Cristi's Top 10

Lolita: I think this book will remain one of the most endearing, heart-wrenching and honest love stories throughout the entire history of civilization. I'm not kidding.

The Great Gatsby: This novel is so entertaining. It also takes place in an historical and cultural context that I have always found fascinating. I'm sure that at any moment if I picked up this book to simply browse I'd end up reading it again without putting it down.

Sometimes a Great Notion: Ken Kesey is not one of my favorites but this book is chock full of fascinating characters, warped logic, tragedy, reasons to be hopeful, and beautiful Oregon scenery! I particularly liked that he gives voice to different characters under no particular rule or pattern... The story is so rich and alive.

To the Lighthouse: If I had to choose someone to be the author of every book that was to exist on the planet, it would be Virginia Woolf. Her style is so original that everytime I read something of hers I find myself thinking "Yeah, this is cutting edge!" yet this one was published in 1927. Her narrative feels intimate yet complicated and peculiar, which I find so compelling and relatable.

Cold Mountain: by Charles Frazier. This is such a great read. This one came highly recommeded to me and though I thought it was going to be ultra cheesy I started reading and was immediately drawn in, particularly by the detailed descriptions of each setting. Frazier's writing is so good and I loved each of the sub-plots along the character's journey home.

The Awakening: Kate Chopin. This was probably the first book that I read without stopping. I couldn't put it down. In fact I seem to remember my inability to look up from it causing some major ruckus between Mich and I when we were in high school!? I still think about it occassionally and remember feeling like no one had ever written a female character like Edna before Chopin.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Milan Kundera. This book is just so good.

Extremly Loud and Incredibly Close: Not only is this story gut-wrenchingly sweet and also sad, it is hilarious. I was giggling or laughing out loud every five words. If there are post-modern sub-genres, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" could fall under Extremely Endearing works. I usually find post-modernists' use of other media a tad gratuitous or uninteresting, but his seems entirely appropriate given the hero's age. There is a generation of kids with a bottomless pit of information accessible to them. It is interesting to see how the boy uses this information as a medium in his process of coping.

100 Years of Solitude: Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of course, an epic. I love the language. I love magical realism. I love that this book is also so deceptively simple. I will read it many more times before I become any closer to understanding the depth of Marquez's craftmanship.

Catcher in the Rye: This book is like Gatsby, for me: a classic, well-written novel that I'll read again and again. And of course the teenage angst element was particularly compelling over the years.