Rabbit Hole #27: Top 10 (+2) Most Owned Authors

Once again, stealing an idea from the wonderful Jen Campbell, these are my top 10 most owned authors. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised by the top 3 at all.

Honorable Mention with 7 books each: (Interestingly, these are the only two men on this list.)

C. S. Lewis: Lewis is a bit of a cheat, since all 7 of his are the Chronicles of Narnia series, but since they are separate books...

F. Scott Fitzgerald: I love Fitzgerald and wish he had lived long enough to continue writing. I think the only thing I don't own right now is The Last Tycoon, which was the book he was working on when he died.

Tied with 8 books each (#10-8)
J. K. Rowling: Again, a bit of a cheat since seven are the Harry Potter books, but I also have her first adult novel The Casual Vacancy, which was okay, but not up to the level of the Potter books.

Margaret Atwood: I am just scratching the surface with Atwood. I love her dystopian novels,   especially The Handmaid's Tale and the MADDADDAM series, but I'm anxious to dive into her poetry and short stories soon.

Louise Erdrich: Her stories about life on the reservation in North Dakota and the interweaving narratives throughout her novels have kept me hooked since I first read Love Medicine. She has a new novel coming out in May, which I am very excited for. Like Atwood, she has poetry and short fiction out that I need to read, as well as children's fiction.

#7 with 9 books
Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all-time favorite books. I also really love her nonfiction as well; her background in biology and ecology is fascinating.

#6 with 10 books
Toni Morrison: It's Toni Morrison. She's the godmother of modern literature. Enough said.

#5 with 12 books
A. S. Byatt: I fell in love with Byatt's writing when I read Possession. She blends historical fiction with literature with myth with a bit of magical realism...well, you get the point.

#4 with 13 books
Charlaine Harris: Once again, this is all one series. I loved the HBO series True Blood, and decided to read the Sookie Stackhouse books it was based on. These were fun and quick reads, good for getting out of reading slumps or days where you didn't want to have to think to hard about what you were reading.

#3 with 17 books
Virginia Woolf: I haven't read Woolf in a while, to be honest. I think I'm still on a bit of a hangover after writing my master's thesis on her. Her writing is frank, experimental, forward-thinking, and thought-provoking, and I've read almost everything she's written except her diaries, which is where I might head next.

#2 with 22 books
Alice Walker: I absolutely adore Alice Walker. It started, naturally, with The Color Purple, but I've devoured almost everything she's written--novels, poetry, essays, memoirs--the only thing I haven't read are her children's books. You are always forced to look at the world around you and your own beliefs when reading her books.

And, of course...

#1 with 29 books
Anne Rice: I fell in love with Rice in high school, and haven't looked back. For me, her knowledge of history weaving in and out of tales of witches, vampires, ghosts, and werewolves is the most intriguing part of her tales. I also love her two non-paranormal historical novels as well: Cry to Heaven and The Feast of All Saints.  


So there you have it, my top 10 (+2) most owned authors! (Hey, if the Big Ten can have 14 schools in it, I can have 12 in my top 10 list!)

Rabbit Hole #25: The Author A-Z Tag

Felt the need to do something bookish...

As with the Be a Good Human Tag, the Author A-Z Tag was created by Jen Campbell on BookTube. The premise is simple: go through your shelves, choosing an author's surname for each letter of the alphabet and highlight one book. If you don't have an author for a letter, choose one from your to be read pile.

There are a few I haven't read, but I highly recommend all of these. For brevity's sake, I'm just going to list titles/authors.

A: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

B: Possession by A. S. Byatt

C: The Hours by Michael Cunningham

D: Krik? Krak? by Edwidge Danticat

E: The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

F: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

G: Banana Rose by Natalie Goldberg

H: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

I: The Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinman Iweala

J: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

K: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

L: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

M: The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

N: Abundance by Sarah Naslund

O: Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

P: Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

Q: Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

R: Pandora by Anne Rice

S: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

T: The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri Tepper

U: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea (on my to-be-read list)

V: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

W: The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker

X: The Last Lover by Can Xue (on my to-be-read list)

Y: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique (on my to-be-read list)

Z: The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Rabbit Hole #24: The Be a Good Human Tag

Several months ago, the amazing Jen Campbell, author of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (or Bookstores, if you have the American version, because apparently we wouldn't know what a bookshop was? Silly publishers) posted a BookTube video called the Be a Good Human Tag. In it, she showcased several books she felt make people open their eyes to the world around them and understand the humanity around us.

Books have the ability to change the way we look at people. They allow us to empathize with those who are different from us, learn about other cultures, understand history, and so much more. No other medium quite has the same effect.

So in the wake of everything that has been happening in the United States and around the world this past year (and of course, much longer), I thought I would create my own list. In no particular order, I present a snapshot of the following:

Nine Lives by David Baum: This is a nonfiction book chronicling the lives of nine New Orleanians from Hurricane Betsy through Hurricane Katrina. The individuals come from all walks of life: rich, poor, black, white, gay, and straight. They all cope with the tragedies in different ways, but they are all transformed by what happens. For those who don't truly know what happened here during the storm, this will open your eyes.

Citizen by Claudia Rankine: Part poetry, part essay, part photographic essay, this is a fierce look at race relations in America today. Rankine pulls no punches with this one, but this is not a topic we should shy away from. A must read for anyone who cares about our country today.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: A beautifully written book about the negative impact of colonialism, this also tackles the dangers of trying to impose one's beliefs on others. Told through the perspectives of four young women and their mother as they are carted off to the Congo in the 1950s by their zealot missionary father, Kingsolver tackles American foreign policy, gender issues, religion, and a host of other topics.

Native Son by Richard Wright: The oldest book on this list, but still a necessary one, Wright's dark tale of Bigger Thomas, a young black man trapped by economic circumstances, resonates even today. Some people like to believe that all one has to do is work hard, and he'll get ahead; Wright shows that there are larger forces working against people in America, and against minorities in particular.

March Vols. 1-2 by Rep. John Lewis: One of the best graphic novel series I've read, this is Rep. Lewis' autobiography of his time in the Civil Rights Movement. While it's useful as a history, it's also insightful into what is going on today as we continue to tackle racial discrimination in this country. The more things change...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saénz: The story of two young Hispanic boys growing up and discovering their sexuality, this YA novel is heartbreaking as well as beautiful. I think my favorite part of this novel is the way the parents are portrayed; they are fierce and loving, regardless of who their boys are.

Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele: This book is an in-depth look at stereotypes and how they affect each and every one of us on a daily basis. It's a thorough analysis of microaggressions, and how/why they are so hard to overcome.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra: This is a gut-wrenching book about the horrors of war, both for the people directly involved and those on the fringes. It takes place in Chechnya in 2004, where war is still tearing people's lives apart. Americans as a whole have very little knowledge of what it is like to live in a war-torn country and have no idea what they would have to do to survive.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde: This is Lorde's autobiography of growing up poor, black and gay, and an ode to all of the women who shaped her into the person she became. This is one of the most powerful autobiographies I've read.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi: Nafisi created a book club for women in Tehran, Iran, to expose them to Western classics. While that may not seem like much, one has to realize that Western books had been banned, and the women were literally taking their lives in their hands to read and attend these sessions. Part book discussion, part memoir, the books and these women's lives intertwine and show just how powerful literature is.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez: I want to give this book to every person I hear disparaging immigrants--they seem to forget that these are human beings, with families and circumstances not that different from our own. The novel follows several families from Mexico and Latin America as they try to find a life in America. Some are undocumented, some have work visas, some are citizens, but all have very particular reasons for their journeys.


I could continue on and on with this list, and I know I didn't do these books justice. Please, just take some time to read. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone and learn about other peoples, places, religions, cultures, etc. The worst thing that will happen is that you'll expand your mind and learn that all humans are struggling, and we are better together.