Here’s my top 10, sort of. I’m sure everyone feels the way I do- I could make 12 of these lists with all different books. This is today’s list.

1. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll These are the first books I ever fell in love with. I don’t know how many times I have read them since I was a child. The greatest fantasy- nonsense reined in by perfect logic.
2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
This is his last completed novel with some of his best writing ever. How wealth changes people- great characters and story.
3. Candide by Voltaire
This book is funny, satirical, insightful and wise. It’s also very short.
4. Edith’s Diary by Patricia Highsmith
Highsmith is a fabulous writer, a genius of suspense. This is not her usual theme of death and guilt. It’s about an average, disappointed housewife who creates her perfect life in her mind.
5. Emma by Jane Austen
Almost any of Austen’s novels could be on my list, but this is my favorite. Why do I love this character so much? I know I would dislike her in real life. She’s a meddler and a snob, but Austen makes us love Emma despite her faults.
6. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
What do they call this, alternative history? We lost WWII, and people’s lives depend on forgery and deceit. The man in the high castle has written a compelling alternative history novel in which the US won the war and is a major world power. What is real?
7. Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem
Lem is amazing- no two of his books are the same. This is a beautifully moving book about an astronaut who has returned to a world he doesn’t recognize and can’t understand.
8. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Prosperous Mid West family faces pressure from a changing society. This is one of those books I keep thinking of years after I read it.
9. The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
A mysterious death, a gripping trial, a daring escape- will the truth ever come out? In everything Wilder writes, his deep love for humanity shines through.
10. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino An amazing book about the joys of reading. The description of going to a bookstore is delicious.

Near misses- The Killing Doll by Ruth Rendell-
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson-
The Human Factor by Graham Greene-
The Warden by Anthony Trollope-
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray- way too many more.......
This was fun- I’m curious about other people’s choices.