I ALWAYS have a recommendation...

Oh, dear.

I devour books, and have been doing so the greater half of my life. So in an attempt not to overwhelm, I always base my recommendations on the person I’m recommending books to...

But in this case, I suppose I’ll put my absolute favorites in a few genres/categories.

It may turn out to be a long list. My apologies.

But now you can just find the category that suits you!

In no particular order:

Fantasy/Mythological fantasy:

- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

- The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander

- Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis

- The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Slice of Life(ish)/Romance(ish) (?):

- The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia Fenollera

- Persuasion, Jane Austen (okay, yeah, Pride and Prejudice too; these two are my favs)

“Classics”/Idontknowhowbesttocategorize:

- The Lord of the Flies, William Golding

- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

- Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens

- The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton

- King Lear, William Shakespeare (and any others, but this is my most recent and new favorite read of his)

- The Keys of the Kingdom, A.J. Cronin

Sweet Classics/good for adults and children:

- Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

- The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

- The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

Mystery (for lots of ages):

- The Father Brown Mysteries, G.K. Chesterton

- The Hardy Boys, Franklin Dixon

- Trixie Belden, Kathryn Kenny

- The Three Investigators, Robert Arthur (these are great to read to elementary/middle school kids who like mysteries!)

- The A-Z Mysteries, Ron Roy (we ate them up as kids)

Elementary/Middle-school(ish):

- The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman

- The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

- Number the Stars, Lois Lowry

- The Clay Marble, Minfong Ho (this is tragic, but so beautiful. I read when I was 11-12ish, I believe and sobbed for a good week)

- Goodnight, Mr. Tom, Michelle Magorian (also beautiful and tragic, also 11-12ish years old, and another week of sobbing)

Children:

- Mr. Putter and Tabby series, Cynthia Rylant

- Bear and Mouse series, Bonny Becker

- Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne

Philosophical/Theological:

- Peace of Soul, (Ven.) Fulton Sheen (and every other book of his...ever.)

- Theology and Sanity, Frank Sheed

- “De Anima” from The Basic Works of Aristotle, Aristotle (well, and all of it. But I'd personally start with "De Anima")

- The Confessions (of St. Augustine), (St.) Augustine of Hippo

- Utopia, (St.) Thomas More

- Edith Stein: Essential Writings, a collection of works by Edith Stein

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I got super carried away...

I could keep going, but I think it's wise that I stop now...