[Oabs] Favorite books

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

Just to stir up some discussion on here, and because I'm always
looking for new and interesting reads, I am wondering what your
favorite books are.  There's a challenge to list them going around on
facebook, but I thought discussion of the books would be a lot more
productive and a lot less awkward.  So, I'll start with mine.  I would
appreciate any suggestions or replies with your favorites too.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen,
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Crucible by Arthur
Miller.  (I always think of these two together since they're both kind
of similar).
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  One of the best recent books
I've read.  If John Green would continue to focus on writing stuff
like this, or stuff for slightly older young adults rather than the
high school stuff in Paper Towns, he'll continue to be awesome.  I
liked Paper Towns, and no offense to you if you do more than TFIOS and
think I'm crazy, but it just didn't have depth to it, and the ending
was disappointing.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  Really great if you like
mystery/suspense/thriller stuff.  The book twists and turns a lot.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  Very good, so much
better than the movie.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  Another really recent book that I liked.
It's a tear-jerker though.
The Outsiders.  Made me think of stereotypes seriously for the first time.
Harry Potter, because it's Harry Potter.
Handle With Care, Sing You Home, My Sister's Keeper, or basically
anything by Jodi Picoult.  She is really good at taking really
controversial issues in society or medical ethics, bringing in a
little courtroom drama, really getting in depth about family and
marital issues, and being sensitive to multiple characters and their
points of view at the same time.  Handle With Care is one I just
finished not too long ago and loved.  I'm about a third of the way in
to Sing You Home, which has a music therapist as a main character, and
I'm loving it so far.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  This is another book I started
reading, but it is a little difficult to get into.  One of my
housemates says its her favorite book though, but when you're first
getting into it you have to bear in mind that the story is being told
from the point of view of a young kid with Autism, so it seems a
little disjointed until that piece of information helps everything
make sense.  It's post-9/11 fiction, and the boy's father was killed
in the World Trade Center.
Watchmen.  I read this for my English class, and though it was a
graphic novel I loved it.  Unfortunately it is not available in
braille; my version of reading it was watching the videos of the
chapters of the motion comic DVD that somebody uploaded to YouTube.
If you're bored and want something about superheros, mystery, a tale
when you don't know if the good guys are actually good, it's pretty
good.  It's also really deep if you get into the political commentary
and the allegory about the societal problems, but you guys don't have
to write a paper on the thing.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.  Anything by Sparks is good, but
this one is one of my favorites.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.  Really good book.  Looks
at racial discrimination in the south around the 40s I think.  Really
makes you question what strength really is, what a real man/person is
like, and oppression.

I think this is a pretty good summation of my old and new favorite
books.  Like I said, any additions to this thread would be awesome.

-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma