America's Favorite Novel is...?

"So many books, so little time." >>>Frank Zappa


Could you choose one, just one, favorite book? Would it be a favorite story from childhood? College reading list? A novel that your book group discussed (and kept you up all night reading?) 

I'll be thinking of the best books of my life as I watch PBS' The Great American Read, Tuesday, May 22. (Check your local listing for time) Viewers can expect to see authors and passionate readers talk about their own favorite books. 

The list of 100 novels selected for the vote is sure to get a lively discussion started. Eyebrows will be raised at some of the choices and English teachers may throw out a few literary bon mots as  PBS voters discover a reading list with novels as diverse as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Fifty Shades of Grey. There are serious novels - 1984, Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Book Thief. There are classics - The Grapes of Wrath, The Sun Also Rises and Jane Eyre. I was happy to see children's fiction also represented - Charlotte's Web, Where The Red Fern Grows and Anne of Green Gables. 

Using the list as a guide, I'll tackle a few classics this summer that I've somehow missed reading: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), Don Quixote (Cervantes), and Pride and Prejudice (Austen).

For more information, including a full list of the 100 novels, quiz  and how to vote, check out the PBS website:
http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/

   
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New books in May:

                                           Fiction

Love and Ruin - Paula McLain
Miss Subways - David Duchovny
Old Black Magic (Spenser series) - Robert Parker/Ace Atkins
The High Tide Club - Mary Kay Andrews
By Invitation Only - Dorothea Benton Frank
Endless Beach - Jenny Colgan
To The Moon and Back - Karen Kingsbury

                                        Nonfiction

Not That Bad - Roxane Gay
Margaritaville: The Cookbook - Carlo Sernaglia & Julia Turshen
Spring - Karl Ove Knausgard
Paul Simon: The Life - Robert Hilburn
I'm Keith Hernandez - Keith Hernandez
Pops - Michael Chabon
Calypso - David Sedaris

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