To Kill a Mockingbird discussion

Hi Friends :o)

I was asked not so long ago, what my favourie five books of all time are and I have to say I think it has to be one of the hardest questions EVER!(I'm still not sure this is my final five! (The below are not in any particular order I love them all the same!!))

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
2. The Iceman _ Confessions of a mafia contract Killer - Philip Carlo
3. The Story of a Beautiful Girl - Rachel Simon
4. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
5. The Last to Know - Melissa Hill

Would love to hear yours?

These are simply personal favorites that I feel evoke emotional and or ideological responses in the reader, not necessarily the top 5 in literary content.

1. Flowers for Algernon-Daniel Keyes
2. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal-Christopher Moore
3. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
4. East of Eden-John Steinbeck
5. 2001 A Space Odyssey-Arthur C. Clarke

Without a particular order...

1. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
2. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
3. To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee Harper
4. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Harry Potter and ... , Joanne K. Rowling (Couldn't pick a favourite right now)

Man, this is really hard, but I'll give it a shot:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
3. Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
4. Shibumi by Trevanian
5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Watership Down
Norwegian Wood
Armor
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Diamond Age

But I am probably forgetting something.

1. Holes by Louis Sachar
2. The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien (sort of cheating with this one...)
3. North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

1.Percy Jackson and the Olympians
2.Heroes of Olympus
3.The Kane Chronicles
4.Harry Potter
5.The Lord of the Rings
*Not necessarily in that order.

1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. The Magus - John Fowles
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
5. Animal Farm - George Orwell

1. Lonesome Dove
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
4. The Godfather
5. Pillars of the Earth

1. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevski
2. God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert
3. The Illuminatus Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
4. How Long Has This Been Going On? - Ethan Mordden
5. At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill

Not in any specific order and this is right this minute it changes. I think I am picking these because I remember how I felt reading them still and it was along time ago.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Neverwhere
The Catcher in the Rye
The Hobbit
The Kite Runner

pride and predjudice to kill a mocking bird mansfield park stones from the river the shell seekers

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
The Help
The Thirteenth Tale
The Secret Garden

My top five Favorite books are
1. Fortune's Rocks- Anita Shreve
2. Water For Elephants -Sara Gruen
3. Sea Glass-Anita Shreve
4. My Sister's Keeper- Jodi Picoult
5. Good In Bed- Jennifer Weiner

Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
The Three Musketeers
Vanity Fair
The Count of Monte Cristo

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
2. The Land - Mildred Taylor
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
4. Papa's Wife - Thyra Ferre Bjorn
5. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
3. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
4. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
5. A Time to Kill - John Grisham

1. The Outsiders
2. Harry Potter (series)
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. The Hobbit
5. City of Glass (book 3 of The mortal instrument series)

*Not necessarily in that order but The Outsiders is Defiantly my number 1.

Maggie wrote: "Our local reading group recently were asked to pick our "Desert Island Books" - like the radio programme but books instead of music. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done and I'm still..."

But you didn't share the list. I would love to see it. I know what you mean, I almost felt guilty picking certain books over others and for forgetting some that I know I loved. That is why my list changes almost moment to moment. I loved the Book Thief and Flipped and Unbroken etc.....I keep thinking of others too. However, the emotions I experienced reading the books on my list are more readily accessible, in fact they just pour right back when I think of those books.

1. The Five Chinese Brothers
2. A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy
3. Henry V
4. Five Dialogues
5. Slaughterhouse-Five

Ha ha! I see what you did there.

It's really hard to choose but i'll go with:

1. Les misérables
2.The Lord of the Rings
3. Pride and Prejudice
4.Leaf by Niggle
5. The name of the rose

To Kill a Mockingbird
Crooked Letter Crooked Letter
Gone with the Wind
Pride and Prejudice
The Thirteenth Tale

only five well lets see
1. gone with the wind
2. to kill a mockingbird
3. the outsiders
4. pride and prejudice
5. harry potter, the mortal instruments, percy jackson, heroes of olympus, divergent, gone, the infernal devices, hunger games,and so much more

1. The Godfather
2. Half A Yellow Sun
3. Kite Runner
4. The Virgin Suicides
5. To Kill a Mockingbird

My five favorite books are:

Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
Of Mice and Men
A Christmas Carol
The Awakening

It's hard to pick just five. There have been so many books that I've read over the course of the years that I absolutely loved. Some of my favorites are David Copperfield, Watership Down.The Lord of the Rings, The Secret Garden, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Then there are all my favorite Science fiction books, mysteries, classics, biographies, humor and the list goes on and on. Yes it's very hard to just pick five.

Ruth wrote: "It's hard to pick just five. There have been so many books that I've read over the course of the years that I absolutely loved. Some of my favorites are David Copperfield, Watership Down.The Lord ..."

I agree, Ruth. It is really hard to narrow it down to just five favorites. I ended up listing my five all-time favorites. But, I like your idea of breaking it up into categories.

So, my six favorite Science Fiction books are:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (this may be considered more Fantasy than SciFi so I've included six books)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Day of the Triffids
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The War of the Worlds
Fahrenheit 451

5.My Family and Other Animals
4.The Kite-Runner
3.Catcher in the Rye
2.To kill a Mockingbird
1.Lucky Jim

It is difficult to pick just five. I love to read and have used this site to find even more to read. Now just have to find the time to read them all. These are the books I never get rid of my top picks
1.The Bible
2.A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
3.Little Women
4.Nell
5.Survival

Oddly enough, I only listed 4 international titles

1. Catch-22, J. Heller
2. To kill a mockingbird, H. Lee
3. Living to tell the tell, G. G. Marquez
4. One flew over the cuckoo's nest, Ken Kessey

probably not as popular but equally brilliant
5. The most beloved earthling, Marin Preda, a romanian author.

1. The Great Gatsby- F.Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Five People You Meet in Heaven- Mitch Albom
3. Fugitive Pieces- Anne Michaels
4. Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
5. Beloved- Toni Morrison

The Two Towers, Tolkien
The Gunslinger, King
The Stars My Destination, Bester
The Diamond Age, Stephenson
The Matarese Circle, Ludlum

I have heard the quote "The best sex is the sex you are having now," and I suspect the same might be said about good books: Your favorite is the last good one you read. That's why it's so hard to do this list. I recently had to do mine for an interview, and I posted it on my profile. I actually have 8, since I just could not cut it down any further, but I'll do it here:

1. The Four Gated City, Doris Lessing
2. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
3. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
4. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
5. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

Pride and Prejudice
the Ancient Rome series by Colleen McCullough
Pillars of the Earth
Anne of Green Gables
Georgette Heyer's Regency novels

(I know I cheated by including series but I couldn't choose between them.)

My Top 5 Favorite books:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
4. Laskar Pelangi - Andrea Hirata
5. The Book Of Lost Things - John Connolly

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
2. Interpreter of Maladies
3. Middlesex
4. The Book of Ruth
5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Gosh I always find this so hard but here goes

1) The Crystal Singer Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
2) Perfect by Judith McNaught
3) A Woman Of Cairo by Noel Barber
4) Mirage by Soheir Khasshoggi
5) What Katy Did Series by Susan Coolidge

Trying to narrow down any favorites list to less than a hundred (whether it's books, movies, or music) is always hard for me, but here it goes:

To Kill A Mockingbird
Catch-22
1984
All The King's Men
The Remains of the Day


Honorable mention:
The Things They carried
Slaughterhouse Five
The Trial
Animal Farm
Don Quixote

damn, how could I forget:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Last Hurrah
Of Human Bondage

(told ya I have trouble keeping it short)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Last Day by Glenn Kleier
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

If I could have a #6 and #7 I would add Gone With the Wind and To Kill A Mockingbird

Now this is challenging.
These have been 5 YA I have loved and recommended:
1. Wonder
2. Harry Potter series
3. Hunger Games
4.The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
5. Fault in their Stars

1. To kill a Mockingbird
2. Tuesdays with Morrie
3. A hundred years of solitude
4. Aztec
5. For whom the bell tolls

What kind of sadistic question is this?! I'll give it a go: 1.) 'Siddhartha' by Herman Hesse 2.) 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde 3.) 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by D.H. Lawrence 4.) Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury 5.) 'Battle Royale' by Koshun Takami. Boom.

I am ready to put this together...a tough choice to come to 5..however here it is:

To Kill a mocking bird
A hundred years of solitude
Good to great
Fermat's Last Theorem (Simon Singh)
Catch - 22
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

ok, i confess i could not just leave at 5, here are some i want them to be in the list of 5:
Cloud Atlas
Time Traveler's wife
A Fine Balance

It is tough to choose only five.
1. To Kill A Mockingbird
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3. The Outsiders
4. A Day No Pigs Would Die
5. Persuasion (by Jane Austen)

In no particular order

1. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
2. A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
5. The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy

And I have a hard time whittling down my "favorites" page, which I have limited to one page because that's all that shows! This is impossible. Do we mean five favorite novels? Five favorite narratives, meaning novels and also memoirs, autobios and bios? I don't think I can weigh fiction against nonfiction. How does one do that?

I will go for literature only. I read recently in the newspaper that a study says that reading strong literature--not nonfiction, not beach reads, but seriously good literature--has been shown to improve our social skills. It has to do with nuance and subtle changes in people's behavior; if you see it in a novel, you may also notice it more in real life.

This assumes, of course, that one can pull one's nose out of a book in order to socialize.

So for literature alone (and not in any order, which would completely collapse my poor brain), my favorites:

1. The Hobbit
2. Catch-22
3. And Ladies of the Club (Helen Hooven Santmeyer)
4. Antigone
5. Ireland (Frank Delaney)

Memoirs/biographies/autobiographies:

1. Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
2. Elie Wiesel, Night
3. William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of
4. My Life, Leon Trotsky
5. John Brown, W.E.B. DuBois

closely followed by Mother Jones Autobio and The Trials of Lenny Bruce.

Nonfiction excluding memoirs (oh noooo! Heeeelp!)

1.The Communist Manifesto
2.The Battle Cry of Freedom
3.The Warmth of Other Suns
4.State and Revolution
5.Eat to Live (Dr. Joel Fuhrman)

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
4. Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
5. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

It's so hard to choose only five... and tomorrow, in a different mood, it would probably be a bit different.

Since this is going on the To Kill A Mockingbird link I have to add it as a favorite. Next anything by Studs Terkel especially Working. Just finished World War Z by Max Brooks and loved it. Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a favorite but I also love all her work. Half Broken Things by Morag Joss. That's five but could list many more.