This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted at Artsy Reader Girl) was a hard one for me. (I have said that about a few other TTT topics but once I got started on a list, I almost couldn’t stop.) For “Books I Loved But Never Reviewed,” I had to dig deep. 
I am having to go way back here—back to my childhood and young adulthood and back to pre-internet days before GoodReads and this blog.
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. Ever since I read this book, I have wanted to secretly spend the night (or week) in a museum.
- The Stand by Steven King. I have probably read this book twenty times but I haven’t picked it up in probably twenty years. It seems scarily timely right now.
- Dove by Robin Lee Graham. I was (and still am) fascinated by Graham’s adventures as a teen sailing the world solo. I thought there were some good life lessons there so I bought it for my nephew as part of his graduation present.
- Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser. During the early 90s, I totally immersed myself into the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. (I had just seen the 1971 film starring a young Vanessa Redgrave and a younger Timothy Dalton.) Fraser’s book led me down a path of Elizabethan monarchy worshiping.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was my favorite book to teach.
I have at least three copies. My “teaching” copy is dog-eared, highly annotated with my notes, and held together with tape.
Pages are completely falling out of this edition. It is well-loved. - The Professor’s House by Willa Cather. I was assigned to read this book in college and although I did not care for the professor who taught it, I fell in love with this Cather novel. My favorite section is “Tom Outland’s Story” and I also loved teaching that work to high school juniors as well.
- Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. There’s a particular scene in the novel where Julie is saying goodbye to a loved one who has died. I can’t remember all the particulars but I remember this scene stayed with me, especially how she kept part of the person’s spirit with her.
- Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson. I read this novel at least four times growing up. For some reason, I felt like I could identify with Sara Louise in this coming of age story. (I must have read it soon after publication. I did not know at the time I was cutting edge in keeping up with the latest YA books.)
Obviously, there’s a bit of young adult fiction here. And, I can only come up with eight this week. 🙁
Next week’s Top Ten is “Books that Should be Adapted into Netflix Shows/Movies.” No that should be interesting.
Have a great week!