Bookworm

My Top 5 (What's Yours?)

This week I decided to provide readers with a list of my top 5 favorite authors, and the reasons I love them. I have always been an avid reader, but during high school I had trouble finding books that I loved. I would stumble on a certain author that I liked, then read all of that author's books, then wait around patiently for a new book to come out. But now that I'm in college and taking some English classes, I suddenly have a never-ending list of books that I can't wait to read. So my hope is that my list will help someone who has trouble finding good books. Feel free to tell me your own favorite books or authors, and the reasons you love them!

1. Jodi Picoult

I was introduced to Jodi Picoult by my high school journalism teacher, who encouraged me to read Picoult's novel "The Pact." "The Pact" is a devastating love story that starts with the suicide of a young girl and then follows her boyfriend and the couple's families through their stages of grief as he is accused of murdering her. Picuolt writes about the things people experience every day but don't know how to put into words. Although her novels deal with pretty intense situations, her writing is beautiful even when she is describing a boring everyday occurrence. She is also very adept at sifting through all the emotions one would really feel if they had to confront a difficult "gray area" type of situation. One of my favorite of Picoult's novels, "Mercy," is about a man whose incredibly sick wife asks him to kill her so she won't be in pain anymore. Most people think they have an idea of what they would do in a situation like this, but Picoult's characters usually discover that when their time comes to make a choice, they do something completely different than they imagined they would. Picoult is also very good at getting into the heads of people we marvel at. Her newest book, "Nineteen Minutes," is an eery account of a school shooting that gets inside the killer's head with such accuracy that the readers can almost understand why he did it. Some reviewers were amazed at how similar the thoughts of Picoult's character were to the things the shooter at Virginia Tech said when those shootings occurred. If you want to broaden your perspective of you just want to read a really beautifully written book, check out any of Picoult's novels.

2. Khaled Hosseini

Most people have heard of Hosseini's first novel, "The Kite Runner," by now. The movie based on this book came to theaters recently and was also pretty amazing. Hosseini is an important writer for American readers at this time, because he really shows another side to people who live in the Middle East. A lot of American's just see these people as "the enemy," and Hosseini shows that they think and feel the same way that we do. Reading one of Hosseini's books really takes the reader inside that world and shows that even in a completely different culture from what we are used to, people still have dreams and ambitions and experience love and rejection like we do. Hosseini's second novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," follows the lives of two women who are forced to marry an abusive, controlling man. It shows how little power women have in the Middle East and how hard they have to fight for freedoms that we take for granted in the U.S. Hosseini's books are a really interesting exploration of a foreign culture, and they are also very beautiful and touching.

3. George Orwell

I can't say much about Orwell that hasn't already been said by people much smarter than me, except that for a high school or college kid who wants to read the classics but doesn't know where to start, Orwell is a great choice. I read "1984" a few years ago and convinced my little brother to read it, and we both absolutely loved it. Orwell is one of the most perceptive writers I have read, and he is also very critical of people's motives. He doesn't let his characters get away with doing this for selfish reasons; he will expose them. "1984" is also just a really interesting novel because of Orwell's idea of the future and the fact that, even though the majority of the material things in the novel are a little bit off, the idea behind these things really does ring true in the present. "Animal Farm" is also a really great book because it's very funny and imaginative, but it doesn't have any "extras" in it; it's very precise and to the point, and it's easy to follow the parallel's Orwell created with the Russian revolution. These two books are an easy and interesting place to start for an overwhelmed kid who wants a genuinely good book to read.

4. Oscar Wilde

OK, I'm not going to lie... I have not read any of Wilde's plays, although I did watch the movie version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" with Reese Witherspoon. However, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" happens to be my favorite book of all time, which is why Wilde is on my list. I don't have anything against plays, but I can't just sit and read one for the sake of reading it, and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Wilde's only novel, that it's as far as I got. But it's got everything you could want in a good novel: an interesting, original plot, a convicting moral lesson, beautiful language and storytelling, and very real characters. This is the story of a perfect-looking young man who has a portrait painted of himself. When the painting is finished, it takes upon itself all of Dorian's sins. Every time he does something evil, the painting gets a little bit uglier while Dorian himself still retains his beauty. It sucks up his age and his cruelty, and as a result he takes license to do whatever he wants and becomes a selfish, horrible person. I have read this book many times and have never gotten sick of it because Wilde is just such a clever writer who had a great sense of humor and a real way with words. I recommend this book for EVERYONE.

5. Haruki Murakami

Murakami is kind of like an incredibly complex, Japanese version of Chuck Palahniuk. Take "Fight Club," add about 300 extra twists and turns, and a smattering of strange characters, and you've got a Murakami book. Half the time I have no idea what the heck is going on in a Murakami book, and the biggest difference between him and Palahniuk is that Murakami's books don't resolve neatly at the end and explain everything. But the characters are very real, and he has a great writing style that makes you keep reading no matter how confused you become. I wouldn't recommend his books to a 7th grader, but for those college hipsters who watch indie films and listen to obscure music, Murakami is a must-read.

I hope my list will help someone find their new favorite author! Please keep me posted on the great authors and books you discover.