100 Best Books

Someone asked me over on FB recently what my favorite book was. (Theirs was Farenheit 451.) This is a question that always sends me into a mild panic, since I don't have -- can't conceive of having -- a favorite book.

Instead, I have about 100 favorite books. And now I intend to list them for you.


These are all books that I have read multiple times, and love passionately. So if you dislike one of them, maybe just keep it to yourself. Though you should feel free to name your own top 10 or 20 in the comments!

(These are in no particular order, btw)

1)      Middlemarch, George Eliot

2)      The Word for World is Forest, Ursula Le Guin

3)      Lathe of Heaven, Ursula Le Guin

4)      The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin

5)      Paradise Lost, Ursula Le Guin

6)      Emma, Jane Austen

7)      Persuasion, Jane Austen

8)      Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

9)      Little Men, Louisa May Alcott

10)  Floating Worlds, Cecelia Holland

11)  Great Maria, Cecelia Holland

12)  Until the Sun Falls, Cecelia Holland

13)  Antichrist, Cecelia Holland

14)  Case Histories, Kate Atkins

15)  Life After Life, Kate Atkins

16)  A God in Ruins, Kate Atkins

17)  A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason

18)  A Ring of Swords, Eleanor Arnason

19)  Hwarhath Stories, Eleanor Arnason

20)  City of Diamond, Jane Emerson

21)  Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

22)  Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey

23)  The Female Man, Joanna Russ

24)  Fledgling, Octavia Butler

25)  Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler

26)  Bloodchild, Octavia Butler

27)  In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan

28)  Sunshine, Robin McKinley

29)  China Mountain Zhang, Maureen McHugh

30)  Necropolis, Maureen McHugh

31)  Hild, Nicole Griffith

32)  Kage Baker, The Company Series (all 12 or 13 of them)

33)  Kage Baker, The House of the Stag

34)  Kage Baker, The Empress of Mars

35)  Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold

36)  The Awakening, Kate Chopin

37)  The Last of the Wine, Mary Renault

38)  The Friendly Young Ladies, Mary Renault

39)  The Middle Mist, Mary Renault

40)  Lab Girl, Hope Jahren

41)  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

42)  Joy in the Morning, Betty Smith

43)  I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

44)  Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson

45)  Raising Demons, Shirley Jackson

46)  We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

47)  Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

48)  Mainstreet, Sinclair Lewis

49)  Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis

50)  A Work of Art, Sinclair Lewis

51)  Howard’s End, E.M. Forester

52)  Nobody’s Fool, Richard Russo

53)  Watership Down, Richard Adams

54)  Moveable Feast. Ernest Hemmingway

55)  Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

56)  Travels with Charlies, John Steinbeck

57)  It Looked Like Forever, Mark Harris

58)  The Southpaw, Mark Harris

59)  Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

60)  Perfect Circle, Sean Stewart

61)  To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

62)  The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

63)  Firewatch, Connie Willis

64)  Passage, Connie Willis

65)  World War Z, Max Brooks

66)  Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel

67)  Among Others, Jo Walton

68)  The Just City, Jo Walton

69)  Necessity, Jo Walton

70)  Philosopher Kings, Jo Walton

71)  My Real Children, Jo Walton

72)  Are You My Mother? Alison Bechdel

73)  Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

74)  The Truth, Terry Pratchett

75)  Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

76)  Nice Work, David Lodge

77)  The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

78)  Grass, Sheri Tepper

79)  Raising the Stones, Sheri Tepper

80)  Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, Sheri Tepper

81)  The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell

82)  The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King

83)  Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers

84)  Cider House Rules, John Irving

85)  Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

86)  Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner

87)  Domestic Pleasures, Beth Gutcheon

88)  Five Fortunes, Beth Gutcheon

89)  The New Girls, Beth Gutcheon

90)  Fair and Tender Ladies, Lee Smith

91)  Saving Grace, Lee Smith

92)  The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, Meg Elison

93)  The Book of Etta, Meg Elison

94)  Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

95)  Spin State, Chris Moriarty

96)  Spin Control, Chris Moriarty

97)  Moving On, Larry McMurtry

98)  Star Beast, Robert Heinlein

99)  Dragon Seed, Pearl S. Buck

100True Grit, Charles Portis