and sexy and an FMC that is the Very Best at Magic
The Martian/ Matt Damon gets stranded on Mars and makes boob jokes
The Name of the Wind/ Lyrical, ridiculous fantasy about a guy who is the opposite of humble; the series will never be finished
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo/ Sapphic love story of old-school Hollywood celebrities
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants/ Teenagers try on (pants!) adulthood
The Three-Body Problem/ A scientist and an oil tycoon invite aliens to invade Earth and wipe out humanity; weirdly some people have a problem with this
The Witch of Blackbird Pond/ Teenage girl thinks thus is accused of witchcraft
What Alice Forgot/ Temporary amnesia prevents a divorce
Where the Crawdad Sings/ Neglected and smart woman commits justified murder and lives great life afterwards
World War Z/ A zombie outbreak happened but we won!
