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We’ve asked about your top three movies, and I’d love to know your top three books. As of this month, I have a new all-time favorite…
Olive Kitteridge. Have you ever read it? Even though Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors, and this particular novel won the Pulitzer (no biggie), I had somehow never found my way to it, but I picked it up this summer and never put it down. The story features Olive Kitteridge, a crotchety retired schoolteacher in Maine, and the townspeople around her, who are just trying to get through life (easier said than done). I adored the lines that echoed her no-nonsense personality, like, “The girl was neat as a pin, if plain as a plate” and “She didn’t like to be alone. Even more, she didn’t like being with people.” I absolutely fell in love with Olive and her brutal honesty — she calls people “nitwits” and “flub-dubs,” but she’s deeply caring underneath it all and touches many more people than she realizes.
Oh, how I loved this book! When I finished it, I lay in bed and hugged it for 10 minutes. I now have that sad, nostalgic feeling after ending a novel — there should be a word for that — and miss living in Olive’s windswept world.
Since it’s often hard to name your #1 favorite book — people seem to freeze and forget every book they’ve ever read — I’d love to ask about your top three. My list would also include Dept. of Speculation and An American Marriage. And if we’re allowed to include short stories, Away From Her.
Tell me! What are your top three books? I want to hear…
P.S. Our top three movies and what’s the most beautiful line you’ve ever read?
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