“The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.”
Harper Lee
My earliest memories of stories are nursery rhymes. I don't remember having a book of them in the house but I do remember hearing them from my Mom and my Nana over and over in sing-song fashion. We often recited them together and I loved memorizing them at a young age.
The book I remember most from when I could read by myself was the classic Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I was impressed by Heidi’s respect for her grandfather and the disabled Clara and that she valued good people over riches. It also highlighted a love of the outdoors and made me want to visit the Alps — perhaps my first bite by the travel bug!
A favorite book of my early teen years was The Black Opal by Dorothy Maywood Bird. This story of an intrepid college girl sleuth was the first mystery I read. It began a lifelong fascination and is perhaps why I write mystery books for teens today.
My college years introduced me to new ways of thinking through books. The Psychology of Clothes by J.C. Flügel made me consider why humans wear clothes at all. It demonstrated how history pointed to the desire for bodily protection, modesty, and decoration. In The Naked Ape, Desmond Morris, a zoologist, asserted that much of human behavior could be explained in the context of animal behavior, but retrospect shows it was male-centric and he gave short shrift to female hunter-gatherers and their important contributions. Mary McCarthy’s The Group mesmerized me with its frank and controversial exploration of women’s issues, social concerns, and sexuality. Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, both by Tom Wolfe, gave me short stories epitomizing hip times in New York City where I lived. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway lured me to Europe and The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone increased my desire to see the works of Michelangelo in Italy, as well as other artists of the Renaissance. Other memorable books of the era, for various reasons, were The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
Motherhood introduced me to wonderful children’s literature that delighted my son and daughter. Living in Massachusetts, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey was a lovely Boston story we related to. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein made poetry fun, and The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater emphasized the importance of individuality. My son loved the Curious George books by H.A. Rey and Asterix and Obelisk by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. My daughter loved Is This the House of Mistress Mouse by Richard Scarry and the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel. As the children got older, I enjoyed explaining the facts of life to them with the help of Peter Mayle’s delightful book, Where Did I Come From?
Important adult books for me as a stay-at-home mom were varied. I enjoyed Watership Down by Richard Adams, a charming adventure story from the point of view of a small group of rabbits, as well the torrid, forbidden romance of The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. Burr by Gore Vidal drew me into early American history and I learned about one of the tragedies Native Americans endured through Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Two very different books I read then explored the base instincts of some humans. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi was about the senseless Manson family murderers in California and Sophie’s Choice by William Styron depicted the lingering catastrophic effects of Nazism. I was drawn into Greek politics by two other books. In A Man, the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci wrote a fictionalized account of her relationship with the man who attempted to assassinate George Papadopoulos, the Greek dictator of the 1960s and 70s. Eleni, by Nicholas Gage, took me back to the Greek civil war of the 1940s and explored the mysterious death of the author’s mother during the unrest.
When I moved to Italy for a few years, I read many books about the country and about the Naples area where I lived. One of the most memorable and provocative was I Castrati. I don’t recall the author, but It was an eye-opening peek into the 18th and 19th century opera world where young boys were castrated to maintain their angelic prepubescent voices.
A few years later, I lived in Germany for a number of years and read many books about the places related to the Nazis and Hitler in Munich where I lived. I also read a lot of books about the Resistance and especially enjoyed one novel set in France—The Blue Bicycle by Regine Deforges.
After I returned to the States in the late Nineties, I read many mystery series. I followed the crime solving of two British detectives—police commander and poet Adam Dalgleish, the protagonist of P.D. James’s novels and Inspector Thomas Lynley, Elizabeth George’s high-born sleuth. Donna Leon’s books introduced me to her Italian crime solver, Commissario Guido Brunetti of Venice. For crime novels set in the States, I turned to Margaret Truman’s Washington D.C. murder mysteries, Lisa Scottoline’s Philadelphia legal thrillers, and Tess Gerritsen’s medical suspense featuring Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles.
The Nineties also got me hooked on the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling and one of my favorite books at the end of the decade was Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, about the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster.
I started the 2000s with a great book, Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane, considered the deadliest in history. I also read all the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer and became a huge fan of Tana French and her Dublin Murder Squad series, beginning with the first one, In the Woods.
Two favorite books from 2007 were The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad and Street Boys by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The first is about daily life pressures in Afghanistan as a family struggles between the forces of modernity and tradition. The second novel takes place in bombed-out Naples, Italy during World War II. It’s a tale of abandoned children who become fearless fighters and unlikely heroes.
I most enjoyed two very different books in 2008. The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter is a murder mystery focusing on middle and upper-class Black Americans in Washington, D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is about an eccentric family living in genteel poverty in a decaying castle in England during World War II. It’s also a coming-of-age story of the teen girl narrator.
The outstanding book for me in 2009 was What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George. I believe it should be read by anyone working with children who live in stressful circumstances.
In 2010, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung gave me a first-hand account of the terrors of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
Three books impressed me in 2011. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is the non-fiction story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American man who rode out the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and rescued neighbors with his canoe. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book of linked short stories about a platoon of soldiers fighting on the ground in Vietnam. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli is a novel about a female combat photographer in Vietnam during the war.
2012 provided two good books at the top of my list. The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson is the story of the American Ambassador in Berlin during Hitler’s reign. Outliers —the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell explores some of the surprising factors which contribute to success.
2014 introduced me to neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova and her book Love Anthony, which gives a glimpse into the world of an autistic child. I also enjoyed The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III which is a novel set in Florida in the days leading up to 9/11.
In 2015, I discovered the first book of Elena Ferrante’s compelling Neapolitan quartet— My Brilliant Friend. I was also impressed with four other books. Little Bee by Chris Cleave is the story of a terrifying event that entwines the lives of a Nigerian girl and a young English mother. The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko is the true 1983 story of the fastest ride down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was in a wooden dory, not a raft. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje is a coming of age novel about an 11-year-old boy's journey on a large ship's three-week voyage. It was influenced by the author’s own childhood voyage from Sri Lanka to England. Townie by Andre Dubus III is a memoir of the author’s somewhat turbulent childhood growing up in Haverhill. Massachusetts.
In 2016, I enjoyed the remaining three books in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series–The Story of a New Name, Those Who Go and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Child. Another good book was Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova. It’s a novel about the impact of the neurodegenerative Huntington’s Disease upon a man and his family.
In 2017, there were two memorable books for me. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is a true story about the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel which follows one woman on a journey out of human bondage, using the author’s imaginary concept of a real system of rail connections.
Three books about World War II were most enjoyable in 2018. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is a novel that follows the lives of three women affected by the war—a Polish Resistance worker, a German doctor, and an American working at the French consulate. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan is a novel based on the true story of a heroic Italian teenager who spied for the Allies during the Nazi occupation of northern Italy. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is about the heroic women working as Allied secret agents in occupied France.
The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard is one pick for 2019. It’s an historical novel set in Oak Ridge, Tennessee toward the end of World War II, where hundreds of young girls operate massive machines whose purpose isn’t explained. All they know is they’re working in a top-secret facility on something to help end the war. Another pick is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It’s a non-fiction book about a Black woman and the immortal cell line researchers still use known as HeLa that came from her cervical cancer cells in 1951. It discusses ethical issues of race and class in medical research.
So far this year, 2020, my two favorites are When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton and At the Wolf’s Table by Rosella Postorino. The first is set in the sixties of Fidel, Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, and Florida. The second focuses on the women who were recruited as food tasters for Hitler near his Wolf's Lair military headquarters on the Eastern Front.
In the last fifteen years, I’ve read an average of fifty-eight books a year, so my favorites are only a small part of my literary influence. I’ve learned something from every one of them.
P.S. More than once, an alert reader has pointed out that this post has a misspelling. While I appreciate the feedback, I want to clarify. The name Asterix is correct for the book character, as opposed to asterisk, which is a punctuation mark.
