Great American Read List discussion

? 1984 George Orwell - I know I borrowed this and started it.
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
X A Separate Peace John Knowles - Read in high school for class
 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
X The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
 Alex Cross Mysteries (series) James Patterson
X Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll – Reread for GAR
 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
X And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
X Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery
Another Country James Baldwin
 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
 Beloved Toni Morrison
Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya
The Book Thief Markus Zusak
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Díaz
? The Call of the Wild Jack London - I think I read this when I was young
x Catch-22 Joseph Heller -Read in high school for class
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
x Charlotte’s Web E.B. White
x The Chronicles of Narnia (series) C.S. Lewis
The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel
The Coldest Winter Ever Sister Souljah
 The Color Purple Alice Walker
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
x The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Doña Bárbára Rómulo Gallegos
Dune Frank Herbert
Fifty Shades of Grey (series) E.L. James
Flowers in the Attic V.C. Andrews
 Foundation (series) Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
A Game of Thrones (series) George R.R. Martin
Ghost Jason Reynolds
Gilead Marilynne Robinson
x x The Giver Lois Lowry - Reread for GAR
The Godfather Mario Puzo
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (series) J.K. Rowling
x Hatchet (series) Gary Paulsen
x Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad-Read in high school for class
? The Help Kathryn Stockett – I’ve seen the movie & have the book. I cannot remember if I’ve read it.
 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
? The Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins -Pretty sure I read?
The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
Jurassic Park Michael Crichton
x Left Behind (series) Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
x Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry
Looking for Alaska John Green
x The Lord of the Rings (series) J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
The Martian Andy Weir
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
 Mind Invaders Dave Hunt
 Moby-Dick Herman Melville
 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks
 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
 Outlander (series) Diana Gabaldon
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan
 The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Ready Player One Ernest Cline
 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
The Shack William P. Young
Siddhartha Hermann Hesse
The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut
 The Stand Stephen King
 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
Swan Song Robert R. McCammon
Tales of the City (series) Armistead Maupin
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston – I THINK I read this one in school
 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
 This Present Darkness Frank E. Peretti
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
x The Twilight Saga (series) Stephenie Meyer - All of them
 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
Watchers Dean Koontz
 The Wheel of Time (series) Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
x Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls
 White Teeth Zadie Smith
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë

Giving you an official welcome to the Great American Read List group, Amanda!
Thank you for creating a personal bookshelf and also for joining our group challenge with a goal of 5 books!

I have the same problem with some list books—I'm unsure if I read them in high school. Glad I'm not the only one.

Did you read all 13 books in the Left Behind series? What did you think of them? I hadn't heard of them before The Great American Read.

I hope you'll join us in November when we read The Lovely Bones. The more members that participate, the better!

I think the highest I read up to was #7 in the left behind books. My mother was reading them and as she finished one she would pass it to me. I do not remember too much about them to be honest though. They are based on Christian Beliefs from the book of Revelation in the Bible and what they might look like in our world today though.

When I was growing up, I sometimes read some of my mother's V.C. Andrews and Stephen King novels. We didn't have much of a selection as far as a home library, unfortunately. Thank God for public libraries! Mine was a mile away from my house, in my hometown. I made that trip on foot more times than I can remember.

Thank you for sharing, Amanda!

I've read the Great Gatsby multiple times I'm not sure how I missed that one.

I read The Lovely Bones with the group.

I began Things Fall Apart as part of the challenge, but I did not finish it before it was due back at the library.

Thank you for reading The Lovely Bones with us, Amanda!

It's a shame that you had to return Things Fall Apart before finishing it. Will you borrow it again to pick up where you left off? Were you enjoying it?

Also, thank you for updating us with your Great American Read progress. It's nice to know how members are doing!

I may try Things Fall Apart again, I was just at a point where I was exhausted and kept falling asleep reading. I've got some other books lined up for now.

read with my real life book club: Their Eyes Were Watching God-Zora Neale Hurston